Report on National AGM

This year the National AGM took place on Zoom. Holding the AGM on Zoom does allow a considerable saving in travel time and in the costs of the event, but it is expected that we will continue to run both face-to-face and Zoom AGMs in the future. We had 28 delegates (and 4 apologies) and it was encouraging that all Groups were represented plus members of the NEC. Voting forms were completed and returned prior to the event.

The meeting started with the Chairman giving a brief summary of the Annual Report followed by the Treasurer’s presentation of the accounts for 2023/2024 and the budget for the current year. The good news was that the NEC came in almost exactly on budget for 2023/2024. The less good news was that we had a further small dip in membership with 2176 members at the end of the year. The Chairman highlighted the many outstanding performances by members in the last season in our national championships, season long competitions, and the setting of new age records plus the top placings gained by our members in UCI world events. Linda Dewhurst’s multiple UCI medals had contributed to her winning the CW Cooke award for 2024.

The previously notified increase in subscriptions was ratified and the schedule of championships for 2025 was confirmed. The meeting then proceeded to discussion of the motions on changes to the Rules and Regulations. The changes to the Regulations around racing were taken first and these had all received clear majorities on the voting forms. The main changes are that there will be a National Road Bike championship from 2026. This is one more step in providing for the increasing number of road bike riders in our time trials. There was a concern that the 30 mile championship was being replaced by the Road Bike Championship. The Chairman said that this could be discussed further at the National Forum. There are also changes to the Season Long Competitions with the Group team sizes for the Best All Rounder and Three Distance Competitions being reduced from six members to four. This is aimed at enabling more Groups to compete for these team awards. The Group team size for the Short Distance Competition remains at six as all groups qualified in 2024.

The main innovation in the Rules was the motion to approve a new ‘VTTA Service Award’ open to all members of all ages and that recognises members who have made significant contributions to the running of their Group or the Association. This was passed without objections. A Guidance Note will shortly be issued setting out the full details and criteria for the award. 

The Service Award had been discussed at the National Forum and in the light of the new Award a number of motions were presented regarding the future of the Honorary Life Member (HLM) award. These ranged from discontinuing it, limiting the number that could be awarded by a Group, and reducing the age limit. None of these achieved the necessary two-thirds majority and neither did a motion proposing Groups contribute to the cost of their HLMs to the Association. However, there were a significant number of votes in favour of these motions which indicated that there is some dissatisfaction with how the current HLM scheme operates and further discussion is to be expected at the National Forum.

A number of motions developing the organisation and roles within the NEC were also passed. In this regard, a comment made under Any Other Business that the VTTA needs to give more thought to succession planning was noted as we are dependent at both National and Group level on a relatively small number of volunteers who are not getting any younger!

Finally, the National Executive Committee was re-elected in full and the meeting closed with Joy Payne making a ‘virtual’ presentation of the Ted Bricknell award to the Chairman. The Association and its members can look forward to further success in 2025.