Annual General Meeting - Reports

Below are some of the reports submitted at our Annual General Meeting in November.

Secretary's Report

Burnley and Pendle CTC, Member Group.
Report to Annual General Meeting 4th November 2015.

Mr. Chairman, fellow members.

The club has had quite a successful year. The number of members listed for our member group has remained steady at just over 200, however the numbers attending our Short Sunday rides has continued to build, with a strong core and regularly getting 10 and more on rides.

While the Short Sunday rides have been successful and have run each week, there has been a reduced interest in Long rides and so we have tended to put on more Medium or Medium Plus rides. We also  included several car assisted rides enabling members to explore further afield including Morecambe, York Rally & The Wirral Way. We had a ride to watch the inaugural Tour of Yorkshire stage race in May. Our Extra Short invitation rides, to encourage new riders, were run once a mouth throughout the year, on Saturday mornings, with several new riders, with 19  ttending one of the rides. We did not attend the Blackpool ‘Ride the Lights’ event in August this year. The Tuesday Evening rides followed by the social have continued throughout the year. The Saturday morning rides led by Bob Jackson and Matt Hargreaves, in conjunction with Barnoldswick Clarion, continue to attract 15 or more riders most weeks. Harry Taylor & David Tinker have liaised with Wheel Easy Cycling Club in Harrogate & Blackburn CTC, and have hosted a couple of invitational/joint rides. Harry Taylor has been dealing with our new rider enquiries and has put considerable effort into publicizing the club distributing leaflets and posters around numerous shops,  sports centres, libraries and other public buildings. We even had a TV appearance on Channel 4 News with Krishnan Guru-Murthy in April.

We were again involved with the Pendle Bikefest, which included a number of guided rides before and after the Tour of Britain finish in Colne on Monday 7th September. On the back of the Tour of Britain media coverage Harry was able to get another good article in the local press. We supplied 6 marshals for the Colne Grand Prix circuit race, attracting a £120 contribution to club funds and had a stall to distribute leaflets. We did not run a Charity fundraising event this year.

Jim Duerden organised an April weekend, to Hesket Newmarket and a July weekend to Hawes which was met by the Sunday car assisted ride. Matt Hargreaves organised an extremely successful 3 day coast to coast trip on The Way of the Roses route from Morecambe to Bridlington enjoyed by 14 riders in May. Unfortunately Harry Taylor’s September weekend to Dumfries did not go ahead this time due to lack of numbers.

The week-long National CTC Birthday Rides, held at Newton Rigg Agricultural College, Penrith, in August, were attended by 7 of our current members among the nearly 350 fellow cyclists. We again met ex—members and friends from previous years in an enjoyable & sociable week. With a good variety of rides, and entertainment each evening including a quiz night, music, magician, talks, films and a barn dance.

Last year’s Christmas meal was again held at The Copy Nook, Bolton by Bowland. In March we held a quiz Night @ Boyce’s Barrel bar, Colne, hosted by Harry Taylor & Jim Duerden, with pie & pea supper, where we were joined by members from other local cycling clubs.

Mark Clegg joined the committee in July and has done a lot of work with the club web site, setting us up with a new host, and updating the content. The club members are also keeping in contact
and posting photo’s etc using Facebook and google groups. We are taking details for another bulk order of our club clothing toward the end of the year. The kit remained a useful publicity tool, prompting many conversations with other cyclists. Could anyone wishing to attend our slide evening on Monday 16th November 7:30pm upstairs @ The Inn on the Wharf, Burnley, £5 including pie &pea supper, please book their place with me so that we can confirm numbers for catering. In closing I’d like to thank all members of the club & committee for their support during the year.

John Ramsden (Secretary)

Webmaster's Report

Back in June, I was asked to take a look at the club's website.

Those who have visited the site would know that it hadn't seen any significant updates for some time, mainly due to the loss of our hosting provider, who had become uncontactable.

The initial course of action was to re-establish contact with the hosting provider, in order to obtain access to the site, and failing that start again from scratch, which would have meant a new site with new e-mail addresses, far from ideal.

After just over a month, we regained control of the site, so work started on a redesign, and bringing the content up to date. However, we were also informed that we needed to find a new provider, as the original host was unable to continue offering the service.

At the beginning of September we signed with a new provider, who, although slightly more expensive, was willing to bill us on an annual basis, rather than via direct debit like the mainstream providers seem to prefer. An agreement preferable for a small organisation such as ours.

We completed the transfer to the new provider over the next week, transferring both our website, and email accounts. Apart from one small hiccup with the email service, we're now fully up and running, and back full control of our internet presence.

The site is now regularly updated with Ride Reports, Tour reports, News Items, and Social Events. If you haven't visited for a while, maybe it's time to have another look…

http://www.burnleyandpendlectc.co.uk

As a summary of how our site gets used, below are the number of page views for the most popular pages over the last couple of months.

Downloaded runs lists…

Other areas of interest…

CTC

Our group page on CTC's website was updated at the end of October, and provides a brief overview of the group, along with links back to our website. This allows anybody searching HQ's site for a local group to find out more about us.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/local-groups/burnley-pendle

Google Groups

We have a group mailing list on google groups, allowing members to mailshot the rest of the group easily. This is used mainly for advertising the weekend rides, and sharing photos taken whilst out as a group.

If you're not currently on the list, and would like to be added, please let me know

Facebook

We also have a very active Facebook group. Much more informal than the website and mailing list, you'll generally find photos from our rides here shortly after a club run, along with an “entertaining” discussion from those on the ride.

Search Facebook for “Burnley and Pendle CTC”

Mark Clegg
Webmaster