COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES -AUG 15TH 2022

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting – Monday the 15th of August.

Present – Doug, Gregor, Norman, Norma, Dave and Jacqui.

Apologies – Marian, Steve.

Matters arising from the last Meeting.

  • The buffs have arrived. As agreed, they will be held over to be used for next years’s Winter League.
  • Doug still needs to try to organise some First Aid training and Level 1 and 2 coach training courses.
  • Gregor will get in contact with Ben Cathro to see what (if any) availability that he has for doing some club coaching later in the year.
  • A newsletter needs to go out soon to keep members updated as to what is going on in the club. Doug will work on drafting this.
  • Jacqui will contact Shaun to make the option of small family membership (1 adult and 1 child) available on the website. This membership will cost  £24 Which is a £1 discount off the individual price of 1 adult and 1 Junior added together. Jacqui will also write something about membership to go on the newsletter reminding members about the new rolling system and what they need to do.

AGM.

  • Possibly to be held at the Highland Soap Factory.
  • Ideally, it would be good to hold it on Thursday the 3rd of November.
  • Doug will liase with Mandy about about this.
  • Gregor asked if the bike park AGM could be added on at the end, as has been done in previous year. It was agreed that this would be fine.

Time Trials.

  • The last Time Trial of the season is the Commando Memorial tomorrow.
  • The committee would like to give a big thanks to all those who have helped with the running of this year’s events. Special thanks to Emma, Al and Dave.

Fort to Fort.

  • Planning to hold this on Sunday the 30th of October.
  • Doug to double check with Great Glen Events that everything is ok with this date.
  • In order to try to avoid crossing and then re crossing the busy main road at Bridge of Oich, Doug and Gregor are going to investigate an alternative off road route from Fort Augustus to Bridge of Oich.

Winter League.

  • Doug to liase with Marian as to whether she is happy to organize a provisional schedule of races as  in previous years.
  • Steve is provisionally happy to run an enduro and would like to possibly do it at Wolftrax.
  • It was discussed that it might be a good idea to have 2 enduros this year – one to kick off the series and one to finish it. If Steve does one at Wolftax, Gregor and Doug could possibly do one at Nevis Range.
  • It was suggested that Leon might be able to hold a race at Roy Bridge using the trails that Ruari is building (if they are ready of course).

Kid’s Club.

  • Restarting on Sat the 27th of August and running for 6 weeks up until the October holidays. Restarting after the holidays and running for another 6 or 7 weeks before stopping for the Winter.
  • Doug to check with Mark Clark about the possibility of him running some Coach Level 1 and 2 training courses and assessments.
  • At the moment we have a number 16 year olds possibly interested in getting their level 1 qualification – Daniel, Cole, Joseph, Josh, Cammie, Finn and Riley.
  • In order for coaches to keep their first aid qualifications up to date, Dave is going to check with Mark Fair about the possibility of running a Muddy Medics style course up at Nevis Range later in the year. Possibly in November time. It might be good to investigate options to do this over 2 separate days rather than one weekend. Doug will also liaise with Simon Wells as to what availability he has for coaches to book on to his regular courses.

Wednesday Nights.

  • The current schedule finishes at the end of August.
  • The night at Inchree was much enjoyed and has been requested again. Other possible venues suggested were Invergarry (possibly asking if Vince would be around to guide), Glenachulish, and Strone (starting from the large car park where Mark started his Winter League race last year)

Community Cycling Events Fund.

  • Funding up to £8500 is possibly available from this fund to help run a festival aimed at getting new people in the community out cycling and to celebrate next year’s World Championships.
  • This would need to be spent before the 30th of March.
  • Doug has had provisional discussions about this with Event Scotland and With Nevis Range. He needs to follow up on these discussions asap.
  • One thing which was put forward in an initial application made to the fund was the possibility of getting “newish” riders up to do the Blue Doon so that they could get a chance to experience doing a track starting close to where the World Champs will start. Bearing in mind the unpredictability of the weather and the worry of taking “newish “riders on a tricky and exposed track it was decided that this might not be such a great option. It would perhaps be better to investigate getting uplift to take people to some of the lower tracks.
  • If we do go ahead with organizing a festival, it would be good to use part of the funding to pay someone to help organize the event. Elise at Nevis Range was suggested as someone who would be a good person for this.
  • If we do go ahead with this, then we need to appoint a festival organizing committee. It would be great to have Bridget involved with this.

Scottish Cycling’s Rock Up and Ride Programme.

  • This is a new initiative from Scottish Cycling. Its aims are “ to deliver the Scottish governments manifesto commitment to give every child in Scotland who doesn’t have a bike a bike. The programme provides the bikes, a helmet, lock and gloves to each participant, along with a development grant for the participating club, and funding to allow the coaches to be paid to deliver the sessions.”
  • It was agreed that, as we are currently slightly struggling to find enough coaches for what we do at present, it might be worthwhile applying to this fund to help with Active Schools sessions. Doug to liase further with Bridget about this.

Scottish Cycling’s Bike and Blether Project.

  • James Brasher has been in contact with Jacqui about this project. The aim of the project is to support the mental health of club members, as well as to create a positive mental health environment for other who might want to join a club. In conjunction with the Scottish Association for Mental Health ( SAMH) they are aiming to provide some training ( online we think) to create a network of volunteer Mental Wellbeing champions from within clubs.
  • Jacqui is going to get in touch with James to find out more about the training and also about a potential Bike and Blether week that they are proposing. Once we know more then we shall send the info out via facebook and a newsletter to find out who might be interested.

Saturday Social Rides.

  • The aim would be to formally start these up again on the same day as Kid’s Club starts up again i.e Saturday the 24th of August.
  • Need to be advertised on facebook and in the bike shops.

Bike park.

  • Funding is in place to enable Velosolutions and Concreate to start phase 1 ( construction of the park and lights) in February next year. The aim is for it all to be finished and open by the end of May and for there to be a formal opening during the World Champs in August.
  • Gregor is keen to get fresh faces on the Bike Park committee.

Newsletter/social media etc.

  • There is definitely a need to find someone willing to take on the newsletter/social media role in order to get info out to people sooner.

Next Meeting – Tuesday the 27th of September at Norman’s house @7.30