What you get for 2025

• Incredible value cycling trips to Uk and Europe
• Membership of our winter Zwift Group
• Membership of our club on Strava
• Free training programmes to help you prepare for your trip
• Entry to occassional competitions (see below)

Other benefits, apart from joining the Viva Velo family and making new like-minded friends, include access to our closed Facebook group where you can talk with other VVCC members and plan bespoke trips together. This is particularly useful for individuals or couples who would otherwise have to join a pre-arranged trip.

For 2025 Viva Velo Cycle Tours will transform into Viva Velo Cycle Club full time. The club's purpose will then be to provide cycle tours and trips to its members at cost. That means no overheads to service and therefore no profit margin and as a result incredible value for money. Membership fees for existing members will be kept to an introductory offer level of £15 until the end of August 2024. This fee will cover the running expenses of the club. We are now beginning to plan our 2025 trips and details of these will appear oin this website once the transition form commercial business to club has been completed in October 2024.

2024 AGM Minutes

VIVA VELO CYCLE CLUB Inaugural Annual General Meeting Held via Zoom on 26th February 2024

Those present: Dyll Davies, Simon Allen, Quentin Alsop, John Berry, Jeremy Blanchard, Caroline Cockram, Ian Cockram, Jim Evans, Mike Ferneyhough, Alison Ferneyhough, Ian Gibson, David Lewis, Michael Luchman, Neal Morgan, Neil Nash-Williams, Jonathan Nugent, Derek Paterson, Jay Paterson, Rachael Savage, Paul Sharp, Alan Eakins, Brian Owens

Apologies: Amanda Foley, John Holmes, Charles Packshaw, Trevor Buck

Dyll Davies expressed his warmest thanks to all those attending, and those who had sent apologies and provided a proxy, all of which ensured the meeting was quorate. He explained that the inaugural AGM was an essential step in enabling the club to obtain a bank account, as well as formally setting up the club.

1. Approval of constitution:

   The draft constitution had been circulated in advance and was approved unanimously. Dyll Davies thanked all those who had fed in invaluable comments and advice in preparing this document, and so had helped shape the club

   2. Election of Committee:

Nominations were put forward as follows:

Chair Dyll Davies – Nominated by David Lewis, seconded by Derek Paterson

Vice-Chair John Berry – Nominated by Dyll Davies, seconded by Derek Paterson

Treasurer David Lewis – Nominated by Dyll Davies, seconded by Derek Paterson

Secretary Amanda Foley – Nominated by Dyll Davies, seconded by Derek Paterson

No further nominations were received and all four roles were agreed unanimously.

In addition, further members could be co-opted onto the Committee going forward, to take on specific areas of responsibility; and outside of the formal Committee, anyone able and willing to provide help and support on particular tasks as and when needed would be most welcome. Dyll Davies proposed that anyone with particular skills or experience, or simply who was interested in getting involved in certain areas, should get in touch. To that end Jeremy Blanchard offered support re design and sourcing of kit.

3. Membership fees:

Dyll Davies outlined the proposal that for 2025 Viva Velo would move to a pure club model whereby members would pay a minimal membership fee. The level of this will depend on the number of members (in order to cover basic overheads such as running the website, Mailchimp subscription etc) but assuming a membership of around 100 people, the fee is envisaged in the region of £10/year. Trips would be run effectively at cost price (allowing for payment of time incurred in setting up the trip, and for payment of ride leaders, who are providing a professional service and assuming a level of responsibility for the safety and smooth operation of the trips). Anyone signing up for trips would then also pay a further fee, still expected to be small, but reflecting the benefits they are obtaining from the club. These fees would go into club funds, to ensure its solvency going forward, and members could decide how the funds should be used. Dyll emphasised that the aim was to make trips available at the lowest possible cost – not to make a profit.

David Lewis felt the fees and the funding structure worked, but could be reviewed once the arrangement is up and running to check whether any aspect needs to be adjusted. For example, Dyll Davies suggested the club might consider a layered approach where people who decide to join the club at a later date, specifically for the purposes of joining a trip, might be asked to pay a higher level of contribution.

The question of insurance was raised, and Derek Paterson, who had researched this for the club, explained that the proposal was to insure through British Cycling, which would cover the club and the ride leaders both in the UK and abroad. However, individuals would need to source their own insurance for trips. Derek Paterson added that this aspect needed to be covered in an updated manual for the ride leaders, in line with British Cycling guidance.

The proposals for fees and funding structure were carried unanimously.

4. Any other business:

Jonathan Nugent asked if the club planned any UK trips; this was confirmed.

Dyll invited all members to offer further comments, ask questions etc following the meeting. Contact details for the new Committee members would be provided to all members; members could also use the Facebook page for comments, ideas and discussion. In closing, he thanked all those who had attended.