Look Back at Feb and forward to the ARNY AGM

At last, we can look back at some training in 2025 as the weather finally played ball and riding could begin.  The start of the year has been unprecedented in the amount of Saturday morning training sessions we have had to cancel with seven Saturdays in a row believed to be an unfortunate record for ARNY!  February did not start well but everybody was delighted that we finally started training proper on Sat Feb 22nd.  Whilst it was the only Saturday training session in February it was a welcome relief for all concerned.

Even though training has been sparse, there have been tests and re-tests and we congratulate John and Helen for a job very well done in challenging conditions.  It has also been noted that there are quite a few new bikes around so congratulations also go to their new owners!

Whilst training has been thin on the ground, as always, there has been plenty going on in the background at ARNY.  There was committee meeting on 27th February with a lot of discussion around the plans for the year ahead.  The first main event of the year is the ARNY Annual General Meeting which will be held at the Ainsty pub in York at 7:30 on Thursday 27th March.  The meeting is open to all ARNY members and this year the AGM itself will be followed with a talk by Phill Bates about the National Escort Group and the role he, and other ARNY Tutors, play in marshalling British Cycling Events.  If you are interested in coming along to the AGM, but are not currently an ARNY member, please feel free to contact us at secretary@arny.org.uk as we are always keen to involve people from outside the group with new views and ideas.

There are a couple of other dates for the diary at this stage one being Saturday 26th April which has been chosen for the ARNY 2025 Open Day.  The details are yet to be agreed but this year the Open Day will be an event for existing, as well as potential new, members.  This is a good way to mark the start of the summer riding season so keep your eyes open for more details through the normal channels.

The other dates that have been agreed are the 26th to 28th of September for the ARNY Social weekend.  Again, more details will come out soon in terms of venue etc. and we are expecting the weekend to be as popular as it was in the last two years.

One of the other discussion points at the February committee meeting was around the rules for cancellation of training due to weather.  There appear to be few precedents for this with various organisations having different rules.  We also have the added challenge of members travelling from quite a wide area and, whilst we can take a view of what the likely conditions are in the York area, it will always need people to make their own decisions based on the conditions where they are located.  There was a good round table discussion and it was agreed that it would be helpful to have some over-riding rules to aid in decision making in the future.  An action was taken to prepare a draft document for further discussion and agreement which, while we hope it will not be needed much more for this winter, we plan to have in place for the next winter period.

You will have seen the communication at the end of last year asking for volunteers to be trained as social ride leaders to help with the ARNY social calendar.  The response from that was very positive and training will start shortly for those who expressed an interest.  Once the training is complete, we will then put “names in boxes” for the forthcoming 2025 social calendar which, with some new faces, with new ideas, will no doubt be even better than 2024.

So, although there was only one training Saturday to look back on there is a lot going on in preparation for another active year with ARNY.

We look forward to seeing as many members as possible at the AGM and a full training month in March.  At the end of March we will set up the 2025 Summer Training spreadsheet.  Look out for the link for that.

It’s good to be back! Until next time….