This whole exercise, was a healthy example of how a democratic process can be conducted to ascertain the wishes of the club members, and will hopefully be a great move for the club.
The decision to time the vote at The Lakes was for a couple of reasons. To give me as much time as I could to get around to as many members as I could, including the Gloucester Vinduro, on Sunday the week prior, to state my case for this change, where I received strong support from most of those I spoke to, and for the vote to take place at a venue which was close to the majority of the members, to make it as accessible as possible for the majority, 'for' and 'against', and at an event which traditionally has high numbers.
While I have obviously been 'for' this motion, it was important as many club members as possible voted, so the final vote tally was a true reflection of what the members wanted. There was no point in this being voted up, if it truly wasn't what the true majority wanted. In the weeks leading up to the vote, the vote was promoted on this forum, on the Heaven VMX Facebook Page, on the Heaven VMX website, to the point of harassment, and in multiple emails to the whole Heaven VMX member list, to ensure no member, 'for' or 'against', was not aware of it. It seems from the roll up, there was a good cross section of the members who attended.
I would also like to make this very important point.
This result was from the votes of regular Heaven VMX members. There are a number of Pre-90 riders, at least 20 or more, who are not current Heaven members, and wanted this vote to be positive so they could ride with us. Knowing for some time that this vote was in the wind, they had the option to join our club and heavily influence the outcome. They collectively chose not to do this, as they felt that the right thing to do was to leave the decision to the existing members. I found this admirable, these are the kinds of people, with this sort of integrity, I am happy we are now able to welcome into our club.
I look forward to 2015, a new era in Heaven VMX's rich history.