Look Back at May

As seems to be the way these days May turned out to be another very busy month at ARNY with very well attended Saturday morning training.

There were 67 training sessions throughout the month involving 29 Associates which were carried out by 18 members of the Tutor team. This is a record in every respect, and reflects the high levels of interest, and activity, in the club which is great to see.  We also welcomed another 3 new members, and we wish Rob, Simon and John all the very best in their future training.

Whilst the high levels of activity are great to see they do represent some challenges in managing the demands for training on Saturday mornings and we have been working hard to manage that challenge.  Our overall aim is to offer training to all who want it, when they want it, but we are also very keen to always maintain the training standards and meet the expectations of all ARNY members.  However, there is a limit to the number of Associates that can be accommodated at any given session and that is the challenge we are aiming to manage. 

Another benefit of the introduction of the Spond App for the management of the club is that it allows us to control the number of training places available on a Saturday morning.  This ability is now being used to try and match the number of Associates with the number of Tutors available on any given Saturday.  Once the number of available places are taken and new requests for attendance are put on to the “waiting list”.  If any Associate should remove themselves from training, then the next person on the waiting list will be added to those able to train.  In addition, if more Tutors should become available the number of available training places may increase so that more Associates can be accommodated.  In this way we are aiming to give all a chance to train and provide visibility as to the status of training for any given Saturday.

As always, there are Tutors who are available to train at other times and this is a good way for those with more flexibility to access training outside of Saturday mornings.  Keep an eye on the Training WhatsApp community for Tutor’s posting of their availability to train outside of Saturday mornings and if you are available and wish to train at other times you should post in the same place and a Tutor will respond if they are available.

We have always been keen to provide training for those members who are post test who just want a refresher session or those who are preparing for a re-test.  This continues to be the case and if you are in this position and wish to train just post on the Training WhatsApp community and we will try to meet that demand. 

The challenge of managing the high levels of training now are a result of the success of the club and, in that respect, are great to see.  We are all doing our best to manage this as best we can and for the benefit of all.  We have some more Tutors in the training process at the moment but that will take some time to feed through but will be beneficial in the long term.  We thank all of the Tutor team for their continued dedication and commitment.

The introduction of the Spond App has been a great success and, with a few adjustments and a bit of learning by us all, is now providing a great way to manage training and event attendance.  As outlined in the last Look Back, this year will see us get everybody on the same payment schedule for annual renewals and once that is complete the ongoing administration of the club will be much simpler and efficient because of Spond.  We are nearly at the point where we have all current ARNY members correctly signed up and we thank everybody for working through that process to get is where we are.  We will continue to fine tune the operation of Spond as we move forward.

Following a very successful start of season social weekend reported in the last Look Back, at the time of writing, details of the end of season social ride have been posted.  The weekend will be based in Dumfries from September 25^th to 27^th.  It was not possible for us to reserve rooms in the hotel so if you wish to go along, please follow the link pinned on the Social WhatsApp community to book your own room.  If you could then mark yourself as attending on Spond that will help with planning nearer the time.

Finally, as most of you will be aware Steve Potts stepped down as Chairman of ARNY in May after 12 years of service.  Steve has done an outstanding job over that time, and we are all hugely grateful for his commitment, dedication and hard work throughout.  Steve is going to remain as an Advanced Tutor and will continue to be a real asset to ARNY.  Steve was very appreciative of all the messages of thanks and good wishes he received following the announcement.  There is no doubt that Steve played a huge role in getting ARNY where it is today, for which we are all very grateful.

We are now working on how we will replace Steve in his role as Chairman and keep your eyes out for news on that through the normal channels.

So, a somewhat different Look Back this time focussed on some aspects of the running of the club as opposed to the ongoing activity.  This merely reflects the fact that there is a huge amount going on, which is great to see and long may it continue.

Until next time…..