Kevin Mayne has a new job.

[David Cox]

Statement from the Chair of CTC Council, David Cox

I have to announce that our Chief Executive Kevin Mayne is to become Director of Development at our European partners the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) based in Brussels.

This is a great personal achievement for Kevin and recognition of the way CTC’s work for cycling in the UK is respected by our international partners. I am delighted to see Kevin’s career develop in this way and naturally wish him every success in the future.

Kevin has been the driving force within CTC’s staff team for nearly 14 years. His leadership has enabled CTC to reach out, inspire and help many people to cycle and keep cycling, whatever kind of cyclist they are or would like to be. We now have our largest ever membership of nearly 70,000 and growing numbers of volunteers organising rides and looking after all cyclists’ interests across the UK. There will be many further opportunities to celebrate and congratulate him in the coming months but I want to put on record my thanks for all he has done for CTC and cycling.

I am pleased to say that Kevin and ECF will be working with us to ensure a flexible transition and he will remain with us until the spring to ensure a smooth handover to a successor. We will provide updates as recruitment progresses. It is the intention of CTC Council to commence recruitment shortly; an advertisement should be on our web site http://www.ctc.org.uk/vacancies in the next few days.

Kevin will be a hard act to follow but we are confident that CTC can attract another visionary leader who will continue the development of our organisation and its charitable objectives in the coming years. CTC Council is committed to CTC’s role as the leading organisation supporting all cyclists in the UK, creating a healthier, cleaner world and sharing the sense of freedom and fun that cycling brings.

[Regulator]

Rather than a 'visionary' leader, perhaps Council should concentrate of making sure whoever they recruit is able to sort out the very real problems CTC is facing? CTC is facing a rough few years and it needs a 'steady hand' - not some 'thrusting visionary' who wants to 'shake everything up'...

[thirdcrank]

Dropping the pilot: SS The CTC

250px-1890_Bismarcks_Ruecktritt.jpg (26.5 KiB) Viewed 4729 times

As if.

[Si]

A point about posts on this thread (just as with other threads)..

I know that not everyone agreed with everything that has happened while Kevin was at the CTC. However, should anyone be considering "putting the boot in" if you'll excuse my French: snide remarks and petty jibes about him are pointless, totally non-constructive, and do no one any good - least of all those who make such remarks as they will just come across as people airing the chips on their shoulders.

Thus, if you want to, please feel free to wish Kevin well in his new role. If, on the other hand, you just want to criticise them please feel free to keep it to yourself because, as said above, what good will it do now?

The ethos of this forum is, and always has been, to participate in friendly and civil discussion without being rude, aggressive or demeaning to anyone else on it - please think before posting.

On the other hand, if you want to talk about how the future of the CTC should be shaped from now on and what paths you would like it to follow (without putting the boot in to those now departed) please fell free.

[Regulator]

As long as they are not defamatory, should members not be allowed to express their views - whatever they are?

[thirdcrank]

si

A bit of free advice, "Lock it or lose it." If something like this is posted on a forum, it's inviting discussion.

[Si]

Discussion is fine - as long as that discussion is not insulting or making personal attacks on people. We'd much prefer not to lock this thread and to allow discussion because if it ain't done here, it'll be done elsewhere. But that discussion should be along the same respectful and polite lines that any other discussion in the forum is expected to be.

Yes, I know that it's a no win situation for us....but what else can we do but try to maintain the normal high standard and civil behaviour usually found on the forum?

[JJF]

I would like to say many thanks to Kevin Mayne..and congratulations on the new job.

[Clarion]

I do hope that Kevin makes a success of his new job.

And that the CTC can get ourselves out of the dead end street we seem to be getting stuck down.

This is a great opportunity to step back and make a proper objective assessment of the position of the organisation, and remember what is important to members.

[Steady rider]

Good luck Kevin in the new job.

From the point of view of being an open and transparent charity, should the pay of the new director be made know to CTC members or the public in general?

Bearing in mind the CTC is run by the Council and most decisions on direction are made by them.

[David Cox]

Thanks for the feedback. Reg I can see where you are coming from on the "vision" thing and it's a balance of abilities that is needed. Salary will be in the advert. I agree that Council sets direction. Obviously dont agree about the dead end! Mind you I did lead a club run up Grimley Lane (I think) fortunately there was a parish church of great architectural interest to examine during the U turn! David

[Simon L6]

Clarion's hit the nail on the head. A bit of re-building with the CTC realising its potential as a knowledge-based organisation would be a thoroughly good thing. You've only got to look at the way the LCC has been able to leverage volunteer effort and up-to-date communications based on member involvement to realise what can be done with relatively little. It says something when the campaigning strength of Lambeth Cycling Campaign is way ahead of the CTC's national organisation. Now's the time for some building from the bottom up rather than re-branding from the top down, particularly re-branding tacked on to some fairly mundane subcontracting.

On a personal level, as someone with first hand experience of the CTC's decline I'd say that the Councillors were lucky to have Kevin around. He had a clearly worked out programme. Barry Flood aside, the councillors just react. If the Directors of a company simply step back and let the Chief Exec get on with it one can hardly complain about the Chief Exec. I can only hope that his new berth gives his undoubted talents more scope. And that he tidies his eyebrows up - although, thinking about it, Belgian men are noted for their lack of eyebrow couture.....

I share Reg's concern about visionaries, not least because 'vision' is a word that has been suborned by local government and PCTs to mean 'endless committee meetings at somebody else's expense in which we all agree with each other in terms that are rhetorical rather than concrete' - David Cox's final paragraph being a decent illustration of the form. Step by step, bit by little bit, the CTC needs to re-establish itself as a respected organisation while living within its means. That's about cultivating involvement and knowledge within, not setting up as some mini-conglomerate.

It's to be hoped that Councillors take a bit of time to talk to people with a bit about them before forming an appointments committee - they'll clearly chat to Rob Fuller (whoops, that's your goose cooked, Rob), but I'd suggest that Oliver Schick might be of assistance - there you've got a genuine intellectual who can think his way through the nuts and bolts of a cycling organisation.

What I really fear is that the majority on the Council will appoint a miniature version of themselves - a person hidebound by the after-you-Claude committee-itis of the public sector.

[mountainman531]

With the CTC as just a membership organisation it was stagnating as the membership became older and couldn't attract enough new and younger members. If such a situation had been allowed to continue then eventually the CTC would have ceased to exist.

The CTC in recent years widened it's scope to attract not just "touring cyclists" whoever they may be, but mountain bikers, commuters etc. They've always been welcome of course but the CTC has raised it's profile in their field.

In becoming a National Standards Cycle Training Organisation the CTC has become involved in getting children, young people and adults too on their bikes and a percentage of these will carry on cycling and become members thus securing the future of the CTC for generations to come.

Regarding the Charity status issue, this has and will increase the fundingavailable to the CTC resulting in financial stability which could not come from a membership organisation with an aging profile and declining numbers.

Not so long ago a membership of 50,000 was a good target for the CTC to aim at, now we have over 70,000 members.

Kevin Mayne has been involved in this of course and leaves the CTC in much better shape than when he arrived, well done Kevin and best wishes in your new role.

[Simon L6]

http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/About_U ... t_Pack.pdf

from the job spec (MM531 please note the redundancy bit....)

The completion of some grant funded development projects during 2012 and their only partial replacement through a Local Sustainable Transport Fund is leading to some redundancies and a management restructure with a strong regional team approach. Behind the scenes we have invested in stronger operational and financial management and much improved accounting system. A long awaited new website and better integration of our web and new media presence will be delivered early in 2012

'A lesser man would be saying ‘We told you so!'

This is a desperately poor document, that might have come straight from a musty filing cabinet in a local authority. One doesn't have to be William Cobbett to think 'taxgatherer'. A one liner 'Wanted, chief exec to make the CTC desirable and effective' would have been better. The most hilarious bit is the requirement for a degree. Beyond the 'why' there's the question 'why would we want to expose the limitations of our thinking so vividly?'

[Regulator]

Good luck Kevin in the new job.

From the point of view of being an open and transparent charity, should the pay of the new director be made know to CTC members or the public in general?

Bearing in mind the CTC is run by the Council and most decisions on direction are made by them.

Is that what you really think?

I (and quite a few others who have been involved with Council) would say the reality is very different.