North Down Advanced Motorists (NI Charity number 101616)
Trustee Report covering the 2017/18 year
North Down Advanced Motorists is a local Group based in Groomsport, affiliated to IAM RoadSmart and recognised as an official provider of IAM RoadSmart Advanced Driving and Riding Courses. The Group is organised and governed in accordance with the Group Rules as set out in the IAM RoadSmart Group Handbook (2017).
Our main focus is to promote the improvement of the standard of driving and riding and the advancement of road safety” We do this through encouraging and assisting drivers and motorcyclists to prepare for the IAM RoadSmart advanced car and motorcycle tests.
We promote our activities through social media, our website and a monthly newsletter to Members (which is also available publicly through our website). We also speak to local organisations to create greater awareness of the need to improve road safety and of the work of the Group operating under the auspices of IAM RoadSmart.
2017/18 performance report from IAM RoadSmart
Driving and riding to the standard required to achieve full membership of IAM RoadSmart as an advanced driver or motorcyclist is a positive contribution to road safety for the members involved but also for the wider road-using public.
In May we worked towards ensuring we are compliant with GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulations, as a result of which members will have received or will receive a contract statement with their next renewal letter. We were already very compliant with the existing Data Protection Legislation, and although GDPR was well publicised in business there was little guidance available for us in the charity sector. Official guidance from HQ came at the spring forum, by which time preparatory work established that we didn’t actually have to change very much of our processes and activities to remain compliant.
The Committee continued to meet monthly (excepting July) to manage the Group affairs.
Membership remains healthy with 49 car members and 38 bike members.
Finance
The Group maintains a strong end-of-year balance sheet and has continued to benefit from regular, healthy cash flow from membership renewals & Advanced Driving & Riding Courses.
| Opening balance (carried from September 2017) | - | £2865.65 |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Income | - | £3248.00 |
| Annual Expenditure | - | £4548.84 |
| Annual Deficit | - | £1300.84 |
| Closing Balance | - | £1564.81 |
| Fixed Assets | - | £611.95 |
Group Nights
On our monthly Group Nights the focus is more on the social side of things rather than on preparation for the advanced car or bike tests. We had a tabletop rally planned for November, but the first of the aforementioned scheduling problems struck and we substituted a quiz. We also had the privilege that month of presenting a certificate to the family of Garth Maxwell. Garth was a lifelong biker and motorsport enthusiast, and he marshalled at Kirkistown and anywhere else that needed marshalling – he had petrol and motor oil flowing in his veins. He passed his Advanced Motorcycle test in late summer, but was admitted to hospital shortly afterwards and sadly didn’t recover from his illness. He was immensely proud of the achievement and enthused about it to the medical staff and other patients at the hospital, so we were pleased that three of his daughters were able to attend and receive the certificate on his behalf, giving him the recognition he deserved.
In December we had our Christmas Dinner, which is always a good night out, held last year at Carnalea Golf Club. The STAC up to Christmas was quite a small intake, and we had run several evenings without the classroom session and just went straight to car. The January enrolment was also quite low, but over the following weeks we acquired a several more associates.
In February we went to Room2Race at Eddie Irvine’s in Bangor. That broadly coincided with the announcement from Formula One that they were phasing out pit-lane girls, but we got our three Marlborough girls (Angela, Lisa and Sheila) on the podium. We had a presentation from the Northern Ireland Forensic Services Lab in Marchand we extended the invitation to other groups and had an audience of 48, including 18 from Belfast, Lisburn, Cornmarket and Mid-Ulster groups.
In April we had a a screening of Bullitt at a private cinema in Comber. In May we had a talk from Mark Sloan on car cleaning. The June Group night was billed as a quiz, but on the night the participants thought better of it and took their chairs outside, where they drank tea and chatted .,We enrolled the latest STAC in August. Enrolment on the night was a bit low but new associates have been trickling in since then, and we have a policy of “no person left behind”.
The gremlins struck the schedule again in September so we dusted off a different quiz and played purely for bragging rights.
The schedule conflicts shifted our AGM from October, and then our planned speaker became unavailable, so at very short notice we drafted Ian Cross and Gary McKee to speak to us about paragliding and paramotoring.
Trustees who served during the 2017/18 year:
Mr David Harcourt (Chairman) Mr Gareth Hughes (Group Treasurer) Mr Leslie Ashe (Group Secretary) Mr Simon Beckett Mr Alistair Gillespie Mr Colin Hay Mr Stephen Massey Mr Alan McCartney Mrs Annie McFarland Mr Frank Robertson Mr Guy Thomson Mr Kyle Thomson
Trustees on the date the report was approved
Mr David Harcourt (Chairman) Mr Gareth Hughes (Group Treasurer) Mr Leslie Ashe (Group Secretary) Mr Simon Beckett Mr Ronnie Brown Ms Lisa Carson Mr Colin Hay Mrs Annie McFarland Mr Frank Robertson Rev John Seawright Mr Kyle Thomson