Phil McIntosh provided the members with his report on the Gears and Beers rides and festival. Thirty minutes of information, appreciation and relaxation on achieving the massive result we hoped for.
David Hodge was the treasurer for the festival, and gave us a run down on sources of funds. These are subject to audit, of course, but on the figures reported, Rider Registration accounted for around 70% of funds, sponsorship came in around 17.5%, with Gate takings and Stall receipts each contributing about 5%.
Phil spoke on the feedback that he has received, where the consensus was "best event ever". The topics included that it was not a long weekend, so many visitors had taken time off work, we had a casualty - broken collar bone - but looked after the patient so he had a positive experience, photographers with cycle event experience were impressed with the degree of organisation, marketing by social media, and the tougher we make the rides, the more they love it.
Rider Safety, Traffic management on the rides, Rider experience, signage and registration were all elements that we need to run smoothly, and we achieved all our targets, through the efforts of volunteers. Phil thanked a massive list of contributors, some were Rotarians but many others helped out.
Phil noted that three lady riders came back from the dirty 130 ride at about 4.00pm, they had been on the course for nine hours!!!!
One important position was that of "incident controller", and John Ferguson was ready and willing to play his part.
Positioned inside the control tower, in Mates Gully, coffee and cake at hand, John and Judy await a call to duty.
One of the improvements at the festival this year was the Secure Bike Storage compound. South Wagga Apex manned the gate, and with matching wristbands it ran smoothly. One valuation of the bikes was six million dollars.
To get your bike out of the compound, you had to match your green bike wristband to your orange band on your wrist. The Ulster constabulary have expressed interest in the process.
One of the jobs that hung over our heads all day Sunday was the pack up of the festival equipment. There was furniture, tents, fencing, bunting, bins, trestles, bikeracks, signage.....all our members could add more to this list.
There was a beer for the workers who helped pack up the festival, and the most extraordinary fact was that we were into those drinks at 7.30pm.