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Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 12 No.1 March 2015 !14

A Past President reminisces………………..

I have been asked by the Editor to write a review of my year as President. I will not
chronicle all the activities of last year as they have already been covered in the magazine
but will try to outline what the Club means to me, and some of the highlights from a very
enjoyable year as Samuel Pickwick. I would also like to provoke some debate as to what
the Club members want the Club to be in the future.

I set out with a number of objectives. I wanted to attract greater attendance at the
events away from our two main luncheons. I had some success but, truthfully, there is
less than 20% of the membership who participate in anything other than the May and
December luncheons. Why is that? Cost, day of the week, relevance or ambivalence? I
have heard the debate over many years that we are a cycling club and that we have
encouraged more cycling members to join. The cycling events struggled again this year
to achieve the numbers required – Revolution Evening, Harpenden Cycle Ride, Tour de
France Harrogate, Benson and of course the Hampton Court Revival Ride. In fact we are
in danger of losing the Imber Court facility due to the lack of numbers attending. It
would be a great shame if we were to have to cancel this event as Pruffle and Hunt have
put a lot of effort into making this a “go to” day in the Club’s calendar.
I have spoken to a lot of members during my year and there seems to be a common
theme – “cyclists are happy to spend money on their equipment but less likely to spend it
on events”. This could be a gross generalisation but was repeated to me by a number of
people, including two Past Presidents who are also keen cyclists!
Maybe we should look at prospective members with a Dickens connection or, more
radically, “good club men”. I certainly would not have been considered a keen cyclist and
my Dickens connection at the time was compulsory school curriculum but I believe I have
made a contribution to the Club, and the Club has made a happy contribution to my life.
Having opened the waiting list for new members, now is a good time to look at potential
candidates proposed for membership and ask whether they will participate and
contribute to the Club?

During my year I wanted to reinforce the traditions of the Club so I plagiarised menus
from 1977, the year I joined the PBC and went for boys’ food – no jus, pea or
cauliflower puree, it had to be gravy, peas and cauliflower hearts; foam of any kind was
banned completely!