Online Meeting #2

Thanks to those who responded and contributed to the last meeting. I will summarize the survey comments.

We are still looking for people to be responsible for the agenda items of Cup and Provincial Races and Marathon Races. Also, if anyone would like any other agenda items to list please let me know.

New Meeting Items:

1. Canada Cup - The Junk Yard Dogs have expressed interest in working towards a Canada Cup bid. This would require a lot of work from this club, the committee, and possibly other clubs.
2. Race and Event bid and/or application system. We need to create a detailed application system to ensure that all sanctioned races and events meet the standards, rules and regulations of the MCA.

As per the request of committee members more info regarding point #2:

An issue had come to light regarding this weekend's race at Falcon Ridge. You may have noticed that they are only charging $20 and $30 for the race this weekend. The reason for this is that all the documentation that is currently on the MCA site indicates that these are the costs that an organizer needs to charge for a race - this is our fault for not making these changes. As you know, earlier this year we decided to put a $2 levy on the Cup races and the Provincials to assist the costs incurred by the committee; this resulted in the decision to raise the fees for Cup races and Provincials to $25 and $35. What failed to happen following that decision was to change the appropriate documents to reflect those changes. We did announce the changes and the information was available on the website, but the appropriate documents were not changed. Further, the organizers need to participate in the meetings and it is imperative that they do so if they want to sponsor races. For this race we will waive the levy fees; it would be unfair for the organizer to pay levy fees if they did not charge enough to cover that cost. we will ask the the organizer to pay the levy if they have made enough money to cover this cost.

It is important the committee supports the clubs and organizers in their efforts to create and host events, it is also important for the clubs and organizers to support the MCA and its committees in their work by participating in the meetings. Here are the actions that we should consider

ACTIONS:

1. Waive the levy fees for the race at Falcon Ridge unless they have collected enough money to cover those costs without losing money.
2. Use the attached action checklist regarding all committee decisions and actions
3. Create an application system for future mountain bike races and events that included the following items: detailed application form, emergency action plan, publicity form requesting posters, registration, waiver, and MCA website announcement.
4. Have clubs or organizers submit a deposit before they are awarded a race.
5. Create a timeline for submission of application forms.
6. Have all applications reviewed by the mountain bike committee and commissaires prior to awarding of race or event to club.
7. ONLY those who have the "Organizer" designation on their MCA license will be allowed to organize or make a bid for a race or event.
8. All clubs and organizations that are putting on race or events are required to attend MCA mountain bike committee meetings - consistent failure to attend these meeting may result in the club or organization being precluded from holding a race or event.

Checklist:

1. Create a first draft of the action or decision and circulate to the committee for consideration and revisions. Circulate for 3 days. Make changes and create a final draft
2. If needed and as required, inform the MCA Board of decision or action.
3. If needed or required await decision from MCA Board on decision and action
4. Publish action or decision on MCA website and the MCA Mountain Bike Committee Blog.
5. If decision or action results in the need for changes to existing documents, policies and procedures.

Please let me know if you need to have your permissions resent so you can participate in these discussions.

Online Meetings

Hi All,

As per the recent email I sent to all committee members I am going to hold discussions on issues involving the mountain biking via this blog. Quite simply, I will post two items for discussion on the blog and invite committee members to comment on those issues. At the end of the week I will ask someone to come up with a consensus statement based on the those comments and to identify any actions and recommendations that are important. I hope this gives us an opportunity to continue to work on items until we can meet again in July.

Please let me know if you need me to send you permission to comment on this blog.

This week's issues:

1) Standing Agenda Items

An easy way to effectively and efficiently run this committee is to identify standing agenda items and to have interested parties be in charge of those items. Below are some potential items and people who have expressed interest in reporting on these. Please let me know if you are interested in one of these, and/or identify an item that I may have missed:

1. Promotion - Kevin Braun
   
2. Marathon Races
3. Cup and Provincial Races
4. Safety - Hal Loewen
   
5. Rules and Regulations - Karin McSherry
   
6. Others?

2) Surveys

At the Grand Beach Race the Olympia Cycling Club handed out surveys about the race in lieu of food tickets, competitors were required to fill out the survey to get their food. The idea is to collect information about the event so that the organizer has feedback about how the ran the race thereby information on which they can use to improve their event. Other ways we could use this information is to share it with the committee and the other organizers; in order to do this fairly the committee would need to create a standard survey, is this a something we are interested in?

Sample of the Survey - participants were required to fill out the survey in order to get their food:

Food Ticket – Grand Beach XC 2009
Do Not Agree Agree
Was the course clearly marked?
1 2 3 4 5
Was the course was challenging and fun?
1 2 3 4 5
Did you have an enjoyable event?
1 2 3 4 5
The organizer put on a well organized event
1 2 3 4 5
Please write additional comments on back