April was a very successful and active month for ARNY and helped to start the riding season with some real excitement. With so much going it is even more notable that the month was a really busy training month with 18 training sessions involving 10 Associates. The weather was quite accommodating for most of the month with plenty of opportunities for riding.
The ARNY Open Day on Saturday April 9th was a great success. There was a lot of interest, and the Tutors present were busy with taster rides for new riders who had come along. There were many people who came along for a chat and to get a better understanding of what Advanced Riding is all about and the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Firebike also made an appearance, all of which resulted in a very busy day with a great atmosphere at Strawberry Fields. The Open day resulted in 9 new members for ARNY which was way beyond expectations and will now result in some busy Saturday mornings for training. Thanks to all who helped make it such a success, Strawberry Fields Café for the excellent hospitality and most importantly to all those who came along.
April saw us start the ARNY social calendar for the new year. There was a Wednesday Wobble to Helmsley and a Social ride to Sandsend, both of which were appreciated by all that went along. Simon Wilson hosted the first of the planned monthly post-test rides with all meeting up, with those training on the day, at the Thirsk Garden Centre for a coffee and chat. A change for this year is that we are posting all the social events on a calendar for the year via a link and on the training calendar on the website, as well as the Members Watsapp group, so take a look to see what is planned for the year.
Some of the ARNY Tutors supported the Bikesafe event in Lincolnshire and we also had a representative at the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Bikerdown course to support and introduce ARNY, and what we do, at the end of the course. We also offered some back to riding sessions for any members who were interested.
April saw the group get two test passes and we congratulate Chris and John on their passes. Bev Green who has been an ARNY member for some time and, following completing her training and passing her test, Bev has now been signed off as a Group Tutor and we are delighted to welcome Bev to the ARNY Tutor team.
Work is continuing on the new design for the website and the development is going well. We are now populating the new website with all of the relevant information, and we hope to have the new website up and running by the middle of the year. We have now decided to replace the previous Doodle Poll for people to indicate their intention to attend training with a spreadsheet hosted on Google sheets. This appears to be working well and if that continues to be the case it will be adopted as the long-term solution. For anybody intending to attend training on a Saturday morning, it is appreciated if you can indicate your intention on the spreadsheet by the close of play on Thursday before so that we can try and match Tutor numbers to expected Associates. For those who struggle to get to training on a Saturday morning, please feel free to send a message on the Members Watsapp group and if Tutors are available at other times they will come back to you.
April was a very eventful and successful month for the group and marked a great start to the new riding season. Please note that there will be no training on Saturday May 14th as the Tutor team are away for their training weekend , back to normal on May 21st.
Until next time…..