Minutes of the Annual General Meeting

Held at: The Dorset PH, Lewes
Date: 20 January 2026

Present

Committee Members: President – Graham Jeffs (GJ), Chairman – Darren Haynes (DH), Secretary – post vacant (Paget Cohen (PC) – acting), Membership Secretary – post vacant (Neil Edwards (NE) acting), Treasurer – Graham Faultless (GF), Time-Trial Secretary – Neil Edwards (NE), Road Race Secretary – Dan Street (DS), Press Secretary – Paget Cohen (PC), Women’s Representative – post vacant, Club Runs Coordinator – Paget Cohen (PC)

Members: Peter Baker, Stephen Burgess, Trevor Dale, Bob Evans, Mugs Gohl, Ryan Machin, Richard Meed, Richard Roberts, David Smith, Paul Sweeney, Derek Wigley, David Wilkins, Georgina Wise

The meeting was opened by Club Chairman Darren Haynes.

Apologies Received

Alex Steer, Anne Baker, Rachel Kelley, Sean Quinney, Stuart Kirkham, Jolanta Zuravskaja, John Powell, Carl Matthews, Jonathan Sweet, Graham Knowles, Chris Hurcomb

Minutes

Minutes from the AGM in 2025 were agreed as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Officer’s Reports

Chairman

2025 can be seen as a positive year in terms of new faces, events run and a sense of excitement. Looking forward we want the Club to maintain, consolidate and move forward. DH thanked the Committee and Membership for their voluntary efforts.

Secretary

Post vacant. PC continues to take minutes.

Treasurer (GF)

Our 2025 income was £3,800, expenditure was just over £5,500, of which the major amounts were the Crits of £2,500, £1,500 on the one-off expense of creation of the new website, £300 went out in £25-off offers on purchase of the new jersey and £250 was spent on the Jubilee lunch. Major income was £1,000 from subs (£1,400 is expected in subs for the start of 2026). £1,500 was received in the form of Crits entry fees plus £500 from British Cycling. Our online advertising campaign more-or-less broke even. Balance at end of 2025 was £7,300.

Membership (NE)

There were 56 members a year ago, 74 now. 5 people have not renewed mainly for good reason, e.g. moved away. We gained 15 new members during 2025, 7 of whom were female and we now have 13 female members; Mugs Gohl (MG) thought this very positive.

Marketing & Communications (NE)

New website has received 300–400 visits per month which is a good number. The weekly “Rolling News” email was launched in June 2025 to very positive feedback, evidenced by a 75% open rate; a point echoed by Richard Roberts (RR). Instagram is recognised as the best way to reach out and attract new members, but there is more to do on that.

A late December paid Instagram feed targeted to people within a 15-mile radius of Lewes was seen by 5,500 people, added 40 new Instagram followers, preceded 2 new members joining and led to 81 visits to the Membership page of the website. As a £60 one-off payment this was considered a good investment and it is proposed to repeat this say twice a year, perhaps just in advance of the Crits in the summer.

Time-Trial Secretary (NE)

All scheduled time-trials in 2025 went ahead, even if one had to be postponed due to roadworks. We had in excess of 10 riders for a number of events which justified running them. It is still very hard persuading members to volunteer to marshall and on more than one occasion potential racers had to sacrifice their ride to marshal.

For 2026 we propose to run eight Evening 10s, 4 on the Boship course and 4 on the Broyle with a 2-up on each as last year’s 2-up proved so popular. Our plan to encourage more people to compete in ESCA events didn’t come to fruition.

NE asked Richard Meed (RM) if he is still willing and able to time-keep our events in 2026. RM said that that was his intention, but they will no longer be time-keeping open events due to the time involved. It was recognised that time-keepers are crucial to the running of time-trials and there is a succession issue with existing time-keepers being few and ageing.

RM relayed that Su Balcombe runs a three-night time-keeping course in Crawley, but we still need volunteers. MG asked if we could use timing chips. RM reported that Cycling Time Trials (CTT) had trialled timing chips in a few local events in 2025, but only as a back-up as time-keepers were still needed. DS suggested that if we were to invest in chips then they should be able to be used in the Crits. MG wondered if they could be hired. It was agreed to wait-and-see if regulations and technology changed such that this could be a future option.

NE raised the issue of defunct season-long Club competitions and if there were any appetite to resurrect these. DS always liked that we ran a Middlemarkers competition to encourage developing riders. Graham Jeffs (GJ) opined that there weren’t sufficient numbers racing to warrant such competitions. Peter Baker noted that it is years since we last had an annual awards presentation. DH asked for a show-of-hands as to whether people would be more likely to race if there were trophies available. Consensus was to try to reinvent some sort of season-long competition to encourage participation. PB suggested tying-in with ESCA events as they already have leaderboards and scoring systems set up.

Road Race Secretary (DS)

DS confirms that he has stepped back from running the Crits. John Powell has taken over the practicalities with DH doing the admin on our behalf. For the second consecutive year no Lewes Wanderers participated in road racing. New members Chris Hurcomb and Michael Renardson are considering returning to racing and DS is hopeful that if a few start others may follow.

The trainSharp training offer didn’t attract new members, although there was still a vacancy available and DS is keen that this be taken by a female rider. The Forge Rides continue to be popular, with a core of riders keen to continue through the winter.

Looking forward DS proposes to add more Forge routes with some hills and reminds us that the Chaingang resumes 1 April. NE wonders if perhaps once a month the Saturday Forge Ride could be a chaingang on the Broyle circuit, much as trainSharp used to run.

Press Secretary (PC)

17 Press Reports submitted to the website and newspapers during 2025, exactly the same as 2024. While there has been good take-up of the new Club kit, numbers racing in it haven’t increased greatly as serious time-triallists prefer to wear skin-suits and we haven’t sold a skinsuit for years; hence the lack of variety in terms of riders featured in photos.

Club Runs Coordinator (PC)

Great to see such a good turn-out for last Sunday’s Club Ride when we remembered Chris Hough and other Wanderers we have lost. Most of the core of the Social Club Riders were out plus a few less regular attendees. We propose to make this an annual event if not necessarily to Daisy’s Tea Room every time.

Numbers on Sunday Rides are generally good, although we have had to cancel a lot of rides recently due to bad or even dangerous conditions. Later in the year we have increasingly met at The Forge to start rides with no noticeable drop-off in numbers, indeed a number seem to prefer the pre-ride coffee.

Off-road rides have further fallen away in 2025, mainly due to the tragic loss of Chris Hough as a ride leader, plus the loss of Peter Fox as a road ride leader meaning PC and DH are less free to lead rides. There has been very little interest when they have been run, although the few rides led by MG and Chris Hurcomb were well-attended so clearly there is interest there.

The plan is to try again in 2026 with Mugs Gohl and Chris Hurcomb offering regular rides. Bob Evans points out that rides used to regularly start from Lewes bus station, Richard Roberts recommends Trading Post as they have bike parking to the rear and sell coffee.

Election of Officers

• Chairman: DH continuing. RM proposed, NE seconded.
• Secretary: No volunteers. Role will remain vacant.
• Treasurer: GF continuing. DH proposed, GJ seconded. PB noted that Anne Baker still happy to audit.
• Membership Secretary: NE continuing. DH proposed, DS seconded.
• Time Trial Secretary: NE continuing. RM proposed, Trevor Dale (TD) seconded.
• Road Race Secretary: DS continuing. GJ proposed, BE seconded.
• Press Secretary: PC continuing. DH proposed, TD seconded.
• Club Runs Coordinator: PC continuing. DH proposed, GJ seconded.
• Off-road Secretary: MG was consulted, but it was thought Chris Hurcomb may step forward.
• Women’s Representative: Mugs Gohl volunteers. DH proposed, Georgina Wise seconded.
• Social Secretary: Richard Roberts volunteers. Stephen Burgess proposed, DS seconded.

Any Other Business

Off-road Rides (NE)

Gravel riding is clearly emerging as a popular form of cycling. Chris Hurcomb is planning to offer a “gravel” ride on the first Saturday of every month from March to September as a means to recruit more Wanderers. He has his own Strava Club from which he hopes to recruit. RR notes that he regularly does something similar with the POETS rides and that they could be persuaded to join.

NE emphasises the importance of obtaining email addresses of guest riders so we can communicate with them further. Chris also proposes a paid off-road event in the nature of a sportive. To cost roughly £20-a-head which will include food-and-drink, this is not a race. DH suggests Lewes Wanderers act as pacers for groups. Bob Evans noted that Glorious Gravel already organise such an event. NE has met with the organiser of that to discuss how we may coordinate.

Mugs Gohl suggests we bill this as “off-road” rather than gravel as (a) should be open to mountain bikes, and (b) isn’t purely gravel. Richard Roberts warns of the issue of opening this up to all abilities as there could be issues with riders not being self-sufficient or of adequate riding ability. It is suggested to use Facebook to promote.

Richard Mead reminds us that many years ago the club used to organise a New Forest break with off-road rides and partners who don’t ride able to enjoy countryside walks. Ryan Machin offers to lead an off-road ride around the Isle of Wight in the summer. David Smith, who doesn’t at present ride off-road suggests offering easier rides to introduce newcomers to off-road riding. RR suggests a women’s only ride as some female riders feel more comfortable in such company.

Crits and AMS (DS)

DS questions whether it is still viable for us to run Crit races. They’re certainly not financially viable as they have run at a loss for some years. In 2025 we had 22 entries for our first Crit and 28 for our second out of a permitted field of 50. The 2026 dates have already been set.

Ryan Machin wonders if they could be held on a weekend to increase numbers. It was felt the problem there would be rounding up sufficient volunteers to give up their time to marshal. We have reverted back to our Crits only being open to Cat 3 and 4 riders for 2026. In 2025 Cat 3/2 riders were permitted and we only attracted 1 Cat 4 racer. This was an experiment to attract numbers as they had been low when only Cat 3 & 4.

Bob Evans points out that Masters races are very popular and have large fields, but there are no local events, although they don’t involve British Cycling so don’t require AMS. Ryan Machin wonders if we could somehow run a handicap race with Cat 3 and Cat 4 riders starting in separate groups.

DH called for a vote as to how many Crit races we should run in 2026 and an overwhelming vote was to continue with running one.

We still have an issue with AMS for which training courses are 7 February in Chichester, 15 February in “London” and 7 March at Cyclopark, Gravesend.

Cycle Safety Initiative (Richard Roberts)

Richard Roberts has been in discussion with Liz Hough as to how they may honour Chris’s passing and do something towards improving cycle safety with regard to interactions with motor vehicle traffic. They are thinking maybe a car window sticker with a short snappy slogan that is conciliatory rather than accusatory with the emphasis being on all sharing the road and respecting others.

They have had a few ideas, but not settled on anything. Feeling in the room that the Club would be well behind this initiative. A few ideas and suggestions were put forward. Paget suggested inviting the wider Membership to submit suggestions via our Social Media channels with Richard and Liz to adjudicate.

Membership Campaign: “Offer a Wheel” (NE)

The proposal is to use Members to recruit new members. The scheme is to be called “Offer a Wheel”. The idea is that anyone who refers a new member is to be offered a voucher for coffee, £10 off membership, a to-be-designed new Club Cap or money off a sports massage. The “Offer a Wheel” campaign could extend to charitable events.

Close

The meeting closed at 9.15 p.m.