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Abridged minutes MAG National Committee Meeting 13th August 2005 Masonic Hall, Rugby
Meeting commenced 10:00 Hrs
Removal of any item not deemed by NC to be appropriate or related to Regional Reps
Minutes of last Meeting - matters of correctness.
The Minutes of the last NC were reviewed and after some minor amendments the minutes were accepted.
NC minutes – Proposed Gerard Livett (Uncle Sol), seconded John Mitchell Vote unanimous
A vote of thanks to Steve Wykes for his efforts with the minutes was given.
* Matters Arising*
1. Derwen was assisting Andrew Davis in setting up an open day in South Wales to try and kick start the region.
Action Ongoing
2. Sol indicated that Essex and Herts was not functioning satisfactorily as a region with little or no feedback or communication through the regional rep. As a consequence he was preparing an AGM with assistance from Shan.
Consideration was also being given to whether or not setting up a County rep structure could assist in bridging the communication gap to local groups. Members in the region to be canvassed for their input.
Action Uncle Sol
*Appointments and Resignations*
Murray Webb was welcomed onto the NC as the new regional rep for Eastern Region.
Alan Wooley regretted that he was forced to resign from the National Clubs Liaison Officers position, due to work commitments.
A vote of thanks for his efforts in the post was proposed by Jane Chisholm and seconded by Robin Straughan and backed unanimously by the NC.
*Public Affairs Director Political Report*
A very packed report for the meeting.
The report for the meeting has a different slant this time with pulling the issues that have been discussed on the NC email list and putting them into a format that would see future publications on the issues.
The ideas and issues in the report are not set in stone and may need to be modified after the meeting via email to present the issues to reflect MAG’s true positions.
*CRASH BARRIERS
At the MEP Ride in Strasbourg in July FEMA presented its “Road To Success” document on how to improve the safety aspects of crash barriers for motorcyclists.
UK MEPS, Malcolm Harbour, a long time supporter of the MEP Ride and new comer, Peter Skinner were very enthusiastic about the motorcycle friendly crash barrier system.
Since then we have launched our own document, “Vehicle Restraint Systems – Safety Fences – Crash Barriers – Motorcyclists”, due to additional information received since the document was published, it is now on version 1:4 and Trevor expects to update the document shortly as new research has come to light.
One new contact was with the Chair of the Road Safety Committee, Motorcycle Council of NSW (Australia) and highlights the global concerns of riders regarding crash barriers.
From the FEMA and MAG documents we have launched a three pronged lobby of MPs, MEP’s and the Minister of State for Transport, Dr Stephen Ladyman. The action document was press released, published in the July issue of Network and put on the MAG UK website.
Please prevail on your Local Group Reps and members to lobby on this especially the concerns regarding Wire Rope Barriers.
The most recent document on crash barriers was presented at the 19th ESV conference in Washington in June 2005 "Motorcycle Impacts to Roadside Barriers - Real World Accidents Studies, Crash Tests and Simulations Carried out in Germany and Australia".
Of interest is the chapter on wire rope barriers:
Documents are available at:
www.fema.ridersrights.orgcrashbarrier2005/index.htm
www.network.maguk.org/crashbarriers2005/MAGcrashbarrier2005.pdf
www.network.maguk.org/crashbarriers2005/MAGactioncrashbarriers.pdf
www.network.maguk.org/crashbarriers2005/MotocycleBarriers19thESV.pdf
A CD is available with most of these documents presented, plus short film clips, computer simulations and testing on motorcycle friendly guard rails. Though lots of information is still coming in since the publication of our position statement.
Finally on this I would like to thank Wim from MAG Netherlands for pushing the issue forward in Europe and Morten from MNCU Norway for the work on the FEMA Road To Success document.
*Third Driving Licence Directive
Where are we now with the directive?
Since Trevor’s last report at Junes NC meeting we have put together two documents.
The first is a MAG Action Document for lobbying MEPs, MPs and the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling.
The second is a review of the Directive.
The action document was published in the July issue of Network and there is a complete overview and lobby in the latest issue of Streetbiker. It will be pressed released shortly and put up on the MAG UK website.
This has been a complicated issue over the last year and has raised interesting debate within FEMA as the directive twist and turns not only on the technical issues but political manoeuvrings.
*Dalek Death Studs?*
A representative from CTC (national cyclists’ organisation) contacted MAG asking if we were aware of the fitting of these studs and asking for support. Sarah took the portfolio on and her report was presented to NC Contact details are the MAG office or email national-resource@mag-uk.org
*Loud Pipes
For many years politicians have stated that motorcycle noise is the subject that they receive the most letters about.
Unfortunately, this leads to a continuing push for even lower noise limits, although not necessarily lower noise levels.
This has been highlighted recently by the Earl Peel asking questions in the House of Lords on inappropriate or excessive speeding, use of illegal number plates, the fitting of illegal noisy exhaust systems by motorcyclists.
Motor Cycle News (MCN) in their 27th July 2005 issue carried the banner on the front page “The End For Loud Cans” which misses the point, loud cans are illegal.
Riders are fully aware of this and as in the article also aware that police forces have the power to enforce the law on loud pipes.
Interestingly WP.29 (United Nations working party on Global Harmonisation of Motorcycle Technical Regulations) has effectively agreed that Regulation 41 will become a global regulation rather than a European one, as it currently is.
This could mean that the European Union would not seek to reduce motorcycle noise limits until they are established globally.
There again if that would be a long time off they would probably go ahead with a European reduction in advance of any global moves.
A useful document from FEMA, Motorcycle Noise – The Sound Of Our Demise?” can be downloaded at
www.fema.ridersrights.org/docs/NoiseEn.pdf
www.noisemapping.org/default.asp for details.
The DfT in the governments National Motorcycle Strategy sets out a way to address the issue of loud and legal exhausts: “We welcome the Advisory Group on Motorcycling (AGM) recommendation for a campaign to 'win the hearts and minds' of riders to keep their machines to road legal specification.
However, to be most effective, we believe that this campaign should be led by the motorcycle industry, retailers and rider user groups, rather than by Government. A campaign is more likely to receive a positive response if riders see it as an issue for those who build and sell motorbikes, and those who represent the users. We would of course support and endorse such a campaign.
The action is to press for and give support to a campaign, led by the motorcycle industry, retailers and rider user groups, to encourage riders to keep their motorbikes road legal for noise.”
The politicians continued to lower limits and have thus partly created the problem that Earl Peel is all steamed up about.
MAG also advised the politicians to use enforcement of existing limits rather than reducing those limits as a means of resolving the problem. We suggested to them that if they kept lowering limits then people would buy illegal pipes that met no limits. They went lower and are reaping the consequences of doing so.
*MEP Ride
This year’s focus was on the issues of 3rd European Driving Licence Directive and the Road Traffic Safety report, both currently being discussed within the European Parliament.
The MEP ride is successful and could be expanded if members from around the regions are encouraged to contact their MEP and take part in the ride.
*Sidecars and Trailers
MAG Belgium have put the issue off motorcycles with a sidecar towing trailers back on their agenda.
The situation in Belgium at present is:
- a motorcycle is towing a trailer: permitted
- a motorcycle with sidecar towing a trailer: not permitted.
The issue was on the agenda in 2004 but with changes in the government at the end of 2004 the case was closed and looked like being lost.
MAG Belgium have tabled a new question to the Minister responsible asking what the government are going to do to resolve the problem.
In the meantime MAG Belgium are counting on our support for this issue.
They are asking that you sent them as many emails asking why travelling by sidecar and trailer is forbidden by law in Belgium.
This will enable MAG Belgium to build support for their position and to present these to their members of the parliament.
The principle of freedom of movement prevailed in Spain when the ban on a motorcycle towing a trailer with restrictions was lifted.
FEMA press release on the issue can be viewed at:
www.fema.ridersrights.org/news.phpstart_from=10&ucat=&archive=&subaction=&id=&#?
Suggested Letter send to:
Erwin Steegmans Vice President MAG Belgium vzw
Email: ondervoorzitter@mag.be
*MAG SUPPORTING PARKING CAMPAIGN
Grammy award winning musician Evelyn Glennie calls on biking community for support against unfair parking policies in central London Westminster Council are unfairly targeting motorbike users by the indiscriminate issuing of parking tickets says Grammy award winning musician Evelyn Glennie after she received her 4th parking ticket in just 4 months.
*RoSPA
Trevor was invited to attend a meeting organised by RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents).
The purpose of the meeting, attended by representatives of the Department for Transport (DfT) and the new lead on the Bikesafe initiative, was to talk through a draft for a leaflet for bikers on the most common crashes and how to avoid them.
The five most common are
1. Failure to negotiate left hand bend on rural A road
2. Failure to negotiate right hand bend on rural A road
3. Collision at junctions
4. Collision while overtaking
5. Loss of control
MAG will be supporting the leaflet when it is launched early next year.
*SMIDSY Campaign
Motorists are being urged to look out for motorcyclists as part of a new road safety campaign, SMIDSY (Sorry Mate I didn’t See You) to reduce the number of motorcycle casualties on South Gloucestershire’s roads.
Temporary road signs displaying the campaign web address ‘ www.smidsy.co.uk ’ and other messages will be going up at motorcycle accident hotspots to remind drivers to look out for motorcyclists.
The campaign by South Gloucestershire Council and Tony Sharpe, aka IHIE guidelines, states the obvious to motorcyclists and is welcome by MAG to target the ignorance of car drivers.
It is hoped that the campaign will go national and MAG has offered its support.
If a motorcycle is not in the field of vision of a car driver or if car drivers are not looking for a motorcycle or looks and their senses do not see a motorcycle, then all the day -glo vests, headlights, daytime running lights will not make a big difference.
The DfT are to conduct research on car driver skills and attitude to motorcycle safety. Previous research has shown that a high proportion of multi-vehicle accidents involving motorcycles is due to drivers’ observation or perception skills.
Many of these accidents happen at junctions when a car pulls out into the path of a motorcycle and seem to involve older drivers, I wonder if by any chance they are driving a Volvo at the time.
My thanks to colleague Sarah Gardner for picking up an article in the March Issue of Bike magazine and research on motion illusion, the looming effect.
Apparently Dragonflies use the trick to sneak up on their prey and in aerial battles with hoverflies.
Learn about your vulnerability, learn about road positioning and treat all other road users as “idiots”.
*National Motorcycle Council (NMC)
Trevor attended a further meeting of the NMC and DfT representatives. The purpose of the meeting to was to further progress the delivery of the governments’ national motorcycle strategy.
Nothing much more to report other than the DfT are committed to delivering the targets set out in the strategy.
*Mini Motor Bikes
Contacted by the DfT to give advise on their proposed statement on the illegal use and safety for “Mini Motor Bikes” Go -pads, mini motos, quads etc.
Trevor involved the MCIA, MRTA on the issue and have come up with a draft proposal.
Unfortunately the contact at the DfT has not replied to any further emails and they have published their statement.
Work in progress at the present time.
*FEMA
Trevor attended the June FEMA meeting in Denmark with fellow MAG FEMA representative Elaine Hardy (National Research Officer).
The trip was wet and arduous and the return ferry trip saw severe body work damage in monetary terms to the K1200 RS caused by the bike “tipping” over with several other bikes on board the ferry in gale conditions.
This was superseded by excellent hospitality by our hosts and fellow FEMA members MC Touring Denmark. You can sample this excellent hospitality by visiting their website at www.mctouringclub.dk and MAG members receive a discount: spend the first night at MC Touring Camp free of charge, provided you bring their own tent and MAG membership card for each person.
*National Officer Reports – Chairman, Vice Chairman, Finance Director, Clubs Officer, National Network Communications Officer, National Research Officer and Regional Reps reports Regional Reps Reports Foundation Report, Board Meeting Report.”
*Affiliated Clubs
Some concern has been expressed at the number of affiliated clubs who have failed to re-affiliate this year.
Regional Reps were encouraged to find out the reasons why clubs were not re-affiliating in their area and report back.
Action Regional Reps
There was some feeling that at least part of the problem was the inclusive PLI offered by the BMF for rallies, ride outs etc. there is also an issue where clubs are not permitted stands at the BMF show if they are not affiliated to the BMF.
If this is a major problem then we need to publicise our competitive rates for affiliation with exclusive/inclusive PLI insurance.
Details of insurance rates are currently available from central office.
* Eddie Lowe gave a presentation on a possible venue for next years AGC in the West Midlands. Details of the venue and accommodation in the Bromsgrove area was provided.
Robin Straughan thanked Eddie for his detailed presentation and proposed that this proposal be accepted for next years AGC and John Mitchell seconded the proposal.
Proposal Ratified by the NC
* The constitution with amendments required following the AGC at Salisbury was tabled for NC consideration.
The amended Constitution was ratified by the NC.
* Questions from members :
Some questions and points had been received from members, which it was felt worthy of addressing at this point.
1 The Yellow Road defect cards had been noted to have included the word affected rather than effected – this was to be corrected at the next reprinting of the card.
2 Membership forms have been corrected.
3 Typographical and grammatical errors in StreetBiker had received criticism – StreetBiker was now being subjected to more stringent proof reading.
4 Some members felt that Network was becoming rather long. It was agreed that inclusion of the entire minutes, had contributed to this growth and that Bullet Points should be provided to allow quick access to relevant sections and that the minutes could be abridged to reduce content, although access to the full minutes should still be made available.
5 Members were being encouraged to sign up by standing orders, but problems were being encountered with memberships being slow to emerge. It was pointed out that delays were principally as a result of bank processing time. While applications typically take two weeks from receipt for processing this frequently misses the first standing order payment and membership is only sent when the first standing order payment has been received.
As a result members need to allow up to four weeks for receipt of membership. To counter this problem, those manning stalls need to be made aware that standing order date should be post dated by at least two weeks from receipt of the application for and a further two weeks needs to be allowed for receipt of their membership. To counter this problem and ensure members can take full advantage of their membership it was suggested that temporary memberships be issued to those taking out standing order membership.
*Boundary changes to Eastern Region and Neighbouring Regions.
There is a feeling that the existing Eastern Region is something of a mix of groups and fails to have a regional identity. Lincolnshire want to be a region consisting of groups in North Lincs., Grimsby and Mid Lincs.
While the position of the Peterborough, South Beds and Rad MAG groups need to be reviewed to see if they can be sensibly incorporated into other surrounding regions.
The affected reps and Jane Chisholm to review membership numbers, distribution and group strength of Eastern and surrounding regions.
Action Jane Chisholm and Regional Reps involved
* AOCB
John Mitchell raised the issue of entitlements being lost when renewing licenses at DVLA. This has effected A number of motorcyclists and others with HGV/PSV and other less common entitlements. He had only had his bike entitlement reinstated after an affidavit from a police officer who attested to him having been riding for ten years.
Though normally DVLA won’t accept affidavits.
Steve Wykes indicated that this had also been a problem for one of his members, who had lost her entitlement on changing her address.
It was pointed out that DVLA had lost records for 1981 – 1984 due to a fire and again in 1987 due to a systems failure. DVA also had a policy of shredding old licenses sent to them after 3 months.
It was suggested that notes should be included in StreetBiker and Network advising members how to protect their entitlement.
These would include sending their license to DVLA by recorded delivery, taking a photocopy of their license before sending it to DVLA and having the copy certified as a true and accurate copy of their license by a lawyer or other appropriate person. And ensuring that the new license is checked immediately on receipt and any errors in their new license are brought to DVLA’s attention.
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