I would like to open this month by thanking those of you that attended the March AGM and gave me the opportunity of being CO for another year. The role continues to be busy, challenging and very rewarding.
Like all organisations, TVAM needs to continually evolve to meet the needs of its members as well as those of the IAM to whom we are affiliated. We have recently seen this evolution in the IAM who have invested heavily in rebranding themselves as IAM RoadSmart as part of their aim to make themselves more relevant to the modern world. TVAM, which is the largest of the 200 or so IAM RoadSmart Groups plays a key part in delivering their product, the Advanced Rider Course formerly known as Skills for Life. TVAM also has a strong local brand of its own based on our excellent reputation resulting in a constant flow of new members who have heard about us and what we do.
Managing the demands of both organisations can be a challenge for the Committee and occasionally a source of conflict as we are all passionate about this club. You will have seen evidence of changes around the club with more emphasis on our involvement with IAM RoadSmart in our documentation, website and this magazine. The next change will be the introduction of a new Associate Run Report Form which the Training Team are redesigning to conform with the look and feel of the IAM RoadSmart brand, while continuing to capture the details essential to the smooth running of TVAM. We are planning to introduce the new form at the Observer Weekend in June. None of these changes will compromise what TVAM is all about – Better Biking.
The TVAM Skills Day at Thruxton sold out within hours of going live on the web shop. It is good to see how popular the event is and apologies to all who missed out. We will be looking to add more events like this to the TVAM Calendar in future.
There are changes in the faces too, Andy Slater as Chair and Adrian Ellison the new TVAM Secretary are getting to grips with their new roles as well as Sarah Chandler the new Green Team leader. They will bring energy and ideas and I am looking forward to working with them.
My work in Road Safety occasionally brings some perks and recently I had the opportunity to attend an event which included a seminar held by Thatcham Research, the insurance-backed company involved in the NCAP (new car assessment programme) testing of new vehicles. The level of technology that will be incorporated into the next generation of cars is staggering as they evolve closer to fully autonomous driving. This led me to make the obvious comparison to motorcycles where most of the development has been in horsepower. There are exceptions of course, and ABS, which is now standard on all new bikes is a good example, but why is there no NCAP rating for bikes? I did also get to experience the acceleration available in a Tesla S – 0 to 60 in sub 3 seconds!
Safe Riding
Pat Coneley
Chief Observer