Who said January and February were the quietest months for bikers? It seems the mild weather has made riding a pleasure on some days and the amount of things going on in the club has meant that both of these winter months have been busy. The AGM and Moto-Jumble in January was swiftly followed by the formation of a working group to analyse the feedback we received from the Membership Survey and local teams have been meeting to discuss some new ideas.
The ten members of the Survey Working Group met for the first time in early
February and had a lively discussion, adopting some great ideas suggested by members as well as coming up with a few ideas of their own. This generated the Membership Survey Report, which is available to download from the website library. Now comes the hardest part: moving from talking about it, to doing it!
The first, and probably most difficult initiative, is to create a ‘Buddy’ system for new club members to not only help them understand the processes around St Crispin’s but to introduce them to a few people to help reduce that daunting feeling many have about coming along after they’ve first joined.
We thought that these ‘Buddies’ would best be Full Members, including those who may have only recently passed their test. We estimate we will need around 50 volunteers to support the system so
this is no small undertaking. Sarah Chandler, Green Team leader, has started to gather names of those willing to be a Buddy and to co-ordinate the process with Peter Brown of pairing up people over the next few months. If you fancy helping a new member by riding to St Crispin’s with them and showing them around for a few meetings please contact Sarah on the GT sign-in desk at St Crispin’s or via email at fullmembers@tvam.org.
The Red Zone, which we established as a meeting place for Associates, will also be developing. Can we move it to be closer to the Meet & Greet Team desk? Would short presentations about Advanced Riding by an Observer or maybe a chat about the new run report form be of interest to Associates? We hope to test these over the coming months.
Slipstream, this wonderful publication, came in for some comment with suggestions it would be even better with more varied content, some of it perhaps more technical. Last month we started the Dealer News page which we hope will continue to advise on the latest offers and events around the TVAM area. This month there’s the first of a series of short articles on the more refined aspects of Advanced Riding. Things you might have forgotten, never knew, or rarely actually do! Slipstream depends on member contributions so if you have some skill or knowledge you want to share let Salli know and get writing.
Demand for track skills days, courses, and trips remains high and we’re trying to address these with additional dates and more trips away. We’re also moving from a first-come, first-served, basis for bookings so we can more fairly balance the allocation of places to Associates and those who haven’t done the course/trip for some time. So no more using LL&R to scrub-in new tyres!
Finally, the Green Team monthly meeting and ride-out on the last Saturday of the month will be changing. Following the survey feedback the GT have decided to try moving their ride around each month. Local Teams will be asked to host a GT monthly run by providing a Run Leader and Back Marker. The start location, time, and destination of the run will be publicised in advance in Slipstream and on the calendar so look out for a GT run near you soon, or choose to ride some different roads by going along to one in a different area. GT runs are open to all Full Members, including Observers.
As usual in TVAM there’s lots going on, lots changing, and the season is only just getting started. So keep reading and ride safe!