Ibis Hotel, Rugby East, Saturday 31 March 2007
Present: Ian Poole (Chairman); Martin Booth, Martin Eadon, Chris Gooch, Peter Hargroves, Kelvin Hoy, (Members); Brian Furness (BC Cyclo-Cross Co-ordinator). Apologies: Dan Alexander
Matters arising from the Annual Conference
Interaction with regional organisations. It was agreed to progress the idea of varying the location of Commission meetings in order to invite regional representatives to a forum that would precede the Commission meeting proper. It was agreed to target initially those regions where there was not a Commission member on the regional committee. The following schedule was proposed:
Saturday 30th June: meeting in Bristol/Bath area; representatives to be invited from South West, Western, Wales and Wessex.
September, date to be decided: meeting in Bradford/Leeds area; representatives to be invited from North East, Yorkshire, North West and possibly Lincolnshire.
It was proposed that the meetings commence at 10:30 am with a regional forum, with the regular Commission meeting following after lunch. The cyclo-cross co-ordinator was asked to gauge support for this and arrange a suitable venue for the June meeting.
The Commission also agreed to look at the possibility of staging a National Trophy organisers’ conference in May/June.
Website and Communications. It was agreed that a Commission web page would be created shortly, incorporating the Annual Conference minutes and action points from Commission meetings.
Ranking and ability categories. It was reported that the automated allocation of ranking points was on target for the 2007-08 season. This would also allow the delayed shadow ability category system to be revived, although the lukewarm response to this initiative at the Annual Conference suggested that there was some scepticism as to the value of this.
Future of Annual Conference. It was agreed that the Conference needed to be more pro-active and constructive, and less confrontational in the tradition of the old style AGM. Ian Poole agreed to draft some proposals.
National Trophy and licence holders. The Commission had withdrawn a proposal at the Annual Conference to extend the full licence requirement to veterans, but nevertheless felt that this principle must be applied. The cyclo-cross co-ordinator was asked to look at the data for the last two seasons to assess what proportion of entrants were still only provisional licence holders.
Gridding Guidelines/Technical Regulations. The cyclo-cross co-ordinator pointed out that the technical regulations were designed to reflect a progressive adherence to the UCI rulebook according to the level of the event, and that any guidelines on gridding needed to be flexible, and reflect this principle. Kelvin Hoy agreed to lead on producing a draft document. He was also asked to lead on the production of guidelines on the removal of bar-end extensions.
National Club/Team Championship. A proposal to increase the number of qualifying categories from three to four had been passed in principle at the Annual Conference, but with the agreement that the Commission would look at this as it may not produce the intended effect. Data complied by the cyclo-cross co-ordinator was circulated which proved this to be the case: nearly half of the qualifying clubs became ineligible. Alternative methods of scoring were also considered but these too did not provide a satisfactory solution. The following format was eventually agreed:
i) The number of qualifying categories to remain at three, with the scoring method unchanged.
ii) Youth Boys U-14 to be added to the qualifying categories.
iii) A rider to only count in one category, this being the one defined by age.
Double entry regulations. It was reported that an issue had arisen at the end of the season regarding the application of any penalty for double entries, i.e. National Trophy and local league event. It was explained that this had been difficult to enforce, partly because there was no explicit wording to indicate that a rider who had entered the whole series had made a commitment to all five events (rather than keep options open while taking advantage of the series discount price). The only penalty option was that under UCI regulations.
It was agreed that, while in such cases the aggrieved party was the national event, the most effective deterrent was to apply a loss of league points and prize money to the local league event. It was agreed to implement this with the following provisions:
i) Indicate on the provisions for National Trophy entry that a rider entering the full series is deemed to have entered all five events.
ii) Amend regulation 6.10 by reducing the deadline from 14 days to 7 days. It was felt that this would give more clarity to the enforcement of the regulation, as the longer deadline often fell before the start list was published.
iii) Specify within regulation 6.10 the penalty to be applied in line with the formula above.
The cyclo-cross co-ordinator was asked to draft the appropriate wording.
Budgets
A draft balance sheet for the year ending 31st March 2007, incorporating outline budget breakdown for 2007-2008, was circulated, discussed and approved. It was reported that the sum carried forward had been planned in order to address the anticipated higher costs of next season’s European Championships (in Switzerland) and World Championships (in Italy).
International Programme
A report on the World Championships from team manager Simon Burney was circulated and noted. Pete Hargroves was tasked with confirming the 2007-2008 competition programme with Simon Burney once the junior and women’s World Cup races had been confirmed.
National Programme
2007-2008 Calendar. The Commission was asked to review the entry fees and prize lists for the 2007-2008 national programme. It was agreed to leave the youth entry fees unchanged, but increase the other categories to £18.00 per event or £70.00 for the full series. This would be the first increase for four years. It was forecast this would generate increased income of c. £2,300, approximately half of which would be applied to the prize fund, and the remainder to event support and other programmes. The cyclo-cross co-ordinator was also asked to review the prize lists with due regard to the level of participation in each category, and also to placing greater emphasis on the prize lists for individual events rather than the overall.
Future Planning. A draft regional calendar for 2007-2008 was circulated, as per the action plan. Only five regions had submitted dates at this stage, and for one of these the calendar was incomplete. This would be updated as and when further information was received and circulated to Commission members. With regard to future national events, the Commission agreed to be pro-active in identifying potential new venues and promoters, rather than rely on “the usual suspects” as the international calendar deadline approached.
Publicity. Martin Eadon circulated prices for printing the proposed generic publicity material. The cyclo-cross co-ordinator agreed to seek comparative quotes, and also to supply a wider range of photographs. It was agreed that any designs should also be made available in electronic format, to facilitate their use for those who wished to adapt electronically.
Any Other Business
Annual Trophies: It was confirmed that the V.C. Colley Trophy for the most improved rider had been awarded to Geoff Giddings, and the Ray Richards Trophy for the single most meritorious ride to Jonny McEvoy. These awards were made after the World Championships, and both riders had been invited to the BC annual awards presentation night at Bolton.
Date of next meeting(s)
This had been addressed earlier in the agenda. The September date would be confirmed once the regional calendar had been confirmed to avoid any clashes.
