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In the summer of 2002, time was running out. Come December my RoSPA retest was due. Now only the foolhardy would attempt such a trial without preparation, or at least a check drive. Knowing the local group of RoADA had disbanded many years ago, what was I to do? Join a more distant group? Or was there another solution, all I needed was another Advanced Driver with whom we could provide each other with mutual check drives. |
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I subscribe to a RoADA discussion group on the internet (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roada/) so put up a message asking if anybody else would be interested in providing mutual check drives in North East London. Now, have you heard the expression of putting your head above the parapet? Straight back came a reply from RoADA's regional organiser, Mike Garnett. "Would you like to start a new group in the area?" Unlike real parapets, in the virtual world of the internet, there is nowhere to duck! So, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, what could I say but, "Yes!" |
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Now, to form a group you need a nucleus of people to begin with. Cliff Mason is a friend, whom I had observed with the local IAM (Institute of Advance Motorists) Group in the early 90's. It had been quite a time since we had been out together driving so, on a Friday night visit to the Doctors' (Dr Johnson pub in Clayhall), we got round to discussing Advanced Driving. The upshot was I observed Cliff prior to his first Gold run with RoSPA, and then Cliff returned the favour, helping me before my successful retest. (Well at least that was my own personal problem solved.) |
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There we are, now we had an unofficial group of two! Mike Garnett had also sent out a letter to all RoSPA members in the area seeing if there were any other interested members. Now all we needed was a place to meet. This isn't the sort of thing you can do in your front room and, this is where Redbridge's Road Safety Team came to the rescue. They made arrangements for us all to meet in their conference rooms at the council’s offices in Ilford. On a dark winters evening a number of us met to discover from Mike what we need to do to start a group. We decided upon the name, what our objectives were and started to put the bits together to launch NET RoADA. |
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There was something missing though. The mass of the group wasn't quite yet ready. NET RoADA couldn't go critical. Mike wouldn't let it! He had seen too many embryo groups fail, he had to be certain we would succeed. It was about then another catalyst entered the Group and one of our first Associates too. Jon Wernick was an observer with the local IAM group but wanted to do his RoSPA. I took Jon out, applying a bit of polish here, knocking an odd corner off there. Anyway the upshot was, Jon had a Gold Run on his first RoSPA test. Now, most of you have met, or at least spoken with Jon, the Attila the Hun of advanced motoring! Jon joined the committee and so the scene was set for our last committee meeting before getting the go ahead from Mike to launch. |
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The meeting was held in my front room (thank you Susan). There was Mike, refusing to let us launch, "you haven't proved to me you're ready yet". Well things and time were pressing. We had already agreed to help at a Ladies’ Safe Driving day for Redbridge Road Safety and there was a school fete Jon had said we would attend at Clore Tikva as well. Needless to say, the debate became very heated culminating in my standing up, (not an easy thing for me to do quickly!), and screamed "Just what the Hell do we have to do Mike!". That was it! The threat of imminent physical violence to Mike's person. The knowledge he wasn't leaving until we had the go ahead to Launch. That was all he wanted; commitment by a critical number of the committee's members that we were going places! |
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site last updated March 2006
NO TRAINING/INSTRUCTIONAL FEES TAKEN. NO PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION GIVEN. Any fees payable to the group are to cover administration and other running costs of the group. LINK TO LATEST ACCOUNTS |