Alton Cycling Club. Minutes of the 37 th AGM held Monday 19 th December 2016 at Alton Rugby Club. The meeting was attended by 30 members.

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1 Alton Cycling Club Minutes of the 37 th AGM held Monday 19 th December 2016 at Alton Rugby Club. The meeting was attended by 30 members. 1. Apologies for absence Apologies were received from seven members. 2. Minutes of the 2015 AGM Read and approved by those in attendance. 3. Matters arising There were no matters arising, all actions having been completed. The timekeepers rota and training are discussed at item 7 below. 4. Reports Chairman s Report The Chairman s report is attached as Appendix A. General Secretary s Report The General Secretary s report is attached as Appendix B. Andy Watson noted that between 10 and 20% of membership inquiries resulted in new members. There remain about 20 printed copies of the club handbook which is sent to new members. The handbook can be downloaded from the web site. Treasurer s Report The Treasurer s report and club accounts are attached as Appendix C. John Heath clarified the figure of (commitments not paid) as outstanding levies and prize money for open events. Racing Secretary s Report The Racing Secretary s report is attached as Appendix D. Ian Austin re-iterated the need more help in organising and running the club events. Publicity Secretary s Report The Publicity Secretary s report is attached as Appendix E. Mike Hayward thanked Jim Woods for his publicity work. 5. Election of Officers All current members of the committee offered themselves for re-election. No other nominations were received. Committee members were elected as follows: Proposer Seconded Chairman: Mike Hayward Guy Henshaw Ian Austin General Sec: Andy Watson Darren Lavender Dick Weatherbed Treasurer: John Heath Dave Sherwood Frank Pote Racing Sec: Ian Austin Paul Jones Sarah Williams Publicity Sec: Jim Woods Frank Pote Christine Lavender Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 1

2 6. Appointment of Non-Executive Officers All current non-executive officers offered themselves for re-election. No other nominations were received. Non-executive officers were elected as follows: Welfare Officer: Caroline Brodie Committee member: Dick Weatherbed Committee member: Alan Jacob Proposer Frank Pote Darren Lavender Dick Weatherbed Seconded Sarah Williams Frank Pote Dave Sherwood There was a break for mince pies and refreshments 7. Agenda Items Time Trials and Time-keepers Getting volunteers to help run the evening time trials and the open events remains a problem. The club is critically dependent on a small number of members. The meeting agreed that a training structure and a rota for timekeepers were needed. It was agreed that training sessions would be setup in March, close to the start of the time trial season. Priorities for training are handling starts and recording finish times. New volunteers should shadow experienced members to learn how to handle unusual situations (e.g. rider misses a start time). Action: Mike Hayward and Ian Austin to organise training Peter Whitlock, Frank Pote, Sarah Williams, Peter Remnant and Darren Lavender all volunteered to help with time trials. Guy Henshaw asked about using timing-chip technology. Mike Hayward suggested that it would be too expensive. It was agreed that the approach would be discussed at the next committee meeting. Action: Committee to discuss timing chip technology Open 10 Time Trial Paul Jones announced that he would be stepping down as Open 10 Time Trial event organiser after Thus a new organiser is required who can shadow/deputise for No one volunteered. Paul will continue with personal approaches to potential organisers. Ian Cargill expressed his willingness to help induct a new organiser. Club Nights Mike Hayward opened the discussion by noting that attendance can sometime be very low, down to three or four members. The frequency of club nights, currently fortnightly, was questioned with a suggestion of reverting to monthly meetings being put forward. John Heath Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 2

3 informed the meeting that the cost of using the Rugby Club was not a major driver in making a decision. Various options to make club nights attractive were proposed including: Film shows Roller Racing nights Short rides Bring a turbo Following discussions it was agreed that: Fortnightly club nights would continue for the present with the option to consider monthly meetings in the Winter period (November to February) During the Winter period there would be events / attractions (as above) on alternate club nights During the Summer period there would be regular, short rides on club nights Sunday Rides Mike Hayward reported that the new arrangements for allocating leaders for Sunday rides were working well although the mid-paced group is, on occasion, very large. It was recommended that ride leaders phone the café stop in the week before the ride to warn them of the expected numbers. It was suggested that monthly, shorter Sunday rides could help attract new members. Mike Hayward noted that some leaders might be reluctant to give up their Sunday rides. He said that this approach could be pursued with Alton Cycling UK. Mike Hayward also reported contacting Susan Keywood (Cycling UK) to obtain funding for Alton CC Mini Rides in 2017 following on from the successful ride in October John Heath asked that club members enter the 2017 London Prudential Ride as usual. Those who were unsuccessful would be prioritised for Club group entries. Wellies Café (near Fishbourne, PO18 9AA) was suggested as a new coffee stop for Sunday rides. Annual Club Dinner & Awards Alan announced that the 2017 Club Dinner will take place on Friday 27th January 2017, at the Alton Rugby Club. The guest of honour and speaker will be the well known author and humorist Tim Moore. Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 3

4 8. AOB Night rides: Nigel Hicks asked the meeting whether there would be any interest in holding a night ride. There was some support and Ray Wood remarked that Alton Cycling UK (CTC) night rides had been popular in the past. Nigel Hicks will discuss possible rides with Jim Woods. Mountain biking: Jim Woods opened a discussion on expanding club activities to include mountain biking. This might attract new members and overcome the perceived barriers associated with starting road riding. It was noted that getting a commitment from current riders might be difficult and that a parallel MTB section could be a way forward. Ian Cargill recommended that Jim Woods discuss this with our sponsor, Owen, who has experience in running such activities. Ray Wood suggested that the Hampshire County Council mountain bike trail leaflets were a good source of MTB routes. Alton IoW rides: Chris Clarke asked if rides from Alton to Portsmouth and round the Isle of Wight are of interest. Mike Hayward said that alternative rides, perhaps starting at a different time, are welcome and suggested that Chris submit his ideas to Andy Watson for inclusion on the rides list. 9. Date of Next AGM The next AGM will take place in December The date will be confirmed by the committee. The next committee meeting will take place on Monday 16 th January Action: General Secretary to arrange the date of the next AGM. Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 4

5 Appendix A: Chairman s Report 2016 I am pleased to be able to report that the club is in good order, as measured by numbers of members, amount of cycling activity, finances and social activity. In terms of numbers the membership has continued to grow slowly, and now stands at 105. However we must not be complacent, I am aware that there are other clubs in the area, Holybourne, Odiham etc and I am also aware that we have lost a few members to these and other clubs over the year. I feel that it is really important to be as welcoming, supportive and inclusive of all members as is possible. Racing activity has included two open events the 10 and 25 run by Paul Jones and Ian Austen respectively and the club hill climb all of which are in addition to our regular summer season TT s on the A31 course. Many thanks to the promoters of the open events; they could not have happened without you and huge thanks also to the all too small band of helpers for Thursday evenings namely Alan, Dick, Eddy and Jim. Sunday rides remain the highlight of club life for many members and the reason that many members join in the first place. We often have 25+ riders out and following our AGM decisions of last year the 3 ride format has become much better established and we now achieve a much more even split across the board. My arm-twisting, fairly direct approach to getting ride leaders has paid dividends, and immense thanks to all members who take on this not too onerous task. We are to some extent the victims of our own success in that we are now too big for some of the cafes, I think that Andy will be giving this his attention but suggestions about new stops are greatly appreciated. Speaking of Andy could we all please show our appreciation for Andy who sorts out the rides list and who has had a difficult year following his injury. Track cycling last year was a great success, 16 riders all ACC members four sessions all with the same coach, repeating same formula this year. My own riding has been a bit less active than last year, but I still managed Dover to Cape Wrath with John +/- Pete and the London Pru 100, a bit less well organized than last year but hopefully will do again this year. We have had a number of excellent social events in addition to our regular club nights, the club dinner complete with excellent speaker at ARFC clubhouse, organized by Alan and Jim, it really was very good and we are repeating the formula this year with Tim Moore as speaker. The club BBQ organized by Jim and Shaun and the excellent Quiz and Curry organized by Jim and Caroline, were all brilliant. I have to add here that my team won, but also state that I was not actually there. Club nights have been variable in attendance, two workshops on maintenance by Owen were very popular and one film night, we will seek your views on this. I have two more items to mention. Firstly the mini club ride, following an initiative led by Sophie and then followed by other helpers, namely Jim, Andy, John and Alan. Again a great success with 30 or so riders attending and several new sign ups for membership. We would like to repeat in the spring and summer. We need to give considerable thought as to what we do with newly recruited members who are not up to the levels of fitness to join any of the current three levels of ability for the Sunday rides. On a similar vein, of encouraging the uptake of cycling, I have been working with several organisations, including, cycling UK (Janice and Di), Sustrans (Di), ANP monitoring group (David Allen) and ATC regarding cycle paths and cycling provision in and around Alton. We seem to be making progress and it is my hope that cycling will over the years become more accessible and more a normal safe and protected mode of transport for Altonians. Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 5

6 Finally I must thank all of the committee, Andy in his first year as secretary, and John as treasurer have both done excellent jobs. Jim continues to do tremendous work as publicity sec and Ian as racing sec. Caroline took over as welfare officer from Freja during the year. Alan and Dick continue as ex officio members of the committee and their help and support as with all of the committee members is hugely appreciated. Mike Hayward Appendix B: General Secretary s Report 2016 This has been my first year as general secretary and I d like to start by thanking Caroline, our previous secretary, for handing everything over in such good order. This made the transition very smooth and my job much easier. This year I have attended four committee meetings, producing the agendas and writing the minutes for each of these. I have also coordinated the organisation of this AGM. I would like to thank the other members of the committee for responding in a timely and efficient fashion to meeting actions this really helps the club to run well. We finish this year with 105 members compared with 82 in Of these seven members are under eighteen. This is a welcome increase but we do need to ensure the club remains attractive to newcomers and also meets the needs of the existing members. During the year I have answered 56 queries received via our web site contact form, often from prospective members. I have handled the administration of affiliations with British Cycling, London West District of CTT (Cycling Time Trials) and supported our racing secretary in the registration of our open time trial events. I supported Sophie who organised our mini-club ride. I arranged the printing of the publicity material and prepared, jointly with Cycling UK Alton safety information and safety handouts for riders on the day. I have maintained our web site throughout the year. This has included editing the home page to add news items and photos, preparing and administering our Sunday rides lists, providing software for recording our Thursday evening time trial and league results and supporting our racing secretary in publishing the results. We do rely on having an interesting and attractive web presence and I would encourage all members to send me photos or items of interest for publication on the web site. Andy Watson Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 6

7 Appendix C: Treasurer s Report was by and large a sound year financially for the Club. Our reserves have increased by an increase of almost 9%. The largest contribution came from a substantial increase in revenue from membership fees due to the increase in membership. Revenue from club events was down slightly I believe one evening 10 was more or less wiped out by the weather. Open events continue to produce an important part of our revenue expenses in running the 10 were a little higher this year which explains the apparent decrease in revenue. Please note that the figure for the 25 is inflated by 90 as cheques to this value sent out in prize money have not been cashed as of the end of November. This is adjusted in the figure for Commitments Not Paid at the bottom of the accounts. There are less one off payment this year compared to 2015, notably 200 last year for handbooks. The accounts presented at this meeting are abbreviated to make presentation easier. For example income figures are net figure after relevant costs have been paid, if any member would like to see the version showing revenue and expenses in more detail and broken down by quarter me at johnheath999@btinternet.com and I will send a set to you. For the future, I don t think it should be the aim of the Club to seek to make large profits but we should aim to maintain our current finances. Membership fees seem to be set at about the right level currently and there is no proposal from the committee to increase these, but should inflation increase (Brexit etc, etc..) then we should take care to make sure the real value of our financial cushion is not eroded. John Heath Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 7

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9 Appendix D: Racing Secretary s Report 2016 As usual I would like to thank everyone who assisted in the running of the Club s two open events in 2015, without the event publiciser, marshals, caterers, start sheet organisers, bill payers, time communicators, result board scribes, course signers, and hall cleaners on the day plus those involved in hall booking, timekeeper booking, start sheet preparation, result sheet production, distribution of prizes and paying for hall hire and levy s to the appropriate organisations If I have omitted anyone I do apologise. The reason I emphasise the number of functions involved in what are the showcases of Alton CC to the wider cycling world, is that it highlights the degree of commitment required by the club to continue to run such events. The responsibility for many of those functions are taken on by the organiser who is usually also having to ask around the club for other essential help. It is probably one of the reasons why the number of open events we run has been reduced to two. That is quite apart from the fact that there are only one or two people in the club who know how to run an event from start to finish, and that does not include me, and I run one of them. The need for commitment and shared knowledge is essential if we are to continue to promote open competitions and run our evening tens. Sadly the lack of willingness to become involved in the organisation of events has gone beyond the bounds of our club and involved West London Cycling Association, it was originally formed 107 years ago for association members who did not have times fast enough to enable them to gain entry into open events and allowed them to become involved outside purely club competition. An extraordinary meeting of the West London Cycling Association of which we were a member took place on Sunday 18 September Basically because of lack of support to run the Association the motion was put to wind-up the West London Cycling Association and it was carried by 6 votes to 4. Consequently no WLCA events will be promoted in The proposal will go for confirmation to the Annual General meeting, Prize Presentation and Buffet in December. The meeting will be asked to confirm that all trophies be given to the last winner where possible and the funds, after all outstanding creditors have been paid, be donated to the Douglas Bader Foundation. As for our own events, Paul s Open 10 this year incorporated the Wessex VTTA championship and had a field of 66 entries it was won by Andy Langdown of Blazing Saddles with 20m17s Shaun was our fastest club member recording 23m37s for 20 th place with Steve Newton 24m37s for 31st and Charlie Williams 25m25s 36th. The Open 25 also attracted a good field of 83 riders and was won by James Boyman of Farnham Road Club for the second year running with a time of 50m36s again Shaun who was the fastest Alton CC rider with 1h02m15s. Steve Newton 1h05m56s and Kevin Martin 1h06m40s. We had 269 riders for the evening club events during the 17 week season with 15 club members riding one or more. We owe particular thanks to Alan, Dick, Eddy, Mike and Jim for their regular support over the year. These events are quite important for both from a PR point of view as they give us regular contact with a variety of clubs and individuals in our area and also provide an added source of income which without the expenses associated with running open events provides a healthy addition to our revenue. We would also like to thank Owen for providing us with rear lights to loan to riders in our events who did not comply with our club ruling on rear lights for club events. We are still dependent upon the same individuals this year as in the past to cover timekeeping duties, at the last AGM a number of people volunteered to learn the Black Art to provide support and back up but they disappeared into the woodwork, if anyone is still keen, could you let any of the committee members know. Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 9

10 Club competition has been relatively quiet without Rick participating for much of the year, although he has quietly recorded 21m 38 for 10 miles 54m47s for 25 and 1h57m25s for 50 miles at the beginning of the season. With the junior team leaving for pastures new it has been down to club members riding club and open events on the A31, A3 and hill climb courses. Shaun and Kevin Martin have been producing some increasingly creditable times during the year by riding the newly surfaced a3crg course on the A3 with Shaun achieving a fantastic personal best 25 of 58m 14s which I think even surprised Shaun. Calshott 2014/15 proved to be particularly popular and all available places were full for every booking, the championship revealed that Zack Kingshot emerging from relative obscurity had the speed and souplesse to set standards that no one else could match and became the club track champion. It will be interesting to see who emerges this year Last but not least the Hill Climb Championship took place on a relatively unpleasant day in October, where 4 hardy souls faced the gradient. Fastest up was Olly Suatt now riding for VC Meudon which meant that 2nd fastest Charlie Williams became club champion with Binsted mileage man Nigel Hicks runner up with newcomer Louis Malatesta close behind. Ian Austin Appendix E: Publicity Secretary s Report Wrote up and submitted to the Herald Dinner/Prize giving evening report and photos Weekly Time Trial events results Open Events results and some photos Hill Climb competition results and some photos Publicised club nights, mini club ride, barbecue (including gathering catering numbers), Quiz and Curry Night, as well as organising and running that with Caroline, took photos throughout the year and submitted to Andy for the website. Jim Woods Alton CC 2016 AGM Minutes V1.0 Page 10