Minutes of TIMBER EGM - 3rd June 2010

[peterh]

MINUTES OF TIMBER EGM - 3RD JUNE 2010

8 attendees, 3 apologies

TREASURER REPORT

Last report was at the Mar 2010

The bank balance is £2,466.45 which is a increase of £290.4 since the last report (£2176.05).
Paypal balance is £221.11 which is an increase of £153.46 since the last report (£67.65)
Income is from membership payments (about £120), shirt sales (£ 273.00) and donations (£60.00)
So TIMBER has a total balance of £2,687.56 in bank and Paypal accounts which is an increase of £443.86 since last report (£2243.70).

Currently I appear to have received 32 membership payments since April 2010 (compared with 117 at the end of 2009 membership year).

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY REPORT

We currently have 38 members for this year, 10 of those were people I carried over from last year. According to the member list we had 105 members last year - though there is a chance our finances say we got more members last year.
So far a poor response on members rejoining this year.

To try and improve member benefits upon joining so that they can have a welcome pack of sorts, have approached High5 and Torq about product samples but so far no response from them - not holding my breath either.
Looking into other ideas and companies to approach for member benefits.

CONSTITUTION DISCUSSION

- The chairman walked though the proposed constitution.
- General idea is to change the emphasis from a group based solely on trail building to mountain biking generally to enable us to increase our profile and allow us to do something when we're not building trails.
- It specifies who has to be at a meeting for a decision to be made.
- Chairman has a mandate at start of term to make decisions without lots of bureaucracy.
- More goals to increase our leverage with the FC.
- Proposal to accept the changed constitution was seconded and accepted unanimously.
- There was a discussion about the FC and how the relationship with them has improved recently - a much more positive attitude on both sides.

BUILD DAY FREQUENCY

- 6 people at a build day seems about the right number
- Could have done the Duck and Cover section in a month if we had more regular build days.
- We have 5 qualified build day leaders - probably enough to start some sort of rota.
- We'll work on the Risbeth Woods section next - we've decided to leave the existing trail which is great in the dry and setup a wet alternative route.
- Allowed to build within 3m of existing trail without stoning.
- Discussed how more regular build days could be organised - we could have build days on other days of the week if enough members were interested in this.
- No objections raised to more regular build days. Dave will move this forward and organise things.
- Next build day day is 19th June so we need a plan for what to work on next. Dave is preparing a spreadsheet with a list of jobs to do.

VISION

- Basically our vision is to bring the red up to standard then start work on the black route.
- Red route will be fast and swoopy, black route will have off trail technical features.
- We're probably quite close to finishing the red! We would like to start working on the black within the year.
- Lack of stone is an issue - need to plan ahead for this.
- Maybe we should mailshot all past and present members to report on this vision. An edition of the newsletter perhaps?

Action - To talk to Membership secretary about organising a mailshot

ROGER'S ROLE

- The chairman emphasised how valuable Roger's contribution to the group is.
- Roger picked up FC liaison role because no one else was attending the meetings.
- Less need for this now as other people are attending the meetings. So Roger would like to work on PR instead.
- Everyone voted to accept Roger's offer to take over this new position as PR officer.
- Roger will start by looking into PR for the new container highlighting Suffolk County Councils contribution.

REGULAR RIDES

- Discussion about how these should be organised and encouraged.
- Keep posting details on the forum.

EQUIPMENT WISH LIST

- Discussion about the tools we need.
- Rotavator? Kanga? Tiller?
- Or do we need more stone (as well)?
- The chairman will take everyone's thoughts on the subject to his meetings with the FC.

WHAT WE'RE DOING RIGHT/WRONG

- Everyone was happy with the momentum and new attitude to/from the FC.
- No one thought we needed to change what we were doing or our strategy/direction.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

- Car stickers, t-shirts - Graham knows a graphic designer who might be able to help us with design.
- Treasurer raised the issue of signatories required for the bank account and authorised signatory - Steve Gates volunteered to put his name down for this.
- CASC status was discussed - The group voted unanimously that we should apply for this (it has tax advantages etc)

Action - Treasurer to apply for CASC status
Action - Put another TIMBER riding shirt order together, we probably have enough interest now.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

- Discussed how regular we should have meetings.
- It was decided they should be every 3 months on the first Thursday of the month so the next meeting will be September.

Action - Roger to book the room

Meeting closed at 9.21pm