Jacobs Join at Sprint Mill - 28th September 2024

The ride started at 10:30am from Kendal Leisure Centre

Food collected for taking to sprint Mill by Sue and Sarah

We arrived on time at 12noon, good turnout and good food

 

 Fill That Hole report potholes and other road defects that are a danger to cycling on your road.

Committee meeting minutes

 The minutes of the KDCS committee meeting are on the Chair pages.

Committee meeting minutes

MINUTES OF THE KDCS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 26/02/2024

MINUTES OF THE KDCS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 26/02/2024

Attendees: Steve Warner, Anne Brookes, Brian Woodward, Dave Wills and Will Beck. Apologies sent from Martin Slader.

1. FINANCE REPORT

Martin as treasurer had already circulated the accounts covering years 2019 to 2024. Our current surplus stands at £245.95. In the financial year 2022/23 we had expenditure of £130 which included the affiliation fee of £88 to Cycling UK, and a payment of £42 towards the Christmas Social Event. We still remain in a healthy financial position at present and have sufficient funds to meet our forecast 2024/25 commitments but recognised that we will need to ask members for voluntary payments as we have done in the past if we are to meet our commitments next year.

2. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

Anne reported that we have had 7 new members this year (3 road and 4 MTB) but to her knowledge very few of the new road riders had been on any of our road rides. 57 members are on the road riders e-mail contact list but it is estimated that around half are active riders. Will Beck advised that there are now 67 MTB members on his list with around 25 of them regularly riding at some point. 15 of these consistently turn out for rides. Brian will once again check his system MTB membership list against Will’s list to ensure they are all active KDCS members. Our insurance offers protection for ride leaders and riders in some circumstances so club membership is essential. 

Action 1: Brian to check his KDCS e-mail list against Will becks MTB members list to determine whether they are all club members.

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

2023 again saw a healthy programme of rides offered to members ( Road, MTB, Easy Tuesday evenings ). The MTB group ride almost every week and have a hard core of leaders and a good number of riders out. There are weekend road rides every fortnight, some ad hoc mid-week rides and easy Tuesday rides most weeks between May and September. These are attended by a small number of regular riders but very few new members actually come out on the rides. There are also only a small number of volunteer leaders for the road rides and we need to generate more. It is not clear why attendances for the road rides are not higher.

It was agreed to maintain existing schedules. Themed rides were popular e.g early morning ferry breakfast rides. Tim Goffe submitted a proposal to put on a monthly ‘Café Bomb’ ride which would involve scheduling every month a destination cafe that members could make their own way to maybe to have a coffee / lunch. The committee therefore debated this proposal and agreed it was a good idea. Whilst it’s impossible to predict the popularity of this we thought it worthwhile to put this on as a midweek event once a month. (We did not wish to overwhelm cafes at their busiest time at weekends particularly if members were only seeking teas / coffees). Tim to be advised of the outcome and asked to nominate the cafes and monthly dates for Anne/Dave to schedule.

Action 2 - Steve to advise Tim of the outcome when sending him the minutes from this meeting.

4. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Dave as Social Secretary listed the activities put on over the year. Sprint Mill Barbecue event, Christmas Social, Martin’s early morning Breakfast ride and Martin’s Winster café ride. Jo Macdonald had proposed a fireworks ride and a social ride from their house, both of which, unfortunately, had to be cancelled. Our goal is to put on at least 4 such events a year. The barbecue and breakfast ride will be annual events and we intend to put on an all members open meeting maybe with accompanying slide shows / talks and food as we have had in the past. It was felt that this would give attending members the opportunity to say what future direction and content they want from their club. Dave will continue in his role and it was agreed Steve would assist him. Members can however propose events for consideration.

Action 3: Steve to work with Dave to organise an all members’ open meeting and confirm any other planned events in year.

5. PLANNED TRIPS

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

Action 4: Anne to send an email with all details to road ride list. Will to keep Anne informed when new MTB trips are planned. Anne/Brian/Dave to post trip outline summary onto the KDCS blog page (and hide once complete).

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

 We agreed that our current website and FB groups need little adjustment. The Chairman’s page will be changed to Committee page. It is a secure site with very few issues arising. We do however need to ensure our front page content is up to date and any old posts checked and removed / archived as appropriate.

7. DIRECTION AND FUTURE OF THE CLUB INCLUDING FUTURE MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

Our average age range remains in the upper age bracket and we again discussed the need to attract more members and to get them to participate in our road rides. This would help to ensure we have a good future outlook. We therefore need to generate ideas to help with this including publicity, business cards, bike shop listing etc. Whilst we still have a successful hardcore of members and riders and well-established ride programmes this is something we need to not lose sight of. Our members’ meeting may assist us with this going forward.

8. COMMITTEE POSITIONS TO INCLUDE REFLECTION / RESIGNATIONS

Steve is standing down as Chair of KDCS and will not be taking up a committee place. Anne has agreed to take over the role. All the existing committee agreed to remain in post for the following year. Steve will however assist Dave with social activities as a volunteer. He thanked the committee for their support over the past 20 years. Steve wished Anne and the committee all the best for the future and wishes to put on record his confidence in them for maintaining the future success of KDCS. The committee reciprocated with thanks to Steve for his commitment and hard work during two stints as Chairman.

9. AOB

Tim Goffe had put forward 4 items for consideration. The ‘Café Bomb’ proposal has already been cleared and approved.

He also asked whether a list of MTB routes could be compiled that could be accessed digitally by members. After debate and given the complexities of GPX, members own devices that would enable this etc. this was not approved. Dave Wills does however intend putting on a small list of popular MTB routes with maps similar to the 50 road routes we already have on the site.

Tim also asked if an official KDCS WhatsApp group could be set up. This was to enable rapid notification of ride changes, weather forecasts, urgent news etc. This was declined as the MTB group already hold e-mail addresses and phone numbers including emergency contact numbers and not everyone is on WhatsApp or can access it.

Tim also raised the issue of a survey / questionnaire to members to determine needs preferences, likes, dislikes, suggestions, improvements etc. This has been done in the past and could be considered following an all members’ meeting. At this point we did not approve such a communication.

Tim has also volunteered to become a member of the Committee and this was approved.

Action 5: Steve to advise Tim of the outcome of our discussion on his points and thank him for his contribution.

 

 

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. 

 

 

 

Steve Warner - Chairman KDCS

Up coming events and information

 Bikes for sale:

Please see the Facebook sites on the menu bar for details of bikes for sale.

Eden Valley Cycling UK (EVCUK), Charity Challenge Ride.

On Sunday 15th September 2024 EVCUK intend running a series of 'Challenge Rides' based on Langwathby Village Hall. Routes will be 50 km,100 km, and 160 km so suitable for a range of cyclists. Ebikes are welcome and the event is open to families. Entrants may ride the routes by themselves (GPS files will be available), in groups of friends or with a guide from EVCUK. The event is in aid of the Eden Valley Hospice £15 entry, £10 goes to the Hospice and £5 towards running cost. Refreshments before, during and after the event provided at Langwathby Village Hall free of charge. You can register your interest for details by emailing evchallenge24@gmail.com with your name and probable choice of distance.

30th celebration speech

 KDCS 30th anniversary speech - Chairman Steve Warner

I would like to start by thanking you all for joining us today here at Sprint Mill and as ever many thanks to Edward and Romola for hosting this important event.

Just in case you weren’t aware - today we are gathered to celebrate 30 years since the inception of KDCS. What do I mean by inception? Well 30 years ago several founder members attended a Friends of the Earth meeting where the attendees were asked how they felt about the formation of a cycling club in Kendal that would support the same principles and benefits we have in the club today. As you know these include amongst others health, social and environmental benefits.

After the attendees agreed to go ahead a series of meetings were then organised with a view to forming a cycle club, organising regular cycle rides and to campaign on all things cycling. It was our very own Edward Acland and Simon Rose who germinated the proposal at that Friends of the Earth meeting with support from other attendees. From this the first meeting of what would become KDCS was held on the 17/11/1992. The first rides actually took place in 1993. But although it may seem that we are a little premature in our celebrations the club was actually founded in 1992 - 30 years ago.

The aims of the group were to include working with the relevant authorities to try and develop a safe network of cycle paths in and around Kendal for the benefit of all.

There was an emphasis on the benefits of cycling which included health and the environment. Giving people the opportunity to make short journeys to work, for shopping and leisure and so on was surely a good thing but it needed to be done in a safe environment. Traffic in Kendal even at that time was pretty bad. Many of us will remember walking to school when traffic was a lot less in most towns but many of today’s kids get lifts to school because of time, safety and a lack of off-road routes. KDCS aimed to improve that and in addition through a series of doctor bike sessions at the birdcage and Gooseholme provide very cheap cycles for families to purchase as well repairing bikes gratis. Many hours were spent doing up old bikes to facilitate this and for a long time Edward housed lots of old bikes here at the mill.

KDCS as a club originally charged £5 membership and after generating funds even used some of it to provide bike racks in Kendal. We also campaigned to get the old canal path trail behind the leisure centre resurfaced to make it more user friendly (previously the sandy surface ruined clothing and bikes when wet ).

Once the rides list was compiled for the leisure side of the club regular rides commenced from 1993. The comprehensive programme of rides we have today is the result and the more modern twist developed the mountain bike offshoot which now has well over 50 members. Easy Tuesday rides were another progression to provide organised opportunities for people to ride after work with a seasonal programme set out for all to view.

We even had at one point t shirts printed with our own logo and some of our members still have them. They weren’t lycra though. We had a regular newsletter delivered by bike to members across the area before e-mail made life easier. Feel free to look at some of those old documents that Edward has put out for viewing and take a trip back in time. An article appeared in the Westmorland gazette back in the day and Simon still has a copy in his folder from all those years ago.

We have a committee, a website, rides and social events such as this from time to time. We even have a cafe of the year award. Covid temporarily put a brake on everything but Dave Wills organised zoom meetings to keep things going during those dark times and this year we are now back with a bang.

We are however a club where many members are how shall I put it - in the more mature age group and if we are to enjoy continued succession, we need to attract younger members and families. We will never compete with the 700-member Kendal cycling club as we are a completely different type of club offering leisurely and sociable rides over a wide area. Mark Bazeley developed over 50 rides for anyone to follow and these are on our website. We aim therefore to be very inclusive to all whether they are members or not.

Again, in these modern times we have the website and 2 Facebook sites for members to enjoy and post articles, blogs, photos etc. We continue to attract new members albeit small in numbers.

I would like to end this short speech by thanking those founder members for having the vision and foresight to form a club that is still running 30 years on, the members for supporting us, the present committee for the work they put in to keep us running and Dave Wills for organising this event today. Finally, a big thank you to you all for keeping the dream alive by coming here today and to those that took advantage of today’s ride which I hope you enjoyed. Please enjoy the food, the music, the chat and the surroundings and remember you can volunteer to lead rides and join our committee as we always welcome and need help running the club. Indeed, why not think about becoming chairman / chairperson or my particular preference chairwoman to replace me with a dynamic leader to take us into the next decade.

Steve

MINUTES OF THE KDCS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 09/02/22

 

Please follow the link below to read the minutes of the latest 

KDCS Committee Meeting