Committee Meeting 4th March 2024 7:30pm
Members present:
Maggie Hargreaves Colin White
Malcolm Hargreaves Perry Taylor
Justin Smith Peter Hall
Kelly Phillips Colin Foster
Jacqui Mortlock Matt Haigh
Greg Andrews Simon Wilson
Ray Robins
Paul Meadows
Apologies:
Helen Arnold Nick Swainston
Nick Rowley Nicky Swainston
Elaine Rowley Jonathan Whall
Tom Starmer
Previous meetings minutes ‘approved’ by Colin W and Paul Meadows.
Action points from last meeting.
MAH has spoken to Robert Wood about the youth account.
HA,JS,NS website form access move to Aprils action points.
MAH & NS track nights to start the first Thursday night of April with VCR.
JS waiting on NS for club records to post on website, move to April.
Accident reporting move to April.
MATT action point done.
KP sent out survey results to all comm members, also sent NS the Wadley press piece
Waiting on a response and then will share to media outlets.
KP to share with JS for the webpage.
KP liasing with Terry Byrne about his Tour Of Divide attempt…piece to follow in next few months.
KP also advised due to scheduling conflicts that the TT celebration night has been postponed.
YOUTH ACOOUNT
Maggie spoke to Robert Wood about the Youth account.
The club now has control of Youth account and will use the Rovers ‘old’ savings account for this.
There is roundabout £5000.00 in the Youth fund. Robert has agreed to close the Barclays account. Maggie has advised that a second signatory needs to be on the Youth account.
Colin W requested a paying in book for the new account which Maggie said she would sort out for him.
Simon also advised he would ensure all sum up machines would be configured to the new account details.
JOCK WADLEY
Malcolm and Nick have been liasing with Kelly on the press release, which once Kelly gets a reply will be sent out this week. Kelly also advised that she had posted a couple of ‘stories’ on the clubs Instagram account with a link to the entry of the Jock Wadley, and had a fab response with uptake on entries and fellow racing accounts sharing all details of the race.
At present we have 110 entries for the Wadley.
Nick S and chief comm David Hales drove the course on Sunday, and a few repairs are being done by Highways before race day.
ROAD/CIRCUIT RACING
Greg has advised that the gateway has been booked for the first centurion on Sunday 19th May. Greg has asked about the club’s ‘club’ mark as was requested by the gateway when booking.
Maggie and Peter think that it has lapsed as BC wasn’t putting much emphasis on it.
Simon advised that he didn’t need it when he booked the cyclocross earlier in the month at the gateway.
Simon and Peter advised of a possible clash with the 19th May, as it’s the first round of Travers MTB series, and the Tour of Tendring.
Greg will ask the gateway if we can change the date to 12.05.24.
The Tony Asplin is penciled in for 21st July 24, HQ will be Layer village hall and will be run on same day as VCRs Ken Wright memorial.
The second centurion Greg is looking at early SEPT as shouldn’t clash with anything.
Simon W will check with Ian when the first cyclocross is which is usually Springfield.
Greg has also advised that Benson Ho has offered to help organize the youth races at centurion.
Greg will look at 31st Aug as a possible date.
TTs
Nick R has emailed that a provisional calender is done, but will converse with Nick S to finalise and then to Police for ok.
MEMBERSHIP.
Justin has said that we had 29 new members.
Colin W asked about the membership cards, which raised the point, do we still need them.
A few of the committee said they have never had to use them, and they are in a drawer somewhere.
Maggie said its £300 for the cards and Kelly asked would it better spent going towards an app as previously discussed. Kelly said Hadleigh use the SPOND app that Nick S had spoke aboutin previous meetings.
Simon asked Colin who wanted them, which is predominantly our older members.
Peter said we could make the old-style laminated ones for those members that requested cards which is a much cheaper alternative.
Colin W will provide a list of names.
COACHING COURSES.
It was shared with the committee that BC are offering a new approach to coaching and shared some course dates.
Simon said we have coaches, but not all are as active or contributing as expected.
Should the club pay towards anymore coaches there needs to be obligation to fulfill a certain number of sessions like the ride leaders fulfill to lead a certain amount of rides.
Minimum of 10 sessions once qualified.
Kelly was very interested.
YOUTH.
Simon shared with the committee a document for financial support for youth riders and asked what the committee’s thoughts were.
The consensus was if they ask for help why shouldn’t we.
It would be for first claim members who have been a member longer than a year.
Open to all the youth.
Across all disciplines within the club.
The committee agreed that it would be a requirement for the applicant to draw up a plan of action to present to the committee. Also the committee agreed that they would have to give something back, in this case a write up for the club membership and webpage similar to the ones Isaac Starmer did for his national races.
Greg asked about Lee Valley and how they did it, Peter Hall said Eastern League Cyclocross do something, Simon said he would find out.
Chris Douglas is arranging the grass track session over the summer and asked Colin W if the track would be marked out for 13th May. Colin W was going to speak to him as it should be.
Jonathan Whall sent a message with his apologies about the National round of grass track he’s organizing on the 30th June, and whether parking could be done on the field.
Colin W said he would speak to the Shrub End sports centre and find out for Jonathan.
Chris and Colin will be meeting to go over the clubs bikes and check the situation of them ready for the season to begin.
A.O.B
Paul M informed the committee that 21st April is the Rovers reliability from Gt Bromley village hall, and 20th October will be our sportive from Boxted. All halls booked and routes to be finalized.
Ray asked how we move forward after our planning meeting, which Ray said was a great way to develop the feedback from the survey going forward to ensure momentum and implementing the changes that are needed. He suggested small working parties to work on those points and is happy to lead or help in organizing this.
Maggie said she will contact Paul and get the stuff back off him so we can pursue this, as Paul is extremely busy with assisting Tafoutie racing team and his commisaires role.
Once Maggie has this, we will form a plan at next available meeting.
Ray will share with committee his document that he sent to Maggie.
Perry has requested we change the wording on our webpage from MTB to off road.
Perry has also said that he is looking at local routes and will share something at a later date when he has done some recon.
Colin W advised that Chris Halls celebration of life went well and it was a packed out venue bringing back a lot of very fond memories.
Maggie suggested a donation of £100 to St Helenas Hospice in his memory, the vote was unanimous.
Greg also asked about the portable podiums, the committee are happy with purchasing the mid range set. Greg was going to research lead times, stability and find somewhere that does vinyl, and asked if any of the committee might know as well. Will feedback in Aprils meeting.
Jacqui asked Simon for the dates for the youth sessions so that she can attend and ‘be a face to the name’ for the youth and parents. Kelly asked whether an email or details had been set up on website.
Reply was not yet no.
Justin said that the club had been offered track time at the velodrome, and he’s happy to arrange if we want to do it. Simon asked about age limit and Justin wasn’t sure so was going to find out.
Justin would put an email together and post on facebook.
Maggie spoke about the Lap of Essex charity event and will put something in the upcoming newsletter.
The meeting closed at 9:10pm, next meeting 2 April 24 owing to the Bank Holiday.