Dear Friends

SCB NEWS

MOTORCYCLING NSW GENERAL MEETING, BLACKTOWN 24 August 2017

The meeting opened at 7.50pm, with MNSW President Tim Sanford in the Chair. All members of the Board of Directors were present.

After the meeting was opened, the CEO Dave Cooke introduced Ms Amy Knop, who has recently been promoted to MNSW Administration Manager.

Amy will be attending MNSW delegates meetings as minute secretary, allowing more time for Dave to connect with delegates. This will also allow Amy to become familiar with the meeting procedures, and learn some of the delegate's problems first hand.

Amy Knop, MNSW Admin Manager

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MNSW CONSTITUTION During the reading of the minutes the President discussed the proposed new MNSW constitution.

Under the MA "Equal Partners Alliance Agreement" (which is still being finalised, but all States have agreed to sign), the general proposal is that MA will prepare it's constitution, and the LCBs will use that as a basis for developing theirs. The MA constitution will include a new MA funding model.

NCRR delegate Dave Elliott asked if the new MA constitution will include parts of the former MA "Unity" plan, which included commandeering assets of the LCB's to ease MA's financial problems. President Tim Sanford assured members that that will only happen over his dead body.

He did mention that MA was planning to employ two additional staff, probably part time initially. One would be a lawyer and the other an IT specialist. They would be funded by the Alliance (30%), MA (20%), and MAIL (50%). MAIL, (the MA insurance subsidiary) needs constant legal advice to review claims and prepare documents, and is presently using external advice. As Tim says, defending a claim which is later withdrawn can still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. *****************

NOWRA MOTOPLEX

During discussion of the financial report, the President announced that MNSW had to make emergency repairs to the dam wall at their MX circuit at Nowra, costing $30,000. This occurred before a major race meeting and had to be repaired immediately, as this is the only water source on the site. Control of this circuit will be returned to the Nowra club soon, in accordance with the agreement that if the road race circuit did not proceed, it would be returned to the original owners.

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NOWRA ROAD RACE CIRCUIT

The CEO informed the meeting that a group of Nowra business men and racing enthusiasts tentatively named the Nowra Motor Sports Action Committee was interested in taking over the road race circuit Development Application recently abandoned by MNSW. The Board has agreed to give the group access to the MNSW documents for the previous DA on the understanding that should their application be successful there should be some compensation for MNSW's expenditure. MNSW lost at least $850,000 on its unsuccessful application.

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SPORT COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The Board has approved the appointment of Marcus DeCaux to the Historic Road Race Committee, and Sharon Millard to the Road Race Committee.

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EASTER CREEK KART CIRCUIT The CEO discussed the use of the venue for junior road racing and super-moto. (There are 24 kart circuit variations at the venue, with two previously licenced for junior motor cycle road racing, with one of those used in reverse direction for super-moto). Negotiations are continuing with the owners and ARDC over the re-licencing.

Also on the Eastern Creek Kart topic, MNSW is negotiating with the proponent of an Indoor MX circuit at that venue. No details were given, but they are prepared to co-operate with MNSW and use MAIL insurance.

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SPORTS COMMITTEES There was a discussion on the forming of the MNSW Sports Committees. Under the present system, nominations are called, the candidates supply a resume of their qualifications, ballot papers are prepared and sent to clubs for their consideration, along with the ballot papers for Directors. The returned ballot papers are counted by the scrutineers and the results announced at the Annual General Meeting. Some clubs which have no interest in particular forms of our sport leave some ballot papers blank, filling out only those they relate to. Unfortunately others fill in all papers, mostly with a donkey vote, starting at the top and continuing until they have the required number.

This has led to some serious anomalies and in some cases led to unworkable committees. It is suggested that in the new constitution, the election of Sport Committee members be replaced by appointment by the Board. Nominations would be called for as now, but the Board would review the applications using their combined knowledge to choose the most competent members for the committees.

Think about it. Would you like your branch of the sport controlled by candidates elected by the chance of position on a ballot paper, or by a careful review of their qualifications?

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FEE STRUCTURES Readers may remember that in February this year MA raised various fees and MNSW, in an attempt to recover the increases, raised charges to clubs. Not surprisingly there were loud protests from clubs, many of which had already prepared their budgets on the known rates. To protect the clubs from the unexpected increases, MNSW decided to revert to last year's fees and absorb the increases. Recently we were informed that the number of licence holders is down, and they are riding at fewer events, consequently some fees will have to rise in 2018. The Rider Levy is expected to rise by $1.00.

Details will be announced next month, to give clubs plenty of notice of the increases.