Members,

OMCC held its AGM on the 4th May 2023. Thanks to those who turned up and for those who couldn’t that submitted their forms. Changing membership fees can be a sensitive topic and so getting as broad as possible feedback from our members is appreciated. 

We are pleased to announce the new fee structure that will pay for the new insurance scheme has been resoundingly supported by members. Updates on the execution of the new insurance scheme will follow as soon as we have news. 

As a way to reduce the impact of the increase, it was decided to alter our membership renewal date to the 1st March each year (Was 1st Jan). 

As a result, for the 2023 year there is only 10 months left and so although the 12 month membership fees are $250, we will pro-rata the first year as follows:

5th May 2023 – 28th Feb 2024: $200 (metro) / $100 (non-metro)

1st March 2024 – 28th Feb 2025: $250 (metro) / $125 (non-metro)

Day membership will be $20 going forward.

Memberships are now open to be renewed. Please visit the club website here: https://www.oakleighmcc.com/membership-forms/annual-membership/

With the AGM we also voted in the new committee, and so I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new members and farewell some loyal servants of the club.

Committee Members Departing:	Committee Members Added:
Greg Chalmers (Treasurer) Peter Wines Zac Mularczyk	John Barlow Steve Carter Janina Gorski

To Greg Chalmers (Treasurer) and Peter Wines (Former President) who have left the committee, thank you for your loyal service over such an extended period of time; words won’t do justice to the contributions you have made but trust that you won’t be forgotten and the club is in a better place for your efforts.

The OMCC committee is now comprised of:

• Peter Spencer (President)
• Simon Watts (Secretary)
• Matt Kerr (Treasurer) 
• David Grice (Vice President)
• Chris Grubb (Membership Secretary)
• John Wilson (Groundskeeper)
• Craig Genner (Assistant Groundskeeper)
• Janina Gorski (Communications Officer)
• Stan Mularczyk (General Committee)
• John Barlow (General Committee)
• Steve Carter (General Committee)
• Reece Chalmers (General Committee)

A word from David Grice, departing president:

Thanks to all who supported me during my time as club president, and the two years prior to that as Secretary. Over the last 3 years we have dealt with COVID as well as Insurance issues; it has been a rather intense time to be involved with the management of the club. My focus needs to be elsewhere for the immediate future so I am taking a step back to Vice President but am committed to staying involved and supporting the momentum we have built up as a club. There are some exciting opportunities ahead for the club that I would like to ensure get delivered. I’d like to extend a massive thanks to Peter Spencer who has been an invaluable support to me over the last year while dealing with the Insurance issues. I’m confident we will be in good hands. 

A word from Peter Spencer, incoming president:

I wish to put forward a huge thank you to David Grice, what a huge and tireless effort he has done over the last 3+ years we all should be grateful and thankful, keeping this club open through a once in a 100 year pandemic and all the insurance challengers are just a couple of the countless things that David has done for the club, good news is that David is intending to remain on the committee and has some exciting projects planned.  

Also the efforts from Greg Chalmers, Greg is someone who has volunteered his time and just been there ready to help over the years and always been supporting the club, Greg intends to be a very active member of the club in the future.  

A big thanks also goes to the departing committee members and to the club members who have volunteered to be committee members and giving up their valuable time. 

A special thanks goes to the long term committee members who are once again prepared to give up their time to make this club successful 

Moving forward, I think we all need to appreciate the special club and facilities that we have and look forward to the next year. 

Regards 

Peter Spencer

Members,

It’s official. OMCC are now affiliated with MV. This will allow you to get your competition licenses with OMCC as your registered club.

For those of you who are new to competing under the MA/MV arrangements and want to compete in upcoming VTS series starting at Ravenswood on Sunday 30^th you will need to do the following:

1. Create a Ridernet profile here: https://www.ridernet.com.au/
2. Email OMCC [email protected] and provide your:
   • Ridernet ID (6 digit code)
   • Date of birth
   • Surname
3. We will add you as an OMCC member on the backend of the Ridernet system. You will get an email back saying “Club Registration Approved”. IMPORTANT: ignore the part where it asks you to pay for membership. This is a default and we can’t change it.
4. You can then get your MV license now your profile is registered against a MV affiliated club. For trials, if that is all you are doing, you will need a Senior Restricted Licenses (Adults) or Junior Restricted License (Up to 16 Yrs).
   In the Ridernet system look for your name on the top right, and:
   • Select My Profile
   • Select Licenses
   • Add a License
   • Riding License
   • And choose the license appropriate to you and follow the rest of the steps.
5. Once you have your license, you can enter the event here: https://trials.au/victoria/events/17291/16996-victorian-trial-series-round-1
6. Remember to have your license ready on the day as it does get checked at sign-on (PDF/screen shot of it on your phone is fine).

Good luck!

Hello Members,

We apologise for the extended delay that has occurred whilst we have been in negotiations with our various governing bodies.

2023 got off to a shaky start for a lot of motorcycling clubs in Australia, including OMCC. This presented a number of challenges that the committee has been working hard on behind the scenes to address.

The good news is that we have finally landed on a workable solution that will allow us to continue both competition and social riding at OMCC. Competition events will be run under Motorcycling Australia, and social riding days at the club ground will be covered by our ARMA affiliation.

Our AGM has been delayed by a few months, and is now scheduled for 7:00pm on Thursday 4th May, 2023. It will be held at the club grounds, 1 Simpson St Clayton South. All current members are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please treat this as an official notice of the AGM.

In addition to the normal AGM business, the club is proposing a fee increase that needs to be voted on. This is primarily due to our re-affiliation with MA, which comes at a higher cost than the previous AMA affiliation.

To cover these increased insurance costs and ensure the club remains in a viable financial position, the proposed increases are:

• Standard Adult/Family Membership:
  Increase from $160 to $250 (includes adult, spouse and U18 family members)
• Non-Metro Melbourne Adult/Family Membership:
  Increase from $80 to $125 (includes adult, spouse and U18 family members for those that reside outside of Metro Melbourne)
• Day Membership
  No increase, remains at $15

This fee increase provides a more robust insurance option through Motorcycling Australia which are less likely to disappear on us the way AMA did. As this will secure the clubs insurance position, we strongly encourage members to vote in favour of the fee structure change. The club has worked exceptionally hard to secure a solution that avoids the ‘per ride’ charges you often see with other disciplines like MX, which would see members charged significantly more. Also when compared to other sports, we feel this is a very economical option.

The AGM is an important event for OMCC. It gives its members a broad overview of the club’s current directions, financial health and confirms its purpose. It is also the time to revitalise the organisation through the official engagement of members into key elected positions.

We encourage as many members as possible to get down, and if you are able, get involved in the running of the club. It will be in-person only and there will be no on-line options. If you are unable to attend you can delegate your vote to a proxy.

In terms of sequence, we will have the AGM and then assuming the above fees are ratified by members we send our membership renewals. We also have a bit of pent up demand for new members that we have been holding at bay while all this has been going on. 

Big things are happening at OMCC, and this can’t be done without passionate and enthusiastic volunteers.

OMCC AGM Details:

When	Thursday, 4th May 2023
Where	OMCC Club Grounds: 1 Simpson Rd, Clayton South, Vic, 3169
Time	7:00pm

We missed you all during our unplanned absence over the insurance issues. As a thank you to our loyal members the club is putting on a training day and BBQ for members.

What: Adult & Juniors Training + BBQ lunch

Who: For ALL Adults and Kids

Where: OMCC Club Ground, 1 Simpsons Road, Clayton South

When: 19th March 2023, Start time is 10.00am

How Much: Training & BBQ is Free to members.

Training will start with a briefing at the Club House, and then followed by several practice sections and kids fun activities. We will have several groups of different levels and training from beginners to A grade. Everyone is welcome. Just come for the BBQ if you don’t require training.

New and day members welcome by appointment (conditions apply).

To help with catering please fill in the google form by using the link below to register.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19YS55iDB8ZRxUdT7a3nFj2SzION64psrGFjQKCtH0tY/viewform?edit_requested=true

We hope to see you all there!

Hello all,

Due to OMCCs current situation with insurance, we are still unable to run competitions. We continue to work with the governing bodies to sort this out however the pace is very slow and has not left us with enough runway to be certain about its resolution before we must commit to the Easter Trial.

After having over 100 riders at a trial in the 2022 Glenmaggie Easter trial we do appreciate there would have been some interest. Apologies to those disrupted by this however we wanted to leave people with enough notice to make alternative arrangements for Easter.

We have explored with the landowners the potential to run a two-day event at Glenmaggie later in the year and will update you if this happens. It is expected that OMCCs running of the Glenmaggie Easter trial will return in 2024.

Members,

Way back in early November we moved the AGM out to Feb 16^th thinking it would give us enough time to have all this insurance stuff sorted and be able to have an understanding on the impact to membership fees. Oh the naivety!

Although the club is open thanks to securing an ARMA policy, we don’t feel like this is a strategic solution. We have not yet got all the details from MA yet about a custom policy and so are unable to present any information to members.

We will be in touch with a date for the AGM as soon as we have all the inputs needed to make a decision.

Until then, we will make the 16^th Feb at 8pm a general club meeting, members are welcome (and encouraged) to attend. Obviously there has been a lot going on behind the scenes and so if members want to come and ask questions of the committee, get an understanding of what has transpired over the last few months and provide feedback that would be welcome.

Hope to see you on Thursday.

Members,

Great news!

Effective Sunday 5^th Feb 2023 OMCC will resume its usual social riding operating hours (10am-3:30pm) and will be followed by Tuesday 7^th Feb (10-2pm roughly) and Thursday Twilights on the 9^th Feb.

Apologies about the delays but we have had several significant impacts to the resumption of activities that have been far less straight forward than our last update suggested.

Despite the speed bumps, we are pleased to announce we can re-open for social riding.

We have secured PI/PL insurance through ARMA and this protects the clubs and officials however it does not provide income and injury protection for the riders. Please bear this in mind as you will see we have had to update the clubs waiver and the sign-on forms will also reflect this as well.

Although it was always the case prior, we remind all members it’s a requirement to obtain your own ambulance cover/membership.

Here is a quick summary of the main options the club had been exploring (AMA, although not an option shown for reference):

	Protects the Club & Officials	Protects the Riders	Costs to rider
AMA			Individual $55 per year Family $110 per year
ARMA			$0
MA/MV Standard Offering via Ride Parks Australia			$15 per ride $30 per ride or $15 per ride + a MA License

Given ARMA is currently the only viable option available to OMCC we have had to proceed however our attempts to resume under Motorcycling Australia/Victoria are still pending. The club looks forward to the continued working relationship with Peter Goddard and the MA delegates while we explore options more appropriate for OMCC which is dominated by social riding (>150 days per year) and as such the standard offering (150+ permits each year, $15/$30 rider fee each time) doesn’t really suit our situation. As we get more details on the costs and availability of a custom policy we will keep you posted.

There will be new QR codes at the club and previous QR codes and links to the old sign-on forms will be disabled.

An update on OMCCs ability to resume competitions will follow as soon as we have finalised details, but a priority is on resuming our clubs social riding.

I’d like to take the time to thank the committee who have lived through the ups and downs of the last few months. A special thank you needs to go out to Vice President Peter Spencer who has done significant work on this and has lost sleep on several occasions!

I’d also like to extend a thank you to our members who’s patience has been appreciated. Thank you for giving us the space to work through this and I am genuinely sorry it has taken this long.

I look forward to catching up with you all on the bikes down at the club.

Members please find below the clubs new liability waiver we have introduced as part of the resumption of activities under ARMA.

OAKLEIGH MOTORCYCLE CLUB INC. AGREEMENT TO PARTICIPATE IN MOTORCYCLE SPORTS AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

WARNING! THIS IS AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT WHICH AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS, PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY AND DO NOT SIGN ON AND RIDE UNLESS YOU ARE SATISFIED YOU UNDERSTAND IT.

1. I HEREBY AGREE with Oakleigh Motorcycle Club Incorporated (‘OMCC’) that I am by this agreement entitled to participate in the motorcycle activity meeting identified in Schedule 2 (hereinafter called the Meeting’ or the °Event’) at the venue listed at Schedule 3 (hereinafter called ‘the Venue) on the terms and conditions set out in this document.

Continue reading “OMCC Liability Waiver” →

Members,

Well what a year. It’s turned out to be quite an unceremonious end to a cracking year at OMCC.  The key highlights include:

• Our memberships continue to hover near club all-time highs
• We have run our first, and likely last, AMA Vic Titles at Argyle (oh the rain!)
• We’ve had our first 100+ entrants at trial in a number of years at Glenmaggie
• The club has run a significant number of training days for both adults and juniors, as well as hosted interstate coaches Neil Price & Chris Bayles.
• Tuesday 10am-2pm have been cemented in the calendar as a new opening day & proving very popular
• We continue ongoing ground works and delivery of rocks, logs and soil.

Sadly, our plans to continue the summer series we scuppered due to the AMA issue. We also wave goodbye to our friends at Southern Trials Riders and we wish Geoff and Gary all the best and thank them for the efforts over the last couple of years.

Thanks for your patience over the last two months while we’ve dealt with the withdrawal of AMA as a governing body and suppliers of the club’s public liability insurance. It left an enormous hole that we have all felt including a number of other clubs across the country. There have been a number of factors that have driven this including ceilings on the amount of risk the insurance underwriters are willing to take. I am pleased to say we are underway with our replacement and working on the final touches now. Further communications will come once we know the financial impacts to members.

Over the last two months multiple members of the committee have been hard at work exploring all avenues to obtain Public Liability insurance from a range of brokers (as have a number of other clubs also impacted by the loss of AMA). We have also been speaking regularly with other states affected clubs so we are all connected. The unique nature of OMCC with having…

• Its own club grounds
• Practice/Social riding multiple times per week & being a dominant part of our members use of the club
• Being an exclusive trials (low risk) discipline
• Volunteer run (no paid employees) and not for profit
• OMCC has had a fairly modest membership fee that hasn’t required “per ride” charges like MX parks.

…we felt a robust exploration of options was justified rather than taking the first option available. Sorry for the silence, but it’s taken time and we’ve been waiting for something meaningful before we communicated further.

The committee has decided in the last week that we will be reaffiliating with Motorcycling Victoria/Australia. We are exploring a custom policy arrangement which has required significant time to arrange as it’s not simply “off the shelf”. We are close to the final details and will share the changes to pricing structure this will cause to membership fees once it’s known.

We recognise a lot of our members are non-competitive, and so options for those who do not hold a competitive license are important in the final solution for our club.

There will likely be some flow down effects of this change including the use of Ridernet, training of club officials, and the expansion of First Aid training for officials and supervisors. The competitive calendar will be worked on shortly and OMCC will take part in the Victorian Trials Series.

We aim to resume social riding in January 2023 with more details to follow and to offset the lack of access to the club all 2022 memberships will be extended until March 2023.

Thanks again for your patience again and we wish all of you and your families a great Christmas break.

Regards, David Grice obo the OMCC Committee

Members,

As per previous discussion due to the state of insurance and the implication that will have on the club we had decided to postpone the AGM until Feb 16th 2023. We have already advised that the calendar remains tentative, but we felt it prudent to explicitly communicate about the AGM.

Formal announcement will come out closer to the time, along with any special resolutions required that may stem from our insurance impacts. 

We expect to have the club up & running much sooner than this, but this gives the committee time to get its ducks in a row so we can have something to present the members with.