Starting next year I intend launching a major recruitment and restructuring initiative, the working title of which is 'Model MAG'. Part of the idea is to try and arrive at models of how
local groups and regions should operate. Some aims of this project are:
•To retain a higher proportion of existing members. •To recruit more new members.
•To retain more affiliated clubs •To recruit more clubs to MAG affiliation. •To make better use of MAG events for recruitment of both clubs and individuals.
•To improve MAG presentation, particularly in respect of the recruiting leaflets we use, posters, press advertisements, standard renewal letters etc.
•To increase the level of activity at a local level, in particular social activities that encourage groups to hold together. •To help Local Reps particularly by supplying ideas and practical advice as to how they can boost their groups. •To campaign more effectively
•To boost attendance at MAG events - YOUR events!
This is not to be a theoretical exercise. Nobody should think that this is airy-fairy stuff handed down from
an ivory tower. The exercise will involve me personally in - •Launching a new local MAG branch - Wakefield & District. •Running it for a while -six months at least, more likely a year - before handing over to a
new Local Rep. •Writing it up for Network, sharing with the rest of you the successes and failures. Hopefully
we will all learn lessons from this that we can apply in the running of local groups and regions. The first instalment follows this introduction.
This is being done of course
against the backdrop of the trials and tribulations that have beset Yorkshire in the last year. I am happy to say that those troubles are behind us and there is a very positive spirit in the region now. Our aim in
Yorkshire then has to be to build a Model Region that is a logical extension of the model local branch I will try to create in Wakefield.
What I hope you can all appreciate is just how much the National
Committee in general and myself in particular are committed to helping local reps to start new groups, to keep existing local groups going and to boost attendance. The reason for me personally going 'back to basics'
is so that I will encounter first hand the problems that you encounter.
Hopefully I will see many of you at the Reps Training Seminars in 2002 and / or on the other events. If so please do not hesitate to
share your experiences with me. Local groups are the backbone of MAG and are essential to the campaigning work in which we are involved. If local groups don't work right then MAG cannot be effective.
In this
Network Special you will find details of the AGC coming up in April, the VED (road tax) consultation and an Action Document on ITS - Intelligent Transport Systems. Please give all of these your careful attention.
Always remember that MAG is not a club. MAG exists to bring about beneficial political change for motorcyclists. Campaigns such as these are what MAG is all about.
