"Mark McNeill" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> Response to Mike K Smith:
>> So one cheer for the CTC, with a second cheer if the next copy of the
>> magazine gets here soon.
>
> One email sent, one received: my membership has silently lapsed, so I've
> been unwittingly without legal/insurance benefits. Just as well I
> turned out not to need them, all things considered.
>
> I rang the number suggested and renewed my membership over the phone:
> two days later I got a form letter from Chris Juden apologising for
> recent membership problems and offering 15 months for 12 if I renew...
>
>
> --
> Mark, UK
> "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
I still haven't got my new membership card from my renewal last October The
one that was sent with the renewal letter was actually dated to cease in
2004!
When I renewed by telephone I asked that a properly dated card be sent.
Nothing has happened since.
But just having been mown down by a car a couple of weeks ago I am glad the
my membership did not lapse
..
I rang their legal help line on the day after the incident and today I have
received a load of paperwork from my appointed solicitors. So important
parts of the system work and I am extremely grateful for that. Excellent
value -- and one of the reasons for my membership.
BUT, oh dear me CTC, I can't help but feel that the organisation is creaking
from old age and has strayed too far away from its members. The membership
renewal fiasco has gone on for over a year and the cessation of the Camping
Carnet card is a huge loss to many individuals like me.
So, no, I am not a member of the local Doncaster group. My style and needs
of cycling are geared towards my annual long distance cycle/camping tour and
to help me maintain a reasonable level of fitness ( fighting the tendency
for an ever increasing waistline. I enjoy cycling on my own and that seems
to preclude me from the mainstream of cyclists.
At 68 that doesn't really worry me. On my long tours I meet up with lots of
people daily and enjoy their company perhaps for a few hours or at best a
couple of days -- but I feel when appraising the CTC that I am a lone voice
in the wilderness.
I keep a sharp eye on all sorts of cycling matters, especially those that
pertain to my style of biking but the CTC seems to be too remote and tied up
within its own machinations to be an active source of information and help.
I am sure that many of you here have visited the CTC antiquated message
boards which should be as lively as this NG. Sadly that is not the case and
there is far more useful dialog on this NG than on CTC's drab website.
Sorry for the moan about CTC when it is actively assisting me in my injury
claim --- but that is one of the things I pay for -- as a pensioner, on
limited means, I have to look very carefully at "value for money" in many
areas to be able to afford my long tours in the summer. There are several
other areas in need of a radical "emptying of the bath water" which leave
lots of members dissatisfied.
--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
