Committee meeting Minutes 16/8/21

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting – 16/08/21 on Zoom

Present; Doug Little, Marian Austin, Gregor Muir, Dave Parfitt, Jacqui Parfitt, Norman Clark, Steve Bradley, Gill Barnes.

Apologies; Ian Pooleman, Ailsa Pooleman, Nix Forster, Mylene Macdonald, Evelyn Maclennan.

AGM

It would be good, if conditions allow, to hold the AGM in person rather than virtually . Need somewhere with plenty of space.
Possible options suggested were The Pinemartin Café, Highland Soap Factory restaurant, Caol Community Centre.
Possible dates are Thursday the 4^th of November or Thursday the 11^th of November.
Doug to make provisional enquiries.
Pumptrack AGM will be linked on at the end.

Time Trials

Final Time Trial of the season is Tomorrow at Loch Leven.
It was generally agreed that Emma, Dave and Alastair have done a really great job at organising this summer’s series and it would be great if they were interested in doing it again next year.

Winter League

Marian is going to put together a rough schedule to be ready for our next meeting in October.
The importance of keeping the courses not too technical was emphasised. Especially if we want to encourage some of this year’s new members to take part.

Wed Night Rides

Have been fairly quiet over the last few weeks but should hopefully pick up again now that the school holidays are over.
Erracht worked well last week as a venue for those not too used to doing natural trails.

Saturday Social Rides

Going well. The ladies group in particular has proven popular.
The ladies have asked about the possibility of doing maintenance sessions. Richard at the Bike Kitchen is keen to do this. If this works out, it would be really great to get Richard involved in doing further sessions for the club.

Fort William Foxes

Doug had a meeting with the foxes last month.
They are still working out what format would work best for them and whether they would be best to set up their own club. Collaborating on Saturdays for the social rides was one option which was discussed.

FTF

Social Ride on the New Blue

It would be great to have a club social ride on a Sunday afternoon on the new blue once it opens.
Dave will check with Alice about the possibility of getting discounted vouchers for a couple of runs for non-season ticket holders.

Pump Track

Things are really starting to progress quite quickly.
The facility has been renamed as the “Fort William Bike Park”
In collaboration with Disability Scotland the junior pump track will be adapted to make it accessible for many different types of bikes.
3 companies are involved in the tendering process. Tenders will be in by the end of this week.
Funding of around £500.000 is now needed. After an anonymous donation of £30,000 and £30,000 from the Moidart Trust, there is now £75,000 in the bank account.
A major part of the funding will hopefully come from the Sports Scotland facilities fund.

Kids Club

Will restart on Saturday the 28^th and run for 6 weeks until the October holidays. After the October holidays it will restart again and run until the Xmas holidays before taking a break for the winter.
Anna Trafford and Stephen Cant recently qualified as Level 2 coaches – congratulations!
Zoe Newson and Andrew O’Hagen have completed their level 2 training.

AOB

Whether we hold a bike sale this year will depend to some extent upon whether the ski club are holding a ski sale.
Christian at Woltrax has asked if we would be happy to send a letter of support for the new blue run that they are hoping to build. It was agreed that we would be very happy to do this. Steve is going to liase with Christian as to exactly they would like us to write and get back to Doug.
Gregor has done a great job in pulling together all the various polices that we are required to have by Scottish Cycling.
Gregor to check with Highland First and/or BASP about the possibility of running a first aid course for any coaches whose qualifications have lapsed.
Evelyn is stepping down from the committee at the AGM. We all agreed that she will be sorely missed for all the terrific work that she does in getting important information out to members.

Bank balance

Next Meeting