South Eastern Centre Motocross Combine Minutes July 2000

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SOUTH EASTERN MOTO CROSS COMBINE HELD ON WEDNESDAY 12th JULY 2000 AT BLINDLEY HEATH

PRESENT : 12 Delegates were present representing the following Clubs :- Brighton, Crawley, GEST, Greenwich, Sidcup, South Eastern Marshals and Twickenham.

CHAIR : Mr. Eddie Herd took the Chair.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE : Apologies were received from Eddie Bellars [ ACU Insurance ], John Bramall [South Eastern Centre Gazette], Ashley Gregory [Twickenham], Kevin McDavitt [ Brighton ] and Myra Hayden [Horsham ].

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING : It was proposed Mr. Brown and seconded Mr. Lane that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12th April 2000 be accepted as true and accurate. Carried.

MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM :

Inter centre Team Moto Cross : Mrs. Clarke said that she had replied to the ACU's questionnaire but had no acknowledgement from Rugby to our other suggestions. She also read an extract from the ACU Moto X Committee minutes where the matter and our letter was discussed, firstly we were accredited with a suggestion for 5 team members which was not in our letter and no mention was made of our idea to run the meeting on Remembrance Sunday. Both Mr. Herd and Mr. Dixon [ ACU Moto X Committee members ] remember it being discussed although there was no mention of it, Mr. Bussell had spoken against the idea, Mrs. Clarke pointed out that Mr. Bussell had no voting rights on that Committee. Mr. Dixon went on to explain the turmoil in the office at Rugby at present with various members of staff having left and that nothing was being done properly. It was agreed the Secretary should write asking for a reply. Mr. Brown suggested that perhaps instead of paying travelling expences to riders, each Centre could pay more in entry fees allowing the Club to put up a large purse of prize money to make the meeting more attractive.

NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP : Mrs. Clarke said she had penned our thoughts to Geoff Wilson following our last meeting, she then came across a paper that had been prepared by the sub committee dealing with the matter and had followed the first letter up with additional comments, replies and copies had been circulated to all delegates previously so that they could be digested before the meeting and discussed. Geoff Wilson had reassured her that there were no plans for the demise of the Clubs but Mrs. Clarke said that she was still worried about the position of officials being expected to pay £5 to affiliate as well as work, she could also foresee problems with the casual rider and his licence requirements. There was much discussion from various parties giving examples that appeared detrimental to the sport and Mr. Brown felt that not enough thought was being given to future generations of workers. No final paper had been seen on how it was to be implemented and Mr. Brown felt it would be rubber stamped at NMC, unfortunately he would not be able to attend the next one as he would be on holiday. The Secretary was instructed to write to the Centre Secretary with our concerns and forward to him all the correspondence so that the Management Committee could also make a stance on the matter with Rugby. It was also suggested that we invite the other Combines to do the same.

PARAMEDICS : Mrs. Clarke said that she had put the matter on the agenda mainly because she had heard nothing. She felt we should at least write and ask what progress had been made, she also suggested that it might be a good idea if the Medial Panel circulated a questionnaire to Clubs asking their first aid personal to fill in pertinent questions so that they could accurately gauge what was happening out in the field. Agreed.

GRADING QUERIES : Mrs. Clarke said that she had been approached by Mick Moores to say GEST felt the system of upgrading juniors in 125 only races was allowing some riders who were not ready for Expert status to be made up. Mr. Horton said this was not the view of the Club but a personal one of Mr. Moores and that the Club felt the system was working well.

CENTRE JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTATION : Mr. Horton confirmed that Colin Poole had been presented with his trophy.

MARSHALS SEMINAR : Following our discussion last meeting Mrs. Clarke had written to several people asking for advice on running a marshals seminar. There had been no reply from BMCRC at Lydden. Robert Higgs of KRC had said he was willing to come and help and he had both road race experience and moto cross experience. Peter Bartlett from the BMCRC marshals club had been most helpful with hints and tips on how to approach a seminar together with some handouts. There was some discussion and it was agreed that the secretary would try and organise a date, hall and someone to run it. It was then agreed we would offer an official invitation to all of the clubs that could be photocopied and handed out to every marshal until the end of the season offering them the opportunity to come and benefit from the discussion evening if they wanted to. Light refreshments would be provided and the Secretary to investigate the source of funding. It was also agreed that we could perhaps offer places to the Grass Track fraternity and the Secretary was instructed to contact their Combine.

PROGRAMME COVERS : Mrs. Clarke said that she had at last collected all the revenue due from advertisers and had paid the bill. She had written to Rob Batten and apologised for the incorrect photo and the later editions now carried the correct photo of last year's sidecar winners.

INTERNATIONAL CLERKS OF THE COURSE SEMINAR : Mrs. Clarke said that she had again received no reply to a letter to Rugby and it was agreed after some discussion on the disarray at Rugby that the Secretary copy all letters sent recently and ask for them to be dealt with as Sonia was now back from maternity leave.

CENTRE MANAGEMENT MEETING REPORTS : Copies of minutes have appeared in the Gazette and no one had any questions. Mr. Batten apologised for missing the last meeting but his van was stuck in the garage for a part and he could not make it in time. He would attend the next one and Mrs. Clarke the one after.

NEW CENTRE HANDBOOK : Mrs. Clarke said that she had checked the new publication and found some discrepancies in the section relating to moto cross. Following on from the last meeting she checked the master records to confirm the ruling on the time scale for inserting Centre Championship meeting regulations. In the master copy of the rules there is no indication of how many days the regulations must be publicised for but in the 1999 rules that appeared in the Gazette it states 21 days as does the new handbook. Mrs. Clarke has checked all of the minutes and no date decision have ever been taken. Under point 7 she found the clarification of the meaning of highest place was not in the master rules and under the general regulations it was agreed point 9 should now read 2 copies of programme and results as opposed to three. Mrs. Clarke to inform the Centre Secretary for future reference. Mr. Batten said that at their last meeting they had not paid cash prize money to the Junior A's which was a Junior Championship meeting as his club had interpreted the giving of awards under point 6 which says it is at the discretion of the organising Club. He had had a complaint from a rider who pointed under 5 it says that points, prize money and grading points will be awarded. It was generally felt that this was correct although point 6 made it ambiguous and that it should be a matter for clarification at a future meeting with a proper motion. Mr. Horton said the next Crawley meeting states in their regulations that prize money will be as per Championship conditions - of which there were none. Agreed that this was incorrect and the Secretary would point this out.

ACU MOTO CROSS COMMITTEE MINUTES : There had only been one meeting of the above Committee since we had last met. Inter Centre Team Motocross : Letters had been received from the Wessex, South Eastern and Midland Centres concerning the future of the Inter centre Team Motocross. Mr. Fisk said that the matter had been discussed by the South Midland Centre and that they preferred the old format. It was noted that the Wessex Centre had indicated that a club had shown interest in running the event and they were to be asked who the club was and whether this offer is firm. The letter from the South Eastern centre suggested that instead of reducing the number of competitors from six to four, this should be reduced to five. The idea of a new format had come from a request by the Chairman that all the Committee consider running the team events on lines which made them less expensive to support. Mrs. Clarke said that no reference had been made to our suggestion of running the event on Remembrance Sunday and we had not suggested the 5 rider format we had suggested it went back to the old 6! Both Mr. Herd and Mr. Dixon said the remembrance Sunday idea had been discussed and rejected but neither could remember why. The Secretary to write to the ACU pointing the inaccuracies out. Date Change : It was noted that due to adverse conditions the Twickenham Club had been forced to cancel their Sidecar Championship event on 1st May. They had asked if this could be re-scheduled to run on 23rd July provided Mr. Horler had no objection to the clash of dates with a National event which he was running on the same day. Mr. Batten said that all the riders had been informed.

INSURANCE RELATED MATTERS DISCUSSION WITH EDDIE BELLARS : Mr. Bellars sent his apologies, he had intended to make the meeting after attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace but his children had bought him surprise tickets to the display in Horse Guards Parade and he now could not, he would however still like the opportunity to discuss insurance related matters with the Combine . It was agreed as excuses go Eddie should be awarded 10 out of 10 and it was agreed to extend the invitation to our next meeting. Mr. Bellars had asked Mrs. Clarke to obtain figures from ORPA and the AMCA so that comparisons could be made, she had the ORPA figures but he AMCA had not replied.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS :

Parental Agreement Forms : Mr. Brown's son had recently being acting as a travelling marshal at events and he was under the impression that he should sign a parental agreement form and sign on , on the day as the responsible adult. Mrs. Clarke said that she had studied the parental agreement form and felt it referred to competitors only and the wording was not appropriate for an official, she had written to the ACU for clarification but as yet had received no reply. It was felt there should be a parental agreement form made available. The Secretary to chase the matter up with Rugby. Mrs. Clarke also said that Hilton Woodrow had picked a bit up in the wording of speed event entry forms which clearly was meant for road events, Mr. Wood confirmed that this was now being taken out of all Gazette entry forms.

Flags : Mr. Wood felt that at the recent Twickenham meeting when the track had been watered not enough warning had been given to the riders, Mr. Batten said the accident which happened after the watering was not until the riders were on their 4th lap and the rider in question said he had just lost it and it was not because of the water. There was some discussion as to whether flags could be used such as the oil flag as used in road racing, Mr. Burton felt the best way was to warn the riders when they were on the start line that the track had been watered.

Practise Sessions : Mr. Wood said that practice sessions continually overran the times stated in the programme and questioned having them so long, Mr. Brown felt that the riders expected to get value for their money and would object to any shortening of their riding time.

Advertising the marshals seminar : Mr. Burton asked if the seminar could be advertised in programmes, the gazette and T & MX News. Agreed. Championship Table todate : Mr. Batten presented the Championship positions todate. Coloured Backgrounds : Mrs. Clarke said that a lot of the Yamaha Fourstrokes had the wrong background colour to their numbers, they should have 500 colours which are yellow and not unlimited which are white, Mr. Batten felt we should not be over picky as that sort of thing encourages riders to go to the AMCA.

There being nothing further to discuss the meeting closed at 10.45 pm.