Colchester Rovers Cycling Club
Committee Meeting Minutes
Friday, 8th April, 2022
Stanway Village Hall
1. Committee Members Present:
Nick Swainston, Malcolm Hargreaves, Margaret Hargreaves, Justin Smith, Colin White, , Nicky Swainston, Peter Hall, Jo Smith, Paul Meadows, Matt Heigh
2. Apologies for Absence:
Greg Andrews. Phil Read, Kelly Phillips, Tom Starmer, David Triggs, Nick Rowley
3. Approval of Previous Minutes
Proposed by Colin White
Seconded by Paul Meadows
4. Matters Arising from previous Minutes
None
5. Treasurers Report
Maggie presented the Treasurers report. At present the club monies stand at a very healthy £44,230.80. Funds received this month of £1945.04 which was made up of membership subs and Sum Up payments together with £1000.00 sponsorship from Provide Community. Monies withdrawn £591.61 made up of payments to NGW, signs for Jock Wadley, membership cards and postage and stationery.
Maggie also confirmed that she had done a provisional account for the Jock Wadley and that it was looking likely that there may be a slight loss; but she is still awaiting the invoice for the use of the School.
Maggie asked Colin if he had paid any monies into the account and Colin confirmed that he had paid in cash and cheques to the sum of £300.00 plus. (this will show on next months statement)
6. Colin read out the names of the new members: Mr Mac McKenzie, Ms Marta Stygar, Mr Peter Knight, Mr Fred Crawley, Mr Patrick Jennings, Mr Mike Smith (2nd claim to Rapha CC), and Oliver King. Colin said that he had also been out and about delivering membership cards.
7. Road/Circuit racing
Greg sent his apologies and included the following. The first Centurion race will be on May 7th at NGW. Greg has been chasing Ian and Tracey Day for confirmation of First aid but is still to hear back from them. (since the meeting Ian has confirmed first aid cover for all of the NGW Series) Greg said that Ian Mansel-Thomas has sponsorship from 3 companies all confirming £300.00 each. Greg said that he will shortly be sending out a spread sheet for the marshalling duties. Two of the races will count towards the Regional Championships. Greg said that local clubs are also using the circuit throughout the summer months and into September.
8. Jock Wadley
This year’s race provided a worthy winner in Yanto Barker who has ridden many times before. There where 80 started but we only had 32 finishers, caused by a crash on the reservoir and a very cold wind. One very slim rider was treated at the finish for hypothermia. Malcolm thanked everyone who had helped. There had been very good press coverage. Colin asked if it was the case that next year we would have to pay for the cones. Malcolm confirmed this would be the case but Nick said that the club do have cones and that they are stored at VCR. Nick will check and report back.
9. TT
Discussion took place around John Loxley TT secretary. None of the committee members have heard from John so it was agreed that Nick (chairman) would write to John resigning his position from the Committee. Malcolm said that John had also let him down with regard to the Wadley stating that he was happy to be an Accredited Marshall and days before the race said he would not. Matt has had some communication but has not heard from him recently. The first event of the season is scheduled for Sunday but at present we only have 8 riders registered. Peter said that he thought this could be because it was the start of the season. The Committee debated as to whether the event should go ahead and after a lot of discussion it was decided to postpone the event. Nick (Chairman) will look at the calendar and see where we can re-arrange. The next TT is Wednesday 20th April and then most Wednesdays after that.
Nick (chairman) will look into handicaps and will shortly be issuing a marshalling rota. Nick said it may be possible to include guests on the rota and if we do not get the required numbers then we may well have to focus on less races if volunteers do not come forward.
10. Reliability Ride
Paul said all had gone well, lots of help but very disappointed with no help for marshalling. Only one volunteer had come forward. Nick will give Paul and Maggie the SumUp amounts. Jo said thank you to everyone and is very grateful for the money. Jo said that it will buy at least one bike for Wheels for All. Jo will let Maggie know who the money has to go to. Maggie to write to Little Baddow Parish Council with regard to the donation for the defibrillator for information on when this is to be installed. Nick would like us to be involved when the installation takes place.
11. Succession planning
This to be carried forward.
12. Engagement of the membership
Jo asked if we could move the Committee meetings to a Monday so that members could be involved and become more engaged. The Committee debated this but decided also to carry this item over for further discussion at our next meeting.
13. A.O.B.
Phil Read sent his apologies and also informed the Committee that he would be standing down as a Committee member with immediate effect. The Committee gave a vote of thanks to Phil for all his hard work. Sandra was unable to attend the meeting but asked if she could put forward a suggestion to co-opt Stuart Anderson onto the Committee with immediate effect to take the place of Phil. The Committee agreed to this unanimously.
Maggie raised the point of the Youth and that she was concerned that they did not seem to have a great deal of funds in their account. Nicky said that the Youth had not had a committee meeting for some time now and the Committee felt that this is something that must be addressed and a meeting held as soon as possible (I can confirm that a meeting of the Youth Committee has now taken place by Zoom and will have this as an agenda item for the next meeting).
Jo said that she had been speaking to Bruce from BC concerning Ride Leaders Courses.
Jo had been given a date at the end of June. The cost of the course is £205.00 and the club has agreed to pay for the course. Jo said that she will speak to members on the Saturday rides who may well be interested and will come back to the committee with possible names and numbers. The Committee discussed how many places we could fund and it was decided to see who comes forward with an expression of interest.
Malcolm asked if it was time that we had a re-think on the process which is used to selected/nominate Clubman of the year. It was decided that the Committee would think about this and re-visit it again next year.
Kelly sent her apologies that she was unable to attend the meeting as she has COVID.
Kelly did email me and sent the following: Since the last meeting she has not arranged anything socially but members have a approached her in regards to organizing a few things.
Kelly has also completed the BREEZE Ride Leaders course for women only, new beginner rides etc, this is separate from the Rovers. Kelly is very interested in doing level 2 and this is more focused around the rides we as a club put on. Kelly has also expressed an interest in obtaining a coaching qualification within the club.
Kelly said that they have now had their first women’s only ride at Gateway, the feedback was amazing. They had Abigale the British Cycling coach based at the gateway join them. Abigale is also a Breeze leader. Abi has mentioned that BC are looking at engaging more in women’s cycling within the region and are looking at what events could run in the lead up to the Women’s Tour. Kelly thought that maybe we could do an Interclub Ladies Ride with as many local women riding at the track show casing the benefits of cycling.
David also sent his apologies but would like the Committee to know the following:
They are looking to start the Grass Track again at Shrub End from June on Monday nights but this will of course depend on logistics and if they will have enough coaches/helpers. David will keep us updated.
The meeting closed at 9.28pm
The date of the next meeting will be Friday 13th May 2022 at Stanway Village Hall.
Margaret Hargreaves
Secretary