Marathon Racing Committee
Minutes of Marathon Committee meeting
held at 9.00 on 23 November 2013 at
Church Rooms, Cropredy
Present: Stan Missen (Chair)
Diane BatesDavid Enoch
Dan Golder / Ollie Harding
Sue Hawthorn
Roland Lawler / Alan Laws
Mick Nadal
Dyson Pendle / James Smythe
Graham Warland
In attendance: Jim Rossiter
1. Apologies: none received.
2. Approval of minutes:
a. June 21 – approved and signed.
b. ACM – approved but noted that point about under 23 racing at National Championships not on agenda, to be dealt with under item 12.
3. Matters arising:
a. From June meeting, following further talks Windsor have said they will not be holding a race in 2014.
b. Surf skis, agreed new wording to rule 11, covering single skis only, which will be reviewed in a year.
4. Regional Hasler Advisers: LSE and Southern region have historically appointed RMA from regional meeting, which was not what the committee intended. The adviser should be chosen from active marathon clubs in each region by an election process. Action: Mick to contact all RHAs and club secretaries to ensure that there is a process put in place in each region. He will also contact Kevin Dennis as Chair of Southern region to clarify certain points. It was further noted that any forms for elections could be uploaded onto the website. The system in place in Mick’s region will be used as the template. Clubs should be aware that the process commences with nominations in Sept/Oct with the new appointment taking place as from 1st January annually.
5. Domestic Racing:
a. Hasler Rules
i. It was agreed to keep to the current K2 rules for another year in light of the limited feed back received.
ii. Action: Diane to write in answer to complaint about amalgamated races and how this limits points scored.
iii. New rule for buoyancy in boats agreed. Action: Diane to change. Item for website to remind paddlers of their responsibility to comply.
iv. Overtaking rules – it was agreed that the current rule 2b was quite clear enough.
v. Elmbridge’s request for no late entries at races. It was agreed, as previously, that race organisers can choose to implement a ‘no late entry’ policy for their race if they wish, although the committee does not wish to enforce this across the board, as it is felt that in some regions this would severely affect the numbers racing. The committee is keen that each club appoints a recognised team leader for each race that it attends to deal with entries and issues that arise and will continue to encourage this. Action: Diane to write to Elmbridge.
vi. The BCU has suggested that they will allow access to its database but Sue and David are unsure how helpful this will be, bearing in mind that it is a complete record of all disciplines and is not therefore user-friendly. It was agreed that showing membership cards is not difficult and with the ability to ‘renew’ online or cover subscriptions with a direct debit there really is no need for active paddlers not to be up to date with their membership to compete.
b. Hasler Final rules
i. It was decided not to try to amend the rules to cover those lightning paddlers promoted near the end of the season who may wish to race K1 at the Hasler Final. If the situation arises it was felt better to deal with it on a case-by-case basis. The issues only affects a few paddlers.
ii. It was agreed to allow Services paddlers to complete only 2 races to qualify tor the Hasler final due to posting issues etc. Action: Diane to amend rule 36a.
iii. It was agreed that paddlers must complete 3 races to qualify, not just start them. Action: Diane to change rule 36a.
iv. It was agreed that Scotland should be shown as two regions for the Hasler final and therefore would have 2 clubs qualify from each region. Action: Diane to write to Brian Chapman.
v. The amalgamation of division 1 and division 2 K2 at the last 2 Hasler finals was discussed. It was agreed that this is not ideal, so the amalgamation rule should be removed from the Hasler Final rules ONLY. It was further agreed that, in the case of inquorate races, the race organiser should inform those paddlers before the event so that they can change to a quorate race for which they are eligible. Action: Diane to remove 27 from rule 34.
c. National Championships
i. It was agreed that fees set by the organising club will be looked at when the information pack is presented for approval, though the committee does not wish to set a standard fee. It was further noted that race fees are low compared with other sports.
ii. The starting order for races will also be looked at when checking arrangements. Action: Sue and Roland to discuss further to agree a template.
iii. It was agreed that a start list published before races would help identify paddlers and classes.
iv. It was agreed that the boat checking done well in advance of the race briefing and the start, as happened at Pangbourne, was very helpful and should be encouraged.
v. Richmond Canoe Club has asked if it can donate a trophy for presentation to the winners of the mixed K2 class. This was agreed, and it was further agreed that the race could be changed to a National Championship class. Action: Stan to write to Richmond. Action: Diane to change rules.
6. Coffee
7. Allocation of committee posts: It was agreed to form an Athlete Development sub-committee. This will consist of the following members: Dyson (chair), Ollie, Roland, Dan, James. Tom Daniels will be co-opted. Other committee positions remain as before, with James taking over the management of the website. The selection committee will be as follows: Alan (chair), David, Roland, Dyson, Melvin and Dan, with the Team manager for each event also being invited. Roland will take on the role as Hasler co-ordinator, with Jim Rossiter co-opted.
8. Internationals and development programme:
a. Reports from the World Championships and World Cup in Oklahoma were noted.
b. James had circulated a paper following discussions with athletes regarding assessment arrangements. Ollie reported that the training day at Dorney had gone well and the cost reasonable, so they would like to do more as it is a safe environment for winter training and is easy to use to measure performance. Regional training days have already been held in the South and East, and Dan, as regional Canoe England development coach for the Midlands, will be holding one at Worcester. It was agreed that all dates need to be in the diary in good time and information circulated. Action: Sub-committee to meet to arrange suitable dates for events and report back to main committee as arrangements progress. The Sub-committee would also feed back to the main committee with a fully agreed report at subsequent full committee meetings.
c. James had suggested some recognition for clubs and coaches whose juniors are selected for World Cup and World Championships. It was agreed that a certificate bearing the name of the paddler and date/event of their first selection would be sent to the club. Action: James to coordinate.
9. Treasurer’s report:
a. Accounts were circulated beforehand and the budget was tabled at the meeting. David reported that the BCU grant might be increased a little this year after its reduction in 2013.
b. It was agreed that the Athlete contribution should remain the same in 2014, but be reviewed for 2015.
c. The international budget was discussed with a view to lowering the amount of deficit shown. It was felt that whilst we had been asked and agreed to reduce our reserves too large a reduction would potentially leave us exposed in the future. David outlined that there is some cost saving to be had by taking boats to World Cup 1 then on to the Europeans. It was agreed that World Cup 1 would be a development team, whereas the one for the Europeans would be full strength. World Cup 2 in Trasona, which will be a K1 event only, is still not confirmed. With that in mind it was agreed to budget for sending a team there. The cost of the World Championships in Oklahoma will be high, with uncertainty as to boat transport. It was noted that the event may now be rescheduled to one week later. The amendments proposed to the budget reduced the possible deficit for the year to a more acceptable level.
d. Action: David will adjust budget to allow for taking boats to USA. Action: Alan will find out if a container is already planned for the trip. Alan to confirm if the Trasona event is confirmed asap.
e. It was agreed that due to a clash with the domestic calendar, the late season event for juniors couldn’t take place. Action: Athlete development team will however organise three-day training camp in UK as an alternative.
10. Lunch
11. National Championships and Hasler Final:
a. Review 2013
i. Disqualification of Longridge crew upheld, report from protest committee circulated. It was noted that the rules do not mention following the correct course despite this being obvious, so it was agreed to include an addition to rule 1. Action: Diane to include David’s wording in rules.
b. It was agreed that the event in 2013 had been very successful and well run and that Stan had written to Pangbourne with the committee’s thanks. Action: Sue to contact Vicky to establish if it was successful financially.
i. 2014 Nationals all in hand – update from Worcester circulated.
ii. 2014 Hasler Final, update received from Richmond. Roland and Jim to liaise with Will Absom regarding all arrangements. It was noted that at previous races it had been difficult to hear the starter on the far bank from where paddlers lined up – to bear in mind. Action: Roland and Jim to contact Will to arrange meeting.
12. Calendar and Assessment races: dates for Assessment races were agreed. Where it is a separate race it should follow the new international format of laps of 3.75 km, with one more lap than currently and no portage on the first lap. This would not apply to Thameside 2 or the Nationals. Dates agreed as follows:
a. K1 Thameside 2 16 March – for Waterlands
b. K1 Bedford 4 May
c. K1 Norwich 18 May
d. K2 Reading 25 May
e. K1 Thames Valley 13 July
f. K2 National Championships 24 August. By not using the K1 as an assessment race this should address the problem of the Under 23 race not being supported by the best paddlers in class, as raised at the ACM.
g. Action: Graham to write to races selected to check they are happy to run separate assessment races. Details to then be published for Racing Handbook and website. As final internationals that we will attend are not fully agreed due to budget restraints Stan to draft appropriate wording to make that clear. Action: Stan to draft wording.
13. Website:
a. James has designed a new website. Action: James to make new site live. Action: All members to look at site to contribute to longer discussion at next meeting to ensure that the site caters for our needs and the needs of paddlers. It should be remembered that the website is our face to the Marathon community and should reflect that we are here for Marathon competition across all divisions and not merely here to promote Marathon at the highest international level, despite that being a key objective.
b. GB canoeing website – Ollie noted that site very poor on marathon canoeing. Need to have link to our site if agreement can be gained from them. Action: James and Ollie to find out who is in charge of site and request link.
14. 2014 Meetings: It was agreed to hold the next meeting on Saturday 1 February, time & location to be confirmed. Action: Stan and Diane will liaise to suggest suitable dates and venues for other meetings.
15. Any other business:
a. Mini K2s. Agreed to look further at designs and sizes of Mini K2s, need to liaise with SRC to ensure standards. Action: Stan to reply to Paul Postill from Exeter Canoe Club who asked about what they should buy. Action: Diane to ensure that all references to Hody K2 are replaced with Mini K2 in rules and ask Wiki to change HRM program. Definition of Mini K2 is currently maximum length 5.6m, minimum width 50cm.
b. Waterside Series. Stan confirmed that he had spoken with Clive Williams and that Newbury confirmed they are looking at the problem of event tickets in their events.
c. David reported that Kevin Dennis has been elected Vice Chairman of the English Council.
d. It was agreed that the BCU Finance Officer Carol Hanrahan should continue as a cheque signatory.
e. David will send out rules regarding mileage and expense claims to all committee members.
f. Action: Diane to put on agenda for next meeting possible sanctions for paddlers who are promoted by more than 2 divisions.
g. Lightning certificates. New Lightning certificates are needed and the committee agreed that a competition for Lightning paddlers to design a new one should be held. The winning design could be emailed to clubs to print their own. Action: Sue to design poster to go to all Lightning clubs asking for entries. Peter Jones will have contacts for them. Closing date for competition 25 January so that selection can be made at next meeting.