Club chairman John Carty reflected on a very positive year for the club at the AGM on Monday evening. He reported we have a record membership of 143, our four open promotions were popular and safe, we had a strong calendar of club races, and our club runs continue to expand including new women’s runs. John thanked all those who had helped out during the year, and who had supported the new committee.
Charlie Henderson – track champion in the 1940s, founder member of the club in 1944, and winner of the 2004 Ards Borough Council Special Achievement Award for his contribution to cycling and Ards CC over 60 years.
Reflecting the positive mood, the committee proposed nominating five new honorary members – Billy Kirk, Bobby Magreechan, Ron Martin, Dany Blondeel and Desi McIlwrath – and this was warmly supported by the meeting. They join a very illustrious list that includes past club presidents Charlie Henderson and Frank McLaughlin.
Secretary Gareth Murray’s report gave us some of the figures behind John’s report – highlights included 37 women members, 124 entries at the town centre races and the £1500 raised for the Danny Mills Heart Foundation and the Alzheimer’s NI at the Tour of Strangford.
Treasurer Con Russell’s report also contained a positive set of figures, with the club running at a healthy surplus.
Club President Billy Kirk was reelected. Billy has been an inspirational leader in the club for over six decades – highlights include the Champion of Champions 25 featuring Olympic champion Chris Boardman and World Champion Graeme Obree, the local cycling historical anthology “Recycled Memories”, and of course his personal best ride at 25 miles aged 69 – some going for a former Irish senior champion at the distance! We hope Billy has more time to get involved this year, and can help to set the direction for the next chapter in our history. We can all benefit from his knowledge and infectious enthusiasm.
50 members supported the AGM
The Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Child Protection Officer (David McNally) were all re-elected. As the club starts to consider how to cater for youth riders, there was a general appeal to get more members vetted – Amy and Christine volunteered. Amy Gourley, Judith and Gavin McBride were elected to fill the remaining spaces on the committee. Richard Hanna was reelected as auditor.
Graham Brown stepped down as clothing coordinator – thanks to him for doing an excellent job over the last few years. Paul McMinn and Chris Lappin offered to pick up this task. There was also a lively debate about the quality of clothing from various suppliers, and the committee will look into this before the next order is placed.
PRO remains unfilled, although Alastair Martin and Paul Cunningham offered to continue helping out with the website and Facebook, and James McFarlane will look to re-establish links with the Chronicle.
Ron Martin, with Dany Blondeel and former club run captain Alan Coffey
Ron Martin stepped down as Time Keeper after over 30 years of service. John warmly thanked him for his “no nonsense but fair” approach. Bernard McCloskey, Darren Colvile, Bobby Magreechan and Paul Robinson were re-elected as timekeepers
There was a lively discussion on how best to develop racing members, particularly in open events. A coaching night is planned for after Christmas and we’ll draw up plans after that.
Other items discussed include –
- Membership fees will remain unchanged at £15 for senior, £5 for under 18 and full time education, and £1 for non-cycling supporters. Race fees are also unchanged at £2 for seniors, 50p for under 18/fte, and £3 for visitors. A request for reduced fees for pensioners was not given serious consideration 🙂
- Social events – which were poorly supported this year. This may be that members get enough excitement on the club runs! We’ll try to raise the awareness of other events by posting them on the club website as well as Facebook. Thanks to Paul McMinn for his work as social secretary this year.
- The family of Alex Dickson have offered to make a donation to the club, and it is proposed to use this to buy a Gazebo that can be used at club events. There was debate about the design to be used on this, and the meeting voted to adopt the new interpretation of our traditional logo.
The original club logo, and a modern interpretation
- There were various proposals to change the club calendar, including more road races (or not), more standard distance time trials (5, 10, 25) to help create interest in our club medal scheme, and possibly reducing the number of events on the Portaferry Road. The committee will take these points into consideration when drawing up next year’s calendar.
- The club made a donation of £500 to the Belgium Project in recognition of the great work it does, and as a sign of support to our member Dany.
- There was some talk of a possible club sponsor, and the committee is following up on the detail of the proposal. Some members were enthusiastic, while others questioned if it was worth the potential hassle given that the club has been running a surplus for the last few years and hasn’t come up with any ideas about what to do with it…. A nice problem to have!
And on that slightly controversial note, the chairman thanked everyone for coming, and closed the meeting.