KDCS Committee meeting 21/02/2023

 

MINUTES OF THE KDCS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 21/02/23

 

 

Attendees Steve Warner, Anne Brookes, Brian Woodward, Dave Wills, Martin Slader. Apologies sent from Will Beck and Mike Pezet. Observer Jan Goodey

 

FINANCE REPORT

 

Martin as treasurer had already circulated the accounts covering years 2019 to 2023. Our current surplus stands at £369.56p. In the financial year 2022/23 we had expenditure of £180.78 which included the affiliation fee of £85 to Cycling UK, £28.78 for our domain name and a payment of £67 to fund the Christmas Social Event. We remain in a healthy financial position at present but recognised that at some future point we may need to ask members for voluntary payments to meet our annual commitments.

 

MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

 

Anne reported that we have had 21 new members ( 17 both road and MTB, 2 road only and 2 MTB only  ) but to her knowledge only about one third of the new road riders had been on any of our road rides. 49 members are on the active road riders e-mail contact list. Will Beck advised that there are now 68 MTB members on his list although there was some confusion as to whether all of these were members of KDCS. Dave advised that the system was capable of producing statistics if requested and he will investigate what range these cover and will look at producing members stats for us. Brian will check his system MTB membership list against Wills list. Both Road and MTB riders should ride under the KDCS badge and riders should therefore be formal members of the club. Our insurance offers protection for ride leaders and riders in some circumstances so club membership is essential. 

 

AP1 Dave wills to investigate options for pulling off system stats

 

AP2 Brian to check his KDCS e-mail list against Will becks MTB members list to determine whether they are all club members.

 

RIDES CALENDAR STATUS AND INTENTIONS FOR THE YEAR INCLUDING ROAD, MTB AND EASY TUESDAYS

 

In 2022 there were 27 scheduled road rides and 5 adhoc rides so our forecast calendar commitments were exceeded. 13 members volunteered to lead these rides many of which were 25-30 miles length. There were on average 5/6 riders on each of the rides. 3 of the rides were cancelled.

 

MTB rides were scheduled every week of 2022 with only 2 cancelled. Rides were well attended with leaders setting the maximum rider numbers they were comfortable with. The maximum riding were around 12. Only 3 of the scheduled rides were leaderless. 

 

Easy Tuesday rides took place between May and September and were popular although numbers attending varied. 

 

Given the success of the last year it was agreed to maintain existing schedules. There was some discussion on options to vary and improve both rides and attendances. In particularly we want to attract more members out. Themed rides were popular e.g early morning ferry breakfast rides, bluebell rides. Osprey rides and Wild Flower Meadow rides. We agreed to look at widening the scope of such themed rides to attract other riders. We also agreed to ensure that all MTB riders were fully aware of the roads programme as we know many ride both road and MTB. 

 

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

 

Dave as Social Secretary listed the activities put on over the year which included the 30th Anniversary Barbecue event, Christmas Social, Breakfast ride, Christmas walk / ride. Our goal is to put on at least 4 such events a year. We discussed making the barbecue an annual event and also look at having all members open meetings with accompanying slide shows / talks and food as we have had in the past. Dave will however need assistance to be able to do this given his other roles.

 

AP3 Steve to work with Dave to organise an all members open meeting in the not too distant future accompanied by a slide / talk presentation in an effort to generate thoughts and ideas on how we take the club forward, encourage new members and get more members out riding. Discussion to include range of rides, distance, terrain, themes etc.

 

PLANNED TRIPS

 

The MTB group have already held a meeting and organised a number of potential trips away. Some of these will be open to road riders. It was agreed that any road rider specific trips need to be left to members to organise themselves.

 

WEBSITE UPDATE / FACEBOOK GROUPS AND ANY NEED FOR CHANGES TO INCLUDE SECURITY BREACHES ETC.

 

Following last years meeting a number of improvements were made  and we agreed that our current website and FB groups need little adjustment. There are still people who send inappropriate communications to our hot mail address but these are closed down and deleted as appropriate. Generally feedback on the content of our website is good and the joiners links seem to work well. Dave will look at how we can make best use of the stats provision and we all agreed to look at any out of date information which can then be modified / updated. 

 

DIRECTION AND FUTURE OF THE CLUB INCLUDING FUTURE MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

 

We have no aspirations to be a club such as Kendal Cycle Club which has hundreds of members as we will always be a club that is social by nature and encourages all things cycling in keeping with our ethos ( see website ) However as our average age range is in the upper category  now we do need to attract more members to ensure we have a good future. We therefore need to generate ideas to help with this including publicity, business cards, bike shop listing etc. We must take some heart from the fact that we recovered from the enforced Covid impacted halt to our activities with a successful 2022 programme that more than met our expectations.

 

COMMITTEE POSITIONS TO INCLUDE REFLECTION / RESIGNATIONS

 

All the existing committee agreed to remain in post for the following year. Steve advised that he would really like to see a new Chairperson to generate new thoughts, ideas, direction. He has been in post for many years and this is his second term. A plea therefore to all members. Are you a cycle enthusiast who feels they can offer the club a range of skills, ideas and enthusiasm that can take the club forward over the next decade. If so please consider taking on the role. You will have my full support and the backing of a great committee.

 

AOB AND KENDAL CYCLE FESTIVAL INVOLVEMENT IF ANY

 

We have been approached by Stuart Lockton the Director of well-being Westmorland CIC to see if we would like to take part in the proposed Kendal Cycle Festival taking place for 2 days on the 30/04/23- 01/05/23. After some correspondence Stuart has asked if we would be prepared to lead a ride / rides with the target audience being those who are occasional cyclists with a view to them becoming more regular ones. They are looking at rides that would appeal to families.The rides would be from Kendal and would probably be shortish in distance over reasonable terrain. We have confirmed our interest, are seeking greater clarification and more information and will need to look at the insurance element of leading such rides. We do see this as an opportunity to promote KDCS and perhaps attract new members to our club. Watch this space.

 

 

There being no other business Steve thanked all the committee for the hard work put in to make our club the success that is. Without their effort there would be no club. It’s not easy putting such an extensive range of rides together and ‘ encouraging ‘ members to lead the rides as well as maintaining and managing a website and social calendar. 

 

Jan Goodey as an observer was encouraged to offer opinions from the grass roots point of view and her views, thoughts and ideas were welcomed at our meeting. 

 

 

Steve Warner - Chairman KDCS