Hi Jason,

It was probably John (our secretary) you met at that meeting.

Thanks for giving me a good excuse for a rant regarding insurance!

We have just gone through the throes of finding insurance for the coming
year and have had to find just under $1000 to cover public liability and
some (compulsory) accident insurance. For a club with around 25-30 members,
this is rather disheartening and begs the question: Where do grass-roots
organizations like us go to for support?

Bicycle Victoria (BV) actively encourages the formation of workplace and
community BUGs and has a BUG Manual online which devotes only three lines to
the Insurance issue stating that "The BUG will also have to decided (sic) if
it wants or needs insurance". In the current litigious environment it is
not possible to get Community Grants (one of the major funding sources
suggested by BV) or even hire a hall unless we have Public Liability cover,
so insurance is a necessity. Elsewhere in the BUG manual (p. 11) BV makes
the statement that it can help with liability cover. "Bicycle Victoria can
assist with individual cover for BUGs and clubs". We contacted BV when we
started up fully expecting some genuine assistance but the best they did was
to refer us to an insurance broker - this was very disappointing and
demonstrated to us that there is a considerable gap between BV rhetoric and
reality. In fact it lowered our opinion of how fair dinkum BV really are in
supporting the grass roots feeder organisations whose committee members give
their time to better the lot of cyclists in Victoria. We had hoped for more
practical assistance with this insurance problem.

The majority of our membership are Bicycle Victoria members and so are
covered by the BV accident insurance cover but we need Public Liability
insurance cover to cover the Committee members and Ride Leaders.

It is very sad when a prospective member asks what value they get from their
membership and we have to tell them "Insurance for the committee".

Bicycle NSW allows their member BUGS to use their public liability insurance
policy so that they do not need to find their own cover. Why can't Bicycle
Victoria do the same? As long as there is a Risk Management Policy in place
and the ability to undertake Ride Leader training, the risks are reduced.

Which brings me to my next question: at the moment, there are lots of places
we can go to get information about BUGS (BV, Cycling Promotion Fund, etc)
but no one we can go to for real help on the critical issues. Is this the
time to form (yet another) umbrella group for BUGs to provide strategic
guidance and also to share the insurance burden?

I'm interested in discussing this further if anyone else is interested.

Regards,

Greg J.

On the subject of the MBUG domain name. We now have the Mitchell, Melbourne
and Murrindindi BUGs and were talking to someone in Macedon a couple of
weeks ago about forming a BUG there. Then there is Mansfield! Maybe this can
be the start of something bigger (MegaBUG?). Then we could have
mitchell.mbug.org.au, melbourne.mbug.org.au, darebin.mbug.org.au, etc...


-----Original Message-----
From: flying dutch [mailto:fdutch@...]
Sent: Wednesday, 12 April 2006 4:59 PM
To: vicbugchat@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [vicbugchat] Introduction to Mitchell Bicycle Users Group
(MBUG)

Hi Greg

i (think) we met at the BV webmasters meeting last Feb at BV-HQ?

good to hear from you. was wondering recently about you and your
rides/insurance etc

I am now left in a quandary however as I have always (personally)
nicknamed MelbourneBUG as MBUG but it looks like you well and truly
own it :-)))
So, looks like it's 'MelBUG' from now on

PS is that tunnel the one shown in the latest BV-RideOn magazine?
We in Boroondara have a tunnel, but nowhere near as 'sexy' as yours :-(

Hope you can make it to a future vicbugchat session sometime soon

cheers
Jason den Hollander

On 4/12/06, Greg Jones <greg.jones@...> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been a lurker here for a while and I thought it was about time I
> introduced MBUG to everyone.
>
> MBUG is a Bicycle Users Group located in the Mitchell Shire (Seymour,
> Tallarook, Broadford, Kilmore, Pyalong, Tooboorac, Wandong, Heathcote
> Junction, Wallan and Beveridge). This is just North of Melbourne and is
an
> easy drive if you want to come for a ride on a Sunday morning.
>
> The aims of the group are to "promote cycling throughout the shire
through
> regular organized non-competitive rides and to work with the shire to
> improve facilities for cyclists and provide a social outlet for
cyclists".
> (Sounds like a BUG!)
>
> Organized rides to suit participants of all levels are held every Sunday,
> rotating throughout the shire to enable as many people as possible to
> attend.
>
> In the 12 months of our existence, we have been fairly active in the
Shire:
> we have ridden over 2000km on Shire roads (we missed out on 5 Sunday
rides
> last year due to Christmas Day, New Years Day, Easter Sunday, Mothers'
Day
> and Fathers' Day). We have been actively involved in the planning process
> for the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail and have plans to develop
> another trail at the southern end of the Shire.
>
> We have a website at http://www.mbug.org.au that provides information on
> our
> rides and activities.
>
> For anyone interested, we are expanding our boundaries over the next two
> weekends:
>
> Sunday April 16: For those who aren't going away, our regular Wallan ride
> on
> Easter Sunday has moved to Craigieburn for a loop down to Broadmeadows,
> along the Western Ring Road and back to Craigieburn alongside the new
> freeway. This will be a fairly easy 40km ride on formed paths and is
suited
> to all kinds of bikes. Those interested in this ride should meet at the
> Craigieburn Primary School in Grand Boulevard for a 10:00am departure.
>
> Sunday April 23: We will meet up with the newly formed Murrindindi BUG
for
> a
> ride from Yea out to the Cheviot Tunnel (part of the future extension of
> the
> GRHC Rail Trail), south through Limestone and back to Yea via the Melba
> Highway. This will be a short 25km ride but will give people a chance to
> explore the tunnel before returning to Yea for a warm coffee. This ride
> will
> commence from the Yea Town Hall at 10:00am.
>
> If anyone is interested in joining us for a ride in the country, please
> feel
> free to contact me via email.
>
> Regards,
>
> Greg Jones
> President, MBUG
> president@...
>
>
>
>
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>
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--
"When I see an adult on a bicycle,
I do not despair for the future of
the human race." - H.G. Wells



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