The President's Annual Report
A transcript of the President’s annual report for year ending 2019 as presented at the AGM:
Welcome, thank you for attending this meeting tonight. I will now report on the club’s and committee’s activities during the past season.
Looking back over the year I think we can be pleased with the progress that we’ve made. Members continue to have a strong representation in most of the main cycling disciplines both on and off road. The club’s own events calendar is now well established with events running across most disciplines. I think this is reflective of how healthy the club is. All of these events have been organised very professionally and have been well attended by both our own members and those from other clubs. The past year has seen three open time trial events one of which was cancelled due to the weather, an evening 10 series, a road race, circuit races, a Cyclocross race, and 3 Audax events, more of which later.
The club’s membership continues to be strong, the club had 315 members at the close of the club’s financial year at the end of November two down on 2018. Our junior section takes up just over a 1/4 of our total membership. Female membership stands at 60, many of whom are juniors. This bodes well for the future of this club. Female membership has been growing steadily over the past few years and a commitment remains to try and increase female membership within the club.
The committee met on ten occasions through the year, most committee meetings were attended by enough committee members to allow business to take place although it was apparent that only half of those committee members were regularly present at meetings and this put additional strain on those present to get the work done. At committee, there were two decisions made to change either the wording or phrases within the constitution or rules. This is regarding the cost of membership and the maximum allowable number of members allowed to represent at committee as per the club’s constitution. A discussion regarding this will be held shortly.
A number of topics and issues were dealt with by committee members over the past year as follows:
The committee launched its membership questionnaire as promised and at the beginning of the year the returned data was extrapolated. This information being used in part to determine both current issues within the club and in part the future direction of the club.
The committee resolved to improve the club’s publicity material and professionally consulted on a number of design outcomes. As a result, the club has branded Gazebos, banners, pennant flags and stickers as well as downloadable design work relating to the administration of the club such as letter headings and business cards. The design and production of these items was costly but in the opinion of the committee very much needed.
As part of the drive for better publicity and easier communication between the club and its membership the committee had pursued the possibility of developing a quarterly newsletter, ultimately this deemed itself unfeasible in terms of the hours needed to collate material and in terms of the cost of its publishing especially in light of us establishing a news feed directly to member’s inboxes.
Once again the club offered bursaries to its members five applicants were made and four were successful with Annabel Ramsay, Beth Jackson, Daniel Armstrong from the Rockets using the money to cover fees for national events whilst Lucy asked for money to support a Women’s team for the National Time Trial Championship. Unfortunately Lucy had to withdraw her application. Hopefully she will resubmit for this year’s event. The club will again offer the bursary scheme in 2020 thanks in part to the generous donation from the family of Tom Graham who has recently rejoined the club.
With regard to a club house the situation remains similar to last year. We have been in sporadic contact with Leicester Race Walking Club and they are still awaiting a report from their insurers regarding future limits on use or even whether it should be demolished. It effectively remains unusable for meetings and events although we still use it for storage and can access equipment from it. We are trying to foster closer links with New College where the Rockets currently reside. We have identified accommodation there which we could use and I have been in contact with New College regarding this which has proved to be a frustrating task so far. Our main concern is further storage this may mean the purchase of further containers and the club leasing rooms on an as you use basis. On behalf of BC, the City Council and New college there is still a desire to fund and build accommodation relating to the cycling track and the club would be party to this and have the opportunity to lease a part of it should that building come to fruition.
With the help of the City Council the club have invested in a film that highlights a number of successful elements relating to the club, including the Rockets, women’s cycling and the club runs. The film was produced by Keith Allott who is a professional film maker. The committee hope that this will form a useful promotional tool as well as being of interest archivally in the future.
The club repaired the LCA roller racing kit last year with a view to it being used at events, members of the committee have been sourcing bikes and frames to go with them, there is a commitment to try and get this off the ground at some point, although that will depend on volunteers coming forward to set up and run events.
Cub runs, the mainstay of club activity have, in recent weeks suffered from some issues and complaints, there have been reports of selfish riding by a small number our members. The committee will endeavour to ensure that the riding culture within the club changes for the better on our club runs.
2019 Event reports
Firstly, I’d like to thank all of the organisers for the events that they’ve run over the past year and all of the volunteers who have helped to make these events happen.
We have had around 75 individual members volunteer their time at our events but this still only represents about a third of our total senior membership and so we still have a little way to go to persuade others to take part.
We have been making inroads into making volunteering for events a simple process but we still have major events where filling the volunteer spaces required in good time is an ongoing battle and very stressful for the organisers I believe that this issue is having a detrimental effect on the willingness of our members to continue in agreeing to undertake the organisation of some of our major events. Volunteering is an issue that the committee will continue to try to tackle in 2020. The committee also hope to put in place coordinators to facilitate a more cohesive and supported approach to organising our events.
Audax
Rutland and Beyond – This 100km audax took place in early February from Keyham village hall, a change of venue since 2018, the venue change being a result of us no longer being able to use Haynes Road, numbers were down on previous years and this is probably attributable to Welland Valley CC holding their reliability ride on the same day, unfortunately there were some issues related to parking and access for villagers but these were unforeseeable at the time and this years incarnation will be run from Thurnby instead. The event was as always excellently run by Kim Suffolk who unfortunately has now stepped down from his role in organising this ride. I’d like to thank Kim for the effort he’s put in over the years. This year’s event is still open please visit AUK to enter.
Another Slice of Rutland made another appearance on the calendar. A route that takes in Lincolnshire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. 63 riders started from Oadby Youth Centre for the start. There was a good showing of LFCC riders as well as riders from across the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Essex. 56 riders made it back to the start. The ride is again being organised by Steve Orchard and is up on the AUK calendar if you wish to enter.
The Leicester Triangle 200km was also run out of Oadby youth centre, there were just over 30 entries with 22 starters, all finished, one making full value of the time at his disposal.
Time Trials
Open 25TT was due to take place on the A25/37 course but unfortunately the event had to be cancelled due to the weather.
Open 50TT was run on the A50/13 course on the 30th of June in slightly cold windy conditions. The event was won by Matt Bottrill in 1.42:47. Participation by LFCC riders was scant with only Sarah Soden participating. Her time was 2.31:29. Thanks to Dan Gadsby for organising.
Open 10TT was run on the A10/13 course and was won by David Mead in a time of 19.38. The fastest LFCC rider was Kenny Cliffe with a time of 21.42. There were 59 starters out of 70. Thanks go to Thomas Key for organising.
Evening 10s ran 6 events in 2019 but only 4 ran due to calls on the weather which in both cases proved to be premature. Average rider numbers were around 20 with John Powell winning the Men’s category and Lucy Sturgess winning the Women’s. It is hoped that the club will adopt different, possibly new courses for 2020 as well as maintaining the current course. This will mean that the championship will be split into two events on three different courses.
Road Race
The road race was once again run under the umbrella of the EMRRL, and again it was run as a national B event so open to E,1,2,3 categories. The race was won by Charles Page. Wayne Henderson did a fantastic job of organising again last year but has unfortunately stepped down from organising which leaves this year’s race in doubt. Wayne was also instrumental in running the circuit races on New College track and again these races remain without an organiser.
Cyclocross
Superbly organised by Andreas Quansah in his first year with mentoring from Alan Bontoft and an army of helpers. with an excellent turnout and representation in every category from LFCC. Thanks to Andreas for organising.