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Aberdeenshire MAG

Minutes of AGM

3 July 2007

Chairman’s Report

Aberdeenshire MAG has seen a number of changes this year whilst trying to move forward, and endeavouring to meet with other groups to bridge the gaps between different biking communities. 

Initially Boris had personal commitments which meant that he couldn't give MAG his full attention, but he is better placed now to continue, if re-elected, to try to highlight the local biking issues. 

We changed the meeting structure and venue(s) to the 1st Tuesday of the Month at the Caledon, and the 3rd Tuesday varying throughout Aberdeenshire, having a social ride out, meeting people locally in Aberdeenshire, and not just the city. We acknowledge that meetings need to be better advertised in advance to get increased participation, we feel that improvements have been made. It is our hope that we can get the news letters out and further inform members of local activities. The 7:30 for 8:00 kick-off allows a social banter before the main meeting starts.

Our intention was to become more politically active, whilst balancing this by ensuring we were socially aware.

We felt it was right to once more raise the topic of diesel spills and see what could be done: with a visit to the council depot at Kittybrewster proving very alarming. Some 21 out of the 23 city council vehicles showed signs of leakage, probably due to overfilling.  Local bus groups are still to be targeted, as it is a belief that they are overfilling their vehicles, such that they employ someone to clean up the spillage’s with sand on a daily basis. 

We occupied a stand in The Mall shopping centre for a day to promote "Anti Syphon" units for trucks, demonstrating their use and design.

The Toy & Egg Runs were both great successes, both in attendance and donations.  This year, by teaming up with the The Mall Aberdeen, (Trinity Centre), our donations were delivered to a wider range of children’s homes and needy groups around the North East.  We were also joined by the Mall monster mascot on the run. We achieved good press coverage with regards the lack of police support.  (While this may affect the way the run is operated, the future of the event is not in doubt.)

We had approached some supermarkets with the intention of undertaking a fund-raising ‘bag pack’, to help raise awareness. However, the one supermarket that respond, failed to give enough notice (IE 24 hours in the middle of the Christmas holiday period!) for us to action this event.

The WEB site - Callum has been a godsend taking over at short notice and demonstrating his capabilities and has managed to ensure that we are visible to all internet users at all times.

We aim to get regular Newsletters out, ideally electronically, but also by post if required. We require to update our e-mail database, which will allow us to reduce postage costs.  Newsletters will be sent out ‘bcc’ so addressees will be kept private and reiterate that no personal details will be forwarded by the group.

The Rally went well with the reintroduction of the Demo Run: the viability of running a demo during the previous 2 years proving difficult with regards to available volunteer marshals. This year we demonstrated about diesel spillage’s, again receiving good press coverage, but lacking the numbers of previous demos.  The Police again weren't able to lend the level of support they had previously, but we still managed to bring Union Street to a standstill to emphasise our point.

Friday night at the Rally saw Pie Shop playing.  They did a excellent job..... almost too good as many of the rally goers were still ‘worse for wear’ when the Demo run left the Rally site on Saturday morning.

Saturday was kicked off by the blues band, Papa Mojo, followed by Cojo Mary, who provided another excellent night of entertainment into the ‘wee small hours’ of Sunday morning.

The organizers were greatly encouraged by comments from departing rally-goers – saying that they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

However, the rally was not without a few (major!) hiccups: the Lumsden Hall Committee had failed to organise the two basic ingredients of any rally (licences and catering) leaving us ready to cancel only 10 days prior to the rally.  But after a lot of work by the committee, especially Seona, Ewan and Boris, the rally was miraculously carried off, complete with catering by Tracys Tasties, Malcies Army Surplus, Dommie’s Rainbowhat stall, and the Stoats Porridge Bar went down a treat. Help provided on the weekend by Gavin (and family), Callum, Tim, Nigel and a host of others, ensured that we had the Rally site ready in time for the first of the sign-in's.

At the Rally we raised 313 pounds from the raffle which is to go to charity. 

The future of the Rally site is still up for discussion as there were a few issues that left us very frustrated with the Lumsden Hall Committee. We also feel that we do suffer from being so early in the rally calendar. There have been talks with other venues including Tullynessle, and Braemar who have both said that they would have us. 

NU PHALT

Seona had contacted a company called Nu-Phalt after seeing a newspaper article about them. The company has recently given us a demonstration of their road repair system, and we have to say that we were impressed by it. The system uses an infrared system to heat up the road around the pot-hole, and whilst recycling/re-using the existing asphalt they add some to top up the level use non-toxic binders to repair the road seamlessly. This effectively could mean the end of over-banding. To this end, an article will be published in the next issue of The Road. 

Many councils have taken the product on board, while several others (mostly those in the bigger city-based councils) including Aberdeen City remain skeptical.

We also recently had the opportunity to interview Micheal Rutter at the BSB meeting at Knockhill, who is sponsored by Nu-Phalt. Many thanks to Seona and Ewan for their efforts.

Parking Bays, Aberdeen City

A survey was carried out and report highlighting poor marking and signage around the bays was submitted to the Council. The painting/marking issue has been addressed by the end of March, and some bays have better signage. The list the council had didn’t seem to be complete, but we now have a full list of the parking bay location on the Web site. Anyone not able to get the list can contact us and we will be able to supply one. We would welcome any comments anyone has on the bays, and it is our hope that we can get security improved to allow chains to be utilised if required.

Road fault reporting.

We have now have a link on the web site to the Council’s road fault reporting system. 

Reportme.org

Aberdeenshire MAG were contacted with regard to this web site, and have given it our backing as a good tool to deliver complaints about vehicles and the way they are driven.

Deer Cull

We were recently asked to push for a deer cull following the death of a motorcyclist near Kingswells. We polled a couple of biker websites: and the result was 50/50, therefore Aberdeenshire MAG won’t be taking this forward at this time. If the view of the biking community were to change then we shall further look into the matter.

School Gala days

Northfield and Bramble Brae were approached, with positive results. Erin has created a really clever 'cartoon strip' to use in conjunction with formal presentations and class workshops. We look to involve the media when implementing the workshops to see if other schools welcome them. The group agrees that there is a need of a promotion to parents to ensure that their children are wearing appropriate protective clothing when getting on a bike, and not go out in leisure wear etc. 

Chamber of Commerce - Business Bikers

We have been trying to get more involved with this group in the hope that we can help each other – specifically to get business minds looking at the political issues.

Alford

In 2006 the group had a stand at Alford, but we were not as well prepared as we would have liked to have been as, unfortunately, we had not been given a full hand over of previous merchandise at that time. 

This year however, we have our own marquee/gazebo, new banners, and have a display for laminated press cuttings, and with this are in a far better position to represent the group. 

BBQ

There is to be a BAR-B-QUE which has been organised.........

The new committee are elected as follows

Rep  Boris, Bruce Stuart

Sec  Erin Kerr

Treasurer  Seona Christie

WEB  Callum Black

Rally Sec  Bill Blair

Political / Press liaison

Dealer liaison

Committee Members Gavin Ross, Ewan Christie, Max, Nicky Campbell

Treasurer’s Report & Accounts

Anyone wishing to see the Treasurers Report & Accounts, please contact us direct and a copy can be sent to you as required.