Blood Bikes Cumbria held their 2020 AGM at the Greenhill Hotel in Wigton on Wednesday (2nd September 2020).
This event takes place annually when the Committee and members attend to review the previous year, ask questions, and sum up any new changes that have or will be happening in the future. During the meeting there was a re-election of the new committee members. Firstly, was the current Chairperson Anne Marie Moffatt stepping down from her position. Everyone involved with Blood Bikes Cumbria, gave thanks to the efforts that Anne Marie had put into Blood Bikes Cumbria and her time spent serving on the Committee. The one thing we were assured of is that Anne Marie will carry on being an active member of the Group as a driver/rider, shift controller, fundraiser as well as delivering presentations in the future. Thank you, Anne Marie.
It was noted by Members and Committee alike that the past year has been a very difficult time personally and operationally for everyone involved with Blood Bikes Cumbria. As COVID-19 put the hold on recruitment and when it was obvious the NHS would be under severe strain, a decision was made that Blood Bikes Cumbria would temporarily step up their operations to 24/7 coverage.
During the AGM, Operations Manager (Graeme Thompson), sincerely thanked all members for increasing their efforts to enable the Group to provide 24/7 coverage – acknowledging that we had calls of help from parts of the NHS that we never knew existed, until now. Their appreciation and gratitude for the assistance we gave is well documented.
As an organisation we recognised the efforts that Graeme went too, to enable us to operate 24 hours a day – 7 days a week over lockdown. Everyone involved in the Group thanked Graeme for his dedication and enthusiasm which he constantly injects into the organisation; whilst to be noted – working from home and looking after his family.
It was also mentioned about recent PR items that had been released about us, including the National Blood Bikes Awareness day video made by members Spencer Doran & Brad Haughin – in conjunction with Shaun from Sugar Tongue Media. It was recognised as to how much publicity was gained for the Group by being shared nationally via the media.
Another notable mention was that our High Sheriffs of Cumbria Special Recognition Award was on show for members to see; everyone at Blood Bikes Cumbria are very proud to have received the prestigious honour.
Meeting then continued with the elections of the Committee positions. Initially the vacant positions were filled with the election of Secretary and Vice-chairperson namely Louise Hetherington and Ian Walby respectively.
The new Committee were elected unanimously by members as follows;
- Chairperson: Tony Rutherford
- Vice-chairperson: Ian Walby
- Secretary: Louise Hetherington
- Operations Manager: Graeme Thompson
- Treasurer: Ian Beattie
- Membership Secretary: Chris Bailey
- Fleet Manager: Gareth Cresswell
We would like to publicly thank the Committee and members for what has been achieved over the past year, especially in these challenging times. We simply couldn’t have done it without you. Also a huge thank you to all our members for their dedication to the cause and to enable us to operate 24/7 coverage.
We would also like to thank the people who sent in submissions of help which we received over the lockdown period of people wanting to assist Blood Bikes Cumbria, whether to ride, drive, shift control or raise money. We hugely appreciate your request to help and when recruitment restarts, we will be back in touch.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone that has supported us financially and those who have shared our media posts, whether it was in the Newspaper, on Facebook or our website.
Thank you.
Blood Bikes Cumbria.
‘ItsWhatWeDo’