Bromley Cyclists Group Meeting
Orpington Methodist Church,
Wesley Room
Sevenoaks Road,
Orpington,
BR6 9JH
Thursday 12 May 2016 – 1930
Present:
Spencer Harradine (SH)……………………… Borough Coordinator
Derek Mark (DM)………………………………………………………. Chair
John Wood (JHW)………………………………….. Secretary (Acting)
Linda Rampling (LR)…………………………………………… Treasurer
Tracey Parker (TJP)……………………………….. Rides Coordinator
Andy Allsop (AA)………………………………………………….. Speaker
Rory McMullan (RM)…………………………………………….. Member
Brenda Scothern………………………………………………….. Member
Minutes
- Apologies
Eve Evans, Richard & Alison Gibbons, Alice Reaval, Tim Wild, Susan Lambert, Tim Rowe, and Chris Scothern.
- To Consider the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 11 February 2016 for approval
The minutes were presented by the Acting Secretary and approved by the members present.
- Matters Arising
There was no business under this heading.
- To receive and approve the ManCom Report
The ManCom report was presented by the Acting Secretary [appendix]
The appointment of John Wood as the group secretary as mentioned in the report was approved by the members present.
The expenditure mentioned in the report was approved by the members present.
- To receive a presentation from the Borough Coordinator about the proposal for a cycling friendly route from Green Street Green to Orpington
The Borough Coordinator gave a most interesting presentation about the proposal for the cycleway.
- To receive a presentation from Mr Andy Allsop, author and cyclist entitled London, Edinburgh, London: my story.
Andy gave a most interesting and witty presentation about his experiences as a cyclist which went way beyond the above mentioned title and was received with warm applause.
- To confirm the venue for the next group meeting
The venue for the next Group Meeting which will be in August will be Bromley.
- AOB
There were no matters under this heading.
ManCom Report to the Group
This is my first report of the activities of the Management Committee since we changed to the new meeting format.
At our AGM in February we re-elected Spencer as our Borough Coordinator. I think it would be right to here and now thank Spencer for all the work he does on our behalf for the group and for cycling in our borough.
Eve stood down as our secretary. Eve did an absolutely magnificent job in the secretary role and as a group we express our deep gratitude to Eve for all her hard work in running the group and dealing with the admin. I have agreed to fill the role as an acting group secretary at least until the autumn and I happily admit I rely heavily upon Eve for guidance.
We seek the approval of the group for me to be group secretary.
Linda Rampling has been re-elected as our treasurer our grateful thanks to Linda.
We have decided to have a Group Chairman and elected Derek Mark to this role.
Since our last Group Meeting the management committee has met on three occasions.
Action Grid
We have created an action grid to help us track our progress on actions.
Treasurer
We seem to be having a difficulty getting the bank mandate changed. This is an ongoing problem and we will confirm to you when we have successfully added the details of the treasurer and the acting secretary to the account mandate.
We started this quarter with a bank account balance of £880.45p which with interest has risen to £881.46
We have spent:
Room Bookings £271.00
Table, tablecloth and flags £399.69
Miscellaneous 12.00
Total £682.69
Balance £197.76
The Treasurer has submitted our accounts to the LCC for audit purposes and is preparing a budget. We have heard nothing back yet.
We seek the approval of the group for the expenditure.
Rides
Organised rides have always been a very important part of the Bromley Cyclists offering. Tracey is our new rides coordinator.
The numbers of riders on the Wednesday Weekly Wanders dwindled quite significantly during the winter months but are now picking up again. This remains a very popular series of rides. There was brief discussion about reducing the wanders to once a fortnight but the idea was abandoned. It has taken a lot of hard work to get this programme a fixture in everyone’s diaries and it would be a great shame to jeopardise this.
The Bigfoot to Brighton Training Ride series and the actual ride to Brighton has again been a resounding success with 150 riders of all ages and abilities cycling to Brighton on 1 May.
The first of the Adult Training Rides Courses was not particularly well attended. There is a feeling that it wasn’t marketed properly. There is a further course starting next month for which we already have 13 applications.
Communications
There has been a steady increase in members and followers of our various media platforms over the quarter with the exception of likes for our Facebook page which is stuck stubbornly on 62. Ride reports on the website seem to be popular and we note a considerable increase in site activity following the publication of a ride report.
We are in the final stages of preparation of the next insert which is included with the London Cyclist Magazine published quarterly. We get no feedback on whether anyone reads our insert. It is published in black and white which is not helpful. The office have said they are looking into the possibility of producing the insert in colour; clearly there are cost implications to this. The colour version is published as a link on the LCC website.
We have now sent two copies of our e-Newsletter. These are evenly spaced between the magazine inserts and are sent to members and supporters in the borough using the office emailing software – ‘Engaging Networks’:
January:
The email was sent to 631 email addresses, It was opened by 255 – 41% (compares with average of 20% open rate so very good)
There were 13 recorded clicks on linx in the mail however because I used the wrong sort of links there were probably more click throughs.
April:
Metrics await
Targets
In the recently Published Bromley Cycling Strategy 6 of our ‘Asks’ have been included for future development.
Spencer has had a meeting with a Transport Planner regarding the ‘Ask’ for improved cycling infrastructure between Orpington and Green Street Green.
Unfortunately a meeting with the same planner to look at the ‘Ask’ to find a way around the Westmoreland Rd / Masons Hill junction towards Shortlands has had to be postponed to a future date. These are both ‘Asks’ that were identified as part of the Space for Cycling Campaign and which have been included in the Borough Cycling Strategy.
It is probably too early to draw any conclusions from the membership statistics which are being provided from the LCC Office. We continue to promote membership of the LCC at every opportunity.
The first Newbies Meet-up at the Village Café was not particularly successful. Again there is a feeling that somehow the marketing fell short.
Transport, Traffic & Infrastructure
We have been invited to be members of the Bromley Road Safety Panel, and naturally have accepted the invitation.
We have been represented at 1 meeting so far and it is fair to say that our reception was somewhat tense.
If anyone has road safety issues they want brought to the attention of the panel then please send us an email and we will do our best to bring it to notice.
The coordinator has agreed that the meetings of the Bromley Cycle Forum can be reduced from 3 per year to 2.
