TOWER HAMLETS WHEELERS
Annual General Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, 14 April 2010 8.00pm
Held at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road.

PRESENT: Rob (Co-ordinator), Owen (Secretary), David T (Chair),
         Caroline (Rides), Neville (Events),
         Peter, Leigh, Gerry, Aneeta, Keith, Bob, John, Geoff, Gerry, Brenda, Susan and Special Guests Adrian & Diana

APOLOGIES: Dave A (Treasurer), Steve (Special Projects), Mick, Gail, Tracy, Ian, Janice, Gary, Buzz

CHAIR:     David T
MINUTES:   Owen

1. INTRODUCTIONS

Everyone introduced themselves.


2. YEAR REVIEW

Caroline presented a Ride Co-ordinator's report, see end of minutes.
David T thanked Caroline and Dave A for their efforts with rides calendar.

Keith: THW members played a major role in leading Cycle Friday rides and Skyride.

Rob: 1000s of newsletters have been distributed.  Thanks to all those that have taken part in the early morning handouts.


3. ACCOUNTS

The 2009/10 accounts were presented and unanimiously approved.


4. CAMPAIGNS IDEAS

A brief discussion was held about ideas for campaigns.
- Planning developments installing cycle facilities which are sub-standard and only "ticking boxes" but not being used.
- LGV awareness campaign
- Bike theft (join in with the proposed LCC campaign)


5. ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Co-ordinator..............Rob       Nominator Gerry,   Seconded Caroline
Secretary.................Owen      Nominator Geoff,   Seconded Neville
Treasurer.................Dave A    Nominator Keith,   Seconded Rob
Chair.....................David T   Nominator Aneeta,  Seconded Neville
Rides Co-ordinator........Caroline  Nominator Owen,    Seconded Geoff   (1)
Events Co-ordinator.......Keith     Nominator Neville, Seconded Rob     (2)
Special Projects Officer..Gerry     Nominator Rob,     Seconded Geoff
Newsletter Editor.........Rob to carry on producing the newsletter
Press Officer.............Susan volunteered to help out if needed
Workshop Co-ordinators....Aneeta, Keith, Caroline, Dave A, Owen

(1) "Social" part dropped from this post's title
(2) David T will cover until May

David T thanks all who have held posts for the last year.

Neville was thanked for his year of events co-ordinator.
Steve thanked for the hours put in on the Cycle Superhighways CRIMs and Olympics Liaison work.
Newsletter really good, thanks to Rob for producing.
Workshop + food


6. AOB

Cemetry Park Festival on 2 May - Neville concludes his duties as Events Officer by asking for volunteers to attend this event.


7. PRESENTATION

Diana & Adrian gave an entertaining presentation about their 9 month cycle tour from India back home to Hackney.  A collection was made for Diana & Adrian's chosen charity Missing Persons.

Post-meeting note: Including a £25 donation from Wheelers, £70 in total was donated to Missing Persons.


REPORTS

Ride Coordinator's report for 2009-10

Overall 2009/10 was a successful year for Wheelers; rides with the number of riders generally increasing – record highs of 24 (Crossness in summer 2009) and 25 (Rainham and Tilbury in March 2010) and many others well into double figures. We offered a broad range from very easy through to quite challenging (eg London to Brighton) which attracted a wide variety of riders, with the proportion of female and male being about even. We also experienced a good variety of weather from wonderful to pretty bad!

We organised two weekends away - in April to Doddington Kent and then in October back to Stour Valley near Manningtree. Places sold very quickly and in each case we had a waiting list. To cater for the large numbers and the spread of cycling aspirations, there were two or three rides each day.

We ran some successful "afterworker" midweek evening rides, although lack of leader availability for this type of ride meant we didn’t have as many as we (or our riders) would have liked.

The most eagerly awaited ride of the Wheelers' year was of course the Glamour Ride (2009 was the fifth) - this was better than ever with more riders and its very own tricycle borne Pimms bar.

Thanks to all who led rides, acted as backmarkers or helped in other ways, and to all who came along.
Caroline