Within the PoP core group there is already talk of next year, and the weary resignation that we are going to do the whole thing again (most of us live in the hope that someday soon that the bicycle will become as normal a means of transport as the car is now and we won't have to run another PoP ride).
Yes it would be great if we could find a date with no clashes so that everyone could attend, but the reality is that's no going to happen. There will always be a competing event, no matter how hard we try and how far in advance we make the decision.
I see there is lots of talk of toilets, yes this an issue we are aware of, but hiring in toilets is simply beyond our resources. Not only is PoP a grass roots group entirely run by volunteers (although for some of us it feels more like a full time job), it is also run on a very thin shoe string. For the first PoP we spent total of £300! OK we spent a wee bit more this time, but we are still entirely funded via the donations button on the website, the sale of T-shirts and the sale of home baking on the day. Probably the best we can do is to find out where all the publicly accessible toilets in the area are and try to tell people.
The minutes silence: there will always be a problem with trying to hold the minutes silence on the Meadows as people are so spread out it difficult to communicate effectively with them. Also this year there were people still arriving after it was over (actually there were sill people arriving at the Meadows 20 minutes after the 1st riders had left the Meadow). My feeling is that it would be better to hold the minutes silence at Holyrood after the last person has arrived from the Meadows and before the speeches start. Especially now that we have learned to keep people there by putting on a comedy act to keep them entertained while they wait.
Any thoughts about moving PoP to September in 2015? The is one suggestion we have been mulling over.
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