Bicycle Tasmania President’s Report 2005

It is not until I review the past year that I realise fully what we have achieved, the 
weeks and months seem to pass and not much seems to happen but at the end of 
year it is gratifying to see that so much has been accomplished.

The biggest development of the year was finally arranging our public liability 
insurance through Cycling Australia, which has enabled Bicycle Tasmania for the first 
time for many years to run a Rides Calendar. Such insurance is essential for us to be 
a relevant and responsible organisation. Unfortunately of course this required a rise 
in membership fees and resulted in a slight decrease in members. As the Rides 
Calendar continues and Bicycle Tasmania becomes more active running Bike Week 
and similar events it is likely we will attract more cyclists to join the organisation.

It was one of my overriding desires as President to achieve a membership that 
reflects the increasing numbers of cyclists we all see on the roads around the State. 
This has not quite been achieved for various reasons, as it has been hard sometimes 
to decide whether with our limited resources to concentrate solely on increasing 
membership or use our strengths in other ways. The insurance issue took this 
quandary out of our hands over the last year or so, but now having sorted this out 
Bicycle Tasmania can move on to concentrate on achieving a larger membership 
base. 

A year ago writing the 2004 President’s Report I noted that early planning, initiated 
by Bicycle Tasmania, had started on Bike Week events in the north of the State, 
which would have the effect of putting the “State” back in State Bike Week. 12 
months later I can proudly say that the Ride Launceston event was a tremendous 
success with over 150 riders participating in the community ride led by the Mayor 
Janie Dickenson with her child in a trailer. The event went on to win the 2005 Heart 
Foundation Local Government Award and Physical Activity Award. Well done to 
Launceston City Council and particularly Recreation Officer Lucy Marshall for making 
it all such a success. 
 
To all those that assist and members who regularly come along to meetings I say 
thank you, but special appreciation has to go to the committee members who keep 
Bicycle Tasmania operating smoothly. I really value the work that Andrew Heard, 
Secretary and Webmaster does for us all. I really don’t think most members or even 
some of the committee realise how much Andrew does behind the scenes in keeping 
the day to day operation of BT running smoothly and updating the website constantly 
with cycling news and events. Given the number of hits the site regularly receives it 
must be a source of information for many cyclists.
Stuart Graham had a hard act to follow in taking on the role of Treasurer when our 
Kate Tamayo stepped down a year ago. For someone who doesn’t seem to take 
money, bureaucracy and paperwork very seriously I appreciate the effort he puts in 
to keep track of Bicycle Tasmania’s finances. 

Dave Edwards as Membership Secretary had a particularly big workload this year as 
we changed over to our membership year being concurrent with the calendar year 
and other matters relating to the changes necessitated in our dealing with Cycling 
Australia. I really appreciate the extremely efficient job in keeping track of members, 
payments and other details; he does things with Excel spreadsheets that will 
probably always mystify me.  

Spoke our bi monthly newsletter continues to inform our members and others in the 
cycling community thanks Tony Fenton spending hours in front of his computer. Of all 
the regular BT proceedings, our newsletter is one of the most important.

Tim Cox, as Patron is almost the silent patron, well not silent that’s probably not easy 
for Tim, but he facilitates the regular talkback sessions on ABC Hobart. A powerful 
medium to peddle a positive cycling message across the State and the ongoing 
feedback from the community does influence the issues that Bicycle Tasmania 
tackles. 

One of these issues led to Bicycle Tasmania producing stickers that give a clear 
message that motorists should give cyclists plenty of room when overtaking.   

Finally I would like to officially welcome Mary McParland to the local cycling 
community; she has taken over as Executive Officer of CyclingSouth following the 
departure of Rowan Burns. Bicycle Tasmania’s strong cooperative links with 
CyclingSouth are set to continue with constructive planning for Bike Week and other 
events for the year ahead have already occurred.

As I step down from the role of President I would like to thank all those who in the 
four years I have been in the position have and still do work extremely hard to keep 
Bicycle Tasmania relevant and supportive to all those who currently ride or who may 
be contemplating using a bike for the first time. 

We have recently seen the biggest rise in fuel costs for many years, throwing into 
sharp focus our societies reliance on motor vehicles as our primary method of 
transport. For the foreseeable future this is likely to continue but as the cost spirals 
upwards other methods of transport will become more attractive to a broader section 
of society. One of these alternatives is of course the bicycle, which not only provides 
an efficient means of travelling moderate distances, but unlike any of the other 
options also offers unparalleled health and environmental benefits. 

Bicycle Tasmania in the years to come has an important role to raise awareness in 
our community of these benefits and use our skills to encourage those who wish to 
use a bicycle for transport or recreation.

I am convinced that all those who simply just use a bicycle on a regular basis 
contribute immensely towards raising awareness and encouraging more people to 
cycle, but if you wish to amplify this effect, I appeal to you to get involved in Bicycle 
Tasmania so we can be even more effective in our work in the years ahead.

Tim Stredwick
President.