Just a Sec

4 GRAEME PROVAN, General secretary, Audax UK

The recent AGM marked the culmination of a fairly intense period of administrative activity for AUK’s directors and delegates. No sooner had the Events teams finished their end of season reporting than the membership team were immersed in the mammoth task of dealing with our membership renewals. Somewhere in amongst all this our delegates found the time to organise our Annual Reunion and deal with the AGM. It is a testament to the efforts of our volunteers that all this work is achieved in so short a time.

However, I am sure we are all looking forward to a bit more time on our bikes and a bit less time at our computers as the weather improves.

ANNUAL REUNION The Annual Reunion was held in North Allerton in November. Some issues with booking the venue meant that the accommodation was spread across two hotels and it was reported that the access arrangements at one of the venues were far from ideal. Nevertheless, Paul Rainbow and Mark Gibson managed to lay on another enjoyable weekend with good attendance. Details of this year’s reunion will be published soon and the early indications are that it will be somewhere in the South East of England.

AGM The AGM was held in Birmingham on 8 February.

There is a report on page 5 opposite, so I will restrict myself to just a few observations.

The most important outcome of the AGM was that the new format for our Regulations was approved by the members. The Regulations themselves have not changed but they have now been split into three sections: Administrative, Events and Awards. The new Events Regulations should make it easier to identify and understand the rules for each type of event.

I was encouraged that almost 15 per cent of the members with valid email addresses took the time to vote on the online voting site. This may not seem like many but, according to our online provider, it compares extremely well to most organisations.

Sadly, this level of engagement did not translate into nominations for the vacant director posts. Having both been co-opted to the board during the year, Ian Hennessey was confirmed as our Calendar Events Secretary and Director and Martin Stefan was elected for a one-year term as Non-Executive Director. Meanwhile, John Sabine was re-elected as our second Non-Executive Director. John himself noted that he had been reluctant to stand again after a number of years in post but, in the absence of any other candidates, he was persuaded to continue. That leaves the board with a vacancy for the post of Events Services Director and with the continuing vacancy for an IT Director. The board are taking active steps to fill the Events Services post and hope to be able to make an announcement shortly. With all the various elections taking place, the board missed the fact that John Ward’s term as Permanent Events Secretary was due to end. Chairman Chris Crossland apologised to the members present at the AGM on behalf of the board and an emergency board meeting was convened immediately following the AGM. The board took the view that with no Events Services Director in post and a relatively recent appointment to Calendar Events Secretary, it was important to have some continuity. Accordingly, John Ward was re-appointed. His term will end at next year’s AGM when he will be up for re-election.

Next year’s AGM will be held in Birmingham on 6 February and a formal notice will be circulated to members later this year. If any members are interested in joining the Board of AUK, they can contact me to discuss what is involved and how the election process works.

BOARD MEETING Our January board meeting took place on the 8 January.

We were joined at the meeting by Kevin Lake who is managing Phase II of the IT Refresh Project. Kevin reported that the supplier for phase II had entered into administration due to problems in another division of its group. AUK had paid a deposit of 50 per cent of the projected costs of phase II and only a quarter to a third of the work had been carried out so far. The urgent issue was putting support for the new website in place and then finding a means of continuing phase II with the least disruption and cost. By the time of the AGM Kevin was able to report that he was working directly with one of the original contractors as lead developer, had secured and stored all the intellectual property and passwords for the site and that work was proceeding at a good pace. Kevin, Dave Allison and Caroline Fenton have all been working well beyond what anyone would expect of them to support the project over the last few months and AUK owes them a huge debt of gratitude.

In response to a question on the impact on the finances of AUK at the AGM the Finance Director, Nigel Armstrong, was able to reassure members that the issue with the supplier was not a major financial risk to AUK. Its balance sheet remains strong and the continued growth in income means that it should have the funding in place to fund the project going forwards. It was his view that the new arrangement with the contractor may ultimately save AUK some money when compared to the original budgeted cost. If there are further significant updates, they will be communicated via the AUK forum or by email.

VACANCY FOR MILEATER SECRETARY

Due to a day job promotion, a vacancy has arisen for the role of Mileater Secretary. The role involves managing the day to day running of the annual Mileater Award and entails posting out diaries to entrants, maintaining a database of entrants’ details, handling entries and fees, answering queries from entrants and collating distances annually. The post holder also writes a report for inclusion in Arrivée each year as well as maintaining a stock of diaries and medals as appropriate.

Scheme entrants are encouraged to record their daily mileages in a diary or using online ride tracking apps over each calendar year. The rider and the opposite sex rider who post the highest distances are awarded the Jan & Mick Latimer awards.

Knowledge and/or experience of the Mileater scheme as a current participant would be useful for anybody considering taking on this post, but committed members without those qualifications should soon be able to learn. Any member interested in this opportunity should contact: Chris Crossland, Audax UK Chair. Email: chair@audax.uk