Event Reports
Guest Speaker (Steve Clarke, NABD) - Wednesday 18th July 2012
We hosted a guest speaker, in the form of Steve Clarke, NABD Rep, at our branch meeting on Wednesday 18th July. Steve gave us a brief talk about NABD (National Association for Bikers with a Disability), then opened up the floor for questions. A few of the pertinent points were:
- NABD has helped 10,000 bikers over their 21 year history
- The membership of the NABD has now grown to a staggering 5,000+ individual members with the support of over 200 affiliated clubs and businesses
- NABD has only 2 paid workers, who are their office staff
- The office staff and administration costs of the association are funded by NABD's national rallies
- The NABD is regularly consulted on issues relating to disabled motorcycling by the DVLA, DfT, VOSA, DSA, and MAVIS
- NABD are often asked to carry out assessments for disabled people who wish to regain their motorcycle licence entitlement
- NABD operates a grants system, to help with the cost of special adaption work to bikes, scooters, combo's and trikes, necessary to suit the needs of disabled riders.
- These grants range from £100.00 to £1,400.00 dependant on the type of machine and the particular requirements of the rider
- In 2011, £74,000 was awarded in grants
- The grants system is funded by donations, which is where NABD can claim, that every penny they receive in donations (from individuals, clubs or companies) goes towards helping disabled riders get on the road (very few other charities can make such a claim)
- NABD has been instrumental in setting up similar groups in Norway, Sweden, France, USA and Japan.
- NABD has a fleet of 'learner legal' motorcycles and scooters which are already adapted to suit various disabilities, these machines are loaned to disabled riders free of charge (a small administration fee applies) for the purposes of training and tests. These are in constant use and many disabled people benefit from them each year.
- NABD offer advice on insurance, licensing, legal and any other matters relating to the disability of a rider, and when necessary we will make representations on their behalf.
- Up to 90% of all grant applications are awarded.
- They recently had to temporarily suspend their grants as they had spent more than they had received, however, they are back on track again
Anyone can join NABD, you don't have to be disabled yourself, but your membership fees will help to get a disabled rider back on the road.
We also took the opportunity to present in person, our own donation of £100, which we had raised at our auction, earlier in the year.
We do hope that our delay in presenting the cheque (by waiting until we could present this in person) wasn't the reason the grants system had to be suspended :-(
All in all, a great charitable cause and a huge thanks to Steve for talking the time to come and talk to us and answer questions.