Wild Water Racing Committee meeting minutes 6 Dec 2005.

Present: Apologies:

John Ringwood Willie Irwin

Keith McGuirk Wesley Bourke

Martin McCarthy

Agenda, action points & decisions:

1. Approval of previous minutes

No minutes were available at the meeting, so they are to be approved by email during the coming week.

2. Matters Arising: Information dissemination.

Publishing of minutes – full minutes to be taken, and published on www, subject to approval by committee. If secretary receives no response from other committee members on full minutes as circulated within one week , assumption of approval will be made.

It was noted that the Chairman and Secretary have been granted moderator rights to the WWRnews newsgroup. The means of posting have been changed also; from now on, emails sent to WWRnews by newsgroup members will have to be approved by either the secretary or chairman before they will be released. The homepage for WWRnews has to be edited. The secretary is to organise this.

3. Domestic Calendar

The matter of double header sprints at all sprint events was discussed. Some reference was made to agreements (or otherwise) regarding this issue made by the previous committee. However, there seemed to be some uncertainty regarding the decision made and no minutes documenting the issue are available for the meeting at which this was discussed. In any event, the current committee decided that this issue be looked at afresh.

It was noted that the two sprint races at the recent Aghade event worked well, but it was agreed that sprint events would not be run as double races as a matter of course for the following reasons:

· There is no reason to believe that results would differ between the first sprint race and the second sprint race, held on the same day

· The organisation workload if participant numbers increased could become unmanageable

· Running double sprint races at all sprint events would mean double points automatically accruing to sprint events – therefore diminishing the relative importance of the classic events.

However, it was agreed that a double sprint could work where two suitable contiguous different sections of river could be found.

Team races will be run where appropriate (for example water permitting) and where numbers permit. This will be decided on a race by race basis. Team races could be an ideal way of introducing newcomers to the discipline.

The newly agreed calendar is outlined below:

Date	River	Venue	Event	Information
Jan. 8^th	Inny	Newcastle House Hotel Bridge to Meat Factory (take out at next bridge)	Classic and Team	Alex Stanley: (086) 272 1245 alex@riverstyle.com
Jan 21^st	Avonmore (P)	Avondale	Sprint	WWKC
Jan. 22^nd	Avonmore (P)	Avondale to Meetings (put in at Rathdrum)	Classic	WWKC
Feb. 4^th/5^th	Moy	Foxford	Sprint + Classic	Tadhg MacIntyre: (087) 839 3630 tadhg.macintyre@ucd.ie
Feb. 18th	Aughrim (P)	Aughrim to Yellow Bridge	Classic + Sprint	Contrast Canoe Club
Feb. 19^th	Aughrim (P)	Slalom Course	Sprint	Contrast Canoe Club
March 12^th	Boyne	Stackallen to Slane	Classic + Team	Brendan Devlin

denotes Home International (other races in series are……..)

(P) – suitable for proficient paddlers only. Competitors compete at own risk – not possible to cover river with rescue.

Sprint removed from Inny event BCU circulated calendar. Now Inny is classic and team.

Feb 4^th and 5^th, Moy – subject to Tadhg’s agreement to run the race, a sprint and classic on the Moy. Tadhg has been contacted to see if he is willing to do this.

Feb 18^th Aughrim classic, Feb 19^th Aughrim sprint – not a double header.

This means a total of 7 classic races and 8 sprints during the 2005-2006 season.

The secretary is to contact the organisers listed in the above calendar to ensure they are willing to run the events as listed. The Chairman has contacted Tadhg McIntyre in relation to the running of the Foxford events.

4. Selection Policy

The chairman will draw up the official selection policy for circulation to the committee prior to publication on the website and circulate for approval. Following considerable discussion (and noting a change from initial selection thoughts at the previous meeting), the following was agreed:

Senior Team

The senior team for World Cup and World Championships is to be selected based on the following criteria:

Selection events – Grandtully classic & sprint events 4^th March & Thistlebrig classic event 5^th March 2006. In men’s kayak, women’s kayak, men’s C1 the top three points scoring paddlers are to be offered selection. Points are accumulated on the basis of first three past the post in each of the three selection events. In the case of C2, selection will be at the discretion of the committee, based on performance in the three selection races. Substitution of places, if one of the top three paddlers does not wish to be considered for selection, is subject to committee approval.

Senior paddlers seeking selection, will need to state their travel intentions by 12 noon, on the Sunday 12^th March (Boyne race day).

Junior Selection & Training Development.

The objective or target event for the Junior team is to be the British leg of Home International series, Washburn. Sat 8^th July 2006.

On the Sunday 9^th July, there is the possibility of a water release on the Washburn for further training. Failing this, there may be the option of travelling to the artificial course on the Trent at Nottingham for training.

Selection for the Junior team is to be at the discretion of the committee, based on results at the Avonmore sprint and classic events in January of 2006.

Expenses

In relation to overseas trips for team members – we don’t know what the grant is yet, so no announcement regarding funding of International athletes is to be made until late Jan. This is to be stated in the selection policy to be circulated shortly.

5. Training & Development

Keith McGuirk has highlighted the following key development initiatives for paddlers during the coming year. They are as follows:

· Women’s specific training weekend, Dee Patterson to act as coach. The committee has agreed to pay her expenses for the weekend. This will probably coincide with the Gortin/Mourne training weekend, see below.

· Gortin/Mourne Weekend (March) all paddlers welcome to attend. Groups will be split up, roughly along the following lines: a) faster paddlers doing numerous river runs, b) women being coached by Dee Patterson, c) intermediate paddlers doing river runs, being helped by a former racer (Keith has suggested Eoin Doohan for this task).

· Flatwater coaching day in CPCC in April. Technique coaching by Neil Fleming & stretching by Wesley Bourke.

· In addition to the above, a group training day will be arranged once per month, in May, June, July ideally incorporating river runs – Keith to organise.

6. Matters arising/AOB

· Treasurer: The treasurer was not able to attend the meeting, so his emailed summary (as below) was read out.

Current signatories on cheque = Wes, Keith & Annette

Mandates for changes to cheque signatories have been ordered.

Bank statements were presented at the meeting, in summary, the final portion of the International grant was transferred to WWRC account last week in the amount of 2,000 euros.

This represents the second and final payment of the International grant. The first payment was 2,000 euros. Total grant 4,000 euros.

The treasurer will prepare cheques (as per the agreed distribution) and letters to the competitors entitled to payment and forward them to the Chairman for approval.

The ISC will decide on the International grant sometime in late Jan. The early indications are that we will be unlikely to receive any more than we got last year so expect in the region of 4,000 euros. It will again be made in 2 payments.

· PR Job: To get results into national newspapers (first, second and third for all classes), rather like what happened several years ago. Local newspapers to be contacted in advance of all races in an effort to get coverage of the events and to get results published after event. The chairman is to approach Wesley in relation to this.

The new website launch is to be co-ordinated by Wesley, including purchase of DNS, etc.

· Inventory – Keith to draw up inventory for discussion at next meeting,

· Date for next meeting:

24th Jan 2006. 7.30PM. John’s house, Terenure.