OFFICIALS' 1993 REPORTS CONTINUED SECRETARY For AUK 1993 has been marred by the untimely death of Steve Nicholas a key founder member of our Association and we grieve with his family and many friends. The delegation of clearly defined responsibilities to individual committee members has meant that by the time of the AGM your committee will have only needed to meet on three occasions in the last twelve months. The justification for this approach of spending more time doing things rather than talking about them in committee is revealed in the officers' reports. The reports show that in all areas there has been a satisfying increase in activity including a higher publicity profile; an increase in the number and variety of events and challenges for riders, including Permanents overseas and the Fixed Wheel Challenge. I wonder if 1995 will see riders repeating Eric Hyon's 1983 achievement of riding the Paris-Brest-Paris on a fixed? Membership has increased again this year. However a cause for concern is the continuing increase in the substantial numbers who have not renewed their membership. The committee will be addressing this problem during 1994. The Chairman's policy of calling meetings only when absolutely necessary eases my work as Secretary with responsibility for arranging meetings, preparing agendas and producing minutes. In terms of correspondence I have dealt with in excess of 250 items, mostly requests from club cyclists who have heard of the good thing we have going and want to 'get in on the action'. It remains a pleasure to work with my committee colleages on behalf of the membership of AUK and I would be happy to continue to serve in 1994. Peter Hansen TREASURER A copy of the 1993 accounts is set out (overleaf). The Club's financial position remains healthy and I do not recommend any increases in fees or prices save for Permanent medals which I recommend be increased to £7.50. Enclosed with the magazine is a renewal form which following requests in earlier years includes the facility to pay fees by standing order. Please note to include your 1993 membership number on the form. The accounts are set out in the usual format. If any member would like further information or amplication of the figures would they contact me before the AGM so that I can extract the required details. Keith Benton MAGAZINE EDITOR We've produced four issues of Arrivee again this year; the number of copies required increasing from 1,650 for the Autumn 1992 edition to 2,000 for Autumn 1993; the number of pages increasing from 36-40 plus inserts in 1991/2 to 36-54 in 1992/3. The 1992 Autumn edition contained, in addition to the usual AGM info, the early season Calendar. This is repeated in 1993 but using the full-page A5 format requested by members. The 1993 Winter edition was posted with the Calendar of AUK and International RM events, produced as a separate A5 booklet. This arrangement was neither convenient nor economic. In 1994 the Calendar will again be published as a separate A5 booklet but will contain articles, overflowing from Arrivee, and be posted in the New Year. Winter Arrivee will be distributed later when the International RM Calendar is available. The cost of advertising in Arrivee has risen dramatically. Next year we must charge £10 per quarter page per issue, ie £200 per full page per year to commercial advertisers taking space in four issues of Arrivee plus the Calendar. Smaller commercial concerns may now prefer Small Ad space at £1 per line per issue. Members' Sales, Wants and Events adverts are free and commercial advertisers get free space if they offer something of interest and write a relevant article. Thanks to Tim Wainwright who lays out the adverts, Ben Steven who produces the address labels, Tradeprint who print and mail the mag, and our numerous (look at this editions' list on page 1!) AUK writers and photographers. You all get a lot of praise which I don't record in the Letters pages. Arrivee is highly regarded in the cycling world and I am happy to continue working with it. Sheila Simpson BREVET CARD SECRETARY (Preliminary) A short note of thanks to those Organisers who surmounted the difficulties of my move to Thorne and the new phone number at the beginning of the season and for the early orders for May which enabled me to cope with the panic weekends. There were one or two blips with the Royal Mail: Dorset Coast was rescued by Keith and ANC! So far (first week in September) numbers of cards ordered are similar to last year, however, there are some surprises. January increased by 50% to 380, March down 30% to 1500, and June up 70% to 1300. Final figures and details at AGM. I have been able to write this preliminary report only because I have a little spare time whilst waiting for card orders from three organisers who are now four days 'out-of-time'. Bry Ferguson INTERNATIONAL EVENTS SECRETARY 1993 was a quieter year, with fewer queries. Hopefully, this was due to my publishing full contact details for selected popular events in Arrivee, rather than to any lack of international participation this year. Of course, the more people ride abroad, the more they are able to arrange to ride events themselves in subsequent years. This year the Brevet Randonneur des Alpes was the most popular event for enquiries, with the BCMF series a good second. Many of the calendars from various countries were available earlier this year, most arriving before 1st March. Anyone sending queries in January (or even earlier!) has their letter held until information is available, so be patient next year if you don't receive a reply for a while. School holiday times are also likely to incur delays. Dave Patey AUK-ACP CORRESPONDANT Having been relieved of other AUK duties, I am free to carry out my responsibilities to the best of my ability and to fully enjoy the work. Correspondance has been conducted with seven overseas countries belonging to LRM and with a fair number of AUK members in connection with the PBP, 5000 Brevet, Fleche Velocio, Arrows and other matters. In January I attended the ACP prize-giving in Paris on behalf of our club [at my expense!] and was guest of honour [together with Jean-Claude Muzellec of Audax Nordiques] at the ACP lunch, In August a visit was paid to St. Quentin-en-Yvelines to survey hotels for the 1995 PBP. Finally I have perused magazines received on a regular basis from France, USA, Canada and Belgium, extracts of which have appeared in Arrivee. And answered telephone queries from continental countries, America and even Tasmania. And supplied three translations and several French letters! MILEATER AWARDS: This year 81 diaries have been purchased which represents a forty- five % increase on last year thanks mainly to publicity in Arrivee. As only about one half of diaries are returned for validation, and a consequentially reduced number of shields despatched, the service produces a small profit for AUK, even though this was not the intention of the originator, Mick Latimer. For 1994 there remains in stock 20 diaries and 30 shields. A further purchase of the latter [which should be sufficient for three to four years], has been negociated, the price increase after four years being of a very modest 20%. Noel Simpson PRESS SECRETARY'S REPORT References to Audax UK continue to appear in a number of journals and trade listings producing a steady stream of enquiries and membership applications. Undoubtedly the highlight of the year in terms of publicity was the publication of a 32 page booklet by Cycling Weekly on Audax. One of a series covering all aspects of competitive cycle sport the Audax edition accurately conveyed in word and picture the spirit of our non-competitive but challenging game of long-distance cycling. In briefing the journalist writing the booklet we took the opportunity to up-date an AUK leaflet on the history and nature of Audax. A revised edition of this leaflet will soon be available carrying a membership form making it an ideal means of putting friends and local media into the Audax frame. I will be pleased to send a supply of the leaflets to members and clubs on request. Cycling Weekly have further endorsed their support for Audax by presenting our Club with a generous supply of Control Signs. These will be distributed, free of cost to event organisers early in the new year. The potential for growth in entries to rides would appear to be enormous when one sees that commercially sponsored and managed 100 mile events can attract 1500 riders happily paying a £15 entry fee. These non-regulated rides, when sponsored by journals, are well reported with the finishing times of riders being set out in print. Not our style at all! But as an organiser within a CTC DA coping happily with 200 entries for a 200 Km event, a 1000 plus entry would present a different wheel game. No need to be worried about a sudden influx of riders however. The majority of cyclist's taking part in Century Rides would not qualify for an Audax event. They do not possess bikes fitted with mudguards. It is also doubtful if many of the century riders could cope with the interestingly hilly terrain fiendishly routed by many AUK event organisers. For 1994 we will however consider a few advertisements aimed at increasing the entries to Audax events. These will be placed in touring magazines which must remain the prime market for AUK as long as new randonneurs, the connoisseurs of long distance cycling, continue to emerge from the cycling clubs. Brian Morris UK EVENTS 1993 went quite well, with about 225 events in all. Some fields were down but we are between PBPs. With the growing membership it is better to have a choice of rides rather than one 200 with a thousand riders. Next year has some new events in parts of the country that are currently not used (including Sutherland!) but I would still like to see organisers in North Wales and Northern England - Please! Peter Coulson Validation Secretary I am pleased to report that results were received from all events. Brevets Populaires: 50Km 100Km 150Km UNCL TOTAL 1988 0258 2557 0144 2959 1989 0208 2569 0257 3034 1990 0224 3004 0542 0055 3825 1991 0278 2897 0473 3648 1992 0382 3239 0738 4359 1993 0425 3602 0746 4773 Brevets AUK /BRM: 200Km 300Km 400Km 600Km 1000+Km TOTAL 1988 2382 0314 0285 0138 0018 3137 1989 2370 0287 0302 0142 0029 3130 1990 2560 0394 0326 0171 0030 3481 1991 3021 0588 0567 0358 4554 1992 2815 0416 0379 0148 3828 1993 2909 0448 0439 0220 0031 4047 49 Brevets were also validated at 600+Km. tourist populaire 19 Riders also took part in the YORK EASTER ARROWS In all there were a total of 9248 Brevets validated this year an increase of 1024. The sale of medals and cloth badges continues to go well. I have through the year distributed; 2400 Medals, 220 Cloth Badges, 300 Date Bars, and 50 Engraved medals which is much the same as 1992. A list of Super Randonneurs for 1993 is available showing 165 successful rides, a increase of 33 from last year. A list of championship points for CTC DA, clubs and riders has been produced from the result sheets supplied by event organisers. I would again like to ask all members to complete their details on the brevet card i.e. Club, CTC DA, and AUK. membership number, without this the organiser is unable to fully complete the result sheet & this will mean that valuable championship points may be lost. The result sheets show that 712 members rode counting events, this being less than last year. This year I was fortunate to receive help from Dave Whitney who took over the preparation of result sheets for, and the registration of rides with, ACP and RM His jottings should appear somewhere in these pages. Thanks a lot Dave it took a load of my desk. Bernard Mawson I am quite happy to continue this work for 1994. I have refined the process at my end. Lepertel goes on holiday a lot! But as he stated there is no urgency from their point of view in returning the validation slips in non-PBP years. But saying that, when he is at home then he returns them very quickly. We need to speed up the transfer of cards from you to me, if possible. This can sometimes be 3-4 weeks and more after the event. The only alternative to me collecting them periodically from you is to post them but this obviously increases costs somewhat. I agree with your proposal on getting blocks of validation slips from Lepertel (if he is agreeable). Could speed up things a lot. Dave Whitney PERMANENTS SECRETARY 242 rides were registered (the same number as '92) Liz Creese was overall Champion with Dave Lewis second. Peter Poppy BREVET SECRETARY Total Brevet Cards printed in 1993 13199 (1992 12289). In '94 I would like to offer Organisers an extra day ... PLEASE PHONE ME ON THE MONDAY in the SECOND WEEK BEFORE YOUR EVENT ... if you forget I will phone YOU and there will be a SURCHARGE of 10p each card. Bry Ferguson