1.      Introduction by Ian Poole, Commission Chairman. Ian Poole welcomed delegates to the meeting, and expressed the hope that the session would be useful and interactive.  He made a special welcome to Davie Graham, from the revitalised Scottish League.

2.      Apologies for absence.  Formal apologies had been received from Dan Alexander, Jim Court and Chris Reed. 

3.      Appointment of “Tellers”.   It was agreed that Ken Nichols would act as teller if needed.

4.      Adoption of minutes of the 2007 Annual Conference.   The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 24th February 2007, had been circulated and were taken as read.  They were AGREED as a true record on a proposal from Geoff Shergold, seconded by Vin Cox. 

5.      Cyclo-Cross Commission

Ian Poole introduced this element of the agenda.  He referred to the two members of the Commission who were standing down, Dan Alexander and Martin Booth, and thanked them for their contributions.  The proposal to co-opt all three new candidates to the Commission was agreed without the need for a vote.  The 2008-2009 Commission will therefore comprise: Martin Eadon, Ben Eedy, Chris Gooch, Pete Hargroves, Kelvin Hoy, Pete Mooney, Ian Poole and Liz Slater.

6.      HQ Administration and Communications

Brian Furness summarised the contents of the written report and welcomed the automation of the ranking system via the database.  John Rawnsley asked whether the lack of coverage in Cycling Weekly had been addressed.  Pete Hargroves responded, pointing out that the target market of the magazine had changed markedly over the last two years, with the focus now based more on leisure cycling and product reviews.  Martin Eadon reported on discussions with the editor in an attempt to revive Crosstalk in the magazine. He noted that this had been declined, but space offered on the magazine website, however copy submitted had not been used.

It was agreed that more use could be made of the BC website to this end.  Later in the meeting, BC communications manager Philip Ingham outlined the impressive visitor statistics of the site, amounting to 2.5 million page impressions per month, including significant traffic for major cyclo-cross features.  He explained how event reports could include links to the websites of event sponsors, and indicated that he was happy to include “blog” type features such as Crosstalk, and also produce individual page visitor figures on request.

7.      Officials’ Training

Chris Gooch led on this topic on behalf of the Commission.  He referred to recent discussions with BC Volunteer Support Officer Rob Jefferies, and reported that commissaire training would need to incorporate new legal safeguards in the area of child protection to comply with impending legislation.  Further courses would be suspended until the framework for addressing this was in place.

Harry Gould raised the issue of the clothing issued to commissaries, indicating that the waterproof jackets were inadequate for winter conditions, while the polo shirts were inappropriate. This view was supported by Kelvin Hoy, who suggested that one higher level garment would have been preferable to the two polo shirts and one waterproof issued.  He noted that such higher standard garments were available, but at a cost.  It was suggested that this matter be raised with Samantha Matthews at BCHQ, who deals with clothing orders.

The need for training in areas other than commissairing was raised, in particular judging.  Brian Furness responded, noting that a judging course had been arranged last season for the Saturday afternoon before the Abergavenny National Trophy, but partly due to a lack of response, this had been cancelled.  The Commission would look at reviving this initiative next season if there was proven demand.  However, it was also pointed out that the existing judging handbook was already available as a useful self-help resource, a point endorsed by Graham Edwards.  

Liz Slater highlighted the need for better training for organisers to carry out risk assessments, suggesting that a case study with a few examples within the existing paperwork of risks that may arise would be useful, and the Commission agreed to address this.  Brian Furness indicated that that while the risk assessment documentation could be revised, organisers who were required to carry out such assessments were frequently asked to use documentation provided by a local authority, which may vary widely in its scope and application. However it was agreed that the continued development of the generic risk assessment framework provided a good basis for tackling such requirements as they arose.

8.      National Competition

Martin Eadon introduced this section of the meeting, He focussed upon one of the Commission’s primary aims of raising standards of events at both national and regional level.  He declared that the allocation of national events was not a closed shop, but that prospective promoters needed to display evidence of raising their game to meet the challenges of promoting these events.  The reluctance of the majority of local organisers to even aspire to category B standard made it difficult to identify potential new national events.

The initiative to provide better regulation of the pit zones at national events was applauded by John Holmes, although he felt that some riders/helpers were uncertain how to operate within the system, and Ian Poole suggested that guidelines for pit etiquette be included with next season’s paperwork.

On a point from the floor that National Trophy promoters received no income back from BC to support their events, Brian Furness demonstrated that the input from BC far outweighed the income from entry fees, and this was maintained in an attempt to provide not only a safety net, but a springboard for organisers to develop their own income streams. The addition of a sixth Trophy event had only been agreed after careful examination of the budget, and could only be sustained in the longer term if organisers added value to their events.

Pete Mooney asked whether BC’s newly expanded marketing department could secure sponsorship to support the series, but was challenged as to whether the series in its current form was a product capable of attracting significant sponsorship funding.  In comparison, it was pointed out that most Premier Calendar road races needed to set a budget many times that under which most National Trophy events operated, yet domestic road racing was at a similar disadvantage in not enjoying a high media profile in this country.

There were further discussions relating to central support and raising event standards, which would be addressed in more detail at the proposed major event organisers’ seminar.

Pete Mooney asked about the criticism of the National Championship course mentioned in the report, and Brian Furness referred to some comments made on the day, but also a letter of complaint published in Cycling Weekly.

It was noted that a venue had yet to be confirmed for the Inter Area Team Championships on 2^nd November, but it was hoped that this could be staged at a Midlands location.

9.      Regional Competition

Having raised the problem of too few events aspiring to category B status or higher during the previous item on the agenda, Ian Poole invited delegates to address concerns arising in their regions.  Ian Small referred to an event of 30 years standing in the North West which had been cancelled at short notice after the local parks department had imposed the requirement of a deposit for reinstatement of land.  Brian Furness replied, indicating that this problem had arisen in the early 1990s, and was becoming increasingly common as parks departments adopted more rigid practices or when personnel changed.  The solution was often down to the willingness of individual event organisers to address the political complexities of local government and deal with other relevant departments within a local authority who were responsible for event promotion rather than facility maintenance. Martin Eadon commented that at events in Rugby, he tackled this by taking photographs of the course before, immediately after and two weeks after an event, to show how the land recovered.  Mary Gill suggested that an illustrated case study would be helpful when tackling this problem.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Davie Graham reviewed the situation in Scotland, where participation was increasing.  He reported that in 2008-09 there would be 12 league events, plus the Scottish Championship, with eight of these events being category B.

Ian Poole referred to the decision by John Rawnsley to cancel the Three Peaks race, which had received some adverse criticism, and confirmed that the reasons behind the decision were fully understood by the Commission, who had supported this action.