Minutes
of SMCA Committee Meeting 18th March 2006
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Present: Les Batten, Sue Tye, Steve Tye, Roy Barton, Keith Barton, Eric Maguire, Garry Patey, Pam Humphrey, Martin Guilford.
1 Apologies
Received from: Roy H, Sue & Robert Batten, Chris Helm, Paul Pelling & Sue Kemp.
2 The minutes had been circulated. The last line of item 2 (page 2) regarding the web site was amended to read £98.06, the minutes were then approved.
3 Matters arising:
It was brought to the attention of the committee that the next meeting due 17th June, now coincides with the British GP as the date of this has been moved. This will affect some committee members, but it was decided to keep the date as there is a “clubmans” round at Canada Heights the following day.
The entry fee concessions were discussed at the MMX organisers meeting, the clubs agreed that if people coming in say they are OAPs they will get a £2 concession but if they don’t they won’t.
The 96dba noise level is to be adhered to this year even though the handbook still says 98dba and passengers are allowed to sit on the bike but not touching the exhaust. A noise operator will be testing at Whiteway Barton.
The Champion passenger situation is back to as it was.
The pit box issue - all mechanics and signallers will now have to sign on to have wrist bands for championship meetings, they, and the rider/passenger will be the only ones allowed in the work area. Two people have been appointed to monitor the access to the waiting zone and they will not allow anyone into the waiting zone after the permitted time.
The Little Silvers club has a track available but cannot find a date that doesn’t clash with others
Clubman Championship rounds are now:
Binsted
Dunmow, Stebbing,
Canada Heights
Frome
Rusper
4 Chairman’s Report:
“-There has been a lot of new interest in Sidecar Cross which has been very encouraging.
-Steve Tye has passed over a large box of SMCA polo shirts etc., which I will try to sell once the weather gets a bit warmer.
-On the noise issue, I attended an A.C.U. seminar at Mallory Park along with Ian Durston, which was good, although it was bitterly cold which meant the practical testing was somewhat quick and only on a 250F solo. I raised the question of whether a passenger could be on a sidecar when testing and the answer from the tutor was “yes” but no-one should be allowed to touch the exhaust system during testing.
-E-mails – do most people have them & do they check them regularly? A discussion was held about emails and some checks were made about current versions.
5 Secretary’s Report:
A.C.U. Committee minutes are finally coming through & the January minutes were circulated.
6 Membership Secretary’s Report:
Garry reported 116 members so far and they are still filtering in. Quite a few calls are coming from newcomers. (140 max reached last year). Garry agreed to print off some membership forms and give some to Eric & some to Les at Binsted. Records are on a spreadsheet as before and can be emailed for the bulletin mailing.
7 Press Officer’s Report:
Chris is concerned about information not getting to all committee members, we should be copying everyone in.
TMX has listed membership secretaries for various organisations but we were not listed, Garry will talk to someone there & get us on the list.
As discussed last time Chris is unhappy that sidecar GP results were not in the FIM magazine but as the winners were Dutch & Belgian we first have to ask whether they are concerned.
Steve Tye is checking with Clubman riders to see if they are happy to keep their same numbers for the year as some have in the last 2 years, he will run a database so he can allocate numbers to any new riders. UMX is issuing its own numbers and if riders want to use the same number for the clubman’s series they will be able to if the number has not already been allocated.
8 Treasurer’s Report:
Balances stand at £696.52 in Community Account £2603.40 in Bus Reserve and £121.48 in petty cash –high as Sue was allowing for a doubled room hire fee at The Lamb. No replies have been received from Barclays about the mandate despite several letters. The latest statement has also gone astray. Sue is looking at alternative banks as this is ridiculous. A suggestion was made that we scrap the savings account so that there is only one balance and no transfers are necessary, the problem remains that we cannot get access to the savings balances until the contact situation is sorted out. The GP fund letters have still not gone out as we cannot access that savings account either. The route of the problem is that Barclays still does not recognise Sue as being ‘connected’ to these accounts although all the forms have been sent in twice and she is the mail recipient for the statements. Sue will give Pam a summary of all the letters & Pam will call her contact to see what is going wrong. Sue is also going to give Les the list of account numbers and letters and he will go into Henley branch to try to sort things out.
Programme adverts, British Championship programme adverts are thought to be the least cost-effective of all adverts, Clubman’s & UMX are better. As the UMX is very localised it was agreed to go for some Clubman’s programmes too.
Les has drafted a letter to go to all former members to try to encourage them to re-join. This was quite successful last time but they need to be sent regularly or they will only join for 1 year.
9 Bulletin Editor’s Report:
Les brought some glossy newsletters in for us to look at as our Bulletin is dated and we need to look at other options. Twickenham uses the printer who does TSM, and the prices for a normal non-glossy issue are 100 copies, A5, 12 pages stitched & folded, £55 plus postage –this is pretty much the same as at present. Glossy would be £125, for 8 pages plus postage. Pam is happy to try this out but needs copy to put a bulletin together. Les will call Andy Wood to say that we want to try this then Pam will call to discuss. Les will write a report after Binsted & Steve will talk with Chris about a report from Whiteway Barton. A few different articles would liven the whole thing up. Pam will talk to Sue Geraghty re inclusion of the dinner dance invitation.
10 Dinner & Dance:
Sue was not able to be present but the Renaissance was booked for November 25th which is believed not to clash with the Dirt Bike Show. We are going back to the larger room but looking at having a central presentation area instead of at one end. The hotel is keen to host our event as the income is very good, we have also obtained a board room for free. The invitation will have to go in the next Bulletin.
11 AOB:
Clubman’s series is now 5 rounds. Heats are having to be run at Binsted which shows good starting numbers. UMX was turning sidecars away but that will tend to tail off during the year. A suggestion was made that the SMCA should, for the sake of the riders, encourage the clubs to run 2 sidecar races while numbers are high but we also have to think of the organisers and bear in mind the time available on the day and that they probably didn’t turn down a whole line-up of 30 riders. It’s worth a quiet word with Kevin Foyle to ask if it’s possible – Les will speak to him. Clubs should only be accepting non points scorers up to the closing date but some clubs are not doing this right, Steve will have a word with the clubs to remind them of this. If a clubman meeting is also a centre meeting this penalises the points scorers from doing so well in the centre championship. Les will write to the SE Combine to say that the SMCA committee is concerned that top 15 riders are ineligible for entry because of the clubman rules. Numbers are not quite high enough to be real problem yet but the upsurge of sidecars could make it a problem. This should also be mentioned in the Bulletin as it is something we are doing for members.
4 Dutch riders have expressed a wish to register for the whole British Championship series but they have been warned that if they cannot do every round they would still have to pay for the whole series so they may choose not to register. A rider registering for the British series would not be released for a clashing French round.
Sidecar wild cards currently do not score points although solos do.
A sponsor is in place for awards at all rounds.
The old A.C.U. trailer is to be used as a podium & will be towed around by the timing truck.
The SMCA banner is to go to Binsted with Les for 19th March where Mark Millard should be able to take it over as agrees. It will be up to Mark to find a place for it to go up on the Sunday & to look after it.
Practice days. 1st one went really well. Had about 11 which was good for a mid week day, Owner (Tony Moto) is happy to run with sidecars midweek as often as possible but that is unlikely to be popular on a regular basis. The 2nd Practice day (Z-Racing) saw only 3 people. Very few enquiries came in by phone for either day so the turnout for the 1st was relatively good but unless numbers are known in advance it is not feasible to keep running them and not reasonable to expect the owner to keep the track open to sidecars only when they can fill up with solos. Stuart Lines wants to take the whole idea step further by bringing in ‘trainers’ but he would be expecting quite a high price from the riders and he would only do it if the numbers were right. Thanks to Martin & Paul for their hard work, it was a shame the riders let them down.
UMX pit box co-ordinator. Most sidecar riders spent a long time standing behind the pit box waiting to go in as it was on a 1st come 1st served basis. Steve Geraghty spoke to Kevin Foyle about it but was told that he didn’t have the manpower to control it. This is something the SMCA ought to be volunteering for. Steve Geraghty initially volunteered to do it for the year for the sidecars but he can’t do the year on his own. Martin is going to help when he is there. This will be done with pegs for the first race, then top 10 from 1st race followed by pegs for 2nd race & top 10 from 2nd race then pegs for the 3rd race. Les will cover the ones which Martin & Steve G. can’t cover. Les will also see if Garry Patey can help him. A pit box area will be needed so that some simple numbers can be put up for the bikes to pull up against.
Sidecar Fun day. Originally we were told that this would be 5th November but Jim Harris now looking at a date which clashes with the team race (24th June) & Des Nations. Although we are happy in principle to help we will not have much manpower on that date. Les will have a word with Jim to point out the problem.
Johnny Grahame has come up with the idea of a six round series, two in North, two central & two in south and wanted us to investigate it. Unfortunately there are already 4 main championships and there are not enough dates available to fit in another series and there would not therefore be enough riders to fill a line-up even ignoring the problem of finding another 6 clubs to run the events.
Craig Burt didn’t officially get presented with his awards because he was away, Chris Helm suggested that a presentation was made to him of these at Whiteway Barton. It was felt that this would not be understood by the public and would be embarrassing for Craig Burt.
Is there a need for / or worth in creating SMCA pages in the MMX web site? This can be easily done & for free as Roy Barton is the web master. The SidecarCross.com site is not satisfactory to our committee members. This was welcomed so Roy will add links for minutes, dates, photos etc. As our logo is quite detailed and the reproduction on the site will be small it was proposed that we replace the picture with simple letters SMCA, Roy B will play around with the layout to get the best look.
It was noted that we never discuss AMCA issues but as an association for sidecar riders we should consider whether there is anything which we can do for them. Neal Warrington is the AMCA rep but cannot make it to meetings so Eric is his rep. There is nothing much that the AMCA needs from us although AMCA riders would like A.C.U. riders to come & ride at their meetings. That involves requesting a day licence for each event (£60) but the A.C.U. does not withhold permission. AMCA riders can apply to ride A.C.U. events but are much more restricted, they cannot ride if there is any AMCA event on. They can get two pass-outs per year.
However we try to help it may be a problem getting anything through the AMCA us as Don Green might consider us as A.C.U. orientated and therefore nothing to do with him. Eric was asked to write a small article about how riders can ride the other championship. We need to officially invite Neal to come to see how the SMCA works - Les will write to him. We need to encourage all riders to think of themselves as Sidecar riders with an A.C.U. or AMCA licence rather than a A.C.U./AMCA sidecar rider.
We would like to recommend Steve Tye to the A.C.U. as team manager for the 2006 team race. Proposed by Roy Barton seconded by Martin Guilford . All were in agreement. Steve would like Martin to assist him and Martin is happy to help. ACTION R.H. (Les will also email Sonia)
12 Dates / venues of future meetings:
It was agreed to leave the next meeting on June 17th at Waltham Abbey as there are no other obvious dates.
No further dates had been set. So these will be 2nd September. Reading (probably Renaissance)
4th November Waltham Abbey
Meeting closed 17.51pm