Supporting our members

Things have been tough and we understand that some of our members may feel anxious about returning to club activity or need a little extra support to get active again. We can help:

• We can arrange a chat with one of our volunteers, on the phone or via Zoom, to put you at ease before you come back to club.
• We can meet you outside a club session so that you have someone to walk in with.
• We can put you in touch with one of our In the Pink volunteers who will meet you, talk through how we can support you and attend up to three Fitmums & Friends sessions with you.
• We can offer financial support through the Mike Barlow Memorial Fund.

All you need to do is get in touch – email Vickie (admin@fitmums.org.uk).

How are sessions organised now?

While we cannot organise sessions as we used to, we are aiming to offer as much flexibility and variety as possible in order to accommodate all of you who want to return to club sessions.

In order to do this fairly and in compliance with current restrictions on the number of people who may exercise together, we are operating a booking system via a closed Facebook group - please join this group if you have not already done so; if you are not a current member, please contact us first. Each week, we will use the Facebook group to ask you to let us know if you would like to come to the next club session and which group you would like to ride with – we will endeavour to offer a shorter ride (20-40 miles) and a longer ride (40+ miles) each week. Your preference will be matched against the leaders we have available and we will then publish a post in the Facebook group detailing that week's group leaders and participants, start times and start locations. If unfortunately you do not get into a group that week, you will be prioritised the following week.

We are meeting outside, in the car park of Cottingham Sports Centre. As previously, we have no access to toilets or any other indoor facilities.

Rides start at 08:45, 09:00 or 09:15 depending on the number of rides. In order to avoid large groups congregating, ride groups must remain distanced from each other. Please arrive on time.

On arrival, please wait in a socially-distanced space until your start time and then go and meet your leader and sign in using Mumbot – please remember to bring your code for scanning.

We want all of our members to feel safe at club sessions. For this reason, please make sure that you social distance and follow all other guidelines throughout the session. If a leader, or another member, needs to remind you about maintaining social distancing, please do not be upset by this – it is intended to protect you and your fellow members.

As always, the leader will begin the session with the checklist chat. Please listen carefully as the checklist chat now also includes important COVID-19 messages. So that you can familiarise yourself with these before your first session, please read the new checklist chat here.

Please listen to your leader throughout the ride. To maintain social distancing, he/she may organise the group by pace before setting off; and may need to give more and firmer directions and instructions on route. These may be spoken or hand signals - which are demonstrated here.

When riding, please maintain a face-to-face distance from your fellow cyclists of at least 1m. This means we will ride single file only.

We must also maintain a social distance from any pedestrians we encounter when we stop, for example at café stops or in the case of a puncture or mechanical problem. It is our responsibility to move out of their way.

After the session, please go home promptly. We know you will want to stay and chat, but it is important that we don’t have large groups congregating – for your safety and so that our club can stay open. Instead, check back in on our Facebook page for all the feel-good photos once you get home.

Just a couple of things:

• Keeping our members as safe as possible and keeping our club open requires every one of our members to comply with current guidance. To that end, we are asking all of our members to agree to our COVID-19 Code of Conduct. Please read this carefully here before attending a club session. By attending a club session, you will be agreeing to abide by this code of conduct.
• Please bring and carry a face covering with you. You will not need to wear it while riding. But if one of the group has a minor accident and needs help to get back to base, we will wear our face coverings so that we can give and receive help. Again, this is to protect you and your fellow members.
• Please ensure your emergency contact details are up-to-date in Mumbot.
• Please plan to look after your own belongings, including car keys – there will be no key bucket available.
• And finally, feel free to wear your Fitmums and Friends kit to club sessions!