Minutes of Meetings and Decisions

BSCRA Annual Council Meeting – 20 October 2019  at Enderby


Those present - Mark Witham  (Chairman & Safeguarding), David Sargent (Treasurer), Graham Woodward (Competitions Secretary),  Kev Gray (Membership Secretary), James Cleave (Development Officer) , Steve Sargent (BOC and Calendar Coordinator),  Chris Frost (Secretary & web site)


Chairman's Report

Mark Witham  thanked all the officials and volunteers who made our events so successful this year. The ISRA World Championships in Corby 2019 added a lot  to the year's UK slotracing


Championship Tracks

BSCRA will be buying the "Mega Monsta" World Championship track from the 2019 World Championship Team, this will continue to be used as the BSCRA Nationals track and will be permanently housed at the  National Slot Car Centre in Corby    
The BSCRA X track has been sold to a raceway which is soon to open in Milton Keynes.


Slot Car Racing News

Pat Skene is standing down as SCRN editor at the end of 2019.  The council discussed the option of continuing Slot Car Racing News as an online rather than paper magazine in  2020.   

We are in discussion with a volunteer to edit the magazine, but he would depend on others to write the content.  Pat is the author of a lot of the magazine's content as well as its editor.   While we had some offers to write content, we will need more volunteers to carry on providing the quantity of content we have had with Pat.   An online SCRN has the advantages of making new content available to members while allowing a substantial reduction in membership fees.  

On balance it was thought Slot Car Racing News online was a better option.   It was agreed to go ahead with the necessary investment to produce a members' only web site.    

We will of course continue with a public web site to attract new members, publicise clubs etc.


Treasurer’s report

The Association's finance is in a healthy state, and we can well afford the purchase of the  new track.  The total income from the 1/32 Nats, Team Race 1/24 International, Clubman Nats made and other hiring at the National Slot Car fell a little short of what was needed to cover all the costs (including rent on the centre).  There is a need for a small increase in entry fees at some National events.

The on line payment by BACS transfer and PayPal have continued to work well for both membership fees and  advanced payment of entry fees for National events. BACS transfers are free whereas  PayPal  makes a charge for the transaction but there are legal reasons not to charge extra  for PayPal payments. Members are encouraged to use BACS transfers.


Membership  

It was agreed membership fees for 2020 will include access to Slot Car Racing News online, and will be substantially reduced from 2019 levels.  It was agreed the rates for 2020 will be - Adult members £12 per year : Junior members £6 per year : Clubs  £12 per year

Kev reported that rolling membership renewals (rather than have them all due on a single date) continues to work smoothly.  Renewal becomes due every 12 months, Members are reminded by e mail.  Most renewals occur in January.  


Development

James had investigated producing polo shirts with an embroidered BSCRA logo.  It was decided these will be offered for sale in the new year.   To make this economic,  we will take orders and have them manufactured in batches rather than hold stock.

James will be further investigating a 1/24 club class


Rule Changes -  

The existing Handbook is being updated and available online in time for the start of the 2020 season.  


BSCRA's National Slot Car Centre

To hire the National  Slot Car Centre contact Mark Witham.

There has been a  problem with some hirers not leaving the room in a clean and tidy state. Although this hasn't been quite as much of a problem as last year, and sometimes volunteers have been prepared to clean up afterwards ( a big thank you to them) , this is not something we could or should expect to happen in future.  What's needed is for hirers cleaned up their own mess before leaving, but if that doesn't happen we'll have to increase the cost of hiring to pay for cleaning.   


Nationals Organisation

Arrangements are in hand for the three 2020 1/32 National Championship and the 1/24 International all of which will be held at our National Centre in Corby.

For some years, Kev has been our chief race controller for Nationals events, he is standing down.  It was thought unlikely we could find one new chief race controller prepared to do all the events,  Volunteers would be most welcome and the council will be approaching a number of possible candidates with a view to them running one event each.

 

The Clubmans Nats -  29 Feb / 1 March

A membership proposal to make this a one day event was considered.  It would seem this was unpopular with entrants living a substantial distance from the venue as they would probably have to make an overnight stay anyway and would end up with one very full Sunday and a late finish.   Therefore it was decided to continue as a 2 day event.

The team race that had been tried for the first time in 2019 was a success, so it was agreed to continue with this.  There was some membership support for an F2 event, so it was agreed to add this to the schedule.

Entry fees £13 adult, £7 juniors;  Team race £12 per 2 driver team : F2 £5 per driver


1/32 Nats - 8/9/10 May

The membership voted not to continue with the open entry which was used in 2019.     Thus area qualifying will resume for 2020.  It was agreed to adopt a new process for entries- see separate details below.    Each area's qualifiers will take the Area's allocated places as before, the difference is the way we  reallocate unused places
For 2020 the event will be held on Friday (Saloon) Saturday (F1) and Sunday (Sports) - this is because of the unusual bank holiday in 2020.


1/32 Nats entry per class -  advanced entry £20 adult, £10 juniors

On the day £25 adult, £10 juniors


1/24 International - 29/30/31 August

Entry per class -  advanced entry advanced entry £20 adult, £10 juniors

On the day £25 adult, £10 juniors

The closing date for advanced entries will be the Thursday before the meeting (27 August 2020)

Entrants will be required to be BSCRA members.   The new reduced membership fees are a similar price to the old one off  non member's licence fee, so we see no point in continuing with a separate licence.


Production Challenge/ Team - 19/20 September

Advanced entry - Individual per class £15 adult, £8 juniors :  Club Team Championship - £60 per team

on the day per individual class £19 adult, £8 juniors: team £75
The closing date for advanced entries will be the Thursday before the meeting (17 September 2020)


Rules

For all 4 of  these National /International meetings the following will apply:-

Lateness in scrutineering - 10 lap penalty in the race (lateness for finals scrutineering - 10 lap penalty in the final)

Unjustified track calls - driver's 1st time - a warning: - a driver's 2nd or subsequent unjustified call 2 -laps each time


British Open Championship

The 1/32 BOC will return to 6 rounds for 2020, the 2019 series was reduced to 5 rounds to accommodate extra meetings in the lead up to the World Championship.   

There was concern that not all clubs have produced competitor info for their BOC meetings until rather late.  Advanced publicity for the events and the results are to be sent to Chris for updating the championships and the BSCRA public website. Also, clubs are encouraged to produce meeting reports which will be published in SCRN, suitably captioned photos and tech charts are the minimum.


Associated Championships

There are currently 3 championships (BSL, Southern 32, and ProAm (aka The fun series) where BSCRA endeavour to  arrange calendar dates and host their web sites.  Each of these championships are responsible for organising their venues.  Each run to their own rules which are not identical to BSCRA rules, although they are broadly similar.   There is other racing such as some Retro races and the Wing Car Championship which are included on the BSCRA calendar and some information may be posted on the BSCRA web site.  These race organisers set their own dates and rules.


BSCRA on Social Media


It would be very useful to have a volunteer to organise expanding our coverage beyond Facebook as well as managing our activities on Facebook

 

While much of the posting on our Facebook groups has been good, the moderators have had to remove some postings and one or two contributors from BSCRA's  Facebook groups.  

It was agreed that clubs wishing to put news of their regular club racing online should be encouraged to put it on their own club Facebook groups / pages or club websites.   The BSCRA Facebook groups are intended for items that are of interest over a wider area.



Safeguarding

There have been no reportable incidents.



1/32 Nats qualification process to be used in 2020

1. BSCRA will calculate the number of Nats places allocated to each Area using the 2020 BSCRA rules as soon as possible after the 1st February 2020 cut off date.

2. When online entries open (on or shortly after 1st Feb assuming that's feasible for the person setting it up),  members who would like to run at the Nationals will be welcome to enter, but places won't be confirmed till we know the areas' qualifiers.   

3. Area Coordinators shall be required to  tell BSCRA  the final positions area championship in each class as soon as it is decided and must inform BSCRA before the 13 April 2020 closing date  at the latest

a)   Each area's allocation of places will be filled in area championship order by those who have entered online and paid  by  the 13 April 2020 closing date.  
b)  Any unused places will be allocated to those still waiting for confirmed places who have entered and paid by  the 13 April 2020 closing date  on a first come first served basis.
c)   If there are still any unused place, they will be allocated to those who have entered but not yet paid by  the 13 April 2020 closing date  on a first come first served basis.  If they haven't paid within 7 days they will go to the back of the queue.
e) In the event there are still any unused place we will continue to accept further entries until all the places are full - or until the start of practice on race day when we go with less than 48 competitors.






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