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Membership vs Affiliation:

The Bottom Line...

(Published with the cooperation and approval of Malcolm Adams, President, Julian Birch, Secretary, Bill Dorrell, Rides Secretary and John Hamilton who organises Audax events)

 

To quote John Hamilton in his email to me (Rob Fris) on this topic:

 

"I find it slightly bemusing that these two options are on the table. As I understand it the club’s future is in doubt because no-one is prepared to do the work to keep it running. Taking either of these options is only going to result in that work increasing, and there’ll still be no-one prepared to do it."
 

He is absolutely right. Most members seem to believe the club is 'Them and Us'. 'Them' does the work, 'Us' gets the fun. If you are one who believes this, you're not realising that you (and your fellow members) are the club. We are all 'the club' and should support each other. If you and all the others continue to ignore this basic fact, there will be no club.

 

After several similar crises we're now up against what is looking like the ultimate one where the club is on the verge of being ejected from the CTC as a Member Group. This will happen if three members don't take the places of the three current club's officers: Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.

 

And then there's the issue of ride leaders.

 

So Why All The Fuss?

It's all about ride-leader insurance...

 

You know that being a member of the CTC you get insurance cover plus legal back-up while riding your bike.
 

But if you want (or have) to lead a ride, this insurance does NOT cover you. To be covered you must first be in a CTC Member Group and then be registered with the CTC as a leader. This is done by asking the MG Secretary to organise it (for free).

 

If we become an affiliated club (as is being suggested to solve all our problems): to have ride-leader insurance you must be a registered officer of the club which itself has to be registered with the CTC for Organisers' Liability Insurance. The club must pay £75 pa to the CTC for affiliation. Sharing out this cost among members, and collecting and sending the money will fall on someone in the club, with the hassle of changing numbers of members, and possibly the blood and stone problem. Or the club would have to impose a subscription of its own.

 

Then members of the affiliated club can obtain their own individual Affiliated CTC Membership for £24 pa, instead of the standard subscription fee. You will still get the member insurance but fewer CTC benefits.


It's a crazy situation: wanting rides but resisting making them happen

One of the requirements for CTC Member Groups is to put together rides-lists with a (registered) leader's name for each ride and submit the lists to the CTC, it is believed for insurance purposes, done for many years by Bill Dorrell and John Cooper. The thanks they get is enormous resistance to cooperate; they have to spend a lot of time persuading members to lead, sometimes unsucessfully. Hence 'Leader Required' entries.

 

On the day, however, you may step in to lead, which may put in question the insurance cover for you as leader. Nevertheless, if you are leading a ride on this basis and aren't registered anyway, you're definitely not insured (making this aspect of your membership of the CTC rather pointless). And members being led by an uninsured leader are carrying the risk of not having a financial claim against the leader met. Not a wise situation to be in.

 

There's more to the financial side. The CTC pays our club an amount each year for expenses. This would cease with affiliation, instead the club having to pay the CTC that £75 pa. I invited John Hamilton who runs Audax events and Edwin Hargreaves who organises the Rivers Rides to offer their standpoints. Without any obligation to do so, John and Edwin give their profits to our club (getting no support from the club in return, only help from individuals). If we give up being a Member Group they may have to look elsewhere. The club could lose a valued member and also their contributions.

 

Please consider your position and the wider picture carefully and rationally on this in preparation for the AGM on 1st November. You will be invited to offer to become a Committee Officer. If that fails, it's inevitable that we will have to vote on the structure of the club's future, either on the day or at a subsequent Extraordinary General Meeting.

 

In Summary

 

Remaining as a Member Group requires at least three club officers (Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer), someone to assemble rides-lists, and registered leaders who are willing to lead rides. Benefits identified: the strength of a sizeable club, variety of types of ride to choose from, ride-leader insurance, full access to CTC services, ride events, social events, funds received from the CTC and Audax events, individual standard membership fees. Snags identified for the officers: heavy paperwork load, forms to fill in, proper accounting to be done.

 

Affiliating as a club or as a number of individual mini-clubs requires someone to run each one, liaise with the CTC and handle money, and club officers to be registered to lead rides. Cost to a club of £75 pa. Reduced membership fees, but limited benefits. Possible loss of financial contributions from Audax events. Opportunity for club members to have cheaper affiliated membership rather than full membership of the CTC itself, but with limited benefits. Paperwork burden unknown.

 

Going it alone where individuals or small groups do what they want, and, to be safe from financial risk from possible litigation, without leaders, either with or without full membership of the CTC. No ride-leader insurance, no contributions from anybody. Or join another club and have the same problems there.

 

So it all comes down to insurance protection for ride leaders, and, in consequence the ability of riders to successfully sue a leader if something goes seriously wrong.

 

Rob Fris

CTC Members Group versus Affiliated CTC Group

 

Submitted by Julian Birch

 

I thought it would be worth identifying the differences between a Member Group (as we are at present) and an Affiliated Club (as is being mooted) in view of the comments I have already made on the website.  The below is my interpretation of the difference. There is more information on the CTC national website.

 

Members Group  

  Responsibilities [as defined by the CTC]

  • To arrange cycling and other activities within the Objects of CTC and its subsidiary companies;

  • For activities carried out in the name of CTC, as far as is reasonably practicable, to be safe, practical, enjoyable and accessible for all with the resources available to local volunteers.

  • To arrange programmes that will help to promote CTC, the Group itself and other CTC Groups

  • To provide that part of CTC individual membership which enables members to have the opportunity to meet and join with other members to take part in cycling, cycling-related activities and any other CTC programmes

  • To apply for an Allocation Allowance from national subscription funds to further the Group’s objectives.

 

The club needs to have [as defined by the CTC]

  • An AGM  to elect a committee  and officers – Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor

  • An annual report presented to the AGM and then submitted  to the National Office

  • An annual statement of accounts for submission to audit and to the AGM

  • The annual return pack completed and returned to National Office after the AGM.

  • A record of all committee members, ride leaders, event organisers, and volunteers  which must be registered with the National Office

 

A membership secretary, a welfare officer, and a Promotions officer are all recommended but not essential.

 

Affiliated Clubs

 By affiliating to the CTC, the group will obtain

  • The CTC’s comprehensive Organisers' Liability insurance cover of up to £10 million to protect event organisers and volunteer ride leaders against any claims made against them.

  • Our events listed on the CTC website;

  • A copy of the CTC award-winning magazine ‘Cycle’ every two months. (that is, one copy sent to the group)

 

BUT... to be affiliated the group has to buy ‘CTC Group Membership’ which costs £75 per year, and record all group officials, ride leaders, event organisers and volunteers to be registered with the CTC.

 

Summary

My personal view is that most people who come on midweek and Sunday rides want simply to cycle with others on a route organised by a leader, to have a pub lunch and a good chat. The occasional evening social event is also appreciated.

These objectives are as easy to arrange in an Affiliated Club as with a Members  Group.

    I do not feel that most members are that interested in the National Aims of the CTC such as promotional efforts and events to attract more people to join the CTC, campaigning locally for safer road conditions for cycling, and generally enthusiastically spreading the word locally that cycling is great fun and good for your physical and mental health.

 

A personal perspective

 

It's likely you're wondering who Rob Fris is. Never seen on rides, yet writing so much. Having stopped cycling with the club about four years ago to try out a bit of cancer (cycling is more fun) I am now working towards carrying on where I left off.

    This leaving-off followed over a decade of cycling with the club, and, with the impediment of having to earn a living, doing what I could to help it along: this was editing and producing Cycle News, then online-only SPOKE. Both publications being a voice for members (not me). Oh, and leading some rides.

    Being slightly out of it of late I have to rely on my friends, in particular BIll Dorrell, to keep me abreast of things. What I learn has been largely disappointing. I have fond memories of wonderful days out on B-rides, then latterly D-rides. I also have fond memories of the camaraderie, the absence of competitiveness and the way members would help each over personal problems (of which I had a few). The club was more than just twiddling pedals against a computer. It was warm, welcoming and, above all, united and harmonious.

    I learn that these days the fast riders gather in their own group in The Square of a Sunday morning while the plodders gather in another part. This is awful. Not so long ago, we'd all be chatting irrespective of the ride we'd be doing, then setting off on that ride. Many times I was yelled at because my ride was leaving and I was chatting with someone on another one.

    I learn too that rides can split into two while on the road, the faster riders (or perhaps the riders on faster bikes) get frustrated with the slower ones. I don't believe we've got stronger, just that bikes have got lighter, etc. Now this is all counterproductive for the club because the ethos of the club (riding together and the things I mentioned above) are sacrificed on the altar of performance. This saddens me when we could all enjoy the richness that existed in the not so distant past.

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