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GET ACTIVE!
No, this is not the name of a new membership benefit to encourage MAG members to visit their local gym. Rather it is an overview of what happens when you attend a Reps/Activists training weekend.
A few years ago MAG ran activist training weekends, the aim of which was to equip reps and people with an interest in being more active in MAG the knowledge on how handle the many different situations an active member could find themselves in, whether it be doing an interview for local news agencies or lobbying their MP this course was designed to show the right (and wrong!) way of approaching these tasks.
Sadly the appeal of the training weekends had waned so they were discontinued. However, over the last 12 months there have been many new faces becoming more active in MAG including many new regional reps so it was decided by vice chair Jane Chisholm to re-launch the activists weekend to at least ensure that regional reps had some background training.
The first weekend was held on the weekend 13th – 15th of January this year at a children’s Farm Centre Just North of Leeds, a very cheap venue thanks to the sterling efforts of Leeds MAG who do a lot of charity work with the centre.
Arriving first at the centre on the Friday night after only managing to go 6 miles off course I was greeted by the rep of Leeds MAG who, along with a small crew would cater for the culinary needs of both trainers and trainees for the weekend and made a good start by pointing me in the direction of the tea and coffee!
Over the next few hours more and more people began turning up and with kit away we set about demolishing the very good lasagne that was on offer. Friday evening was on the agenda as “meet and greet” and we were encouraged to “bring a bottle to help the evening along”.
Unfortunately the meet and greet session went on rather long and with breakfast on the agenda between 7.00am and 8.30am there were a few rough looking faces on Saturday morning, mine included! After all the hard work on Saturday and a good meal it once again came round to ‘socialising’ again.
But enough of the background let me take you through why we were all there in the first place:
The programme proper kicked off at 8.30 Saturday with a brief overview of what the weekend was to consist of:
MAG History & Politics (National & International)
MAG Branches (How to run a successful one)
Politics (Local Councils – Who holds the power?)
MAG Stands (How to work on one)
Party with a purpose (How to raise funds)
MAG Communications (Network & The Road)
Media Circus (How to deal with the media)
Politics (How to deal with politicians)
(Plus multiple coffee/smoke breaks)
First came the History and Politics, some of the history stuff I already knew, Fred Hill, why MAG was originally formed, past success’ etc. But some of the political stuff was totally new and being someone who is not into politics I actually found it interesting because it was all about politics and how it affects me as a motorcyclist not me as Joe public.
The European angle was also interesting if a bit confusing, the way the European Parliament is set up I’m surprised anything gets done at all! Also, the information on FEMA (Federation of European Motorcycle Associations) and how it works for us in Europe was a real eye opener.
I was expecting the part on MAG branches to be pretty straight forward and didn’t expect to come away with anything, after all, I have run a branch for a number of years and if I may say so we are pretty successful in our own right (10 years old now!) But it is strange how getting a new perspective on something gets you thinking and a few points raised gave me food for thought.
It is also aimed at people who, may wish to start a branch but have no idea on where to begin. This gives a few insights into the few mandatory requirements as well as a few that are more good practice than anything else.
The rep from Leeds MAG works within local council and as such has a very interesting insight into who actually can get things done within councils; I always thought it was the councillors that held the power. This is not always the case though, so it is always worth doing a little bit of digging into who is who in your local council offices.
The talk on MAG stands came from Neil Stevenson who has worked on National MAG stands for a number of years now and gave a very informal talk on how the MAG stand now runs on a more drop in and chat basis rather than the ‘hard sell’ footing it used to be.
He also gave a talk on how he approaches people and spent an entertaining 10 minutes getting people from the session to state what they rode and would then greet them with something that MAG had done for that particular type of Motorcyclist.
He also went through and ‘avoidance’ situation where he showed how to avoid getting into full-blown arguments with confrontational people when working on a stand. Having worked a stand in the past I could see where he was coming from and will be paying more attention to how I open up a dialogue with people in the future.
Party with a purpose was presented by Pete Walker, the man who ‘does’ the farmyard party, so he should know what he is talking about! There have been several changes to licensing for events over the past year or so, some have been widely publicised others have not.
There is also an increased need for paperwork trail i.e. Risk assessments etc. Pete gave a brief overview of all of these and many, me included learnt a lot about what it takes to put on even a ‘small’ weekend event.
The talk certainly gave me the right information to go back to my branch and decide whether we should hold a weekend event or a one night even. In this age of ‘claim culture’ it is a sad fact that when you put on an event you need to pretty much cover every single tiny eventuality to make sure all your hard work doesn’t amount to nothing in the event of a claim.
If nothing else takes your fancy from the programme list but you help organise an event I would suggest you attend even if it only for this part.
Communication is paramount in MAG the guys who do most of our communicating from a national viewpoint are Archi Hipkins (National Network Communications Officer) and Ian Mutch (President and editor of The Road).
Archi looks after the monthly publication of ‘NETWORK’ this goes out to all reps and for affiliated clubs their liaison officer, it is also available for all online and people can subscribe to get an email sent with it on (see MAG UK website for further details on how to do this) It is effectively the tool that tells you what is happening in the world of motorcycling from a political point.
But, it also needs feedback from members so if you have a hot topic in your area that you think the rest of MAG should know about make a submission to Network.
Ian Mutch gave a presentation on what is ‘good’ and ‘not good’ as content for the Road from a reporting point of view as well as picture taking and submitting which although seems a bit strange does have a point, the Road is a long way from the original photocopied MAGNEWS that used to be around, it can be a very useful recruiting tool for new members.
He also covered making submissions to outside publications and gave guidelines on how to do this to ensure you at least get a shot of making the final print.
When dealing with the media it is sometimes difficult to know what to say and when to say it, this part of the course aimed to teach people the basics of dealing with various types of media and varying types of interviews, from supportive interviewing right through to aggressive interviewing. This was carried out through role playing which, at first felt a bit stupid and awkward but once you get the idea did turn out to be quite good fun, especially when you are talking about the one thing we all had in common, our passion about bikes. I did feel more confident about dealing with the media after this although I have yet to put this into practice!
Politics, yep even more of this damnable stuff! This time it was on dealing with politicians. The trouble with being passionate about motorbikes is that sometimes sacrifices have to be made and meeting and dealing with politicians is one of them!
Once again Mr Mutch led this talk and gave pointers on how to deal with MP’s without signing your life away, how to approach them even gave cautionary advice about going in mob handed with leather all over the place.
Sounds silly I know but; as someone who has to wear a shirt and tie all week, how you present yourself is a key point and if we wish to be taken seriously in today’s modern world and listened too sometimes leaving the cut off at home is a good idea.
Summing up the weekend, I would say the training weekends are a case of give and take, you can take away a lot of new ideas, information and attitudes but, you can also give new ideas and information to those that are there with you. If you are interested in doing some activist training get in touch with you local/regional rep and we can look to putting another event on soon.
Well? Don’t just sit there get on the phone.
GET ACTIVE!
Murray Webb – Eastern Regional Rep.
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