As the 2022 riding season comes to a close and we move to our winter training schedule it is a good time to look back at what has happened at ARNY in 2022.
The last year, ARNY’s 10th anniversary, has been very busy and successful. Following the challenges of the last few years we got back to a full riding season with some record attendances at training sessions on Saturday mornings. The year started with the ARNY Open Day which was very well attended, had a great buzz, and resulted in nine new members joining as a result of the day.
New member recruitment continued throughout the year with a record 30 new members joining throughout the year. We have noticed a slight change in people’s motivation for joining in that we are now seeing some people joining mainly for the social aspects of the club, as well as people who are looking for like-minded people to ride with or have been encouraged along by their significant other! There are obviously still those people whose primary focus is on passing the RoSPA Advanced Riding test for a specific reason. All are welcome to come along, irrespective of their personal drivers, and the way we organise training allows people to progress at a rate which suits their specific needs.
One of the changes we made in 2022 involved a re-vamp of the ARNY website. The original website was due a refresh and we engaged some outside help to review the site design and make it a little easier to navigate. Everybody seems pleased with the result and the new website will hopefully serve the group well for a few years to come.
In addition to the website change we also made a significant change to the way we planned, and communicated out on, our social calendar for the year. We made a yearly plan for all of the month end social rides, Wednesday Wobbles and Post Test Saturday rides which, based on the very impressive turnouts, and feedback, seems to have been very well received by all. Our last Sunday social ride in October ended at the Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery which proved to be a very popular end destination! We now have a well-established and tested formula for the social events which achieves a good balance of riding, cake and chat! We will continue with this approach in 2023 to build on the success of this year.
We were also very pleased to support the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Firebike initiative in 2022 and we look forward to supporting them in whatever way we can in 2023. This initiative also resulted in ARNY being present at their Bikerdown courses throughout the year.
We have continued to meet for training at the Strawberry Fields Café on Saturday mornings in 2022 but have used some other locations when they had some operational issues at the Café. At the time of writing the Café is back up and running and we are pleased to be back there for Saturday mornings.
The winter training calendar has now started for those who plan to train throughout the year. This is by no means an expectation and is a personal choice for all concerned. Keep on eye on the Attendance record and WhatsApp for notification of cancellation of training should that be necessary due to the weather.
At the end of the year we have 14 active Tutors who have delivered 190 training sessions between them in 2022. Despite the record intake of new members, training has been manageable but some of the Tutors have done quite a lot of training sessions. With this in mind, and to ensure we are able to continue to offer training at the highest possible standard, we are in the process of training some new Tutors. Our latest recruit, Phil Aspinall, was signed off as a Group Tutor in October and we are very pleased to welcome Phil to the Tutor team.
All in all it has been a very successful, and record, year for ARNY in 2022. Thanks to all of the Associates who have trained with us throughout the year and to those who have supported, and enjoyed, the various social events in 2022. Lastly thanks to all of the Tutors who have given up their time to train throughout the year.
As things now calm down we will post updates of what is going on through the normal channels.
Until next time….