From:  The Committee       

 Nottinghamshire CTC

 April 2007

 

                                                                                     

To: All volunteer ride leaders 

                                                Safety on Club Rides                                    

With to this letter are some guidelines, produced by CTC Headquarters, for the benefit of all those who volunteer to lead rides on behalf of the club. Please read them carefully, especially the section about “During the Ride”. We hope that you’ll find the guidelines useful, even if you’ve been leading rides for many years. 

The club’s reputation, as well as the safety and enjoyment of all riders, depends to a large extent on its friendly, capable and competent leaders. The club couldn’t function successfully without a body of good leaders and the committee is grateful to everyone who regularly takes on this responsibility. 

Following a couple of relatively serious accidents on recent club runs, the committee has sought advice from CTC Headquarters about actions which should be taken to promote safe riding and to minimize the risk of legal actions against the club or its volunteer leaders. As a result, the issue of the Guidelines for Group Leaders is one of the measures which are now being taken. Others include the issue to all new and regular riders of a CTC Guide to Riding with a Group and our own Code of Conduct. Also, formal complaints and disciplinary procedures have been introduced to allow poor behaviour of members to be addressed, in cases when less formal methods are felt to have failed 

We wouldn’t wish volunteer ride leaders to become alarmed by the mention of possible legal action against them. To the best of our knowledge, no CTC ride leader has ever been sued either by another member or by a member of the general public. Nevertheless, all ride leaders are covered by the organiser’s liability insurance taken out by CTC – provided that they have been registered with CTC Headquarters by the DA and provided that they are fully paid up members of CTC. So, you will appreciate the importance of renewing your membership promptly each year. 

We hope that you won’t be unfortunate enough to suffer an accident or other incident of any kind on any of your rides. However, should you do so, then it is important that you complete an Incident Report Form and submit it reasonably promptly to CTC Headquarters. An Incident Report Form and a CTC Entry Form should always be provided to you, prior to the ride, with the section Runs Book. The Entry Form should be completed by anyone who is joining your ride and is not a member of CTC. 

We hope that this doesn’t sound too negative. It really isn’t. The positive news is that your planning and leading of a ride can add significantly to the enjoyment of your fellow riders.