Précis Minutes of the First Meeting (2007 Session) of the Board of Directors of
ACU Ltd at the Offices of the Company held on Tuesday 23rd January 2007 at 10.30am
Present: Jim Parker (Chairman)
Frank Carter
Brian Bonny (Financial Director)
Peter Beardmore
Eddie Bellars
Roger Brown
John Collins
Roy Hanks
Roy Humphrey
Tony Noel
Gary Thompson MBE BEM (General Secretary)
Item 2: Confirmation of Minutes of the Eighth meeting (2006 session) of the Board held on
Thursday 14th December 2006
The minutes of the eighth meeting of the Board of Directors held on Thursday 14th December were accepted as read.
Item 3: Matters Arising
Supermoto. The Chairman informed the Board that the ACU and AMCA were to be joined by other active Supermoto bodies (Moto GB & Norasport) to organise the British Supermoto Championships for 2007. A meeting will be held shortly between all interested parties to take the matter forward.
ACU Handbook. Mr Thompson informed the Board that the Handbook was currently with the printers and was to be distributed directly from the Mailing House to those Licence Holders who had already renewed or applied for their 2007 licence. He expected this to take place in early February.
LARA. Mr Carter informed the Board that he would speak to Mr Kind and conclude arrangements regarding the contract for him to begin his work with the ACU regarding Land Access issues.
Action: Mr Carter
Regionalisation. A discussion took place regarding Regionalisation. The Board appointed the Chairman, Mr Carter, Mr Brown and Mr Beardmore to form a Working Group to take forward Regionalisation. Mr Thompson would arrange a suitable date for all to meet. It was also suggested that the Directors visits to Centres should in future be extended to the Directors visiting some of the active Clubs and therefore have the opportunity to answer questions from club members and competitors.
Action: Mr Thompson
Helmet Testing. It was agreed that an article would appear in the ACU Magazine regarding the Helmet Testing facility in Farnham and the process through which helmets are tested in order to meet the ACU criteria. Mr George, the ACU Press Officer, would be asked to attend a test at Farnham in order to obtain suitable photographs and Dr King would be asked to supply the outline of the article.
Action: Mr Thompson
ACU Awards. Mr Thompson briefed the Board on matters regarding the forthcoming ACU Awards presentation at the Park Inn Hotel (Northampton) on Saturday 27th January.
Signage. The Board agreed to new signs being erected on the outside of ACU House to replace the two in existence.
FIM Management Council Nomination. Mr Collins informed the Board that he had spoken to Mr Willoughby regarding his possible nomination as a Candidate for the Management Council of the FIM. Mr Willoughby had indicated that he would be interested and would discuss the matter with the Chairman in due course.
Item 4: Financial Matters
4.1 Income & Expenditure Comparisons
Mr Bonny answered questions regarding the Income and Expenditure figures in comparison to the previous year.
Mr Bonny informed the Board that the work in progress to move to Departmental Accounting was being slightly delayed due to the ongoing Audit of accounts, which was being accelerated due to the impending departure of Mr Tan from Target Consulting Limited.
Item 5: Insurance Matters
Mr Bellars spoke about the increasing need to actively pursue a revision of our Insurance and Premiums etc having particular regard to our Off Road activities.
The Board then went on to discuss the Insurance cover provided by the ACU across the Board in all activities, compared to that provided for by other organisations. The Board agreed that the ACU Insurance cover be reviewed, exploring the feasibility of varying levels of cover being made available to Clubs, dependant on the requirements of each particular activity.
Mr Bellars also explained that Locktons were currently writing an article for the next ACU magazine to highlight the cover our current insurance provides.
Two meetings are to take place with Locktons. The first, on 2nd February, is to discuss the merits of a possible members benefit in the form of an Affinity Scheme and the second, (21st February) is to review the service provided by Locktons and areas in which this can be improved.
It was suggested that we should hold discussions with the AMCA with regard to giving wide publicity to the merits of having motorcycle sport adequately insured and drawing attention to the risks of not having such cover which, it was felt, some other organisations may not fully appreciate. This would be raised at the next Board meeting of the British Supermoto Championships Limited.
Action: Mr Thompson
Motocross Manager
The Board discussed and agreed the recruitment of a Motocross Manager to enable a much broader service to be provided to our Clubs and Centres. Duties are to include a number of functions currently being undertaken by the Motocross Committee Chairman and members of his Committee. Track Inspections, the drafting of Rules and Regulations, visits to Clubs who might wish to affiliate or re-join the ACU will all be allocated to this post.
Following on from this, the Board discussed the possibility of issuing all Permits for Grass Track, direct from ACU Head Office as a rational step towards the more efficient management of the discipline. Recently there had been some clashes of dates due to a National event being moved late due to unforeseen circumstances, which had caused problems in some areas. A letter had recently been received by the Motocross Committee from a Centre, regarding a round of the Maxxis British Championship clashing with a long established Trial in that area so the Centre was reluctant to sign off the Permit.
It was recognised that this suggestion would need considerable discussion with the Centres and Mr Thompson was asked to place the matter on the agenda for the Centre Chairmen/Secretaries meeting to be held on Saturday 24th February.
Action: Mr Thompson
Item 6: Elections/Appointments to the Road Race Committee
The Chairman explained that the Road Race Committee believed that the interests of the ACU in the increasingly commercial world of Road Racing can best be served by those people who are widely experienced and have a current active involvement. The Committee has been broadly professionally based for some years and a review of the electoral procedures, whereby one member is elected annually through the traditional National Council system, is now required in order to address the current drawbacks.
The Committee had suggested that the three members in question should be appointed rather than elected in line with the procedure currently operated by the FIM for their Commissions. However, although in sympathy with the objectives sought by the Committee, the Board felt that a system where the current active Road Race Clubs were the ones to vote for these members would be preferable. The Chairman felt that this procedure would achieve the desired result and he was sure his Committee would agree.
Mr Humphrey expressed his concerns with regard to future elections/nominations to the Motocross Committee and stated that he believed elections/appointments to the Motocross Committee would very soon need to follow the same procedure as that of Road Race. This would be discussed at the next meeting of the Motocross Committee.
6.1 Road Race Licences – Club Signatures
The Board were very critical of the Chairman for having been responsible for implementing, without any of the usual expected consultation, a decision whereby applications for 2007 Road Race Licences could be endorsed only by an active Road Race Club. The Chairman explained that it is a fact that apart from only one or two exceptions everybody participating in Road Racing will automatically be a member of a Road Race Club and so it had not been visualised that there would be any problem. The Chairman accepted that he had been wrong and apologised to the Board for his actions.
It was noted that the exceptions mentioned included some riders participating in British Championships and that the MCRCB would like to be authorised to sign Road Race Licence applications. The Board agreed this in principle and the Chairman stated that this would appear on the next MCRCB Agenda where he would be seeking a fee for the facility.
Item 7: Any Other Business
BYMX Sub-Committee. Mr Humphrey informed the Board that Mr Patrick Brown had been nominated as the fourth person on the BYMX Sub-Committee and had been approved by the Motocross Committee. The Board agreed to this appointment.
Motocross Grand Prix. Mr Humphrey confirmed that the Motocross Grand Prix will be held at Donington Park on 26th August. The Chairman stated that he was to have a further meeting with Mr Gillett at Donington on Thursday 25th January with a view to the ACU organising the sporting side of the event.
FIM Events. In view of the forthcoming FIM Congress, Mr Collins raised with some concern the FIM’s current practice or allocating an International event to a promoter, who in some cases, leaves a trail of debt after the event, which is then picked up by the Federation. He asked that this matter be raised with the FIM.
Sportmoto Magazine. Unfortunately, Mr Hillaby was not in attendance at the meeting. However, it was agreed that a copy of the ACU magazine would in future be distributed to every Club secretary in the ACU. Mr Thompson would ensure this was the case.
Action: Mr Thompson
Item 8: Date of Next Meeting
The meeting closed at 5.30pm. The date of the next meeting will be Wednesday 4th April 2007 commencing at 10.30 am. This meeting will also include the presentation of the Company Accounts by our Auditors, Target Consulting Ltd.