Look Back at the start of the year and forward to Spond!

Whilst training at the start of the year is often a challenge due to the weather the start of 2026 seems to have been worse than most can remember.  Despite the challenges in January there were three Saturday training sessions giving people a chance to start their new year training.  We welcomed one new member, and we wish Simon all the very best in his future training.

In line with the member requests highlighted in the member survey, we held a social evening talk in January with a talk by Chris Chittock about the potential for hearing loss as a rider.  Chris shared his professional knowledge and experience to go through some interesting theory and practical advice with respect to the right choice for riders which was much appreciated by all who came long.  The second social evening talk in February will be about touring given by ARNY Tutor Alf Garnett who has extensive personal experience to share having been a Motorrad Tour Leader for 11 years.  As always, ARNY social events are open to all paid up ARNY members.  Keep an eye out on the usual channels for more details on these events.

Whilst training has been somewhat slow going at the start of the year, there has been a lot of work going on in the background, as is normal for this time of year, with respect to the running of the club.  The 2025 year as a whole was ARNY’s busiest ever and this, in addition to the feedback from members, has driven some of proposed changes to the way the club operates.

The ARNY Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday March 19^th at 19:00.  This year the meeting will be held at the Poppleton Centre, Main Street, Nether Poppleton.   There will be some food available at the start of the meeting and, following the AGM itself, there will be a talk by Phill Aspinall about his adventures riding 5000 miles around the UK making money for ANDYSMANCLUB at the back end of 2024.

In line with the constitution of the club, every year at the AGM the ARNY Committee positions are up for election.  Whilst all the current committee members are likely to be willing to continue in their roles, they are, as always, all open and willing, to step aside to let somebody else take a turn at the various roles.  If you are interested in any of the positions, please talk to any of the Tutors or send an email to secretary@arny.org.uk to find out more.  We are always looking to bring new ideas and approaches to take the club forward.    

As well as preparing for the AGM there has been a lot of work going on in preparation for the move to Spond at the end of the first quarter.  For many reasons, detailed in the recent comms on the subject, the decision has been made to move a lot of the club’s administration over to an application called Spond.  The benefits of the move are many and various and due to a lot of work that has already been completed there is a high degree of confidence that the transfer will be smooth.

The move to Spond will affect everybody to some extent including how Associates, and Tutors, indicate their intention to train on a Saturday morning and indicating their intention to attend social events.  One of the other major changes will be in the way that club subscriptions are managed.  At present, this is largely a manual process which, once the migration is complete, will be automated as part of the move to Spond.  New members will also be affected in terms of the way they register their intention to join ARNY which will result in some of the changes also required to the ARNY website. 

There will be various communications sent out through the normal channels over the next few weeks with respect to this change, and the AGM, so please keep an eye out for those.  If you have any specific questions on Spond beforehand, please contact Dave Reeve at secretary@arny.co.uk or Denise Noha at finance@arny.org.uk and we will be able to help.  The plan is to make the transition at the beginning of April in line with the move to the Summer Training Calendar.

Lots going on at ARNY despite the inclement weather!

Until next time…..