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MEETING OF THE REDHILL CC COMMITTEE
7TH DECEMBER 2016
to be held at
Redhill and Reigate Golf Club, Pendleton Road, Redhill
7pm
AGENDA
Present.
G.Williams M.Ormerod K Anderson J.Jones H.Strapp
B.Strapp R.Gregory F.Grainger P.Farnfield A.Webb J.Bradbourne.
Howard Dyson was in attendance for Item 4
- Apologies for absence – Richard Bacon
- Approval of the minutes of the meeting held on 11th October
The minutes were signed by the Chairman
- Matters arising not otherwise dealt with on the agenda.
- Club kit – Welcome to Howard Dyson who attends for this item.
- Examination of kit from Champion Systems and Bodhi Cycling
- Consideration of proposals from Howard Dyson for running online store and dispatch
- Decision and way forward – migration from C&N
- After examination of the Bodhi kit it was decided to go ahead with a change of supplier. Howard Dyson is happy to provide a mail order service through the offices of Satmap (with agreement of his fellow directors). There would have to be a token handling fee. C&N will have to be informed at some stage and the amount of stock they hold will have to be assessed. Furthermore Howard has undertaken to provide the initial funding for the new kit. The President left the meeting at this point.
- Chairman’s Report
- Sadly Dan Bartley has stood down for the Racing Secretary’s role. For reasons that were not apparent to the Chairman Dan had stated that he felt his plans were in conflict with those presented at the AGM regarding coaching/skills development for senior members. The Chairman undertook to approach Henry Hunter as a possible replacement. It was noted that a number of young riders were presently riding with Maison du Velo which had a more sophisticated set-up than that which RCC could offer. It was possible that some sort of tie up with MDV could be appropriate especially if these riders could race in RCC colours. The Chairman and President undertook to take this further. The Chairman advised that David Bibby was keen to demonstrate Zwift and that he’d reached agreement with C&N to do this at their store in January. The Chairman undertook to take this forward with David Bibby.
- General Secretary’s Report
- Membership list. Restatement of internal procedures regarding same
- To clarify the membership list cannot be available to all committee members as it holds personal information on club members such as wives telephone numbers etc. For the time being at least, anyone wishing to contact all members with a mass emailing can do so through the Chairman or general secretary. However it was noted that Gwyn Williams as MTB sec has been given access
- Brief discussion on the make-up of the membership of the club.
- Following a request by the Chairman a breakdown of membership addresses was provided, unsurprisingly the majority of people reside in Redhill and Reigate although membership does extend into south east London and into Sussex..
- Circulation of the club’s constitution for information purposes.
- The constitution is available for those who are interested on the website
- Renewal of Annual Subscriptions - mechanics
- Carried out by the General Secretary and subject to occasional review by the committee. Whilst the present manual system of issuing membership cards would remain for this year Gwyn Williams advised that there were online apps that could do the same job and he provided details for further exploration.
- Treasurer’s Report
- In the Treasure’s absence he provided a number of points of clarification as follows:
- The Treasurer can agree to expenditure by the Club, so long as it is for the benefit of all members of the Club
- Notice of new activities needs to be made available to all members
- Material expenditure needs to be approved by the RCC committee and the approval minuted by the General Secretary.
- At the present time, cheque signatories are Treasurer, General Secretary and Chairman. (Any two can sign)
- General Secretary and Treasurer have approval and passwords to make electronic payments and access the bank account.
- Expenditure authority levels
- At present members of the executive committee (that is Chairman, Treasurer and General Secretary) can spend up to £50 without discussion (although the expenditure has to be confirmed) Up to £250 must be agreed by a joint decision of the executive committee and beyond that agreed at a full committee meeting.
- Changes to expenditure authorities?
- The Treasurer had proposed that the authority level should be increased to over £500 above which full committee approval was needed. The committee approved this change.
- MTB Secretary’s Report
- There is little interest in MTB racing apart from Enduro contests although it would be nice to advertise some races in the new year. The Chairman made mention of a new Cyclo-Cross event to be held in May 2017 dubbed the “Battle of the Bowl” that looked interesting and possibly worth promoting more widely. Some interest had been expressed in laying on a point-to-point event. Jim Jones also requested a change to membership application process that would allow Jim or Gwyn to distribute application forms to potential new members rather than requiring them to go online. This was agreed.
- Press and Publicity Report
- Plans for promoting the club in the wider press
- Apart from the need of providing MO with high resolution photos and a story MO recognized that he might be able to publicise stories beyond those that would naturally sit in the sports section. The Chairman was keen, he said; press stories can be used to promote the club to gain more members but that, he said shouldn’t be the sole purpose. He said he was particularly keen to use the press to promote what the club might be doing to foster better relations with other road users. This might be done through the local press but also within the cycling press. A story around the new training and skills programme at Dunsfold Park would be one example. He also advised the meeting of an initiative taken by Dorking CC to undertake litter picking in local villages as a thank you to their residents. Bryan Strapp advised that he’d an idea of promoting a cycling awareness initiative with EP Training an HGV training company, who incidentally use Dunsfold Park. The idea was that cyclists and lorry drivers could swap places to gain a better understanding of each other. It was agreed that this would make an excellent piece and BS undertook to speak to the company. (Strictly speaking this last item was raised under AOB but it seems natural that it should be recorded here).
- Discussion regarding use of the Redhill CC website and its Facebook page
- Is the website used enough by its members?
- The Chairman noted that the numbers using the site could be higher as this would improve communications generally. It was noted though that the website is really important to promote the club and that people looking to join a club are influenced by the content. There was discussion around the workings of the site and how events for instance can appear to “drop off” the bottom. There was a general feeling that the committee should keep a firm eye on the website and do what it could to ensure that it remains a vibrant hub of the club.
- Is Facebook an easier forum to use? If so for what and how should we use it?
- The Chairman noted that it seemed that all previous posts on FB had come solely from Adrian Webb as Chairman. He undertook to find out if this was the case. The committee didn’t have any definite views as to whether FB would be a better platform but the Chairman undertook to explore with Andrew Murray what might be possible. (PMN - Andrew Murray has nothing to do with FB and apparently was set up by Ryan Visser as a closed membership group.
- Road Events Secretary’s Report
- Majorca update
- Rick Gregory updated the meeting to say that the Duva was fully subscribed but through the good offices of John McMullen there was the opportunity for those on the reserve list to take up B&B accommodation located about 1 km from the Duva. The Duva had agreed that they would provide evening meals for these people. Rick also expressed his concerns that following the news that Thomas Cook had secured the use of the 2 bed apartments the Duva might be tempted to sell more rooms to these types of holiday companies bringing to a possible end RCC’s use. The Chairman noted that there had been feelings that Mallorca was becoming a little too familiar to a number of members though of course recognizing that the trip next year was attracting record numbers. There will come a time when we will need to move on and possible alternatives in Corsica or southern Spain were noted as potential destinations.
- Publication/Promotion of Events
- The Chairman stated that he’d like the club to have on its website a list of events that were being run by the likes of Wiggle & UK Cycling Events. He felt that it might be to the benefit of members to have such a list available in one place. Rick noted that the club promotes a number of events including ones being organised by members themselves. He felt that the club should be promoting those rides that had a charitable purpose rather than the commercial rides. The meeting didn’t come to a conclusion on this matter but the Chairman said that he’d be speaking to the webmaster about how the website could accommodate more than one calendar so that the site could list events by type making it simpler to navigate.
- What can the club do to support these events?
- It was suggested by the Chairman that the club, through the committee, might promote one or more events (these could of course include away-weekends) and that this could be in the form of transport of both people and bikes. (PMN – the Chairman will research the cost of hiring a minibus and box trailer and report back to members).
- MTB Events Secretary’s Report
- Publication/Promotion of Events. Gwyn is planning away weekend events for April and June further details to be provided
- Road Race Secretary’s Report
- Plans for the future of racing at RCC
- Due to Dan Bartley’s resignation there was no report
- TT Race Secretary’s Report
- Timing Chips?
- Having done some preliminary research it was found that there are several systems available but those that might be accurate for use on the TT races were very expensive. The cheaper single use chips just don’t have the required accuracy and in any event the rules and regulations for running TT races make their introduction problematic. It was concluded that there was no use for timing chips for TT races. It was suggested that chips might make the running of Denby Duels easier but RG stated that this would not be the case. Like TT races the timing needed to be accurate to tenths of a second and these cheaper chips were not good enough.
- Other matters
- Away day dates– ideas and possible dates
- No discussion was had on this matter other than to note that these could be put together relatively easily and the Chairman expected that members would only need a month’s notice.
- Away weekend dates – ideas and possible dates
- The Chairman said that he’d begin to plan the first of these and look at possible dates. He reiterated his previously stated desire to go to Wales and would be bringing forward an idea for a club-supported weekend.
- Skills training
- Update from Chairman and discussion of the concept, format and implementation
- The Chairman outlined the discussions he’d had with Paul Butler, one of the two coaches used by SCRL to manage the accreditation and training of new racers, who’d provided an outline of the course he’d run. The Chairman circulated a copy of these, which included his own additions. The format of the programme was approved and it was agreed that the Chairman would revert to Paul with a view to setting up the first session in February. (PMN a date of 12th February 2017 has been proposed to PB). It was noted that the cost of course was £200 plus the hire of the track. Paul can accommodate up to 40 cyclists but the Chairman thought it might be preferable in the first instance that this number was smaller. He indicated that he hoped most of the committee members would attend together ride leaders and others across the breadth of the club all of whom could provide feedback to others.
- Marshalling
- Should it be a requirement for all members to fulfil?
- If so how do we implement it?
The committee discussed this at some length. Some felt that being a member of the club entailed an obligation to support this aspect of the club’s activities even if most members were not active racers. The obligation if spread across the whole membership would mean that members would only be called to fulfil it very occasionally. However, whilst Jonny Bradbourne felt strongly that there was an obligation on racers like him to take his turn it was acknowledged that for many the possible abuse that has been thrown at marshals in the past by motorists was one good reason why some didn’t come forward to volunteer and for this reason it shouldn’t be made compulsory. The committee accepted this position. JB stated that the way forward was to run a spreadsheet for all future races where volunteers could sign up well in advance and the organisers could be more certain that they would have the required numbers. It was also noted that the use by SCRL of accredited marshals was reducing the need for club volunteers.
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- Committee dates for the coming year
- Agree frequency of meetings and get dates in the diary
- It was noted that the constitution required meetings to occur on a six weekly cycle. The Chairman said he’d approach the General Secretary to publish dates for the balance of the year so that these could be added to committee members’ diaries.
- “Saturday Captains”
- The Chairman noted that this was an idea that had been raised by the President who’d suggested it would be desirable to revert to a number of previous practices that had been followed at Woodhatch. The Chairman said this would be discussed in more depth at the next meeting but said he was seeking to address this “on the ground” at each Saturday ride.
- Evening meetings?
- Guest speakers - any ideas?
- Joint meetings with other clubs (Dorking CC)
- The Chairman advised that he’d noted that the club had little history of holding evening meetings, either for social or cycle related reasons. Mike Ormerod mentioned the curry evenings that he’d once organised but these had died a death. The Chairman reported that he’d approached the Chairman of Dorking CC with a view to exploring the idea of holding joint meetings. Given that nearly 50% of our members lived in Redhill & Reigate and close surrounding villages there could be reasonable appetite for the reintroduction of such meetings based on using somewhere like the R&RGC. It was noted that the Sean Yates evening held at Destination Bike (a charity event) had attracted about 50 people from various clubs.
- Club Summer BBQ and Fun day at Dunsfold Park
- This was not discussed.
- Committee dates for the coming year
- Any other business.
- Bryan Strapp raised an idea about the possibility of ride leaders being able to post their rides from Strava directly onto the club's Facebook. He wasn’t sure if it was possible but he felt that it would enable members to stay engaged with the club after the ride was over.