East Midlands Division 2005 AGM

[steve parsons]

Easts Mids AGM Saturday 24th September 9.30am Winthorpe near Newark. Any items for agenda send through club secretaries to Steve Parsons by 10th September.
Agenda & more details will follow after 10th Sept

[steve parsons]

BRITISH CYCLING EAST MIDLANDS DIVISION 2005 AGM
SATURDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER 2005 9.30am
WINTHORPE COMMUNITY CENTRE

ADGENDA

1 Chairman welcome & report
2 Minutes 2004 AGM
3 Matters arising
4 DCA report
5 Treasurers report 2004 accounts
6 Election of officials
Chairman
DCA
Treasurer
Team co-ordinator
Event equipment co-ordinator
Representatives Cycle X
BMX
MTB
Board Members
Auditors (2 of)
National Council delegates (5 of)
7 Veloriders Website 2006
8 National council proposals
Rockingham Forest Wheelers proposal
Bob (Robert) Pinkerton be nominated for Gold Badge of Honour for services to cycling

Chesterfield Coureurs proposal
That BC move the Senior Track Championships to a week in the 2nd half of UK track season.
NOTE: This would move the championships back to their traditional, July/August, place in the calendar. The current October timing is unpopular with the riders as it falls several weeks after the majority of open and league track events have finished.
That BC organise the Senior Track Championship series on dates including at least 1 weekend.
NOTE: The current Monday-Friday format is unpopular with riders. Including the weekend (as used to be the case) would reduce the necessity to have as much time off work, a real issue to the majority of competitors.
9 Competition review
10 AOB

[steve parsons]

Chairman’s Report 2005

As you know ideally I would like retire from the chairman’s role in the division as I find that I have taken on too many other things which fill my time. I say ideally because it is my fond hope that someone with more enthusiasm and energy will come forward to take on the role. There is a danger that I might miss the opportunity to expand the job because of time constraints and it could be that a fresh approach could be the catalyst to expand the activities of the region.

However we have found in practice that the volunteer roles are filled by a small number of willing people and this has been very much our experience in the division since it’s inception in it’s new and enlarged form some years ago. It would not be my intention to diminish this small but important body of volunteers by “retiring” if there were no volunteers for the job.

I must say that the administration of the division is handled admirably by the officers who deal with the bulk of the work – Steve and Sue Parsons have their fingers very much on the pulse and as a result income from events and levies is on the up all the time. We owe them our thanks and encouragement and sincerely hope that they enjoy their work!

During the year we have managed to support some Division Teams both on the road and track. The major success was Scott Gamble’s win in the Melton Oakham race on a day when the other great success was the race itself. It is remarkable that we have 2 very good Premier Calendar events with the Lincoln GP celebrating a magnificent 50th anniversary this year and Colin Clews’ new event celebrating it’s first running. (if it celebrates 50 years itself then perhaps they’ll have mended the roads by then!)

We also helped a team at the Junior Tour of Ireland and we have a separate report showing their successes over the water.

We also had riders in the “Stars of the future” section of the Revolution meetings having been represented by Alex Wise Joe Troughton Steven Adams Jason Crombie and the Marlowes – Lorna & Luke. All our riders were really riding out of season for track racing and were mostly younger than the rest of the competitors. The real test came for them later in the season when they all featured in their respective events in the Junior Nationals. It was clear that they had all learned from the experience and although most of them are all-rounders rather than track *CENSORED* they can all acquit them selves well.

Helping teams does highlight one of our weaknesses as a Division in that we have difficulty providing experienced personnel to assist the riders. As usual, however it’s all down to lack of volunteers and until we have a number of people desperate to do the jobs we will struggle. With the Youth and Junior teams we have been ably assisted by parents but I am aware that this is sometimes a steep learning curve for them as well – thanks are due to everyone who helped organise and take the trip to Ireland – I am sure that it will have been a never to be forgotten experience, I hope for all the right reasons.

Some good news from this year is that Scunthorpe Track is to be re-surfaced and should be ready for 2006 – this is great news and is to the credit of the Scunthorpe Poly for their indefatigable persistence.

The Berry Hill situation is progressing slowly and Dave Cockram tells me it is hoped that work will commence in April 2006.

Once again we have made progress over the year and I sincerely hope that the initiatives of the BC competition review will see more events and participation under the rules of the National Governing Body. People who know me will realise that I have no axe to grind with other bodies which promote racing in the UK – indeed I benefit personally from some of these promotions and realise that they came in to existence to fill a need which the old BCF did not recognise. Now however BC is looking to address the concerns of cost and numbers of participants and is making progress – it is not the finished article yet but it has the chance. In my observation most of the other events are promoted by people who also have or had active participation with BC and if the product is tailored properly then the National Governing Body will gain strength and be able to progress.

It is blindingly obvious that cycling is a minority sport in the country and our historic schisms and divisions, which go back further than anyone can remember have done the sport no favours. We have been our own worst enemies arguing amongst ourselves and all the promoting bodies have a responsibility to be constructive to move the sport forward.

The big successes are the welcome achievements at Olympic and International level and the development programmes for youngsters which follow in the wake of these successes. The future of our star talent is rosy – let the rest of the sport follow and unite in support of the very real achievements we have witnessed.

Dave Gretton
September 2005