Committee Minutes - Tuesday 22nd October 2024

 

MINUTES OF THE KDCS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 20/10/2024

Attendees: Anne Brookes, Tim Goffe, Martin Slader, Dave Wills

Apologies from: Will Beck, Brian Woodward - both had submitted comments on the agenda prior to the meeting and these were included in the discussion.

Topics discussed: 

- Finance

- Club constitution

- Club communications

- Rides and events

- Cycling campaigning/advocacy

- Next meeting

Finance

Martin reported that the financial position remains the same as reported to the committee in February with enough funds (~ £256) to meet commitments this year and next.  We agreed not to fund the coffee and mince pies at this year's Christmas meal.  We all agreed that having a regular subscription was not necessary, given the limited outgoings of the club and the overhead of administering it, but that asking for occasional one-off donations from members is a more acceptable way to generate funds.  When this was done in 2019, it raised over £500 and has met all outgoings for the past five years.

We discussed the signatories on the KDCS account (currently Martin, Steve Warner and Neil Hazelhurst) but did not make a decision to change them.  

Club constitution

Tim raised the question of whether the club had a constitution.  None of us knew of a specific document but pointed to the Membership Rules and the KDCS Code of Conduct for members to abide by.  Martin could not remember if Skipton Building Society required one in order to open the club account.  We agreed to look into this further by researching a template for club constitution before deciding on whether we should make one for KDCS.  

ACTION:  Anne to research a template constitution.

Club Communications

Previous to the meeting, Tim had expressed some disappointment around communications related to what is going on in the club and had suggested that a newsletter might improve things and so we discussed this whole matter.  We discussed the various ways that club information is communicated:  club-wide emails, rider group emails (for road and MTB), the web pages and Facebook pages and also acknowledged that MTB riders and road riders are quite distinct groups and that not everyone uses Facebook. 

Will's comments on producing a newsletter suggested that a quarterly email or blogpost might work well, with topics covering write-ups of rides, forthcoming events, any campaigning issues etc, but he also acknowledged the commitment needed to make this happen, from his experience of producing the KCC monthly newsletter.  Tim offered to coordinate a newsletter but would give the matter more thought before committing to it.  Brian also contributed his willingness to provide more help in updating the website.  In our discussion, we supported the proposal of a newsletter, if the commitment is there to maintain it.

At the last committee meeting Anne and Dave had agreed to make a number of changes to the club website to simplify the content and structure of the blog pages.  This work has not been done yet for a number of reasons, but both agreed to get the changes done in the next month or so and to present them at the next meeting.

In the discussion about Facebook, a question arose about who administers the KDCS accounts and accepts new members who request to join.  Dave is one of the administrators and reported that there are numerous 'spam' requests and it is difficult to know who is genuine, without knowing the names of new KDCS members.  We agreed to follow this up.

ACTION:  Anne & Dave to find out Facebook administrators (ask Andy G) and develop a process for circulating new member details.

Rides and Events

While discussing communications, Tim expressed a desire to have more information in advance of a ride about who was intending to join the ride, so that he could decide whether to join or not and to help coordinate car-sharing.  This mainly related to MTB rides and was partly due to an issue over e-bike and non e-bike riders. Will's comments also mentioned the problem of ride pace due to powered and non-powered riders, although he had no answer to the problem.  The same situation also affects road rides although does not seem to be an issue yet. We did not reach any conclusions but agreed to discuss the issue again.

ACTIONS:  Tim to discuss advanced rider information with Will.   

                    All to discuss the e-bike issue at the next meeting and decide any actions.

On social events, everyone agreed that club social events were generally well-attended and a good way to keep members involved and to make new members feel welcome.  Also, that the 'cafe bomb' events worked well to bring MTB and road riders together (even if they didn't mingle!).  Tim agreed to organise more of these. Dave suggested that a social sub-committee should be formed to help organise more regular social events because he cannot do the role in addition to website updates.

ACTION: Raise this at the next meeting and call for volunteers to make a social sub-committee

Tim commented that the Away Trips are very successful (mainly with MTB riders) and that these should be extended to incorporate more road riders.  This year, he hosted a planning meeting with other members who organised trips which was very useful for coordinating the trips.

ACTION:  Raise this at the next meeting and call for participants from road riders to be included in the planning and coordination of Away Trips.

Cycling campaigning/advocacy

We discussed the involvement of KDCS in local cycling issues, campaigns and consultations. All agreed that the club is keen to be involved in local issues related to cycling and that it would be good to make it a committee role for someone keen to take it on.

ACTION: Raise this at the next meeting and call for a volunteer 

Anne reported that the club had been invited to attend an online consultation meeting with LDNPA, Active Travel England and the councils, who are developing a cycling, walking and wheeling plan for the Lake District.  She was not able to attend but the club can feed in our priorities by email.  In Will's comments he reported that KCC committee had developed and submitted a series of proposals to the LDNPA initiative. In Brian 's comments he expressed an interest in collaborating on this.

Next meeting

We discussed the next meeting and all agreed to have an open AGM for all members in the new year.  The date proposed was Wednesday 22nd January 2025.  Venue to be arranged.

 

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.