March was another busy month for ARNY with training ramping up, even before we start the riding season proper. We had the ARNY Annual General Meeting and preparations continued for the ARNY Open Day on Saturday 13th April. We welcomed six new members in March and we wish them all the best with their future training.
Training was in full flow in March with some reasonable weather which resulted in some busy mornings with pre-test assessments, Tutor training, as well as normal training along with a few post test riders showing up for a coffee and chat. There were 19 Tutor sessions involving 9 Associates and 12 of the Tutor Team throughout the month.
The AGM was well attended on Thursday 21st March with a slightly different format being trialled for the first time this year. As well as the formal AGM we had an excellent talk by Sgt John Taylor of South Yorks Police which was very much appreciated by all. John covered some of his experience with accident investigations which brought home some very interesting points, as well as prompted some good discussion within the audience.
The AGM itself resulted in the re-election of all of the current Committee members, all of who had expressed their willingness to continue for another year. There were no new nominations but Geoff Hale stood down as Social Secretary, and was thanked for all of his efforts in 2023. Committee member Andy Hildred kindly volunteered for, and was voted into, the Social Secretary position. You will now see communications from Andy about the 2024 social calendar and, if you have any suggestions, Andy will be more than happy to hear them, so please feel free to get in touch. The plan is that all of the committee members with functional roles will continue to receive help and support from all of the other committee members so that the workload can be spread out.
One other AGM agenda item was a review of the findings of the recent ARNY member survey presented by Phill Bates. Details of the findings will be send out soon via separate cover but the feedback was generally very positive along with some very interesting, and useful, feedback with respect to some aspects of the club and what we do. The committee will now work on the appropriate actions to be taken as a result of the feedback, some of which have already been implemented. A couple of the points will also be included in the agenda for the Tutor Training weekend in May. Thanks again to all who took the time to respond to the survey, and to Phill Bates who pulled the survey together. The results have provided some excellent and valuable feedback for the group as a whole.
We have now started the Summer Training Attendance Spreadsheet, the link for which has been sent out via all of the usual channels and can be found on the website if needed. The spreadsheet includes all training and social events for the year and is open to all paid up ARNY members to indicate attendance at any event.
It is very useful, particularly for Saturday morning training, if attendees can indicate their intention to attend as it helps us to try and match Tutor numbers to Associates on a Saturday morning. We understand that things can change but if Associates or Post Test riders wishing to train on a Saturday morning can indicate their intention on the spreadsheet, by the end of play on the Friday, before is it helpful and appreciated.
We now enter the riding season proper and to highlight this we have our annual Open Day on Saturday 13th April. This event is open to all, members and potential members, to come along to catch up again, or to get an understanding of what we do and how we do it. Any non-members who would like a Taster ride will be able to get one and get a free bacon buttie into the bargain.
With the lighter evenings, and the warmer weather, we are all looking forward to the start of the riding season proper.
Until next Saturday – if you can make it……