This article was published in 1999, in Newsletter 27.
AGM
This year’s AGM was well-attended, and began with a very informative and thought-provoking talk by John Franklin. John is chair of the Cycle Campaign Network and was the secretary of the Milton Keynes Cycle Users’ Group. He is the author of the book Cyclecraft. He spoke on the subject ‘Enabling and encouraging people to cycle’. His paper is available on our Web site, and is highly recommended reading for anyone involved in ‘providing’ for cyclists. It would not be possible to do it justice in a Newsletter summary, so please do grab a copy from our stall.
Other items to report from the AGM: Our membership rates have remained unchanged since the Campaign was formed over four years ago. However, as our activities have increased, and the Newsletter has grown in size, we are now only just breaking even, and campaigning activities are constrained. With this in mind, the meeting voted to make the following changes to our membership rates:
- Unwaged: from £3.00 per year to £3.50
- Waged: from £6.00 per year to £7.50
- Household: from £10.00 per year to £12.00
The Newsletter cover price has also gone up from 80p to £1. We hope members will agree that this still represents good value for money.
In the elections, all six officers were re-appointed for another year.
One change for next year: we weren’t able to give members enough notice of the AGM, because it came so soon after Newsletter distribution. Apologies to those who actually received their Newsletter on the day of the AGM itself, or even later. We’ve decided to hold future AGMs in November, to give us more time to prepare for it properly.
Membership
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| Cycling Campaign membership up to 1 November 1999 |
Now that the membership rates have been updated, we’ve produced a new membership form, which we are distributing with this Newsletter. Membership currently stands at 635. One of the questions asked at the AGM was whether we are still keen to grow in size – to which the answer is still an emphatic ‘Yes, please!’ So, if you know of anyone who might be interested in joining, please tell them about the Campaign.
Talking technology
We’ve resisted setting up an e-mail list for some time, in deference to those members without access to e-mail. But with so many members now connected, and with eGroups providing such an easy way to keep in touch, we have launched a discussion forum for Campaign members, for general discussions of cycling issues in and around Cambridge. To subscribe, send a message to
camcycle-subscribe@egroups.com, or go to the e-group’s home page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/camcycle/. Once subscribed, if you register on the egroups.com Web site, you’ll be able to see the archive of messages sent so far, and choose to receive the messages individually, in a digest, or on the Web.
To reach members of the committee, feel free to e-mail contact@camcycle.org.uk, or phone 690718, as always.
Newsletter production
Careful readers of the Diary page might have noticed a small change recently: we’ve moved newsletter-stuffing night from Fridays to Wednesdays. We publish the Newsletter every two months, ensuring that subjects arising from the previous monthly meeting can be covered, and always finishing it in time for delivery by the following monthly meeting. However, we recently decided that there were simply just not enough hours and days available to keep to this schedule (whilst simultaneously juggling day-jobs and home lives), so we’ve given ourselves five extra days for production each time. This might mean newsletters arrive slightly later in future, but hopefully most should still arrive just in time for the meeting.
We always welcome contributions to the Newsletter. We are particularly keen to receive ideas and contributions about:
- ‘Your Way’ – about your regular cycle journey
- carrying children of varying ages by bike
- everyday, practical clothing for cycling
If you are considering contributing, feel free to let us know ahead of time, for advice and comments. As a rule of thumb, we fit 750 words per page (including photos), so that’s a good maximum length. Recent photos are also welcome, though digital camera pictures need to be 1152 x 864 pixels or bigger. And if there’s anyone out there with cartooning skills, we’d really like to talk to you!
We would also be pleased to hear from anyone with copy-editing experience and a few hours to spare, especially if you have e-mail access, and a recent version of Microsoft Word. We would very much like to share the workload.
And finally, if you feel like an entertaining, and somewhat less skilled job: we can always use help stuffing envelopes. A couple of extra pairs of hands can make quite a difference. The next date is Wednesday 26 January, and it’s at 8 Thirleby Close. In the meantime, happy reading!
Clare Macrae