West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting held on Zoom – Tuesday the 19^th of October 2021

Present; Doug Little, Dave Parfitt, Jacqui Parfitt, Gill Barnes, Marian Austin.

Apologies; Ian Pooleman, Ailsa Pooleman, Gregor Muir, Steve Bradley, Evelyn Maclennan, Shaun Lee.

Fort to Fort – Sunday the 31^st of October.

• The Great Glen Way events team have given us the ok to run the event. There are a few works going on along the route, so there is the possibility of some heavy machinery around. Doug will check this on the Saturday when marking out the course and will keep everyone updated.
• Sign on will be in the Tourist Information Car Park in Fort Augustus between 10.30 and 10.45, with the first riders leaving at 11.00.
• The course will start at the top lock at Invergarry and finish in the car park at the Moorings.
• Riders will be asked for a £5 donation to take part in the event. This will be donated to Pancreatic Cancer UK.
• Rather than being run as race this will be run as a club ride. We shall still provide timing so that riders can compare their times against each other, and against previous years. Riders will be covered for third party liability by Scottish Cycling. It would be good to remind riders that for this event, and other events that the club runs, that they should consider joining Scottish Cycling if they require more comprehensive insurance.
• Doug will sweep at the back on his ebike and collect signs. It was decided that we did not have to have a sweeper van as most people will be able to call on their own back up. Doug will carry a group shelter.
• Evelyn will send out a newsletter/emails by the end of this week giving details and asking for some marshalls to help out. Jacqui says that she can do the timing.
• Doug will pop into the Moorings Bistro at some point just to let them know that there may be the possibility of a few bikers coming in for refreshments.
• We shall provide refreshments for all riders at the end. All tray bakes are welcome.

AGM –  Thursday the 4^th of November at 7.00 in the Pinemartin Café.

• Nevis Range are charging £100 for the hire of the room + £5.00 per person for tea/coffee/juice and cake. The club will cover the cost of this.
• The main AGM will be followed by the Pumptrack AGM.
• Evelyn will send out the agenda and other info about the AGM by the end of the week.
• Doug will collect the trophies.

• Awards;

                  – ”Most improved Lady” – Lorraine Whelan

                  – “ Most Improved Downhiller” No final decision was reached. Chris Wright is a strong

                 contender + it would be interesting to see how things go at the Highland Hardline this

                  weekend.

                   “ Most improved Junior Male” – Alexander Pervan

                   “ Most improved Junior female” – No final decision was reached. Doug will check with Sue

                   To see if she has any strong contenders from her Girls group.

• Presentations

              – Doug will do a Chairman’s report ( including a Kid’s Club report)

              – Gill will do a Treasurers report.

• Committee Positions
• Everyone present at the meeting is happy to stand next year. Doug will e-mail everyone else

               on the committee to see how they feel about standing again.

• Shaun Lee would like to step down from the committee for the time being whilst he gets

                      back to fitness. He is still happy to help out when need be with website stuff and would

                      certainly be happy to be involved with the committee once he gets out biking again.                              

• Evelyn will be a hard act to follow and it was agreed that we all need to start putting the feelers out about replacing her asap.
•  
• Subscriptions for 2022 – it was agreed that these would stay the same for next year.

               – Juniors £8.00

               – Senior £17.00

               – Family £28.00

Winter League.

• Marian has been working hard on putting a provisional schedule together. See below for the very provisional list so far.

                                                       Provisional Schedule for the Winter League 20/21

• Marian is waiting to hear back from NACC as to whether they wish to run a race this year.
• The best 5 out of 8 races will count for the adults
• There will be the possibility of running kid’s races at some of the venues. These will need to be organised seperately by kid’s club once venues and dates have been finalised.
• Rather than a T shirt for anyone completing 3 races it was agreed that we would look at other options, such as a mug, buff etc.

Website

• The website is still a work in progress. It is now possible to find results from any races this year by going to the blog sub headings. We are working on finding an easy way to be able to view results from previous years.
• Evelyn is currently looking at a way of emailing directly via the website, rather than by using MailChimp. Using this system should make things easier as members will be automatically added to the mailing list when they join up.

Club Affiliation with Scottish Cycling.

• Marian has got a number of files/spreadsheets which need updating before we can get affiliation this year. She will liase with Jacqui and Gregor about these.

Banking

• The club now has internet banking. Doug and Gill can both access this and will now investigate the possibility of opening a new account for Kid’s Club.
• The bank account currently stands at £11,224

Zoom Account

• The pro account ( £119 per annum) runs out this month. In the hope that we can possibly move back to face to face meetings Doug will cancel this. If face to face meetings become not advisable then it is very easy to reinstate the account. It is also possible to pay monthly.

Bike Lights

• We are still seeing if we can locate the lights that we bought a few years ago.
• If these lights have all gone AWOL or are no longer functioning well then it was agreed that we would purchase 4 new handlebar mounted lights at a maximum price of £80 each.
• Doug will liase with Off Beat and Nevis Cycles to see what they would have available for us.
• In the future it would be easier if these lights are looked after by someone on the committee rather than being left in the bike shops.

Maintenance sessions at the Bike Kitchen.

• Richard at the Bike Kitchen is keen to do a number of bike maintenance sessions with the club this year.
• The first two of these are being held next week for the Saturday Ladies group.

Next Meeting – The AGM on the 4^th of November