Ellen Pfeiffer Award recipient in 2013
This is the nomination that was submitted by WIMA GB:
Anna has been riding since the mid 1970s; she still commutes to work by bike, despite having free senior citizens travel on public transport. She rides two GS500Es and an FJ1200. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, she was a fixture at WIMA International rallies. She is still an active WIMA GB member.
Contribution to Motorcycling: Anna organised the Women’s Motorcycle Workshop in London in the late 1970s and early 1980s, teaching basic mechanical skills to women bikers when women were not expected to ride, and especially not to get their hands dirty!
Anna was also, at the same time, a committee member of AMADL (Association of Motorcyclists Against Discriminatory Legislation), an early UK motorcycling/political lobbying organisation.
During the 1990’s, Anna became increasingly involved in the activities of the BMF (The British Motorcyclists Federation), the largest UK bike membership organisation. She was elected to the post of PTS (Political and Technical Services Director) of the BMF in the late 1990s, a role she continued to play through to the early 2000s. Anna was responsible for the direction and policy of the two BMF Government Relations Executives during a time of pressure on motorcycling in the UK and especially in the EU.
Anna was then elected as the Chairman of the BMF during a very difficult period of inner organisational politics within the BMF. Anna managed to steer the BMF through this period, when it seemed possible that the entire organisation might collapse, to a position where it is now recovering. Anna was chairman for over 5 years.
Having guided the BMF organisation to survival, Anna has recently reverted to the PTS director role, where she has been instrumental in supporting FEMA (Federation of European Motorcycle Associations) to an effective future.
During the BMF’s extended financial problems, she has always prioritised European lobbying at the expense of narrow national organisational interests. The future of European motorcycling will always be heavily influenced by the EU Commission and FEMA remains the front-line lobbying organisation in Brussels.
Anna has given a huge amount of her time and personal support to a future for motorcycling in Europe and says: ‘Support your own biker organisation, whether it is BMF (UK), BDU (Germany), MAG (Netherlands) etc. FEMA will represent us all! And let us not forget that European policies on motorcycling influence other governmental organisations in other parts of the world.’
Sheonagh adds: It is because of Anna that I came to the Women’s Motorcycle Workshop, where I met Jennifer Killen who was a member of WIMA. The rest as they say is history…
