Chairman’s Report 2015 AGM

Chairman’s Report for 2015

Presented at AGM 5th Nov  2015

  1. 1.       Objectives for 2015

In October 2014, we conducted an opinion survey amongst the membership. Members indicated that they would like :-

  • Regular Training Rides
  • Coaching sessions and events.
  • More structured activities on club nights
  • Continue to develop the regular club activities.

We have attempted to satisfy this demand.

  1. 2.       Financial

I believe that the Club is in a sound financial position and I we do not need to increase member subscriptions in 2015. During the year we made charitable donations of £300 to the British Heart Foundation and £200 to the Bosley Disaster Relief Fund. Club spending on assets in the year included a Go Pro camera; A Garmin Touring sat nav and a set of time trial numbers totalling around £500.

Membership

Membership has continued to grow, reaching of 135 (125 in 2014). Juniors membership remains static at 10. Several juniors reached 18 this year but numbers were bolstered by family members. This is an age group which we should target for growth. Ladies membership remained static with 31 (30 in 2014) with the proportion of female members falling slightly from 24% to 23%, which compares favourably with most other clubs.

The number not rejoining represented about 17% of the membership in 2015. This figure has been fairly constant for the last few years. This seems high but maybe normal in cycling!

  1. 3.       Racing.

Early in the year we ran a workshop to stimulate interest in all disciplines of racing with Les West as a special guest. Club members have competed in a broad spectrum of racing in 2015, but tthere has not been the hoped for increase over 2014.

Members participating in “open” time trials was numbered 16  (19 in 2014) in the year. In the Cheshire Points Series we were 10th out of 28 qualifying clubs (6/28 in 2014).

Five members rode at least one open hill climb, culminating in Ben Norbury wearing club colours in the National Championship.

Forty eight  members got points in the series (52 in 2014) with total rides including guest riders, but excluding the hill climb, down to 657 ( 724 in 2014)  Average rider numbers were down to 33 (40 in 2014).  One event was lost due to weather, but a two up 10 was added to the programme.

Having won the annual Karl Austin Memorial Inter Club 25 in 2014, we lost to Macclesfield Wheelers this year. A reduction year on year in TT participation is disappointing.

Individuals have won honours outside the club this year. Megan Giglia has won medals in paracycling ath national and world level on road and track. Others, notably Sue Blake Denise Hurst and Wayne Powell have won trophy competitions run by the M&D TTA, M&DLCA and the VTTA.

The clubs open 50 TT promotion in August, had a record entry of 131 including 7 members, whilst another 25 members contributed to running the event. We got excellent rider  following what was the best TT field in Cheshire for some years, beating this year’s National Championship 50 which had only 88 entries!  Thanks to Cyclestore.com for the generous donation of spot prizes for the event. It will be run again in 2016 on August 13th, although we have to use a different course, because of a clash with the annual steam fare at Chelford.

There have been small group riders representing the club in road racing and cyclo cross. Mark Allen in his first year as a senior (3rd Cat) has been a consistent performer with a number of top 10 finishes.

The Bob Job points table which now counts all participation in club activities shows 118 members with points having participated in 2300 individual activity sessions. (2014 was 108 members and 1800 activity sessions)

Increased participation in racing is an area to focus on for 2016

  1. 4.       Club Runs

This year we have expanded the pool of ride leaders which has supported the increase of Saturday runs from twice monthly to weekly (since April) The alternate 30/45 mile routes have been adhered to, with the objective of helping people make the jump to Sunday rides. Some have but in general the Saturday and Sunday rides serve two populations.  Average attendance on 38 Saturdays has been 11 (11 and 23 in 2014), with a maximum of 20.  Sunday rides have averaged 7 with 49 Sundays completed 6 and 49 in 2014). Last year’s experiment with a faster Sunday ride was not repeated.

  1. 5.       Audax and Sportives

Two Sundays of Audax Rides with five events on offer were run from the clubroom by Rob Waghorn and Denise Hurst. The Easter Ironbridge Audax was not run this year. Rob Waghorn has stood down as organiser of the Ironbridge/Hawkstone and Peaks and Plains events. We urgently need to recruit another organiser, at least for the Peaks and Plains events which are a Graham McCargo memorial.

  1. 6.       Touring

Club tours to the “Ridgeway” (led by Roy Hayhurst) and the Yorkshire Dales led by Polly Wilding and Lee Wood were a great success. We hope to do something similar in 2016. Individually members have toured extensively in the UK and Europe.

  1. 7.       Social Events.

Thanks to Georgina Norton supported by others for arranging a variety of social activities. All have been well attended. The centrepiece of the social year was a very successful Dinner and Prize Presentation at the Astbury Golf Club with Mike Cotgreave as chief guest. This year’s event will again be at Astbury Golf club. Our search for a chief guest continues. Tickets are limited to 70 and are selling fast!

We will try and put on more club room events this winter, e.g. Bike Maintenance, coaching topics, slide shows.

  1. 8.       Coaching/Training.

Pete Smith has run two programmes on group riding, each consisting of six sessions. The next coaching subject may be climbing and descending. A coaching plan for 2016 is required.

A 10 week program of Spin Sessions were run (led by Jill Jervis) at Congleton Leisure Centre.  We plan to repeat this in the early part of 2016.

A regular Saturday “training” ride is now well established. There were 38 Saturday morning rides with an average attendance of 5.

  1. 9.       Clubmark Accreditation

This initiative is on hold. Currently we do not have the coaching resource, or the facilities to offer 20 sessions per year for children, which are a British Cycling requirement, for accreditation. We already satisfy most other requirements.

Pete smith is leading a new initiative to involve Cheshire East in locating a suitable site for a tarmac cycling circuit.

  1. 10.   Press and Publicity

Thanks to Rob Dale who as Press Officer, got some coverage in the Chronicle. There were also individual stories from time to time.

Thanks to David McVitie for maintaining and developing the website. Ken Norbury’s TT photos are have again been a great addition – Thanks.

The clubs Facebook page has been a major source with weekly post reach often exceeding 1500.  Individuual post reaches have been in the region of 100 to 1500 plus

  1. 11.   Other Developments

We have been lobbying to bring a major cycle sport event to Congleton. Led by Pete Smith, an initial agreement with the town council to bring a Pearl Izumi Tour Series criterium to the town has morphed into a potential stage finish of the Tour of Britain.

The Rugby club (our club HQ hosts), continue to search for new premises. Currently they are involved in talks with Cheshire East about a move to Back Lane together with Vale Juniors Football Club. We would naturally go with them.

  1. 12.   Finally

To summarise, I believe the club is in a good position for the future. The leisure cycling activities in the club are very strong. For the next year I believe more emphasis should be given to the tracing and coaching activities and the recruitment of more young riders.

Thanks for everyone in the club for helping make this a great year. Thanks to the “outgoing” committee for running the club affairs for the last year. I believe that the club has a good reputation amongst the membership and the wider cycling community.

RN  03/11/15