West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting

Tuesday the 1^st 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 6^th 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 26^th 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 11^th 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.