AGM

London Cyclo Cross Association 2022 AGM Minutes – Monday 3rd April 2023 19:30 Cyclopark

1.Attendance list

Stuart McGhee, Jon Goodge, John Beggs, Chris Clague, Glen Whittington, Tim Peters, Bill Wright, Katherine Potsides, Paul Neville, Charlie Codrington and Peter Lloyd

Apologies for absence

Tony Millar and Robert Kingsland

Minutes of 2022 AGM

Available to view.

Matters Arising

The position of on the day race timing is vacant. Volunteers sought.

Officer Reports

Chair, promotion and sponsorship AGM 2023 update

Chair

What an amazing season in the South East. 20 Events in All.

5 East Kent CX Events
10 London and South East League events
Muddy Hell at Herne Hill
New Year’s day Madison cross at Herne Hill
Regional Champs atCanada Heights
National Trophy at Cyclopark
Team Champs and Prize presentation at Ardingly
Whilst not in our region The World Masters in Ipswich was well supported by our commissaires and riders

With 3 new venues

Lancing (With that Hill)
Pippingford Forest
Gatwick Aviation Museum

Big thanks for making this happen to the

The Committee
The Organisers and venue owners
All the volunteers at each event
The Commissaires
Rory Hitchens and Mark Noble from Upgrade and Challenge Tires for supporting the League
Collingwood Medical Services
Robert Kingsland and his team at the East Kent CX League
The riders, parent, pit crews, clubs and teams

Notable thank you

To Chris Clague for all the work he has completed with the entry/gridding/timing/results system. We have one of the best systems in the county thanks to Chris and timing team regulars, Uma, Hugo, Enzo and Bill.

However for the coming season Chris wishes to step down from managing the timing/results on the day so we will be recruiting a suitable person to take this on for the 12 events the league wishes to promote. Details to follow on the recruitment process.

Notable Riders

Great to see 3 League Regulars Joe Blackmore, Alfie Amey and Aofie Bakovic all racing the World champs in the Netherlands

National Championship

Joe Blackmore – Silver Medal Elite Men and U23 Champion

Peggy Knox, Silver medal U14 Girls

A big well done and thank you

Event coordinator

Looking likely to have a calendar compiled by the end of May to Mid June. So far we are looking to have…

Summer Cross

4 x Beastway Herne Hill
Reigate 11th Aug

Cross Season

3/5 East Kent CX (looking for other clubs to step forward to host at least 2 events)
10 London and South East League races
Regional Champs TBC (Potential larger regions talk at Commision level)
National Trophy at Cyclopark
Muddy Hell at HH
New Year’s Day Madison HH
Team Champs

We thank the Crawley Wheelers for the many years of support organising the Team Champs and Prize Presentation. They wish to pass the baton on for next season. I will be looking at options.

Sponsorship

We thank Challenge Tires for their support last season and in particular to Rory Hitchens at Upgrade for the many years of support he has given us.. Rory left Upgrade to seek out new adventures and we thank Mark Noble of Upgrade for the continued support. We are arranging to meet up to discuss options for next season.

Treasurer

Calendar Coordinator

Results and Timing Officer

Publicity Officer

Secretary

The Secretary commended all on a successful season but drew attention to the pressure that volunteers are under and that we must all do our best to support each other. As LCCA Commissaire Coordinator assisted by Jon Goodge he gave thanks to the Commissaire Team for their hard work and commitment throughout the season in on occasion atrocious weather conditions.

Treasurer

London Cyclo Cross Association

Profit and Loss Statement for 2022/2023 Season

Income

Entry fees

56,112.00

Non LCCA levies – 3,967.32 Sponsorship – 2,000.00

Total Income

Expenditure

62,079.32

Levies

Organiser payment’s

12,337.60

37,121.13

Entry Fees Refund 20.00 Timing Expenses 5,463.18 Commisaire Expenses 3,645.15 Room Hire 60.00 Cross Manager Software 500.00 –

46,809.46

Medical Cover 4,536.00 Equipment Repairs 141.95

Champs Medals –

Trophies 702.40 Donaon 2,000.00

Total Expenditure

66,527.41

Net Profit/Loss – 4,448.09

Results and Timing

LCCA Summary 2022/23 Season

Total of 12 events including the regional champs and team champs

Our biggest event was Herne Hill in October with 423 closely followed by September’s race at Crystal Palace on 403 with our smallest being the team champs on 279.

Total of 3667 race entries over the season, up from 3389 the previous season, but including 1 more event.

2021 average 308

2022 average 305

So whilst I felt attendance was down on the previous year, it actually wasn’t.

Biggest category was V50M, then V40M, then Senior. What was more surprising was perhaps that the three categories were very close in number.

In terms of gridding – there were mercifully few complaints over the season and overall it went very well.

As for the league standings, there was some discussion around the Sussex league that would need to be addressed before next season. Qualifying postcodes didn’t really work – it meant the Gatwick round was included despite Stuart assuring us that it wasn’t in Sussex.

Entries – this was now the second year of the league running the event entries and it continues to seem like the optimum solution. Everyone gets paid on time and it’s one less burden for the race organisers. We still get the occasional rider asking for late entry/entry on the day, but the extra effort/manpower required to do this does not seem worthwhile for what was historically such a small number of entries this way.

Timing – it largely went well, despite the best efforts of Joe Blackmore to throw us off. As mentioned elsewhere, I‘m stepping down from this role at the end of the season and it’s now the number one priority for the league to address this.

Publicity Officer

Sussex League – as discussed previously the old (current) system of running the league by postcode has caused issues and doesn’t work. I’ll therefore start fresh on a new system for the 2023/24 season. This will likely include everyone who races the races which are in Sussex (which will be nominated well ahead of the season). Then it will be a simple case of pulling the normal London and SE League results into a separate Overall Sussex League Results page. In theory someone from outside Sussex could win the league, but we see that happen in the London and SE League too so there’s no reason why it needs to be any different. In the majority of cases the local riders will dominate the league. We will probably have a committee vote near the end of the season to agree who is the overall Sussex Champion and of course in this case we’ll likely be biased toward a resident of Sussex.

In general, however, I received plenty of very positive feedback. After two days of making medals I was beginning to question my sanity, but the positive comments at the Prizegiving made it very much worthwhile. Similar support and prizes will be given next season. I plan to work harder on explaining the league through our various platforms as some riders are still in the dark, but I think we’ve had a great first year of building the league back up after a couple of years away.

Social Media and Communications – As discussed in the meeting we use the website for general information. It’s basically a shop window for all our rules, calendars and race previews. I’d like to add more information to help guide people and get more people involved in contributing, but this has always proved a struggle. We’re discussing if we need a new website to replace the current one which is showing its age by being tricky to operate – it’s fine for me as a single person to update but really I’d like the rest of the committee to have the option to post stuff as well as a few trusted contributors.

Instagram is slowly growing with the main area of use being “stories”. This year, most races produced stories with over 20 contributors which was brilliant to see. I’m planning a more focused approach to using the platform next season to maximise what people can view and how we share information. In general we use IG mostly for post-race photos.

Facebook is our number one way of communicating important information quickly and seems to work really well. The group is generally very positive which I find a rarity these days on FB. Stuart and I approve all posts bar a handful of trusted contributors which obviously helps, but in general we only disallow a handful of irrelevant posts per season. Along with emails, FB, is the best way to keep people updated in real time.

Overall I think we’re doing a good job with social media and comms – I’d welcome any feedback as to what we could improve, but as volunteers I think we’re mostly doing what we can.

KR,

Glen

Election of committee officers and committee members

Chair – Stuart McGhee…. Proposed by John Beggs seconded by Jon Goodge

Secretary – John Beggs….Proposed by Charlie Codrington seconded by Tim Peters

Treasurer – Jon Goodge…Proposed by Glen Whittington seconded by Bill Wright

Calendar Coordinator – Stuart McGhee….Proposed by John Beggs seconded by Paul Neville

Gridding and Rankings Coordinator – Chris Clague…Proposed by Jon Goodge seconded by Charlie Codrington

East Kent Cyclo Cross League Coordinator – Robert Kingsland…No vote required.

Results and Timing Officer – Chris Clague….Proposed by John Beggs seconded by Peter Lloyd

Technical Officers – John Beggs, Proposed by Tim Peters, seconded by Katherine Potsides

Jon Goodge , Proposed by Glen Whittington , seconded by Charlie Codrington

Stuart McGhee , Proposed by John Beggs seconded by Peter Lloyd

Women’s Officer – Vacant

Publicity Officers – Glen Whittington and Stuart McGhee both proposed by John Beggs and seconded by Peter Lloyd

Sussex League Coordinator – Glen Whittington Proposed by Tim Peters seconded by Peter Lloyd

Proposals

6.1 Stuart McGhee for Stuart Nisbett

Swap the V40 mens race with the V50 as the V40s are more likely to have younger riders racing as well and therefore won’t be waiting as long after their races. Discussed and voted in favour of the proposal.

6.2 Stuart McGhee for Rob Burdon

Not a proposal and wasn’t voted on but the point was raised concerning

Introducing a novice u14 race in the under 12 race. It’s not possible under current BC rules that states under 12s can only race with themselves and not permitted with the event liability. It was discussed at length but the consensus was that it’s not possible.

Any other business

7.1

Timing Volunteers are required as Chris Clague is stepping back from race day timing. This will be advertised with a job specification in the near future. It is the only paid position in the league.

7.2

Tim Peters will make contact with Collingwood Services Ltd with a view to continue using them for race day medical cover.

7.3

Not a proposal but raised by Tim Peters on behalf of Ashley Coups that league points are not awarded to riders from other leagues. This was discussed in detail and it was argued by the committee that our league is friendly and simple to enter and we would encourage anyone to race with us. It was argued that it just wouldn’t be possible.

7.4

Tim Peters asked why there have been changes to the Vets womens race schedule at National events. This was answered by Stuart McGhee as it had been agreed by the Cyclocross Commission to change it.

7.5

Katherine Potsides asked how details of the AGM are published. Glen Whittington answered through our social media platforms. Katherine also discussed a day for potential Race Organisers to be confirmed.