WCA Board Meeting MinutesSunday, August 24, 2003 * Lake Mills, WI * 1pm-3:30 pm |
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Attending Board: Rebecca
Loney(Am. Dairyland), Amy Miller, Scott Grosz (UW), Pat Loney (GDVC),
John Ericcson (Brazen Dropouts), Heidi Mingesz/WCA Technical Director Note: Action items are noted in italics First item of business was to review the Annual Awards dinner planning in terms of work in progress and areas where help is still needed. The dinner is December 6 at the Marquette Annex in Milwaukee, the same location as 2002. Requests of the board and of members were:
Masters Categories The next topic concerned the WCA masters categories and how they were problematic in terms of State Championship events. The issue is that USAC categories for state championship awards are run in 5 year increments and WCA has 10 year increments. Discussion ensued on what it would mean if WCA were to adopt--for State Championship events only--the same categories as USCF. Heidi Mingesz, WCA's Technical Director noted that the adoption of the "true" USAC categories would mean that riders would be eligible to win only their USCF Masters age category. For example, a 39 year old rider who was racing in the 30+ category would not be eligible to win the 30+ State Championship, only the 35-39 category. This rider could still take first place in the race and first place prize money (say, if it were run as a Masters 30/35+), but his state championship would reflect his age group. Additional discussion followed on the Masters 30 category in general. Is 30+ meeting the needs of Wisconsin riders? Wisconsin is unusual in supporting a large 30+ field, but that does not mean it should be changed to follow others. The riders present, many of whom are masters riders, discussed how the Masters categories worked for them and what any changes might mean. There were many comments in favor of keeping the Masters 30+ category as is so the group decided that the WCA membership needed to be polled to get feedback and determine whether the category is meeting the needs of its customers. A rider survey will be prepared by Ed Hickey and other members of the board for the website. The timeline to post the survey, collect and analyze data is the end of October with results being posted on the website. Members willing to review the survey questions and make suggestions: Todd Schmidt, Bill O, Craig Heywood, Scott Grosz, Pat Loney, Jeff Littman, Jerry Pearce, John Ericcson. Otto Wenz asked for some feedback and assistance on the masters categories for the mens races at Superweek. P. Loney, J. Littman, R. Loney will talk to Otto off line. Other riders wishing to provide feedback on this topic may contact Otto directly or send their suggestions to board@wicycling.org. Next topic was the order of races at any particular WCA event. Riders expressed an interest in having WCA provide a guideline for race format so that riders would know approximately where their event would fall on any given schedule. There were two reasons for this: first, it would give riders a general timeframe of knowing, across the board of approximately when their race would be (2nd race of the day, last race of the day). Second, it would allow the categories with the most duplicate riders (riders doing more than one race) to consistently compete in more than one masters race, or a masters and 1/2 event. Example: 40+ race would preceed the 30+ race which would preceed the 1/2 race. The board will follow up on suggestions with some recommendations which will be passed along to promoters for the 2004 season. CycloCross Masters Categories John Ericcson and Jerry Pearce analyzed the start sheets of Cyclocross events in 2002. Due to the very small number of riders in the 45+ category and the very large number of riders in the 35+ category, they felt that one way they could improve the racing experience would be to host a 30/40+ series which would help distribute the numbers and make each race competitive. There was some feedback from riders who would be affected that both supported and didn't support the change. The decision was made, and supported by the WCA board, to allow the promoters to run a 30/40+ events since that is what was advertised. Feedback will continue to be collected as the Cross season nears and is in progress to determine if the change has been accepted or if further work is necessary for the 04 season. Riders who wish to discuss the categories may contact John Ericcson at cx@brazendropouts.com. Website The WCA website was discussed in terms of providing some additonal services to members such as posting race results by race. Chris Vitrano suggested that programs existed that WCA could use to post results quickly and economically. Heidi Mingesz is working on a program that will allow her to transfer race results to the website. She will contact Chris V. if necessary. The board reviewed the advertising rates and determined that some research would be helpful. R. Loney will reseach how rates are set and get back to the board with recommendations. Heidi Mingesz is working on a program that will allow her to transfer race results onto the website. Lastly, the consistency of flyers for races in the WCA series was deemed an area that the board could provide more oversight. The WCA logo was not consistently applied and WCA needs to rebuild its webpage with the logos which was lost in the transition to the new site. Jerry Pearce has the logos and R. Loney will follow up to make sure the logos are posted on the website in the promoter resource page, along with a flyer development checklist. WCA Mission The question was raised of now that WCA is the USCF liaison in Wisconsin, should our mission statement change? Discussion followed and there was some feeling that the mission should stay the same, and others who thougth the mission should be broader. The board will follow up with a recommendation sometime in the third quarter. WCA Series Feedback Discussion on what riders want for 2004 as far as improvements or changes to the Wisconsin Cup Calendar of events. Some things tossed out were:
With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:45. Correction to August 3, 2003 WCA Minutes: Members present discussed whether WCA should increase the rider surcharge and member club fees in 2004. Club dues and surcharges have not been increased in over 9 years, while the cost of providing WCA services has increased yearly. The gap has been closed through fund raising and other income and the question was raised again whether WCA needed to increase it's fees slightly in 2004. Discussed: Current WCA member club dues are $100 annually, consider raising that to $125. The point was made that many clubs were paid the late fee for registering their clubs late so that the $125 had become the norm over the last few years. The board approved the increase to $125. The board will get feedback from member clubs on the topic of rider surcharges at the annual meeting.
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