Minutes of Meetings and Decisions


BSCRA Council Meeting held at Loughborough on 23 August 2013

Those present K.Gibson, K Gray, P.Skeene, G.Woodward, L.Parsons, C.Frost -     apologies for absence N.Thrower

2014 Nationals

It has now been agreed with Ant Hawkes that the 2014 1/32 and 1/24 Nationals will be at Richardson's, Bracklesham Bay.  Bids will be invited for the 2014 Club Team Championship / Production Challenge meeting.

Track Storage and Transport

The Council passed a vote of thanks to Gavin Wills for the track storage and transport since 2011.

Track storage had already been arranged at Loughborough between the 1/24 Nationals and the Team Race on 21/22 September 2013.  Ant agreed to arrange storage space for the track at Bracklesham Bay from 22 September 2013.

The use of a trailer for track transport and storage for a new track was discussed (see below).  It was agreed that in Sept. 2013, the track will be transported by hired van

New Nationals Track

It was agreed to proceed with a new track with a target completion date of Summer 2014.  It was agreed that Lee Parsons would be the track builder.   The design work has commenced.

It was thought storing the track in a trailer had a lot to commend it.  Ideally the trailer would be stored under cover, and we'd very much welcome any offers of a suitable location.  Ideally the trailer would always be towed by a member's vehicle rather than having to hire a tow vehicle.  If necessary, it was considered viable for the association to fund fitting a tow bar to a member's vehicle providing that vehicle would be used for towing the BSCRA trailer a reasonable number of times.

The existing "Monster"  track will be not be needed by BSCRA once the new track is ready.  It was agreed that any bids for the "Monster"  track will be welcome.  Anybody who is interested should contact Chris Frost for full details of the track.

Membership Fees

The council accepted the treasurers recommendations for 2014 fees.

UK Slot Car Festival

The 2014 UK Slot Car Festival is a 2 day event on Saturday May17 and Sunday  May 18th.    It was agreed that a budget needs to be established by the end of October 2013 at which point the Council will consider it in terms of value for money  and  decide if we will go ahead with a stand at the 2014 event.  The new PRO, Graeme Stephenson is now working on this.

New Production Chassis

This is work in progress with Lee. Possibly this could be ready by the time of the 2014 UK Slot Car Festival, which might be a good place to launch it.

Slot Stox

It seems James Cleave is working on this, there will be further discussion between Keith Gibson and James.

Racing Year

The transition to the new January - December racing year is nearly complete.

It has always been known there was a possible difficulty with the new calendar in that a few Area meeting will be held in the autumn before the formal introduction of any rule changes on 1st January.  Some current Council members are concerned this may be a problem than originally thought.

There were two conflicting requirements for the rule change timetable.

1 Taking the vote as near as possible  to the introduction date, so the maximum experience on the need for any changes is available and there is minimum delay between announcing the new rule and introducing it.

2 Taking the vote well in advance of the introduction date, so members have plenty of time to make any necessary changes to their cars in advice of being required to change.

This will be included in the questionnaire to members which Keith is preparing.

The council briefly discussed making the 1/24 Nats the final and most important event of the 1/24 season.   It would be worth considering giving extra BOC points for this meeting.
If we do that, it rather leads us to say the new season starts after the 1/24 Nats.  Take that with the 1/32 Nats being the start of the 1/32 season, and it makes sense to change the "racing year " back to the summer and move the 1/32 BOC, membership payments and magazine subscription period to the same time.  This needs further discussion before a decision can be made.

Additional Meetings

It was thought additional meetings might usefully be held, for example an open forum so members can put questions to council members.  This idea will be included in the questionnaire to members which Keith is preparing.    The constitution doesn't need to change to allow this, or any other additional meetings.  It was agreed that it was best to arrange the additional meetings, find out how useful they prove and the Council will then decide which meetings should become regular.  

Constitution

There is an outstanding action to clarify the constitution to clarify the "2 year freeze" on car standards.  It is envisaged these changes will be put to the members in an electronic postal vote.  As we are at a point in the 2 year cycle where no immediate action is needed, it was decided the vote can be postponed until some issues with the racing year dates are resolved (see above) so all the constitutional changes can be voted on at the same time.

Chris Frost

BSCRA Secretary, September 2013




BSCRA Annual Council Meeting – 3 March 2013 at Luton


Those present - James Cleave (Chairman), Nick Thrower (Treasurer), Ian Fisher (Competitions Secretary), Kev Gray (Membership Secretary), Pat Skene (SCRN Editor), Keith Gibson (PRO), Steve Sargent (Development Officer), Chris Frost (Secretary)



Rule Changes - Please see separate section giving the results of the voting.  Around 2/3 of the members have voted on this rather long list of proposals, thank you to the Area coordinators for gathering votes.


The process for rule proposals was discussed (due to the number of proposals that were not very clear). Some members have said they would like more explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of each rule change proposal.   A modified process will be developed for the next round of proposals. It was suggested that this include asking proposers add an explanation to their proposals, but it is expected BSCRA officials will have to write a balanced view of the advantages and disadvantages. There is a risk that presenting both the advantages and disadvantages will  prove too contentious, but it was considered the best way to find out is to try it.


There have been  some concerns over lane change procedure at recent meetings   It was decided to adopt the following rule for this season's  1/24 BOC,

During lane changes,  drivers and/or their pit crew may straighten the braids on the car, push  in body pins straighten the body and change the lane sticker. No other work on the car is permitted during lane changes.


The council agreed that better records need to be kept of product submissions and a new way of recording this was agreed.


The council agreed that decisions made by the CRC, after any protest referred to them, will be published.


A new style of handbook is in the process of being produced. Until then, the version on the official BSCRA website will be kept up to date. and all other versions will be removed.


Constitutional changes - The membership have voted in a change to the voting year.  This will require many changes to the constitution.

It has proved convenient to hold area AGMs combined with the area meetings most areas are holding in February.  Most areas don't start  their areas meetings by October, so an Area AGM for voting on rule changes will be much less convenient.  It is recommended we try electronic voting on the next round of rule changes, and reviewing membership feedback before deciding if it will be adopted permanently. The constitution will need some amendments to make it clear this is permissible.

Some conflicts within the constitution concerning rule change procedures have become evident, it is proposed to correct these.  

The revised constitution is being written and will be offered to the membership for approval by an electronic postal vote.


Driver Ranking and Grading - The BSCRA driver ranking is being regularly updated by Gavin Wills and published on the BSCRA web site.


Some Area Coordinators have suggested changes to the driver grading system. It is certainly worth considering changes as current intermediate grade doesn't seem to be working well, and some of the criteria might be simplified. A firm proposal would be welcome for the next round of rule changes.


BSCRA Officials -

In addition to the existing officials, three nominations were received for council post.

Ian Fisher and Steve Sargent  decided not to stand for re-election.  

Graham Woodward was appointed Competition Secretary / Competition Rules Committee Chairman unopposed.

Lee Parsons was appointed Development Officer / Development Committee Chairman unopposed.  

Ian has agreed to continue as a member of the Competition Rules Committee.

Steve has agreed to continue as BOC Co-ordinator and will continue to organise the Association's calendar.

The Council thanked Ian and Steve for their excellent service on the Council.

James Cleave and Keith Gibson were nominated for Chairman.  James continues as chairman while they discuss the roles after the meeting and decide if an election will be needed.


It is important that members advise the membership secretary of their current e mail address.  If we haven’t got your current e mail address you will miss out on important communications, so please keep Kev up to date with your e mail address.



Treasurer’s report – In 2012 we generated a useful contribution to the cost of a new track, the main factors were relatively low costs of running the three 2012 Nationals events and the track transport and storage arrangements - thanks to Ant Hawkes and Gavin Wills.  The target for SCRN costs (including production and distribution costs less advertising income) has been set at 70% of membership fees, in the past year it has turned out at 73%.  The largest item of publicity expenditure has been the UK Slot Car Festival.

On line payment by PayPal has been set up, it is intended to make this available for membership fees and  advanced payment of entry fees for National events.

Membership fees for 2014 will be set later in the year.  We are changing the membership structure to allow families to share a magazine and for full club members to recruit BSCRA members as an Associate that will not get a magazine and would not otherwise be able to afford it (primarily aimed at the young blood we desperately need!). The Treasurer was optimistic we could hold the existing fees at the present levels if the financial position after major race meetings turns out as expected.


Membership Report – membership figures are approximately the same as this time last year - the end of year figure are usually a little higher as people join later in the year.   However, everybody should be trying to increase it further


Public Relations–.   The BSCRA stand at the 2012 UK Slot Car Festival at Gaydon was successful in bringing some new members into clubs.  We are making arrangements for the 2013 UK Slot Car Festival on  13 May.

Facebook was discussed and it was decided to have an official BSCRA page and discussion group. It was also decided to have a page on Facebook dedicated to SCRN publicity.

When posting, BSCRA officials will make it clear when they are posting on behalf of the Association. Officials are of course entitled to a personal opinion, and they will make it clear when they are expressing a personal opinion.


Web Site – The new look web site has been well received.  The web site sponsors were thanked. Please note that the correct URL is http://www.bscra.co.uk, the old fsnet address works at the moment but is likely to be replaced.

Development – Free club brochures is still available for all affiliated clubs and we hope more will take up this offer of help to promote their clubs.  There was very positive feedback from the clubs who took up this offer last year..

The BSCRA will look into a Slot Stox nationals for the many clubs that there are around the country.

The BSCRA will try to further its involvement with the Scalextric 4 Schools competition.


BOC - The change over of 1/32 BOC to the new racing year has gone well. The application process for BOCs has worked out well. We are now in a fortunate position of having considerably more suitable 1/24th venues available and that there will be more need to rotate host venues in the future

The championship will  continue to be for BSCRA members only.  Racers are welcome to join BSCRA on the day.  A levy for non- BSCRA members will be introduced.


SCRN Editor's Report

A new look Magazine has been prepared for 2013. A supplement magazine was discussed with features for new comers/ beginners. A discussion took place regarding a budget for this exercise. If BSCRA don't want to spend additional monies then one of the yearly issues could be set aside for this purpose. Before a decision is made Pat to prepare a budget and contents list for council members to consider.


Pat agreed to coordinate BSCRA related content for the new "SLOT" magazine which will be on newsstands soon.


Areas

The transfer of the North Wales slot car club to Area 2 was agreed.


Nationals Organisation

Arrangements are progressing well for the 3 main Nationals events at St Annes in May and at Loughborough in August and September.  Thank you to Stephen Siddall and Bob Budge for all the hard work.

For the 1/32 Nationals it was agreed that 0.5mm minimum ground clearance was required, and that the existing type of Falcon 7 is approved for production.

It was decided that the heats in F1 and Saloon will not be seeded.  (Seeding was tried in Saloon last year, there has been little feedback from members, we have received slightly more negative than positive comments.)

It is very desirable to hold the Nationals in different parts of the country.  Areas are being invited to bid to host the 2014 Nationals, we would like responses by the end of May 2013.


Members are asked to make sure they know their membership number, this may be used as a car identity number in racing.    


Chris Frost

BSCRA Secretary, March 2013

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