Bromley Cyclists Monthly Meeting
182 Court Road, Orpington BR6 0PY. 10th November, 2014 – 8.pm
MINUTES
Present: Spencer Harradine, Derek Mark, Peter Nemestothy, Richard Gibbons, John Wood, Tessa Marie, Alice Reavell, Linda Rampling, Eve Evans
1. Apologies: None
2. Approval of Minutes of last meeting – Approved JW, Seconded SH
3. Financial Report – Treasurer – In the absence of the Treasurer SH reported: Financial Balance £589.04, income this month of £160.received from LCC for led ride to London.
4. Matters arising from last meeting
Cycling Strategy – RG, JW, SH & EE recently met to discuss. It is understood that Bromley Council are preparing to public a cycling strategy document. At this stage we can only guess what form this will take but once it goes public we will be asked to comment on it. We have been informed that the Cycle to School Partnership which was promised is now not going ahead. JW to contact Council. Bromley Cyclists need to find out how the council is responding to this. We have spent a lot of time discussing strategy and now have a list of items which will help us to monitor the strategy going forward.
5. Rides & Events
October Ride Report – JW reported. 11 rides in October with 94 riders. Excluding 1stSunday and Wednesday Weekly Wanders there were 4 weekend rides as follows: Eynsford Loop 8 riders, Greenwich 8 riders, Shoreham Tea Rooms 5 riders and Ashford Loop 14 riders. The www continues to be popular although October numbers were down on September, possibly because of the weather.
Future Rides – JW reported on rides so far this year and stated that it is intended to more or less repeat this year’s programme next year. The St. Albans Ride may happen before the end of the year, but is difficult because of it getting dark so early. Planning began on the Viking Trail ride, but engineering works on the train lines have made this impossible at the moment. JW asked for people to let him know if they wanted to do a particular ride or in fact lead one, maybe shorter rides to start with. It is hoped that Andrew Fergar, Trevor Hughes and Bob Gaylard will continue to add their rides next year.
6. Bromley Cyclists
SH put forward the following. Re-structure of Bromley Cyclists:
The aim being to involve more people from all over the borough. To do this we would aim to have someone in each Ward to take on the role of Ward Champion. Initially this could involve such things as:
Contacting other LCC members in that ward with a view to them getting involved, contacting their Local Councillors, PCSO’s, Residents Associations, actively use Fix My Street, undertake cycle parking audits, meet with Friends of the Park, Safer Neighbourhood Team and attend local fayres and fetes.
The idea would then be for say 3 Wards to join together for regular cluster meetings, reporting back to the main meeting by way of reports on a regular basis. The regularity of such meetings is subject to further discussion.
Discussion followed and it was suggested an outline plan be put on paper for discussion at subsequent monthly meetings so that we might then be able to decide on whether or not this should be put in place and the timescale to implement such a plan. SH to action.
Generally this was met favourably, the main reservation being whether we would be able to get enough people to put themselves forward as Ward Champion. It was felt that initially we might try for six Ward Champions to get us started.
7. AOB
Rides
EE asked if people felt the rides we did at the moment were appropriate; this question wasn’t really answered as then separate rides group/meeting was discussed.
SH – How can we develop the public persona of the rides? Do we need to do more to promote and develop the rides? Do we change the name from Bromley Cyclists to something else? – it was discussed and the general consensus of opinion seemed to be that we did not need to change the name as we are quite a unique group and in the main are trying to attract new people onto bikes rather than running a cycle ‘club’.
SH – Should we do more to promote and develop the rides. Discussion followed on how we have lost members from our meetings in the past due to too much emphasis being put on campaigning/infrastructure and not enough on rides. Suggestion to have a separate rides meeting to possibly encourage more people to attend was put forward. SH – do we ask that people were LCC members before coming out on Bromley Cyclists rides, following the format of several other local clubs whereby they allow 3 rides before joining.
Cycle Sundays
Discussion relating to a suggestion put forward at the October meeting, suggesting how we might get many of the other local clubs involved. EE – The initial suggestion was Bromley Cyclists 1st Sunday, Bromley Council Bikeability 2nd Sunday, Go Ride 3rd Sunday, Dr Bike and Bike Marking 4th Sunday. This way keeping the focus on Bromley Cyclists rather than opening it up to everyone else.
Communications
SH – We need someone to manage our Facebook and twitter feeds. It was suggested that the website may need to be rebuilt. JW. A forum might be a better way to manage communications rather than the current Yahoo Groups system which whilst technically is still good is very clunky
Structure of meetings
DM – suggested that we have our meetings in a more central location to encourage greater attendance; the meetings to last a set time, say 2 hours then over to the pub; each item on the Agenda to be timed with the Chair ensuring that the meeting runs to time; reports to be sent in from each sub group prior to the meeting to enable either approval or decision on whether any further action is needed at the meeting, thus avoiding lengthy discussions on each subject.
Next meeting 8th December, 2014 – Venue tbc
