“Twice the fun, since ‘71!” - Why clubs matter more than ever.
I was the kind of child who found adults much better company than kids my own age - which is probably how it came to be that in about 1994, my local model engineering society ended up holding an (extraordinarily brief) extraordinary general meeting, to establish a junior membership, just so I could take one out. By the time I was doing my GCSEs, playing with miniature locomotives on a Thursday night in a smoke-filled pre-fab down by the river, had to give way to the local photographic society, which I was able to take myself to, on my bike; by the time I was studying A-levels, I had joined the committee, subsequently becoming President for a season.
This was a first taste of all manner of social constructs. The conduct of meetings, of reading accounts and making financial decisions, voting for things (and with it, a first introduction to local politics - not quite Handforth Parish Council, but lively at times, nonetheless!). I got to speak in public, to welcome and give votes of thanks to visiting lecturers and judges. I spent time humping tables around the village hall, setting the room up for competitions, exhibitions, and the annual fish and chip supper. The kind of genteel civic life England ran on for years. Cricket, warm beer and cycling nuns, right?*
Most of all, it was something that brought me into contact with people whom I otherwise would never have met, to share and develop an interest. People from all sorts of walks of life, from the village I lived in, from further afield, even from other countries. It was an environment in which I could ask questions; watch and learn from others; borrow, and lend, bits of kit - and to take part in activities I couldn’t have afforded, had I bought into them on my own, or on a commercial basis.
Over the years, I’ve joined all sorts of ‘clubs’. With the advent of internet message boards, what such things looked like, shifted, and a further paradigm shift came with the advent of Facebook, in particular. Out went the old order, in some quarters. Why convene a meeting and draft a constitution, when you can set up a Facebook group in a few clicks?
For all that instant access, instant ‘community’ has given us, I want to celebrate the strength and depth of membership organisations like the Tandem Club, which we joined after buying our triplet, whose beautifully put-together magazine landed on the doormat, this morning. Although the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year are having to be deferred, the magazine arrived with a pair of free celebratory ‘snoods’ for members, funded from a bequest from a late member. The perfect anniversary gift for 2021, when I keep leaving the house on a bike, in the cold, and forgetting my blasted face mask! Both our triplet and yellow tandem arrived into our lives with Tandem Club stickers on, and we have been able to track down a number of previous owners of our machines, thanks to the group. Once coronavirus calms down, we look forward to meeting and riding with some of them, in person.
Last weekend, we joined the first Zoom-hosted AGM of the Land’s End - John o’Groats Association - another group which has given us inspiration, encouragement and new friends, over the last couple of years. I’m looking forward to promoting more of the Association’s aims, on social media, as it happens, over the coming year.
Rhoda and her predecessor as LE-JoG age record holder and Adams-Elloway Trophy winner, Henry Cole, at the Lands End - John o’Groats Association awards, 2020.
For all the benefits of data-driven fraternisation, the immediate answer to a question from a random, if enthusiastic and potentially knowledgeable person on Facebook is perhaps not as valuable as the shared expertise of someone who knows you a little better, and who you can trust - where there is the ‘after sales service’ you get from friendships built around mutual investment in sharing an interest.
We’re still members of various voluntary and charitable organisations, not connected to cycling. Some for activities we no longer get to enjoy as we used to - for now at least - but those which have focused on quality communications with members, on building ‘real-life’ as well as ‘online’ community, and good stewardship of resources, are those which have endured. For a season, their activities may need need our particular support, in different ways, as members and volunteers, and their existence forms a lifeline connecting us to the world we all hope to get back to. As for us, I certainly hope after a lean and challenging year last year, that we will have at least twice the fun, in ‘21 - with new and old friends sharing the road with us.