After many months of behind-the-scenes tinkering and meeting and discussion, the UK wing, arm or branch of IMBA is ready to take members. It’s been a pretty long haul, but such are the perils of volunteer effort. They’ve been working hard to get everything right first, and few would consider that a bad idea.

The official launch is at this weekend’s Coed y Brenin Fat Tyre Festival, giving you the opportunity to talk to the people behind it, get more details and maybe even join up. Basic membership will be £12 a year (with a junior membership available for under 17s at £5). Third party insurance is optional and will be £7 up until September 2003 – the insurance year runs from October to September, so you’ll need to renew that element in September at a cost of £10.

If you sign up at the Festival there’ll be extra sponsors’ goodies on offer – if you’re planning to join, IMBA would prefer a cheque or cash as they won’t be able to take cards from their tent at the Fest…

Otherwise you can download the membership form and send it and a cheque (made payable to IMBA UK) to the membership secretary. More details from the IMBA UK website at www.imba-uk.com.