South Eastern Centre Motocross Combine Minutes November 1997

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SOUTH EASTERN MOTO CROSS COMBINE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 1997.

PRESENT : 20 Delegates were present representing the following Clubs :- Brighton, Crawley, EKSSC, GEST, Greenwich, Sidcup, S.E. Marshals & Twickenham.

CHAIR : Mr. Eddie Herd took the Chair and welcomed Mr Bryn Nicholas from the East Kent Schoolboy Scramble Club who as part of the BSMA might or might not be joining the ACU ranks under the new amalgamated title of BYMX.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE : Apologies for absence were received from Mrs. Myra Hayden [ Horsham ].

ELECTION OF OFFICERS : Mr. Herd mentioned he was concerned that we had not had any formal voting in of Officers and it was assumed he would chair the meeting. Mrs. Clarke pointed out when the Combine was reconstituted in June 1966 it was proposed and carried that Mr Herd be elected as Chairman and herself as Secretary, there had been no elections since.Mr Herd suggested that this be rectified at the next meeting when an election of Officers should be held, Mrs. Clarke suggested that in future perhaps the elections should take place immediately after the moto cross dates meeting.Mrs Clarke went on to say she was at the moment funding the printing and postage of all communications because although the Combine had money in a bank account the mandate was so out of date that Mr Leicester was a signatory and he now resided in Spain. It was agreed to get a new mandate signed and Mrs. Clarke said she would prefer it to have an authority of at least two officers to be able to withdraw funds.It was agreed that perhaps we should also think about having an annual subscription fee.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING : Mrs. Slight said she was not happy with the wording on page 2 under Permanent Numbers she said Crawley had not done " another" U Turn in regards to giving out permanent numbers but had said they would be willing to give any rider a number he so wished for , if it was possible. Under Any Other Business on page 3 Mr Dixon thought the wording with regards to the Championship Prize Monies ambiguous and it was agreed to insert a word so it would read " there were no set Championship prize Monies any more- it was down to each individual Club". Mr Bennett said he wanted to bring up the way in which something was passed unconstitutionally at the last meeting but it was agreed it should come up as an item on the agenda. It was therefore proposed by Mrs. Slight and seconded Mrs. Simpson that with the amendments mentioned above the minutes of the meeting on 15th October were a true and accurate reflection. Carried.

MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM : Sidcup Meeting and 125's : Mrs. Clarke confirmed there were about 28, 125 entries at their last meeting. Mr Horton said he had spoken to George Edwards the Centre recorder about there being Expert points in a 125 Race and he personally felt happy as long as there was a decent line up of say 30'ish. He promised he would take the matter to the next National Recorder's Conference for their views.Mr Horton said he had done a little bit for the Gazette with the hopes of alerting any 125 owners that he was trying to get a class going for them on a regular basis.Mr Dixon said that the Clubman's Championship would now take entries from Juniors as it had places left.

LETTER FROM THE CRAWLEY CLUB : Mr Bennett said the Crawley Club ,of which he was the Chairman ,were unhappy with the way in which they felt mandatory decisions had been taken at the last Combine meeting when Clubs had not been circulated before the meeting of the items that were on the Agenda for discussion.He was now even more worried that the Chairman had informed the meeting that the constitution of the Combine was not correct and he questioned their ability to make any legal changes and wanted to know if their role was mandatory or advisory. There followed much discussion with the Chairman stating firmly that the first matter that should be sorted out was whether this meeting wanted rules to be made or for them to spend a lot of time discussing issues that would then be put to the Centre Board and overturned by someone from another discipline who did not really understand the issues of moto cross. There was a unanimous show of hands in favour of the meeting making mandatory rules. Mr Herd said as everyone was now aware of the item we could have another vote on the matter, the motion was therefore re- proposed by Mrs. Argent and seconded by Mrs. Simpson. Mrs. Clarke asked what the voting rights would be as she felt that it would be detrimental to her Club Members to be deprived of the normal Centre Board voting rights which took into account the size of her membership if Sidcup were only allowed one vote.It was agreed the voting rights should be sorted out at the next meeting. There followed further discussion of the merits of introducing the additional £10 fee if a rider chose to ride in more than one class, with Twickenham saying they had already included it in the regs for their next meeting as the matter had been ratified at the last Centre Board Meeting. Mr Herd summarized by saying if Crawley wished to do something about rescinding the new rule they would have to lay down a motion for the next Centre Board Meeting. The final part of the Crawley letter referred to Mr Dixon's right to represent them at meetings.Mr Dixon explained that he had been asked by the Club President Mr Stiles to represent Crawley.The main point that was raised seemed to be if Mr Dixon in his role as Centre Championship Co-ordinator should be entitled to a vote.Mr Batten proposed that he should and Mrs. Simpson seconded it but Mrs. Clarke said until the Club's voting rights had been sorted out she would be unhappy that the co - ordinator would have the same sway as her club representing 250 riders.Again it was agreed to hold this over until the next meeting when all of the rules etc. could be sorted out.

MECHANICS' INSURANCE : Mrs. Clarke read her letter to Geoff. Wilson the Chief Executive of the ACU regarding mechanics' lack of insurance and then his reply.He seemed to have completely missed the point and even recommended he sue the club or rider for negligence. Mr Herd said that Andrew Link from Bowrings was due to talk to the Moto Cross Committee soon and he would ask him more details. It was then agreed that it might be a good idea to invite him to our next meeting for a set time so that we could have a question and answer session.Secretary to write requesting this.

NEW ENTRY AND SIGNING ON FORMS : Mrs. Clarke read a letter from Geoff Wilson regarding the revised entry and signing on forms, the main differences revolve around minors.It will be necessary in future for minors to have a parental agreement form signed, this can be either sent in with the entry or signed on the day as long as it is the parent or guardian signing.On the signing on form, a minor will have to sign a different form and a responsible adult will also have to sign - in this case it need not be the parent or guardian.It was agreed to suggest that a supply of the parental agreement forms be sent out with minors licences. The Officials signing on form still bears the clause about reading the rules etc. which we had felt was not reasonable to enforce, it was agreed to write again suggesting this be changed and point out that no mention has not been made about under age officials. Mrs. Clarke said when she was talking to Bowrings they had said there was no real need to get officials to sign the indemnity as it was not worth the paper it was written on - again perhaps we should bring this up at our proposed meeting with Bowrings. BYMX : Mr Herd said the amalgamation between the Youth sectors of the sport seemed to have had a hic cup this week and he asked Mr Nicholas what had happened and how the East Kent Club stood. Mr Nicholas explained that they were given to understand certain things and when it came to signing on the dotted line certain key items had been altered without consultation. This included a one off licence and insurance fee of £61 which would hit families with more than one child and one of the key selling points as far as the BSMA was concerned was that the amalgamation would make it cheaper for families.The age groups had been changed with no class at National level producing a champion for the Experts, the Seniors would stop at 16.The Championship would be an 8 round series favouring people with money who could travel all over the country instead of the present system which goes though from Club level to semis and then finals.He knew that 15 BSMA Clubs were thinking of reforming but that East Kent would not make their minds up until their AGM in December. Mr Herd said he knew the Industry would be backing the new BYMX system and would not offer sponsorship to any breakaway club.Mr Horton said from his point of view he was told he would have to affiliate to the new body and have their licence/insurance system, he had been assured this would save him from paying the Centre Levy. Mrs. Clarke thought it wrong that GEST were being forced out of the Centre's protection, Mr Horton said they did not want this and would be prepared to affiliate twice,especially as they would want to run adult races as well. Mrs. Clarke thought that was unfair.Mr. Herd said he would welcome East Kent into the Centre as we all had the best interests of moto cross in mind.Mr Nicholas said East Kent did not wish to run 250 Adults and at the moment GEST and East Kent liaised with dates.Mr Horton thought the whole thing was going ahead at far to fast a pace and things were not being sorted out slowly and properly but rather forced and hurriedly and he could see it all going wrong.

CENTRE CHAMPIONSHIP MEETINGS 1998 : Mr Batten said it had been agreed at the last meeting that we would come back with suggestions as to a new format for the Junior Championship as it was against the ACU Rules that we can let a rider down grade again once he had attained Expert status. Mrs. Slight favoured a one only meeting to decide a Champion preferably early in the Season.Mrs. Clarke said it would never be easy to have a series as under the new upgrading rules the newly qualified Expert goes up straight away and he does not even stay as a Junior for 6 months anymore. After some discussion including having a race only for those "new" experts it was proposed Mr Brown and seconded Mr Moores that we run a Junior Championship for the whole year with all Juniors points being recorded, as soon as a Junior scored his points he would move up to Expert status and no longer be eligible to score points in the Junior Championships. At the end of the year whoever was at the top of the league tables would be the Champion.It most probably would still be a junior who had scored consistently in positions which did not attract Expert points, but if it was a "new" Expert, he would be eligible to receive the award. Clubs put their requests for dates to Mr Dixon the co-ordinator [ see list attached ] which resulted in :- Experts Rounds 9 Junior Rounds 11 Fourstroke Rounds 9 Sidecar Rounds 4

NEW INSURANCE FIGURES : Mr Dixon gave details of the new insurance figures which would become effective from January 1st.This will involve increases for the riders at Centre level of £1.10 on 3rd party cover and £1.35 in personal accident cover per meeting.The Club will have to pay an additional £21.50 in promoters liability and £2.15 in Officials PA. The plus side the pay out to injured riders has been doubled to £100 per week. It was also noted that the Clubs would also have to take into account an increase in the Centre levy of 20p when setting budgets for entry fees for meetings next year. Mr Batten wanted to know why there was an increase in the Competitors 3rd party when the insurance company could not pay out in the Neil Barton case unless he sues for negligence - again another question for Bowrings when they come to talk to us.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS : Mrs. Clarke said that she had heard on the grapevine there were going to be some changes to the moto cross rules and asked if the 2 members on the National Moto Cross Committee could enlighten us. Mr Herd said that whoops were being banned to bring our rules in line with the FIM's and as this was purely for safety reasons it was thought to be a good idea.

DATE, TIME AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING: It was agreed to hold the next meeting, which in effect would be an emergency annual general meeting to sort out the rules and constitution, on Wednesday 11th February at 7.30pm at Blindley Heath. It was agreed that all items would be sent to the secretary by 10th JANUARY for inclusion on the agenda examples needed would be Nominations of Officials , and Combine Rules. There being nothing further to discuss the meeting closed at 10.30pm.