As many of our longer term members will have noticed, the fortunes of the North Bucks Road Club have waned over the last few years. We had to move out of our long used club room, Harley Hall, when the Parks Trust greatly increased the rent on the premises. We started having our club meetings at The Wheatsheaf in Bow Brickhill (actually the location of the first ever, and founding, meeting of the club), but had to move when the pub changed hands and closed for a period of renovation. We then moved to The Inn on the Lake for our meetings. However, it's moot whether a pub is the best location for club meetings.

The decline was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the various lockdowns that ensued and the impact of restrictions on social gatherings. We tried using Zoom for club meetings, but my impression was that this was rather unsuccessful. Certainly members were reluctant to join remote meetings. During 2020 we couldn't even run our club time trials (the CTT suspended competition), or club runs (advice was to cycle solo).

Earlier this month I decided to have a go at changing the way the club is operating. For the last couple of years we have used ResultsBase to handle membership applications and payments. As it turns out, it's not best suited to that function for a number of reasons (though it remains the website we use to handle our club event entries), and I was casting around for a better way to administer the club. I noticed that my former club, the Dundee Wheelers were using a web app called Spond, and after a spot of investigation decided it was worth setting us up with Spond. Currently, membership applications are open via Spond.

I also looked into finding a new venue for fate to face club meetings, and booked a room at Aspley Guise Village Hall for the first two meetings in 2025. Initially I'm envisaging meeting monthly, but if the demand is there, we can increase the frequency. The February meeting is a Special General Meeting to discuss changes to how the club operates - a new version of the club rules will be on the agenda.

To grow the club it's important to connect with members and find out what the club should provide - for example, we mustn't neglect the social aspects of the club and focus solely on competition. I think most cyclists have a broad interest in cycling; for example, I have little interest in mountain biking, preferring road cycling - I enjoy recreational and social rides, time trialling and cycle touring. But I do enjoy the social aspects of club meetings and I've always thought these were powerful ways of sharing information, experiences and expertise. We are planning to circulate a questionnaire to find out more about what members (and prospective members) want from a bike club so that we can better serve them.