Dear Wakefield MAG Member,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Welcome to the Wakefield MAG e-newsletter. If you can't attend our Tuesday meetings regularly, it's the next best thing to keep you up to date with what we are up to.
CONTENTS
1) Call to Action in early 2024
2) Quiz Nite Report
3) Christmas Present Ideas
4) 1-90 Raffle Winner
5) Wakefield MAG Annual General Meeting
6) Post Christmas Auction
7) What do YOU want from Wakefield MAG
8) Christmas Meetings
9) Kidzaware Christmas Toy Collection
10) Forthcoming Events (for December and beyond)
1) Call to Action in early 2024
Two significant things are going to happen in 2024:
With the new constituency boundary changes, we do know a large number of MP's will be retiring, and hence, there will be a lot of new prospective MP's standing for the UK General Election.
Operation Earthquake Phase II will be announced early in the new year, which will be making the ICE ban an election issue. Opposition to Net Zero (of which the ICE ban is a significant part) is gathering mainstream momentum and more and more people are seriously questioning the collosal costs for negligable benefits. Two newly published peer-reviewed papers show net-zero/1.5°C:
The cost is roughly 6 times the benefit. The CEBR report commissioned last year by MAG et al came to a figure for banning ICE of cost 5 times the benefit, so all these numbers are pointing to the same ball park. These reports are based on the Paris agreement so are global cost/benefit, not UK alone, but I think it is fair to assume the proportion of costs and benefits for the UK is not going to be significantly different to the rest of the world. The political argument that if we lead in this area (Net Zero), others will follow, is pure folly. More likely, other high polluting countries will simply take full advantage of our self-inflicted economic self harm, whilst we as a country, and you individually, all get significantly poorer. At the end of the day, UK emmissions represent less than 1% of global emmissions, so even if we became fully carbon-neutral tomorrow, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to our climate (which changes quite naturally anyway, always has done, and will continue to do so for millions of years to come).
Meanwhile, more than 70,000 delegates are attending the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, many of whom will have racked up significant air miles in private jets to get there, to then sit in a nicely air conditioned huge conference centre in the middle of a desert, to tell YOU to give up your motorbike(s) and petrol/diesel car(s), replace your gas boiler with a far less efficient ground source heat pump, don't take foreign holidays and become significantly poorer, in order to save the planet !!!!
Now is very much the time to make this self harm environmental vanity project a serious election issue. As a nation, we simply cannot afford a 6-1 cost benefit vanity project - UK general government gross debt was £2,537.0 billion (that's over 2.5 trillion British pounds) at the end of Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023, equivalent to 100.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). General government gross debt was 85.4% of GDP in 2019. The generally accepted ideal debt to GDP ratio is around 60%. Britain's public finances are on an unsustainable path and rapidly deteriorating according to the Treasury Watchdog.
Early in the new year, MAG members will be asked to support Operation Earthquake Phase II. This will involve:
Please continue to support Operation Earthquake, the future of biking as we know it depends on it.
What this space for more specific details in the new year !!!
Check out the event report Here
Stuck for a Christmas present idea for the biker in your life this year? Be stuck no more as MAG has a Christmas Shop.
Christmas items include multiple Christmas card designs, coffee cup (with Christmas card), water bottle (with Christmas card), Gift Card and Gift of a MAG membership. In fact, any MAG product can be made a Christmas gift by adding a handwritten Christmas card and 'not to be opened until December 25th' sticker on the packaging free of charge. Simply add to the basket both the item you would like to gift plus the 'make any MAG product a gift' and at checkout add the recipients details in the delivery field, and MAG will do the rest (Available only until the 17th of December to allow for postage).
If you would like to gift any of the Wakefield MAG Products, let me know and I'll arrange to get these to you in time for Christmas.
We drew the winner of our 1-90 Raffle at our Quiz on Tuesday 28th November. The 1-90 Raffle, if you are not familiar, is the purchase of one (or more) raffle numbers for a pound each (numbered 1 - 90 funnily enough) and a winning number is randomly drawn once all numbers have been sold, with the winner then getting £50, and £40 is then donated to the MAG Fighting Fund - a veritable 'win-win'.
The winner of the 2023 1-90 Raffle was Tom Forbes, who hails from Scarborough (he bought the winning number at our 21st Birthday Bash back in September). Congratulations Tom !!!
5) Wakefield MAG Annual General Meeting
The Wakefield & District Motorcycle Action Group Branch AGM will be held in the Thatched House, on Tuesday 16th January 2024, starting at 8:00pm (prompt). All members are invited to attend this special meeting, so please try to attend if you can. At this meeting there will be a review of the year, elections for the branch committee and the prize giving for our branch heroes. As this meeting is effectively a MAG political meeting, it carries with it a whopping 75 branch points for everyone who attends (a normal branch meeting only carries 5 points). As all the points are tallied at year end and go towards the branch heroes presentation, points really do mean prizes !!!! What better boost to your branch heroes tally for the new year !!!
In order to save costs (given the huge hike in postal charges), the Annual Wakefield MAG mailshot will be emailed to all eligible Members, i.e. current or recently expired MAG members with a WF postcode, to formally place notice for the meeting. Those members for whom we don't have valid email addresses, will be posted the letter. The meeting is also advertised in the events section on the main MAG website (www.mag-uk.org), on our own website, and in the latest edition of Open Road magazine. If anyone has a preference for a mailed copy of the AGM mailshot, instead of an email, please let me know.
Previous years AGM minutes are available on the Wakefield MAG website (AGM's)
N.B. Motions for the AGM should be submitted at least the week before the AGM (Tuesday 9th January 2024).
Our 19th Post Christmas Auction will be held on Tuesday 30th January 2024. Our Post Christmas Auction's are the stuff of legends. The idea is you donate all your unwanted Christmas presents, together with other stuff you no longer want, or have the room for, to the Branch and we auction them off to the highest bidder .... with the proceeds split 2/3 to MAG and 1/3 to charitable causes.
Be there early, with viewing from 07:00 onwards, and the auction starting at 08:00 prompt (and don't forget to bring your unwanted Christmas pressies and other stuff you no longer want, or have the room for !!!).
Hope to see you there.
7) What do YOU want from Wakefield MAG
Wakefield MAG represents MAG members with a WF postcode, and is your MAG branch. We have met every week since January 2002 (excluding the two periods of Covid lockdown in 2020), that's very nearly 22 years. However, since Covid, Wakefield MAG has lost a number of active members, mainly due to health reasons and hanging up their leathers. However, we have not been able to replace them with new active members, meaning all the organisational effort now falls down to only three people, which is not sustainable and leads to burnout.
As an attempt to boost meeting attendance, we have trialled business meetings every other week, with socials on the others, in case business meetings were too boring for some. However, that hasn't worked as the socials are less well attended than business meetings, and we've had to stop the monthly organised social events because they were so poorly attended. We also haven't held any monthly rideouts during 2023 as attendance on those had dropped right off, plus no one volunteered to be rideout co-ordinator at the 2023 AGM.
Curtailing social events as they are poorly attended and no longer feasible reduces the attraction to new members as you don't do anything socially - it's a real Catch 22 situation.
Wakefield MAG has historically never been an overly political branch (unlike some other MAG branches) - most business meetings cover only the minimum of political campaigning, with the majority of time devoted instead to events and fundraising (in short, they aren't boring meetings to attend).
We hosted a very successful 21st Birthday Bash in September this year - although we had an excellent turnout, there were relatively few Wakefield MAG members (past and present) who attended, despite the fact the event was specifically laid on for them as a celebration of 21 years of a MAG presence in the Wakefield District. Why was that ? Buggered if I know.
So, the question to our membership is .... What do YOU want from Wakefield MAG that would encourage you to attend meetings / events ?
Please e-mail us at wakefield-rep@mag-uk.org with your ideas and suggestions, or better still, come down to a meeting on a Tuesday and tell us in person !!!
There is an old adage, 'USE IT OR LOSE IT', which is particularly relevant right now. Over to you.
Please note there will be no branch meetings over the Christmas and New Year period i.e. Tuesday 26th December & Tuesday 2nd January. Meetings as normal this month up to and including Tuesday 19th December. Meetings in the new year will commence on Tuesday 9th January 2024, then every Tuesday thereafter, as normal.
Also worthy of note, MAG's Central Office will close at mid-day on Friday 22nd of December 2023 and re-open at 09:00 on Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
9) Kidzaware Christmas Toy Collection
We are hosting another Christmas Toy Collection for Kidzaware, for Christmas 2023. We are collecting toys and presents (age range: A few months to early twenties) which we will deliver to this very worthwhile local charity in early December.
Please bring along any toys / presents (unwrapped at this stage) to any Tuesday Wakefield MAG meeting, up to and including Tuesday 12th December. If you can't make a meeting but would still like to donate some toys / presents, please let us know, and we'll arrange to collect them from you. Thank you in advance for supporting this most worthwhile Wakefield based charity.
10) Forthcoming Events (for December and beyond)
Saturday 9th December - Leeds and Bradford MAG Toy Run
Leeds and Bradford MAG Toy Run to Lineham Farm children's centre is being held this year in conjunction with the Burley Biker Breakfast. LABMAG are meeting from 09:30 at St Matthias church (LS4 2DZ) to have a breakfast and a bit of a natter and then getting on the bikes and riding up to Lineham Farm in convoy (if the weather isn't too good, go in the car). Alternatively, you could meet at Lineham Farm, the postcode is LS16 8AZ. Wrapped presents marked boy/girl/either up to the value of £10 each, for kids aged 8-11 years old would be appreciated. If you can't make the run, presents can be dropped off at LABMAG meetings, with Rosanna at Leeds MoT Centre on York Road in Leeds, or you can drop them off at the Burley Biker Breakfast and we'll take them for you!
Tuesday 12th December - Deadline for Kidzaware Christmas Toy Collection Donations
See Above. 20:00 in the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield.
Tuesday 19th December - Last Wakefield MAG meeting of 2023
Tuesday 9th January 2024 - First Wakefield MAG meeting of 2024 and deadline for AGM motions to be submitted
Tuesday 16th January 2024 - Wakefield MAG 22nd Annual General Meeting
See Above. 19:30 for a prompt 20:00 start in the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield
Tuesday 30th January 2024 - Post Christmas Auction
See Above
Got lots of unwanted Christmas presents ? Got items that are of use/value but you don't have the space for them any more ? Prepared to donate them for a good cause ? Bring them along to the Wakefield MAG 'Post Christmas Auction' where they will be raffled off to the highest bidder, with all the proceeds being donated to MAG and other worthy causes. 20:00 in the Thatched House.
That's all for this month, have a great Christmas, hope Santa brings you lots of biking goodies, and I hope to see you all soon.
Ride Safe .. Ride Free
Steve Travis
Chairman
Wakefield MAG
0772 078 4734
Wakefield MAG meet at the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield at 8:00pm every Tuesday. New (and Old) faces are always welcome.