South Eastern Centre Motocross Combine Minutes February 1998

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOUTH EASTERN MOTO CROSS COMBINE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 11TH FEBRUARY 1998 AT BLINDLEY HEATH.

PRESENT : 18 Delegates were present representing the following Clubs :- Brighton, Crawley, GEST, Greenwich, Horsham,Sidcup and Twickenham.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE : Apologies were received from Bryn Nicholas [ EKSSC} and Andy Wood [ SE Marshals]

CHAIR : Mr. Eddie Herd took the Chair and it was agreed to hold the Annual General Meeting first and when that business was finished go straight on with a normal business meeting.The published agenda was therefore modified to discuss item 5 next.

TO CONSIDER OUR RULES, ELECTION OF OFFICERS ETC. OFFICERS : After some discussion it was agreed we should have a Chairman and Secretary. Mrs. Clarke felt there was no need to have a treasurer as the financial business was be very small but Mr Bennett felt there should be an elected post of Treasurer, although if the meeting felt so, there should be no reason not to let one person hold two posts. It was also agreed that there should be a Series Co-ordinator , who would keep the records of aggregates and make sure the rules of the South Eastern Centre Moto Cross Championships were adhered to.It was also felt that we should have our own Moto Cross Grading and Recording Officer who would deal solely in the grading rules and records of Moto Cross and would liaise closely between the Centre's General Recorder and the riders.

RULES : Voting : Mrs. Clarke read an extract from the Minutes of the meeting held on 19th June 1996 when the Combine was revised " After some discussion it was agreed that the Combine be open to all Clubs with an interest in Moto Cross and that each Club would be entitled to 2 votes. Proposed Mr. Dave Denyer and seconded Mr. Roger Brown. Carried " There was quite a lot of discussion regarding voting, Mrs. Clarke was worried with the trend that was coming from Management that the Combine which was only made up of organizing Clubs would be able to dictate future policy of motocross which might not be in all the riders interests. Mr. Brown then proposed and Mr. Lane seconded " That current organizers and those in the recent past would be entitled to 2 votes. Other interested Clubs would be able to join [ for example if they had moto cross members] as an associate at half the fee. Carried unanimously. Mr. Bennett proposed, and Mrs. Clarke seconded that the Combine's Officers would not be entitled to vote except the Chairman, who would have the casting vote in the case of a deadlock. Carried.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS : Mr. Eddie Herd then stood down as Chairman and Mr. Ken Piles , the Centre's President, was invited to Chair the election of the Combine Chairman.

Chairman : Eddie Herd Proposed Mr. Brown Seconded Mr. Batten Carried. Mr. Piles and Mr. Herd then swapped places.

Secretary : Marge Clarke Proposed Mr. Stiles Seconded Mr. Moores Carried.

Treasurer : Marge Clarke Proposed Mr. Moores Seconded Mrs. Hayden Carried.

Series Co-Ordinator : Frank Dixon Proposed Mr. Stiles Seconded Mr. Batten Carried.

Moto Cross Recorder and Grading Officer : Les Batten Proposed Mr. Brown Seconded Mr. Dixon Carried.

Mr Dixon[ the Series Co-ordinator] made a plea for all Championship Meeting results to be sent to him and for all organizers to make sure they went down to 10th place. Mrs. Clarke suggested that he design a form with the information he required on it and send it to all Championship Secretary's of the Meetings and ask them to complete and return to him in a SAE. Agreed.

SUBSCRIPTIONS : It was proposed Mr Brown and seconded Mr. Bennett that organizing Clubs would pay £10 per annum and other Clubs or associates £5. These would be due on 31st March. Carried. Mr. Stiles asked what would happen if a Club failed to pay and it was agreed if they did not pay after a reasonable amount of time they would be excluded from the Combine. Mrs. Clarke asked how we would get associate members and it was agreed we should publish something in the Gazette.

BANK ACCOUNT : It was agreed that withdrawals from the Bank Account must bear 2 signatures. It was agreed to have all 5 Officers as signatories.

MEETINGS : It was proposed Mr. Bennett and seconded Mr Moores If an Emergency General Meeting needed to be called 60% of members must be in favour. Carried. The Annual General Meeting would always take place before the first meeting of the year. There was some discussion as to a ratification period for new rules and it was agreed to leave the matter as it was ,with all Combine proposed Rule Changes being ratified by the first Centre Board Meeting that follows.

There being nothing further to discuss the Annual General Meeting closed at 8.25pm.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SOUTH EASTERN MOTO CROSS COMBINE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 11TH FEBRUARY 1998 AT BLINDLEY HEATH.

The meeting followed on from the A.G.M. with the same delegates in attendance and Mr. Eddie Herd in the Chair.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING : It was proposed Mr. Dixon and seconded Mrs. Simpson that the minutes of the previous meeting on 26th November 1997 be approved as correct. Carried.

MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM : Bowrings : Mrs. Clarke said that she had written to Andrew Link inviting him to our meeting straight after our last meeting but had not had a reply. She had not followed it up thinking with the recent changes in Insurance he might have thought it unecessary.The meeting agreed they would like a general chat with him and the Secretary was asked to invite him to the next meeting. Brighton said they were hoping to be able to change their date from 27th September to 20th as it clashed with the Moto Cross des Nations, GEST was not sure if they would agree to a clash at the present time. Crawley would not now be running on 12th April. The Insurance rates that were proposed for 1998 have all been scrapped and pegged at 1997 prices but with double the payout in benefits.

CRAWLEY LETTER : Mrs. Clarke was asked to read the following to the meeting " With reference to our letter of 17th November 1997, I wish to retract a comment that was made in the last paragraph. I wrote that Frank Dixon was a very valued member in the past, this wasn't meant as a Committee Member in the past. He is infact still a very valued and respected club member"

NEW ENTRY AND SIGNING ON FORMS : Mrs. Clarke wrote to the ACU with some suggestions for the new forms after our last meeting.They had taken on board our suggestions re the licence department sending out under age forms with under age licences.With regards to the Officials signing on, it is purely on a need to know basis "in so far as my duty requires it" - not every page of the rule book.If there is an under age official it was recommended that a person responsible for that minor counter signs the officials signing on sheet for him/her

A.C.U. MOTO CROSS MINUTES : Mrs. Clarke read extracts from several recent Moto Cross Committee Minutes which included :- Plea for someone to organize the Inter Centre on September 13th :banning of Whoop de Doos :problems with chainguards still :revised supplementary regulations re safety precautions and a guidebook on Moto Cross Courses :new procedures on TTC's:distance between lateral wheeltracks of no more than 1150mm: new flag signals " Yellow motionless - Take Care and Yellow waved - Great danger, no overtaking prepare to stop. NB Waved shall mean a flag should be moved up and down through an arc of 45 degrees and not indiscriminately": and Mr Smith is producing a marshal's guideline. Mrs. Clarke also asked Mr. Herd if it was correct that 15 year olds could now enter adult meetings as long as they were riding 125's. He confirmed this.

DE-REGULARISATION OF CENTRE BOUNDARY RESTRICTIONS : Mr. Brown outlined our Centre's Management Committee's views on this which enables anyone from the South Midland, The Southern and the Eastern Centre's to enter our Centre Restricted Meetings without having to belong to a Club in the South Eastern Centre. They would be required to show their own Club membership card, Mrs. Clarke said she thought all riders from our own Centre as well should show their membership cards and this was agreed. Mr. Brown said the only downside might be someone in the other Centre not willing to reciprocate although at meetings where other Centre's delegates had been they had all been in favour. There was some discussion about where this would lead to i.e. an amalgamated gazette and communal dates meetings and whether we should include non territorial clubs like the Sidecar Association in with it. It was proposed Mr. Brown and seconded Mr Leask that we should endorse this proposal with a start date of 1st April, subject to ratification by the Centre Board.Carried.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS :

Paper : Mrs. Clarke said Mr. Wood had offered to print the Combine some paper and envelopes but she felt with the few letters she wrote that she would be able to cope on her PC. Gazette

Entry Form : Mr. Bird said he had notified there was no space to put a competitors licence number on the new entry form in the gazette. Mrs. Clarke said she would take this up with Mr. Wood. She also distributed new style application forms for moto cross regulations.

Clerk of the Course Seminar : Mrs. Clarke asked for names from any Club who wanted to avail themselves to a seminar. It was understood that some people from the South Midland wanted to attend and discussion took place as to whether their licences would be valid, it was agreed that we would have no objections but that it would be up to their own Centre's to recognize the South Eastern Centre's licence.

Additional £10 for another Class : Mr. Bennett asked the Twickenham Club how many people had paid the additional £10, Mr Batten replied 1 but pointed out they had only had 40 entries so far.There was some more discussion on the worth of the new rule by both sides of the argument and the Chairman said the new rule would stand until someone proposed something different.

British Four Stroke Championship Entry List : Mr. Brown asked Mr. Herd and Mr. Dixon if they had any comment to make on the entry list. Mr. Dixon said there had been some invitations lost in the post which, unfortunatly were riders who were points scorers last year. It seemed very acrimonious and hopefully might be solved by increasing the line up at each round.

DATE, TIME & PLACE OF NEXT MEETING : It was agreed to hold a mid season meeting on 1st July at 7.30 at Blindley Heath. All items for the agenda to be sent to the Secretary one month beforehand so that Clubs have a chance to discuss in Committee any contentious items. There being nothing further to discuss the meeting closed at 9.50 pm.