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Post by UK Gravity Sports Asscociation on Feb 7, 2011 16:23:44 GMT
Ok. Here goes ! UKGSA Annual General Meeting 2011 To be held from 11am on Saturday 26th February 2011 Venue :- Brookenby, Lincolnshire (please send a personal message, for postcode and house number) The Agenda is still to be finalised, but will be posted before the meeting. There are plans afoot to do some sort of webcam / conference type thingy (possible via Windows Live, but other avenues are being looked at ) for those unable to attend. Biscuits and hot drinks will be on offer Please come along / take part and help shape the growth of our hobbies / offer support to event organisers.
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Post by Organgrinder on Feb 24, 2011 8:46:31 GMT
Is there an agenda for the AGM yet? I am thinking about attending, but have some concerns: I think the internet forum is really worthwhile as a place to publicise events and exchange ideas. However, I can see real difficulties for event organisers if we have what appears to the outside world to be a governing and sanctioning body for all forms of gravity racing in the UK. We have tried to work out National Rules for soapbox in the past and these have not been widely adopted, often for very good reasons, as they didn’t suit all organisers or venues. At the time some organisers seemed to be a bit pig-headed, but I wonder how I would have felt if someone else had tried to impose their "Official" rules on the event I'm involved with. If the UKGSA were to set itself up as a sanctioning body who’s rules would it adopt and where would event organisers stand with their insurers, local authorities, etc if they didn’t use the “approved” rules and regulations? I really don’t see it working in this way at this stage in the development of the sport. As things stand, rule sets are gravitating towards one another by a gradual process and I wouldn’t be surprised if in three or four years we are all working to the same rules because they make sense, rather than because they have been imposed on events from above. My thoughts at the moment are essentially that the forum should be maintained (and I would suggest that event organisers all make a small voluntary contribution to costs if funding is needed) but that UKGSA shouldn't attempt to dictate how the disciplines and individual events are run. Perhaps the name could be changed to UK Gravity Sports Forum to make it clear the UKGSA is not a governing body?
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Post by Ian r on Feb 24, 2011 16:25:59 GMT
Apologies for the delay, here's the agenda........
DRAFT
UKGSA AGENDA Annual General Meeting 11.00am 26 February 2011 Brookenby Lincolnshire
1. Chairman for the Meeting
2 .Apologies for Absence
3 Current state of Gravity Racing in the UK.
4 Election of Committee and Officers
5 Future role and priorities of UKGSA
6 Constitution; Bank Account; Sponsorship; Funding
7 Publicity and Profile
8 Website
9 Recurrent Problems: Landowners; Safety; Insurance; Indemnities; Law ; Event organisers cashflow.
Manpower
10 AOB
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Post by Ian r on Feb 24, 2011 16:40:19 GMT
Organgrinder, please come along, if at all possible? We need to hear from as many people as possible how / what ukgsa should be the whole idea needs as much support as possible if it's gonna do any good, especially needs the views of event organisers
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Post by Organgrinder on Feb 24, 2011 18:01:36 GMT
Wow! BIG agenda. I suggest we should aim to get through everything in two hours though, otherwise we'll drift on for ever and achieve nothing.
I would like to attend, but don't know how to PM for address, etc.
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Post by Ian r on Feb 24, 2011 18:06:24 GMT
Sadly I don't think we've a hope of doing it in 2 hours I know a couple of folk have to depart at 2pm, so hopefully done by then...... I'll send you a 'Personal Message' with my address, organgrinder And there will be tea / coffee, biscuits & PIZZA for those attending !
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Post by UK Gravity Sports Asscociation on Mar 15, 2011 17:14:06 GMT
Hi,
Here's the (abridged) version of the minutes :-) Please pm us for the full ones, just trying to keep things concise on the net............will e-mail full ones to all that were present.
UKGSA UK GRAVITY SPORTS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Minutes of meeting held 26 February 2011 Brookenby Lincolnshire
Present: Dick Black; Peter Thompson; Stephen Hall; Graham Thompson; David Ackroyd; Richard Stockdale; Linzy Stockdale; Mikey Whitehouse; Lee Wakefield; Jack Penman; Will Stevenson; Dick Fowler
1 Ian Round chaired the meeting. Apologies were received from Andy Ash, Geoff Burton and Grant du Plessis
2 Ian Round outlined the history and current state of Gravity Racing in the UK. Essentially, plenty of interest in participation limited by barely adequate resources. The issue for UKGSA was how best to help which disciplines and at what level eg entry, intermediate or top-end.
3 The following were elected ; Ian Round – Chairman; Richard Stockdale – Secretary; Graham Thompson – Treasurer UKGSAs historical bank account stands at £166 in credit .
4. As this was a relaunch of UKGSA, a working definition of Gravity Sports was discussed and used to avoid confusion.
5 Because of time pressures it was agreed that some issues should be reserved for discussion after the AGM . Means of doing this also to be agreed but provisionally a Members only section on the website or similar.
6 The chairman invited views on the future role and priorities of UKGSA. Amongst those present, there was a fairly clear difference of opinion between soapbox/ sidecar event organisers on one hand and other disciplines on the other.
Soapbox/Sidecar event organisers wanted a minimal role for UKGSA while Lugers etc wanted tangible help with organising regional events and insurance. Expertise on Soapbox events lies with current organisers and often forms part of a community event eg a village fete or charity fundraising. Some organisers (eg SCA- Scottish Carties Association , Belchford, Adlington) advise new event-organisers who ask. SCA have an extensive online catalogue of helpful information and good practise guides. These are available for use free subject to a non- commercial license.
Will Stevenson outlined the very different position of Luge. He competes at international level and is setting up a commercial Luge school. There is very little for street lugers between luge school and the World Cup. Wherever an event provides much needed race practise, it is very well attended. He would like to see UKGSA involvement in arranging 3 or 4 regional events as used to happen with Dalby and Eastbourne. Scammonden is possible and he is looking at Hog Hill, near London. He also has problems with insurance. Ian Round painted a similar position with Gravity cycles (which may be included in this years soapbox events in Dalby and Belchford). Scammonden would be suitable for skaters – just! Most luge, skateboard and cycle disciplines follow IGSA Rules/Technical Specifications to facilitate international competition.
Dick Black suggested that UKGSA should be a 2 tier operation, reflecting the different position of soapboxes compared to the other disciplines. There was some discussion about whether UKGSA could and should organise its own event(s).
7 Risk, Indemnity and Insurance. UKGSA originally made affiliated organisers automatically members of the UKGSA Committee and so they effectively shared liability. Peter Thompson explained that they insist on competitors walking the course to assist in discharging the organisers duty of care.
Again the insurance position of Soapboxes was notably different compared to Luges etc. Stephen Hall does not have a problem with Public Liability Insurance and pays £350 for Cairngorm Extreme (CSEx) .Similarly, Belchford pay £450 for their Soapbox event and village fete combined, covering 2500 spectators.
Mikey Whitehouse explained that UKGSA used to arrange a 10 event policy with Zurich, (cost£1500 in 2007). This followed a presentation to the Zurich board by Tom Worsley so that they understood what risk they were insuring. Event organisers who affiliated to UKGSA had their event covered by the block policy. Will Stephenson had found this helpful.
8 Website.Lee Wakefield is steadily improving the UKGSA website. A prompt decision on hosting was needed. Lee Wakefield is to arrange a new contract at a cost to UKGSA of approx £75 for 2 years. Richard Stockdale raised the question of dubious adverts appearing. It would cost about £15 extra pa to remove these.
The possibility of a Members Area on the forums for exchange of information and ideas between organisers etc was discussed. Dick Black suggested that event organisers should each pay a small sum to UKGSA annually to pay for the website,
9 Constitution.UKGSAs constitution is broadly drawn can be left alone for the time being.
10 UKGSA Income and Funding. In the past, UKGSA had 4 main sources of income. Private subscription (ie gifts) ; membership fees; Affiliation Fees paid by event organisers utilising the UKGSA block insurance policy; business sponsors.
UKGSA have met with East Lindsey District Council to establish how a bid for a 2011/2012 Community Grant for equipment and an event in Lincolnshire might fare.
Stephen Hall and Dick Black endeavour to avoid the restrictions imposed by public funding.
The chairman thanked everyone for attending .
The Meeting closed at 3.30 pm Richard Stockdale Secretary .
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Post by lizzz on Jun 2, 2011 14:22:39 GMT
Ok... I've only just seen this, has anything been achieved with events since? I just organised Bo-peep and had no problems with insurance, it was approx £250 for 4 days cover, including public and employee liability, the whole thing was awesome!
I plan to hold other events over the coming years... I just struggle to know where I stand as an event organiser with the UKGSA... We had UKGSA logo's etc on all our publications, but I heard no word from any member of the UKGSA itself regarding my event..Apart from Dick over insurance and a block policy, which didn't work out anyway..
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Post by Ian r on Jun 3, 2011 20:15:05 GMT
Hi Liz, I hear what your asking. In light of what was said at the AGM, we've been taking a pretty 'hands off' approach to events. This isn't exactly the way it was hoped to be, esp regarding luge & skate, but with the very limited people available to 'do the do' it's been kinda forced on us. It raises some major issues about how we do stuff in the future, particularly given the distances involved (Bo Peep is approx 220 miles from my place) and if/how UKGSA should involve itself in the actual running of an event. For instance, it would probably not be reasonable for me to travel down and expect my accommodation and diesel to be paid for, just so I could do a 'risk assessment' and enable an event to run under the block policy (if we can get one). But I don't know what the answer is..... Dick was liaising with myself & Richard as he was talking to you, so yep, technically, he was UKGSA during those conversations so a bit harsh to say we weren't doing anything to help. Also, given the close dialog we'd had with Applehead about an event at Cadwell Park, it was more than a little frustrating to discover a UKGSA event being launched on facebook, on a date that clashed with Cadwell ! Made me look a right Chump :-( But it wasn't the time to get arsey about it, didn't want to damage the event....... Sounds like it went really well & hopefully more to come :-) Good work ! It's not that we don't want to help, it's more a question of distance and logistics. A few well meaning folks does not a national organisation, make :-( I'd like to see a weekend of 'Freeriding' / 'Practice', call it what you will, at Scammonden for anything and everything, No point doing it while everyone is away racing in europe, and the calendar's pretty full in sept / oct but much later than that, the weather gets crappy & the clocks change :-( Would you be up for getting involved?
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