MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD IN BIRMINGHAM ON 7TH JUNE 2006

Meeting started at 10:45

Apologies from GG. All others present

Matters arising

The regs re-write has been done, but not circulated.

Action: RT

LEL accounts have been finalised with a loss of about £3000

Nothing has been received directly from the FBC. Agreed to do nothing until anything further received.

FC requested PM check with ACP about PBP lighting regs.

Action: PM

SD’s response to LEL 2009 event spec discussed at length. RP to reply after circulating draft to committee. SC to oversee northern part of the route under SS’s mentoring. KH/SG to do southern end, with DKB looking after the part in the middle.

Action: RP, SC, SS, KH/SG, DKB.

There has been no further progress on PayPal, but FC is confident the system mod can be finished before the next renewal round.

Action: FC

The CTC Birthday rides are to be reduced to a weekend in SE England. Jim Brown to chair org committee.

Correspondence and officers’ reports

NH has liaised with Rocco and filled, as far as possible, the gaps in the records. He has contacted Terry Bateman and will do so again to complete the handover of records.

Action: NH

IH has corresponded with Cycling Plus. One of their challenges (a SR series) has seen the volunteer withdraw following a change of job. Possibly anther volunteer will be found in time. PP & KH advised a disappointing total of 85 entrants for both the Double Century rides. (David Duffield Challenge clashes) We will be able to push them harder next year with PBP. IH suggested taking ad space in the magazine for an Audax news column.

Action: IH

KH reported a 9% increase in validations with a larger number of events supported by smaller fields. SC’s request for medals for her birthday rides was approved, as there are ample stocks. He has had complaints – as has PP – about the quality of medals, where pins break. He also suggested a simpler method of validating Brevet Cards which prompted a long discussion. The upshot was that for Brevets Populaires only, a selected few organisers will be invited to try this system, and the results assessed afterwards.

No action at this stage, as FC / SS are going abroad shortly, and a system mod will be needed.

SS gave a quick update on the printing situation after Quorum’s bankruptcy. The new issue of Arrivée printed by Headley Bros had been well received.

PP advised sending out Brevet Cards nearer to the events, following supplementary orders from several organisers. PC advised a pdf version of the blank inner was available for use with laser printers. PP also showed proofs of new publicity folders, which were discussed briefly.

FC said he was increasingly concerned about the website server and wanted to migrate to a new one in August to give a three month parallel run period before our existing contract expires in November.

An approach has been received from Audax Australia wishing to emulate / share our system. As much of the work setting up our system was FC’s own, he may charge for the use of his intellectual property.

Action: FC

UK Events Secretariat

Shortly before the meeting, PC had written to DKB and RP advising he did not wish to stand for re-election at the next AGM, but would be happy to support his successor as needed, and help with specific projects where his experience would be useful. In his reply, RP used the opportunity to thank him for "your immense contribution to AUK over the past many years, and to say that your experience and advice in committee will be greatly missed."
The following points emerged from the ensuing discussion:-

1) The job should be split between a committee member and some delegates.
2) SS to draft an ad for Arrivée to be circulated to committee & TW.
3) FC volunteered to keep the system running in the interim period. Organisers could input their own rides, but one person would have to be in overall control. PP praised CTC&H website as a good model.

Action: SS, FC.

Prospective Patron

DKB said he and NC had met David Duffield to discuss inviting him to be Patron of AUK. After DKB had given brief details of his long-distance cycling credentials, and there had been a brief discussion, the nomination was approved. DKB to confirm to DD

Action: DKB

Insurance

It has recently emerged that the AUK insurance policy does not apply if the organiser is resident abroad, and it is not possible to obtain cover. When a rider is also a CTC member, then their insurance should take precedence. For our rides, CTC or some grades of BC membership offer acceptable substitutes for insurance purposes. After discussion, it was decided not to include BTA membership as an alternative for such a purpose. The fee for temporary membership will rise to £1.50 effective 1 Nov 2006. There appears to be widespread ignorance amongst the members about the extent of cover and RT agreed to do a piece for Arrivée to clarify. IH praised the CTC leaflet as a model.

Action: RT

New entry form

The new simplified and redesigned entry form was discussed. It will come into use next season, and a copy is attached (system willing)

AOB

The Wessex Cycosportifs seem to have received a mixed press.

The Events Secretary’s honorarium is to be lapsed until the successor is approved.

PP showed new 1000K medals which were cheaper and better quality than existing ones. It was agreed that with immediate effect badge prices would be £2.00 and medals £2.50. In each case the organiser will retain 50p.

Apparently, some members have been put off attending the reunion weekend, and a more inclusive title should be devised for the future.

The next (post PBP-07) medal design has the facility to be dated. Date bars may still be available from NH. PP also queried whether badge designs needed changing for the next order.

PP has purchased a new high-speed printer and will be using it at York.

RT advised that a Business Transfer Agreement was required for Incorporation and requested all committee members supply an inventory of AUK equipment held.

Action: All

Next meeting: 27th September 2006 in Birmingham at 10:30 for 10:45.

The meeting closed at 15:45.

= = = = = = = = =

MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD IN BIRMINGHAM ON 27TH SEPT 2006

Meeting started at 10:30

Present: DKB, NH, RP, FC, SS, GG, PP, SG + KH.

Apologies from JW, IH, PC + RT.

Matters arising

No successor has come forward for the position of Events Secretary, although there has been some interest in taking over some of the PC Permanents. Currently the functions of validating routes, mentoring and vetting organisers are vacant. SS suggested headhunting a suitable person, but for the moment will put an advertisement in Arrivée detailing all the desirable attributes.
ACTION: SS

Following Simon Doughty’s withdrawal as prospective manager for LEL2009 apparently because of his increased workload, he has sent a different e-mail to his team of volunteers citing pressures from the committee and over-burdensome stipulations not required of his predecessors. A long discussion ensued about the organisation of the event generally, and although PP was happy to take on the organisation of the event, it was agreed to advertise again for an organiser to allow the whole membership the opportunity to contribute. SG/KH agreed to send a newsletter to the existing volunteers on Simon’s mailing list to maintain their interest and to counter the factual inaccuracies in his message. It was also agreed that SG/KH and PP would investigate possible controls for an outline route to be publicised at PBP2007.
ACTION: SG/KH, PP

Reports

FC reported he was still struggling with migrating the server, and until that had been sorted there would be little progress on PayPal. Having discussed that latter with GG they had agreed not to use it on the forthcoming round of renewals, but apply it to new members’ payments to eliminate any problems and teething troubles with the new system. This system, apparently, requires to be linked to a bank account or credit card account, which had been left with RT.
ACTION: FC/RT

PP said the year had started well, but is now tailing off. She is happy to receive requests for Brevet Cards by e-mail. She showed a couple of proofs of possible designs for the inners for the PBP 2007 qualifier cards. After some discussion it was decided to put a monochrome version of the ACP PBP 07 logo on the front inner cover of the appropriate cards.

SG/KH were proud to announce being fully up to date. Their past punctuality had led to raised expectations from organisers - sometimes unrealistically so. Although validations are some 15% up, they confirmed PP’s view that fields are down, and that organisers who missed getting their events in the calendar attracted fewer riders.
They had tried a self-validation experiment on a small sample of Brevet Populaires involving sending brevet stickers to selected organisers to attach to validated cards. This had generally proved to be a success apart from a few predictable orgs especially as it eased several aspects of the postal burden, and will extended next season for all stand alone Brevet Populaires. On the other hand, the experiment of sending out medals had not been a success and will be discontinued.

GG said she and Julian had visited Hedleys for a very useful meeting with Jacquie, their Production Scheduler, and main contact. As Jacquie was confused by the variety of AUK delegates contacting her with various pieces of data, Gerry had volunteered to take on the task of co-ordinating it all. The quality of the new issues of Arrivée was generally thought to be good, but picture quality was queried and it was decided to monitor the next couple of issues. GG also agreed to re-send a list of deadline dates as a reminder
ACTION: GG

RP gave details of an exchange of correspondence concerning an event run in support of a local pressure group. He also read out JW’s report received by e-mail apologising for absence and reporting a delay in returning validated Brevet Cards due to a lack of labels which was to be rectified shortly. He also complained of a late upsurge in cards received, but was intent on getting all validations up to date by the season end. Some new events had been received and checked out; these would appear in the next issue of Arrivée. The organisers taking over PC’s Perms had still to be finalised and JW wanted to liaise directly with SS & FC about her part of the Mesh and DIY Perms.
ACTION: JW

FC had been kept busy repairing cracks in the system, and was working with the membership team to allow renewals to go on the live database. He had also devised an events system that could be implemented at very short notice giving organisers an on-line interface. SS proposed the new Events Secretary be required to adopt this system.

PP showed paper pictures of the new PBP jerseys in the traditional red / white / blue and the newer yellow / white / purple colours requesting comments. Amid general approval, DKB suggested the proportion of white should be increased to improve visibility.

Risk Assessments

SS asserted the current RA and Organisers Guidelines were very verbose and risked leaving the board unable to justify the RA as no statistics were being compiled from the Accident Reports even though copies were being mailed to the club’s Safety Officer. RP volunteered to tabulate the data for the 2005 and 2006 seasons (all that was available) on receipt from SG/KH and from then onward. It was further agreed to codify previous best practice that all AUK official documents should be submitted to the board for inspection before circulation.
ACTION: RP

Organisation of Payments

To minimise any delay in future when payments are required urgently at times when RT is unavailable, it was suggested there should be another chequebook available to other directors. Alternative suggestions were for some directors to have pre-signed cheques (PP is expecting to need four such items and GG two) or for such directors to be able to use a club credit card. As the credit card facility was also relevant to the PayPal scheme, FC offered to talk to RT directly about it.
ACTION: FC

Insurance for all Riders

SS suggested there should be 3rd party liability for all riders paid for in the entry fee. This would remove the risk of riders being uninsured and would simplify the Entry Form. After some discussion on various aspects of these payments, the current system was favoured with the caveat that the period of grace for late renewals should not apply.

Validation Appeal

SG/KH distributed copies of an appeal against refusal of validation of a 600KM brevet. The appeal was disallowed (5 against, 1 abstention)

On-line Entry

Although there is a downloadable entry form, there is currently no facility to pay on line. This method is likely to be increasingly popular in the future, but for now it would have to be an optional alternative since not all organisers or riders have Internet access. Payment would still have to be made to individual organisers – AUK is not a central agency – and fees may have to be increased to cover charges, which would be offset by less postage. FC offered to investigate the possibility of a link to PayPal on the on-line forum.
ACTION: FC

AOB

NH advised he would be travelling to New Zealand on 5th Dec and would be returning in mid March. Anything for him relating to this season received after 1st Nov would be dealt with by FC, and BM would take care of the first few months of the new season. He also queried whether the recent German 1500KM ride would count in the points table. Since it had been advertised as a BRM event, but not received such status, only as a result of a squabble within that country, it was agreed to accept any claims received from the finishers.

FC queried whether AUK company details should be included in Arrivée. They will be sent to ML for inclusion in the next and future issues. He also wondered what PA facilities were available at the hotel for the AGM since members at the back of the room often had difficulty hearing and following the proceedings. PP to check and advise; if there is nothing suitable, FC is authorised to purchase appropriate equipment.
ACTION: FC/PP

PP suggested changing the title of that weekend to the Annual Dinner to avoid putting off those members allergic to committee meetings and to stress that members other than prizewinners were also welcome. She had also received an enquiry from a rider whether a National Series medal would be sent automatically without the necessity to claim. On the basis of last season’s experience, it was considered that GM would have it in hand.

Next Meeting: Ringwood Hall Hotel, Brimington, nr Chesterfield 9:30am

The meeting closed at 15:20pm.