Hello everyone,

It was nice to see many of you at our AGM. The Group is in a good place with sound finances and a good level of Associate recruitment.

We have plans to increase activity in the recruitment and marketing side of the Group. We want to strengthen our commumity involvement since the more people who know who we are and what we do the greater opportunities we have to help make our roads safer and to help people to become more confident and skillful drivers.

Next year the Group will celebrate its 40th anniversary - 40 years of delivering advanced driving courses to the local community.

Those of you who didn’t attend the AGM will not know the following.

We have started to develop an advanced riding element within what we do with the official launch planned for Spring next year.

Alan Douglas, a National Rider Observer has joined the Group and is helping us set up the delivery of Advanced Rider Courses. This can’t be achieved quickly. To obtain a team of rider Observers then the riders must first pass the Advanced Rider Test and then with more training they must pass the rider National Observer test.

We have already started this training with over 20 observed rider runs taken place in June and July. Several Observers/committee members/other riders are involved.IAMHQ are supporting the process by providing advanced rider Associates to help with the rider training but without ‘flooding’ our fledgling rider group.

If you are a rider and would like training to go for the Advanced Rider test then let me know. Also, if you have already passed the Advanced Rider test and would like to become a SHGAM National Observer then please let me know that as well.

Safe driving … and riding

Mark Farnworth

Group Chairman