Year: 2015

Our next York Rally meeting (and our AGM)  is to be held upstairs in the ‘Light Studio’ of the Railway Institute, York, at 10AM on Saturday, 5th December 2015. All are welcome.

Alongside the usual business, we will be proposing that the York Rally (currently an unincorporated association) converts to a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) – in other words a charity. This will both limit our liability as committee members and also open up opportunities for funding. We have taken advice on the legalities, and will be asking the AGM to give formal approval to start the process off.  We aim to be incorporated before the 2016 Rally, although we have been told that the process may take some time.

Since my last posting, progress has on some fronts been rather frustratingly slow:

• We are still negotiating with the Council about the venue! We are seeking to make use of the central area which in 2015 was fenced off: this is where the arena needs to go, so it’s the centrepiece of the Rally rather than being off to one edge.  After seemingly endless negotiations (since May!) we will be having another meeting shortly.  We absolutely need to know if we have that area before we can plan the site layout for 2016.
• Apologies too for the lack of email updates. My current internet provider isn’t as accommodating as the one I had last year, and bulk emails just get blocked. I’m working on setting up a more robust system (which can handle our ever growing mailing list – almost into four figures now!) but that’s waiting on technical changes behind the scenes on the website.  I hope email newsletters will be up and running shortly.
• However, there has been considerable progress on the website.  Most of the 2016 pages are now in place – if in fairly bare bones form – and we’ll be filling out details soon. Take a look round – I’ve used many pictures from the 2015 event.
• Talking of which – apologies again to photo contest participants! Your images have been invaluable for the website and other purposes: thank you all and I hope all have been credited correctly. But I’m still working on getting the images judged by the committee, and winners awarded. It will be done, soon!
• Campsite bookings will also be open soon too – we just want to conclude negotiations with the council before we take anyone’s money.
• Many thanks to all who took part in the 2015 Sportive (and also of course to all who volunteered at it!). I don’t yet have an official total but it has probably raised something like £2000 which we will use to stage youth events at next year’s Rally.
•  We are happy to confirm that British Cycling have awarded us a prestigious series of races. Race organiser Dave Bishop confirms:“I can confirm that British Cycling have awarded us a National Endurance Series event and a National Short Distance Series Grass Track event at next year’s York Rally on Saturday 18th June. The Grass meeting will also include Omnium events for ladies and schoolpersons. Plus a full programme for the seniors. Cycle Speedway is booked for the Saturday lunch time with come and try it events. Sunday will see a series of Cyclo Cross Races, organised by York Cycle Works as part of the Yorkshire Summer Series CX Competition. Further events could be organised by Go-Ride coaches if we can find volunteers with qualifications.” See also the 2016 Grasstrack and Cyclo-Cross pages.
  

It’s almost time for the Rally to swing back into action! As you might have suspected, most of us on the committee have been taking a bit of a break to recover over the last few months – although there has been some sterling work done behind the scenes (mainly negotiating with the Council about dates and other matters… but also on the Sportive, just 33 days away now.)

Anyway, we need to get cracking on 2016 soon, and earlier today I finally started work on the Rally website, to restructure it ready to feature the 2016 event :-). More changes are coming soon, to complete empty 2016 pages, give it a new front page, etc., so please bear with us as it fills out. We’ll also have the 2015 badges on sale shortly, and the show programme available as a PDF download.

We’re still waiting to hear some final confirmations about the site but we’re now pretty certain the 2016 dates are 18-19th June 2016. A formal announcement/press releases etc. will follow when the final details are ironed out.

It’s also time to get new artwork underway so we can promote the Rally at the York Festival of Cycling, at our fundraising Sportive, and at the Mildenhall Rally at the end of this month.

Apologies to photo competition entrants – we’ve not yet managed to get the judging done and prizes awarded, but we’re onto it now! Many thanks for all of the excellent entries. They’ll be a huge help as we go on to promote the 2016 Rally.

Once the website is a bit further along we’ll also put together a ‘final report’ on the 2015 Rally – many thanks again to all who supported it!

It was a huge success, financially as well as ‘a good time being had by all’ if we can go by the many lovely, positive reactions we’ve seen and received. We’re now very well placed to make the 2016 event even better…

We’ve had a wonderful response so far to the photo competition – please do keep them coming until entries close at midnight this Sunday! And feel free to send us your pictures afterwards, too!

As you’ll see from our new page headers, we’re already using many of your wonderful images to promote the Rally.  Normally we’ll caption with photographers names, but we can’t for the headers – right click the image if you’re curious, select ‘view image’ or similar, and the  photographer’s name will be in the image’s file name. Images are loaded at random from the pool, whenever you load a page on this site. Here’s the current set:

Also, we’ve been compiling a collection of social media reactions to the Rally – here’s a selection! I’d best look into some gallery software that’s easier to scroll through…

If you’re featured in either the pictures or these clippings, and you’d rather not be, please just let us know (publicity@yorkrally.org) and we’ll remove you straight away.

The York Rally is imminent!

Most of the team are now on site, so will have limited access to email – please use info@yorkrally.org for the best chance of a reply, but from now until the Rally is over, the best way to contact us is via the Rally mobile:

York Rally enquiries mobile: 0746 732 1443

Please use this number for all non urgent enquiries. For emergencies, there is a separate number:

York Rally Emergencies: 0746 732 1440

Please call this number immediately if there is an accident, a threat to safety, or to report a lost child.

On site, the first marquee went up yesterday – the rest go up today, with the marquee company on site at 8AM, and our team of volunteers already on site will also be marking out the campsite. Preparations will continue on Thursday, ready for the first visitors to come on Friday afternoon (the campsite opens 4PM).

The website has now been updated with loads of practical details for visitors: see http://yorkrally.org/visitor-faq/

I’m not sure if there will be another website update before the Rally, though we’re likely to be posting more updates on Facebook. In any case, all of us on the organising committee and our many supporters in the Friends of York Rally look forward to meeting you on the Knavesmire, and we hope you enjoy the Rally!

Eight days to go – so the Rally starts a week tomorrow!

As promised,  some details about the photo competition. We need good, and even great, pictures of this year’s Rally for our website and publicity for next year – but we don’t have the funds to hire a professional photogapher to cover the event. So we’re relying on you, the visitors!

If you’re at the Rally taking pictures, please send us the best of them and have a chance to win in our photo competition!

We’re looking for any positive image of the Rally: happy people enjoing a grand weekend of cycling. Capturing the spirit of the Rally is more important than technical excellence. We need to show people why we love the Rally, and why they should come next year!

So even if you don’t think your pictures are prize-winning, but they raise a smile or happy memories, please do send them in!

The prizes

First prize: A Bridge Street Saddlebag
This is a lightweight, quick release saddlebag made in waterproof nylon. Worth £80, and includes a ‘high mount’ Klick-Fix seatpost mount. Large size (15 litres), black. Kindly donated by Bridge Street Saddlebags: www.bridgestreet.cc

Second prize: Free camping in 2016!
Free camping at the 2016 York Rally: any single pitch up to a value of £90 (e.g. a motorist pitch and four extra people).

Three runners-up prizes: Cyclemiles mugs
These cycling mugs (worth £8.95 each) were kindly donated by
CycleMiles: Tel 02392 455 355 or see www.cyclemiles.co.uk

Under 16s prize: a York Rally hoodie.

The details

Please send your images, at the best available resolution, to publicity@yorkrally.org with ‘Photo competition’ as the subject line. If the file is too large for email we suggest using the free file transfer service at www.wetransfer.com – just hit ‘skip’ if it nags you for the paid version. Don’t worry about sending big files or plenty of them: we have fast internet and masses of hard disk space! Unfortunately we cannot accept entries as prints or slides.

Closing date for entries is Sunday 5th July 2015 and winners will be announced on or before the 1st August 2015. Prizes will be sent to the winners within two weeks.

Judging will be carried out by the York Rally Committee and will take account of the age of submitters: please mention this with your entry
if you feel it is relevant, and to be eligible for the Under 16 prize.

By entering, you are granting the York Rally Committee a non-exclusive license to use your images to promote the York Rally both in print and online. Unless you request otherwise, you will always be credited as the photographer.