Motorcycle Action Group

NW Region Annual General Meeting

 

Scarisbrick Village Hall

Sunday 6 November 2005

 

Present:          Tony Cox (NW Regional Rep)

                        Mike Card (Deputy Regional Rep)

                        Lynda Pouncey (Regional Treasurer)

                        Tim Norris (Regional Sec & M’cr Rep)

                        Billy Downs (Liverpool & W Lancs Rep)

                        Paul Mossman (Wirral & Chester Rep)

                        Bill Green (Red Rose MAG Rep)

                        Graeme Kenyon (Financial Auditor)

                        John Moss, Don Glover & Thomas Godwin

 

                        NC observer: Paul Turner

 

Tony began by welcoming everybody to the meeting, and introduced Paul Turner as the MAG Central observer. Mike Card was invited to act as chair for the AGM (prop TC, sec PM).

 

Apologies: none received.

 

The minutes of the last Regional AGM (07/11/04) had been circulated at the start of the meeting, and were accepted as a true and fair account (prop PM, sec BG).

 

Matters arising from minutes: Shirley Hauxwell was mentioned as attending on behalf of NABD, but is actually a full MAG member. Apologies for any confusion caused.

 

Tony then gave the Regional Report; we have again had a busy and successful year, with membership in the region up by 20 percent to about 850. The MAG stall was set up at several events including the NABD rally, Thundersprint, Accrington Bike Show, Scarisbrick Bike Show and Blackpool MAG Rally.

Tony has also had contact with an off-road riders organisation, the TRF, whose members face being outlawed by some proposed new legislation.


 

Lancashire Police forces have noted an unexplained rise in the number of motorbike casualties, and a working group (MAG, BMF, RoSPA, IAM etc) has been set up to examine this issue and to promote safer riding.

Some riders convicted of motoring offences may be offered further training as an alternative to prison. (Chris McD from RR MAG involved with a working group on this scheme).

Tony apologised for not having been to visit more local branches and will endeavour to do more liaison work in the coming year.

 

 

Lynda Pouncey gave a brief run-down of the Regional Accounts; we have received funds from the events hosted by RR MAG and Blackpool MAG, while the only significant outgoings have been delivery costs for SB magazine and the mailshot* to members telling them about the AGM. Overall, the region is in the same healthy position as last year and we agreed to send £1500 to the Fighting Fund at Central (prop TC, sec PM).

After the meeting it was noted that the proceeds from the ‘Smoke on the Water’ AGM rally would not actually be available to MAG NW or Central since this event had been advertised as a fundraiser for the MAG Foundation. The situation was clarified by an e-mail discussion and did not affect the original decision.

Earlier in the year, we had considered purchasing a MAG stall for use by the NW and Cumbria regions. However, since we have not had any difficulty in getting the use of the national one, we have decided to continue with our current arrangement. One possible future purchase is a supply of dayglo yellow tabards for use by marshals.

A question was asked about changing the regional account to a high interest current account, but Lynda said that regional accounts are not intended to hold large sums of money, so that no real advantage would be gained by switching.

The Regional Accounts were accepted as a true record (prop TN, sec PM).

 

*During brief discussion it was established that individual mailshot is not considered a formal requirement for regional AGM; most regions accept that inclusion in ‘The Road’ is sufficient notice.


 

 

Election of Officers: since there had been no nominations for committee posts, and all the serving members had agreed to continue in their posts, it was recommended that they should be re-elected en bloc (proposed and seconded as below):

 

Post                          Officer                      Proposed            Seconded

 

Regional Rep        Tony Cox                 M Card               L Pouncey

Assistant RR           Mike Card               T Cox                   T Norris

Secretary                Tim Norris                 M Card               L Pouncey

Treasurer                 Lynda Pouncey     M Card                T Cox

Auditors                  Graeme Kenyon

                                  & Mike Card           P Mossman        T Cox

Webmaster            Chris McDonald    M Card               B Green

 

 

Future Regional Activities: suggestions were invited for events to raise the profile and income of the region.

John Moss asked about the Wirral Egg Run and whether MAG could take a more active role in organising it. Paul M mentioned that last year’s run had no organisation at all since it had been officially cancelled (but went ahead anyway with no casualties other than a police bike which toppled over….) He added that MAG does assist with marshalling the event, and offered to put John in touch with the organisers of next year’s Egg Run. The main problems with the egg run are the scale of the event and the carefree attitude to safety (riders and onlookers apparently exchanging hi-fives). Paul suggested that we could set up the MAG stall at the egg run (with approval of the organisers).

 

Bill Green mentioned that Red Rose MAG were considering a repeat of their successful Fred Hill memorial run. They also have a charity run lined up in aid of a Women’s Refuge next month.

 

One idea, which has been used in the past, is the ‘MP Run’, where MAG members arrange to give pillion rides to their local MP/Councillor to demonstrate how safe and practical bikes really are. The various riders and their precious cargo then all arrive at a central meeting point.

MAG Central has been pushing for more action on the Third Driving Licence Directive. Tony has contacted several MPs and found them to be unaware of the Directive and its significance.

 

Other future events include a joint Blackpool MAG/Whitworth Warriors charity run, the Manchester MAG Pre-Nollaig Bash (25 Nov) and the Blackpool MAG Xmas Party (16 Dec).

 

Any Other Business: in view of the small turnout for this AGM, there was a discussion about relocating the event to a weekend earlier in the year. Possibly the lighter evenings and milder weather would encourage more members to attend. However, we would then face competition from the many other rallies at the end of summer.

 

The Scarisbrick Village council have been considering the use of the Hall and its field, and there is some suggestion that next year they will refuse to allow vehicles or camping on the field after (say) September. In this case, a new venue for the AGM will be found.

A vote of thanks was made to Billy for organising the rally and AGM.

 

A further discussion covered the use of mailshots to publicise the AGM; Tony C had wisely included flier details for two other MAG events in the letter to members making more efficient use of our funds.

It would be useful to be able to contact members via e-mail, but many of those addresses provided turn out to be dead.

 

NEXT MEETING: A provisional arrangement was made to hold next year’s AGM on Sunday 5th Nov 2006 at 12.00, at the Village Hall. However, the options for finding a new venue and date for the event will be explored during regional meetings next year.