NW Report August-September 2009

8^th – 9^th August :- Board & NC Meeting, Yorkshire Pudding Rally

It was decided to hold the Board and NC meeting at this rally for a change as many of the Board/NC members were going to be involved in the rally anyway and it seemed to make sense to combine the two events. Minutes from both meetings can be found on the MAG UK web-site. http://www.mag-uk.org

.

12^th August:- RideSafe BackSafe Police HQ, Hutton

Plenty of planning going on for the RideSafe Rendezvous planned for Easter next year in Blackpool. Feedback from the training schools in the area is that their business has suffered a major blow with the introduction of the new test, but this was to be expected. In general they seem to be knuckling down and getting on with training the candidates to cope with the new manoeuvres. The feeling is that if the correct training is given there are very few who actually fail the test. The only test centre we have in Lancashire is at Blackburn, and the surface cannot be used in the wet as it has standing water and so tests are only conducted in the dry or cancelled. Thing is it nearly always rains in Blackburn!

23rd^th August:- Morecambe & District (MAD) MCC Bike Show

NW MAG was invited to take the stall to this event which was the first one for this newly affiliated club. It was a good opportunity to get the message across to many who knew little about MAG and picked up plenty of new members as a consequence.

31^st August;- MT Heads Bike Show

Another opportunity to show support for this affiliated club who are very pro-MAG. It was a bit quite on the day but we were thanked for our attendance and plenty of literature distributed.

1^st-7^th September:- Stormin’ The Castle Custom Bike Show

I took a week off work to help with the build up and marshalling of this event. It was a great week and weekend of the rally. General feeling was that it went well and plenty of happy campers leaving on the Sunday morning seemed to endorse this.

18^th-20^th September;- Jesters MCC “Cum N Dribble” Rally

I was working this rally but still found time to run a bit of a MAG stall from the side of the van and picked up a few members, had interest from a local side patch organisation who are thinking of affiliating to MAG, and distributed plenty of magazines.

23^rd September:- RideSafe BackSafe Police HQ, Hutton

The meeting was used as a preview for a new DVD that is being released called “Josh’s Story” which basically follows the tragic death of a local young rider in an effort to get the message across about some pretty basic road safety. Well made DVD that leaves plenty of questions about the circumstances behind this story. It will be available for free distribution soon.

Figures released for convictions for mobile phone usage behind the wheel have increased from 2300 in the last 6 months of 2008 to 6300 in the first 6 months of this year. This is due to far stringent policing of this offence in the region, something that I feel we should be supporting as vulnerable road users.

It was also announced at this meeting that Merseyside Police are now fully supporting the RSBS initiative, along with Greater Manchester Police. There has even been interest shown Cheshire who currently promote Bikesafe.

4^th October Hercules Run Pilling to Glawthorpe Hall, Padiam

The Hercules Run is an annual charity run which consists of a 100 mile+ tour of Lancashire’s Hill Country via some of the most stunning scenery in the county. The event has been running since 2002 and attracts 150+ riders and pillions.

Over recent years the South Lakes Advanced Motorcyclists (SLAM) have been responsible for marshalling this event, but there has been a lot of disagreements between SLAM and the event organisers as to how the event should be run, so the decision was made to look for another organisation to help with the event. That is where I was approached as NW MAG Rep, and I agreed take responsibility for the marshalling of this historic event.

The run was a great success, and the organisers have been full of praise for the professional way the MAG marshals organised the run. It’s been a win-win situation as we have picked up many new members through association with the run, including the organisers, and it also proved to be a great way of getting the MAG affiliated groups around the region to work together. As well as support from the local MAG groups we also owe great thanks to Morecambe & District MCC, Mobile Chaos MCC and Jesters MCC who all turned out to help with this event and fly the MAG flag. At the last count £3000 has been raised for the Blackpool Victoria Hospital Breast Cancer Unit charity and a lot of good PR has been raised for MAG in the region.

Regards,

Tony

NW Rep.