Thanks to all who attended the AGM in June. It was nice to catch up with some of the long established members and welcome some new members to the AGM. The Mayor of St. Helens, Councillor Joe Pearson and the Mayoress, Mrs Silvia Pearson attended the AGM and the Mayor was kind enough to Chair the meeting. Both the Mayor and Mayoress were very appreciative of the work that the Group does.

New Committee members Anita Clift and Tom Field were formerly elected at the AGM. Anita is now our Membership Secretary and Tom is our Vice-Chairman and Publicity Co-ordinator.

I’d like to offer my own congratulations to Anita Clift, Jim Cunliffe and Oliver Fullerton who respectively won the Associate of the Year, Driver of the Year and Observer of the Year competitions.

Well, here we go again, a new Group year! The Group is in a great position going forward. Due to prudent money management our financial position is sound. All of our 16 Observers are now Institute of Motor Industry (IMI) qualified; we have a new, fully functional, IAM branded website; we have streamlined our administration processes and are enjoying very well attended Advanced Driver courses. All is good but I know from experience that we can’t rest on our laurels. Therefore, we have new initiatives in the pipeline to engage young drivers and raise awareness of IAM RoadSmart and the Group.

The ‘perseverance’ mentality is a strength of the Group. It’s particularly pleasing that some of our Associates also persevere to improve their driving; doing more than one course, being retested to try and get a F1RST and re-taking the test following an unfortunate failure. Well done to everyone for your commitment to improve the standing of the Group and your personal driving skills.

Well, that’s it from me. Safe driving and good observing.

Mark Farnworth
Group Chairman