Committee Minutes

COMMITTEE MINUTES 19.10.21

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting held on Zoom – Tuesday the 19th 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 31st 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 4th 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

 VENUES

POTENTIAL DATE

 

Wolftrax

Sunday 21st November

Jamie Maxwell

Glen Loy – Strone

Sunday 5th December

Mark Clark

Glen Nevis

Sunday the 19th December

Not part of the Winter League

Kinlochleven

Tuesday the 28th December

 ??????

Nevis Range/Cour

Sunday the 16th January

 ??????

Invergarry

Sunday 6th February

Vince Mackintosh

Strontian

Sunday 27th February

Joseph Tait

Glen Loy – Erracht

Sunday 20th March

Ben Thompson

Nevis Range

Sunday 24th April

?????

 

 

 

 

  • 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 4th of November

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AGM Minutes

AGM AGENDA 4.11.21

AGENDA
West Highland Wheelers AGM
Thursday 4th November 2021 at 7pm at the Pine Marten Café, Nevis Range
Will be Immediately followed by the pump track agm

Please come along – there will be tea/coffee and cakes and you may have won a trophy or prize!


1. Apologies

2. Minutes of 2020 Zoom AGM

3. Chairman’s report

4. Treasurer’s report

5. Kids Club

6. Election of office bearers and committee
Chairman –
Secretaries – minute secretary and official secretary
Treasurer –
Membership –
Junior rep –
General committee need to be able to cover:
• Ladies’ section
• Roadies
• Time trials
• Kids club
• Mountain biking including XC/DH
• Winter league
• Newsletter

Please note that many of the existing committee are prepared to stand again, but we are looking for somebody new to keep the website up to date and produce the newsletter.

7. Kids’ club also has a sub group to help run it.

8. Subscription rates to remain the same for next year
Juniors £8
Senior £17
Family £28

9. AOCB

Trophy presentation:
• Most Improved: Lady, Downhiller, Junior male, junior female
• Time Trials: Male, Female, Junior

Update on the pump track proposal

Committee Minutes

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 4th of November or Thursday the 11th 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

  • Provisionally planned for Sunday the 31st of October.
  • Doug to check with the Great Glen Way events team if we are ok to run the race.

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 28th 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

  • Currently sitting around £10,000.
  • Gill is going to chase up our internet banking application once again.

Next Meeting

  • Tuesday the 19th of October.
Time Trials

Committee Meeting Minutes 01/06/21

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting

Tuesday the 1st of June on Zoom.

 

Present; Doug Little, Steve Bradley, Gregor Muir, Marian Austin, Evelyn Maclennan, Dave Parfitt.

Apologies; Gill Barnes, Shaun Lee.

 

Winter League.

  • Final race is still planned to go ahead this Sunday the 6th of June at Glen Loy.
  • Marian will contact Mark to check that everything is still ok at his end for running it.
  • On Saturday we move to Level 1. This means that the race can be held in the normal mass start format. Social distancing is suspended during the race but needs to be observed before and after.
  • It was confirmed that the best 3 out of the 4 races held will count towards the final classifications.

Summer League.

  • Marian will confirm to Jamie Gall that we are quite happy for this to go ahead if he wishes to organize it. She will also help him with regard to any info that he needs.

Time Trials.

  • Two Time Trials have been held successfully so far. Many thanks to Emma, Alastair , Dave and all those who have helped to get these going again. Great to see some new faces out!

Thursday Night Road Biking Social rides.

  • At the last ride one member turned up and there was no one else there or anyone organizing. It was agreed that, as per the Wednesday night rides, it is important that there is someone there acting as a focal point and also taking a covid register. It would also be good to put a post on the group facebook page about the ride.
  • Doug will contact Emma to see what the plan is.

Scottish Cycling Direct Investment Program.

  • It was agreed that we would not apply to be a part of this program. The cost to the club would be fairly substantial and it was generally agreed that we could find something better to do with the money.

Website.

  • The website is up and running and looks good. Many thanks to Shaun, Evelyn, Robbie, Mark, Amy and Doug for all the work that has gone into it. As a special thank you to Shaun and the many hours that he has put into the development, it was agreed that we would give him £50 vouchers from Off Beat Bikes and Nevis Cycles as well as a £100 voucher for the Smiddy House Restaurant. Doug will organize these.
  • The website is still a work in progress and further improvements will be made in the future. In particular, we need to look at possibly developing a new logo.
  • The aim would be for all future results to be posted on the blog. People will be able to check out their past results by looking at the blog ( blog posts are given a specific category, so it should be possible to search for past posts by category). Results from races before the new website was up and running have been all put on google drive by Evelyn. We need to investigate a way of making these easily accessible by anyone that wants to check out their past results.
  • Minutes will also go on the blog. Again, we also need to make all the past minutes that are on Google Drive readily accessible.

Gondola Night/Afternoon.

  • Once the new blue run is open it would be great to offer some sort of promotional event for members. Rather than having the gondola stay open late for us it was suggested by Steve that it would maybe good to look at doing something on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon ( Sunday afternoon would probably be the best as it is slightly quieter). That way, all the required Nevis Range staff are on site anyway ( we also would have members who would be able to help out). Dave will enquire with Alice about the possibility of getting a deal on vouchers for a couple of runs for any members who do not have a season pass. Ideally, we would get everyone together at the top station for a social ride down.

Kid’s Club.

  • The club has now been running for 5 Saturdays. There are 4 more sessions planned before the summer break.
  • Last Saturday there were 72 kids planned to go out in 11 different groups. Some of the older kids have been helping out with coaching and this has been great to see. A couple of the Fort William Foxes have also started coming along to help out.
  • A number of kids who had been on the waiting list for some time are now coming along to sessions. The waiting list has however started growing quite quickly again!
  • Having the option to join a girls only group seems to have proven very popular.
  • It was agreed by the Kid’s club committee that kids need to be in P3 to take part in the club ( the only possible exceptions to this being kids who are already in the club and the kids of parents who are prepared to come along regularly as leaders)

Saturday Afternoon Social rides.

  • After a slow start these sessions seem to be growing in popularity. Last Saturday 10 ladies and two men went out in two different groups. Some of these participants have now joined the club and a few have started coming on Wednesday evenings.
  • Many thanks to Jacqui, Gill, Emma, Doug, Gregor, Andrew, Bridget, Millie and Jodie (Fort William Foxes!) who have been helping out with these rides.
  • The initial plan was to run the rides until Kid’s Club finishes on the 26th of June. As they are proving quite popular, we shall however look at the possibility of maybe carrying them on throughout the summer. In some ways, this might be easier for some of the coaches involved, as they are currently coaching in the morning with kid’s club and then doing the afternoon as well.

Pumptrack.

  • Planning permission has been granted , so it is now full steam ahead to try to raise the cash!

Internet Banking.

  • Gill has made another application for internet banking. Hopefully, we shall be successful this time! Apparently, part of the reason that we have been rejected before is that Doug’s details have been a bit dodgy!

Wednesday Night Rides

  • These have been fairly busy – on average about 20 people have been coming along and there has been a good range of different abilities/expectations. Gregor is keen to put venues on the calendar where groups of all abilities can find something to fulfill them. One suggestion was to take Strone off as a venue but maybe have the fastest group go there from a meeting point at Erracht.

AOB

  • Steve mentioned that Wolftrax are keen for us to organize things there after everything re-opens there on the 11th of July. The trails are all still open.

Next Meeting

  • We’ll keep flexible about the date for the next meeting. It was generally agreed that once things hopefully get back to some sort of normality, we would all prefer to meet up in person for meetings rather than virtually. Zoom meetings have their place but apparently you can’t beat a good old Tunnocks tea cake provided by Doug. One suggestion was to maybe have alternate meeting modes – one on zoom, the next in person etc etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Rides

Out of Lockdown 17.3.21

Wednesday night rides are back! Starved of group rides and good craic, enough people for 2 groups turned out on our first night since before Christmas.  All were raring to go, in high spirits and had a fabulous jaunt.