Chairs Chatter

Hello everyone and welcome to my first Chairs Chatter.

Before I get into the main text, I would like to say thank you to Steve Pratt for his time as Chair. Steve took over in June at very short notice. He had to quickly get to grips with the task in hand and has done a great job and for this we thank you.

At the AGM we recognised the following people for their achievements over the year :-

• Andrew Hill as our Associate of the Year – well done Andrew and many thanks for agreeing to take on the role of Editor.
• Huw Pritchard who was voted Observer of the Year – thanks Huw for everything over the year and of course for the very kind way you told me that the Hyabusa was not the bike for me back when I was starting out!
• Steve Pratt who was awarded the Brian Bennett award for his continued contribution to the group.

A huge thank you also to Louise and Peter Raynham, Dennis Jordan and Mark Addison for providing us with Bacon Butties, teas and coffees at every Pot Luck. We have a little something for all of you and will catch up with you at Banstead and Tatsfield.

The day after being confirmed as Chair, I emailed all associates asking you what you would like to see from LAM, as well as asking what you like and what you do not like. More importantly, I asked for your suggestions on how could we improve the Pot Luck experience. As I write this chatter, I've received four responses and one of those was advice on what motorcycle I thought was best!

We don’t for one moment think we are getting everything right and we would genuinely like to hear from associates and full members with any ideas on how we can improve or make better use of what we currently have.

For those of you who don't know me, save for riding motorcycles one of my other passions is collecting watches. To borrow from Patek Phillippe (sorry) “The Committee do not actually own LAM, we are merely looking after it until the next AGM” and as such, we are keen to keep it as enjoyable from your first assessment ride, through to test and beyond.

It is your LAM and we need you to engage with us in order to keep it enjoyable for everyone.

Help us make this a cracking year for LAM.

Paul Harle