AGM minutes 2016

AGM minutes 2016

Annual General Meeting 16th May 2016

MINUTES

Present

Norman Johns (Chair), Carole Frost, Chris Jeggo, Rico Signore,  Barbara Rossouw, Robin Hamilton, Val Wye, George James, Keith Creswell

  1. Welcome

Norman opened the meeting by welcoming those present to the meeting. Copies of the Agenda, Minutes of the last AGM and Annual Accounts were distributed.

  1. Apologies

Apologies were received from: Peter Spreckley, Sandra Lee, Richard MacCutchan, Annette Covey, Julia Warner

  1. Minutes of last Year’s AGM and Matters arising

The previous year’s minutes were approved.

  1. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.

  1. Chairman’s report

Welcome to all at the end of a good, fun, cycling year. I would also like to thank the committee, and indeed all members of the group, who support our activities. There have been a number of highlights, and a few lowlights:

  • Bikeathon – well supported, organized and a good route
  • Prudential 100 – Norman thanked all for the support.
  • First Aid Course – The first one was a success and Norman will hold another in due course. 
  1. Presentation and Approval of Accounts

Members were given a copy of the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2015. The subscription of £20 to Cyclenation was queried (it seems that Cyclenation is a ‘federation of local campaign groups … here to help local groups campaign and to represent them at the national and international level’).

Rico proposed the approval of accounts and George seconded

Suggestions for items that we may support financially are always welcome from members.

  1. Membership Secretary’s Report
  • Membership: We had 40 paid up members representing 77 adults and 16 children. Carole said she reminded everyone if they wanted to get the affiliated membership at £24/year with CyclingUK (formerly CTC), they had to keep up their WCUG membership. She said she also stressed that the affiliated membership insurance was only third party and did not include legal help.
  • Sunday Cycle Rides: We had about 8-10 on each ride with 3 new riders. Our long afternoon ride went to Cobham Medicine Garden and our all day ride was to London to see the Shaun the Sheep round-up at Covent Garden. Some of us came back by train but others cycled both ways. We also had an extra ride to Waverly Abbey Ruins for a picnic. All these rides were well attended.
  • Carole said she was disappointed that the notice she put in the Library wasn’t there when she went in. Chris said that they will only put things up two weeks before an event and do not keep one up for a long period.
  • CTC Ride Leader Course: Carole and Annette went on a CTC ride leader course. It was suggested that the leaders obtain an emergency contact number for each rider attending. Idea – get tags for riders. Since we are an affiliated member of CTC we are covered for third party insurance when we are on the rides only.
  • Longer Rides: Chris Jeggo has led some rides for more experienced cyclists. The first one was very well attended and went to the seaside. He has kindly led more long rides during the winter months but hasn’t had the same success, might have been the weather. He is going to lead another long ride to the Seaside on August 7
  1. Website
  • Robin thanked George for hosting the website. Robin has been doing the Website for a year and wanted to make it more user friendly and easier to maintain. His latest addition is posting routes members have been on. He requested members to forward to him routes.
  • Robin has requested suggestions about out-of-date information that could be deleted. It was agreed, for example, that references to Woking Cycle Forum could be removed. 
  1. Current and future Issues
  • Muddy Lane: Carole said updates were published on the web site and the latest was that Catherine Valiant has completed the report with her recommendations and sent to the legal committee but it would not be till June that it would go to the Planning and Regulatory committee. We would receive her recommendation beforehand and could speak at the meeting. George James said he would do that.
  • A245: Norman has been training for the Prudential Ride and noticed while he was training that the A245 is a difficult road for cyclists and motorist too when cyclists are on the road. He suggested that turning the pedestrian path along the side of the carriageway into a shared use pedestrian/cyclist pavement would ease the situation. We then started a petition and have 136 signatures at the moment. Norman will go before the Elmbridge Local council at the end of June to defend the petition. Chris Jeggo raised the question of side roads entering the main roads being suitable for cyclists. In particular he mentioned the roads along Parvis Road. .
  • 20’s plenty: Norman said he thought there might be some movement on this project. Carole said that the recently-formed G-BUG (Guildford Bike Users’ Group) was interested in campaigning for this. It seem if a petition is started it needs many more signatures than previously.
  • A3 from Mill Lane and Wisley Lane: When trawling our data base for help on the A245 petition, Keith Creswell approached us and asked if we thought it would be possible to start a petition to make a pedestrian/cycling lane on the side of the A3 on the other side of the metal barriers. We had asked for this before when we use to have Woking Cycle Forum but were told it was not in Surrey County council’s jurisdiction. Keith then phoned Highways England and reported on the conversation he had with them. We will put a summary of his actions on the Website. He has also got the endorsement of RHS Wisley and Jonathon Lord. He was hoping to get a name of someone in the Send/ Ripley area. Chris Jeggo suggested one of our members. Carole will send an e-mail to introduce him to Keith.
  • G-BUG: Carole said she had spoken to Doug Clare who is the chair of a new club in Guildford. G-Bug. They are very interested in campaign issues and offered their help over Muddy Lane. Carole said this was more or less in hand for the moment but we could use their help with the A245 petition. He said he would circulate it to those on his database. She said that the A3 project would also be something they could help with. Carole will introduce Keith to him.
  • Annual Local Countryside Access forum. Carole said she had received an email saying that these forums would no longer be held.
  1. Election of Officers

Nominations were invited for the committee, there being none:

  • Norman Johns was confirmed as Chairman
  • Carole Frost as Membership Secretary
  • Richard MacCutchan as Treasurer and General Secretary
  1. Any Other Business
  • George thanked WCUG for donating the prizes for their annual Easter Egg Hunt which was held on March 27th.
  • George announced that their next ride would be on June 12th, which is the same Sunday as the Queen’s 90th Birthday Street Party celebrations. Consequently, the ride will be an all day ride to Buckingham Palace with a prince and princesses theme.
  • Surrey wheels for all: Barbara said how Woking Cycle Club had volunteered en mass one day to help at the Wheels for All session with Michael at Sheerwater. She said it was a great success and wondered if WCUG would like to do the same. Carole pointed out that a lot of our members already volunteer there on a regular basis. It was suggested that it would be nice if Annette Covey would organize a date for WCUG to volunteer en masse.

There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 21.00.

Barbara Rossouw
Committee Member