Sunday run accessibility

Area Discussion North East Midlands
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At the last thursday meeting there was a discussion on what to do about comments from some members that the current way we organise Sunday Runs could be seen as a little bit unfair.
When places are limited by the size of the lunch venue, members who aren’t glued to the forum/facebook page all day can miss out.

Perhaps for the future we should stress at the planning meeting, on the forum and on facebook posts asking for organisers, that it isn’t compulsory to have a Sunday dinner stop.
We should maybe stress that we’re a driving club going on a drive, not a luncheon club going out for dinner.
If groups within the club want to check out dinner facilities near to the end of the run that’s fine, but removing this apparent requirement of a run starting with breakfast and ending with dinner for 40+ people (as brilliant as that is) might also get more members on board arranging outings.

Please post suggestions here - You’re under no obligation to do anything, but if you know somewhere, someone else may take it up.
I think anywhere with reasonable parking and either somewhere for a picnic in summer, or a decent cafe/pub selection would serve.

From memory/history…

Castleton
Bakewell
Homefirth
Carsington Water
A forest somewhere that had picnic tables (A Rich Pierce run I believe. A disposable barbeque was involved)
Cannock Chase (Mountain Bike centre?)
Barton Marina
Hardwick Hall
Chatsworth House

I’m sure that those with better memorys will be able to add to this.

Chris

Also posted on the group facebook page for completeness

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There was quite a response to this on the NEM facebook group. My apologies if you can’t see it. 
If you can’t and want to, talk to me and I’ll try and point you in the right direction.

In summary…

  1. There is a demand amongst the ‘leisure enabled’ members for a monthly(?) midweek run, possibly with lunch. I’ll leave you guys to organise this (for a couple of years anyway :)) Both Dave and John fall in to this category, so you should be well supported.
    The routes could be reused for Sundays, and Sunday routes could be reused midweek.
    This might also serve to remove some of the demand on the Sunday runs.

  2. When Sunday runs are planned, if there is to be a dinner resevation (which is always nice) the run shouldn’t be CLOSED when all the dinner seats are taken.
    The run should remain open with the note added that Lunch is full, but members are welcome to join us. If demand is great, perhaps a secondary venue can be found nearby either by one or more of the ‘not included in the lunch’, the run organisers or the ACs.

  3. If we do get a vast number of cars wanting to join in, then we should look at splitting into two or more groups. This may require someone joining a recce run at some point, ready to lead the second group. A good navigator may be able to accomplish this from the notes without a practise run.
    Given Dave’s extensive collection of two-way radios, we should be okay with a 10 minute buffer or so.
    No, it can’t be a race!

Any problems?