Press and training day for the last round of the 2008 championships.

 

 

2.         Membership Update : The Membership report showed a rise over ’07 from 142 to 187 (despite 36 members not renewing), and 10 new to racing for this event.

 

3.         Financial Report : The financial report was and remains available for any member to see while not being published online. The bank account before cost and final registration for the event stood at £5,876.

 

4.         New Committee : The chairman announced the new committee. Current incumbents remain Chris Moore, Gill Moore, Graham Bobin, John Endean, Adrian Brown, with Rob Jewell stepping down. New members are Justin Heap, Kevin Meyers, Nick Dodge, Tim Seed. The committee will be meeting next weekend Saturday 25^th.

 

5.         Constitution Changes : CM introduced discussion of the need to make changes to the constitution. Graham Bobin (GB) explained the history of the constitution as designed in a hurry many years ago to enable land speedsailing events with a total membership around 15 or 20. Problems have recently been flagged up. Rob Jewell (RJ) stated that the intent of the changes to the constitution currently presented is for short term improvements to enable a continuation and rapid replacement of the constitution with a less restrictive version more appropriate to the increased membership and growing sport.

 

The chairman read the currently proposed changes.

 

Various questions were asked including over timescale of proposed changes, feedback required and available, definition of the wording ‘formal event’, do we have to continue the July and August restriction and how it should be worded. Suggestions were made over various amendments, and elements that would need checking with Safety UK before enshrining in the constitution. Once it became clear that these changes are for a temporary ‘holding’ constitution until a complete re-vamp can be completed, ‘Josh’ Sharp put a proposal ‘To Vote to accept the constitution as amended, but subject to a vote within 2 months of the membership to amend all points raised by members within 14 days. If there is more than one point raised then to vote on each point individually’. The motion was seconded by RJ and carried by majority vote.

 

Further, Rosie Tribe and RJ would work on a new constitution and submit it to the committee for approval and proposal to the membership, attempting to complete this work within 2 months to enable early adoption giving the chance of applying for funding from national bodies.

6.         2009 Event Dates : CM asked for dates and venues to be submitted. ‘Ruroc Rob’ stated that Ruroc would like to continue to support the sport, and we should liaise through Steve Harvey.

 

7.         Representatives for Scotland, Wales, & Ireland : CM stated these plans have been slightly scotched by John Mackenzie’s knee requiring a further operation, temporarily incapacitating him. Pat Letters however is already performing the function for Ireland N and S, and no one else seems to want in at the moment. There is acknowledged difficulty getting hold of anyone with regard to the possibility of holding an event at Pembrey, so while it would be nice to have a Welsh representative, it remains tricky just now. Watch this space !

 

8.         Any other business :    Tony asked about racing categories for next year – what are the intentions of the race team as he is racing in the one ton class mostly against himself. Much discussion ensued about category results and the need for an overall position, the spread of weights and numbers racing within weight classes, that at the worlds in NZ the split was Light Medium Heavy and Super Heavy, how it depends on whether we run the fleet togther as one which partly depends on venue size and wind and so on. Tony re-iterated that his interest is not so much in a trophy as racing others on a fair footing.

 

Joh Endean (JE) then asked the meeting how important anyone feels it is to know the overall position irrespective of weight class. Further questions ensued, and while the general consensus seemed to be ‘not that important’ some clearly do care (and this was made clear again outside the meeting the following day).

 

PL suggested that it was more important for the development of the sport to get local club racing going and a position within a local club.

 

Further discussion followed around the fact that the only real way to get an overall position was if all the fleet race together the whole time, and in for example one design dinghy racing the fleet race together and a heavy crew has to accept lower placing in light winds while a lighter crew may be at a disadvantage in heavier winds and both have to accept that. Other points of view were propounded including that the existing Blokart system is fine so why fix it, questions over are we using IBRA rules and if so which version, and why are we mostly using local rules variations, with JE making it clear that the timing system which is such a bonus already gives a separation into weight divisions easily, and the only difficult bit is getting a realistic overall result.

 

KM suggested that there could be regional events leading to a single nationals.

 

Discussion was finalised into the committee reporting back in conjunction with the race calendar after their next meeting on October 25^th.

 

The meeting closed at 10:18.