7^th December 2003

Dear Member,

Financially: we have raised nearly £2,500 for the MAG fighting fund, through MAG event ticket sales, donations from branch funds, payment for MotoX event marshalling (in conjunction with York MAG) and MAG raffle ticket sales. We have also made sizeable charity donations to Lineham Farm Children’s Trust and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, following our attendance en-masse at this year's Eastmoor Gala.

Membership: we have increased MAG membership in the Wakefield area by 200% since we formed the branch two years ago !!! Huge thanks to everyone who has joined MAG or maintained their membership this year. If your membership has recently lapsed, please consider re-joining. We have just short of 100 members on our books, it would be brilliant to top 100 by our second birthday, which is 9^th January 2004. Enclosed is a branch poster – please display this poster wherever it may interest bikers in our activities. Together, we can make Wakefield MAG the biggest and best MAG branch in the UK.

Wakefield MAG AGM. Our AGM is at 9:00pm on Thursday 15^th January 2004, in the Waterloo, Westgate End, Wakefield, and all Wakefield MAG members (past, present and prospective) are invited to attend. An agenda for the meeting is enclosed. As well as the elections for the 2004 branch committee, there will be a prize giving for our branch heroes, in the following categories:

• most attendance’s at MAG events, branch events & meetings;
• attendance’s runner-up;
• most attendance’s to branch meetings on a bike;
• biggest contributor to branch (and hence MAG) funds.

N.B. Please submit any motions for the AGM by 8^th Jan 2004

Yorkshire Pudding Rally – 6^th-8^th August 2004. Next year will see Wakefield MAG host our first rally, in conjunction with Barnsley, Sheffield, Huddersfield and Dearne Valley MAG branches. The name may be old, but this re-launched rally, to be held at Silverwood Scout Camp, Silkstone, Barnsley, promises to be better than ever. Advance ticket sales will be £10, which will of course include a complimentary Yorkshire Pudding plus other benefits. We hope to see you there.

Christmas Pub-Crawl – Saturday 13^th December 2003. Our Christmas Do this year is another one of our now legendary pub crawls, starting in the Grey Horse, Kirkgate, Wakefield at 7:30pm. These events are a great way to meet the other branch members, highly entertaining and huge fun. Everyone is invited and we really hope you can make it.

Insurance Quotes: MAG is conducting research into the cost of bike insurance, particularly for theft cover. To conduct this research, we need as many quotes as possible, one for TPO and one for TPFT, from the same insurance company, at the same time and for the same risk. We invite all MAG members (and indeed all bikers) to obtain sample quotes for us – the more quotes we have, the most representative our sample is and hence, the more accurate our research will be. Please forward any quotes obtained to myself, either by phone, e-mail or in person at the Thursday meetings.

Mailing List: At Wakefield MAG, we are conscious that only a relatively small proportion of our total membership attend our weekly meetings. We would love to see you all attend but realise that due to work or personal commitments, attendance isn’t always possible. We try to keep everyone up-to-date with our activities and news through regular mail shots (like this one) and our web site. However, this still doesn’t cover all the current news, campaigns, events and updates, presented at the meetings. Therefore, we are launching an e-mail mailing list – via this, we will send you regular updates of everything we are up to, on a timely basis. Of course, we would still like you to attend our meetings in person, but if this isn't possible, our mailing list is the next best thing. To subscribe, simply send us an e-mail with the subject title ‘Subscribe’, to our branch e-mail account (wfd_district_mag@hotmail.com).

Farmyard Party Raffle: We are now selling tickets for the MAG raffle, to be drawn at the 2004 Farmyard Party on Saturday 19^th June. Tickets are £1 each and 1^st prize is a brand new Triumph Daytona 600; 2^nd & 3^rd prizes are £750 & £250 Hein Gericke vouchers. Proceeds from the raffle will be donated to the MAG Foundation charity. Get your tickets at any Thursday meeting, or phone / e-mail your requirements and we’ll get back to you.

Branch products: We still have a stock of Wakefield branch patches, £4 each and available at any of the Thursday meetings. T-shirts will be available again soon (once we find a new supplier), let me know if you want one reserving in advance.

Revamped MAG web site: MAG has revamped its national web site so be sure to check it out (www.mag-uk.org) if you haven’t already done so.

Finally, Wakefield MAG wishes all our members a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Hope to see you soon.