Derek METTERS

DM

Ros HUMPHREY

RH

Peter HEATH

PH

Kelly MORRIS

KM

Graham PICKLES

GP

Alan WEST

AW

Ian ROBERTS

IR

Alan ASHFIELD

AS

Gillian GILYEAD

David BLACKWELL

John WILLIAMS

Gordon COLE

Chris HILL

Graham BECK

86.1.0

MINUTES       (already circulated)

Minutes of the 85^th meeting were amended (one typo) , approved and signed.

86.2.0

MATTERS ARISING

86.2.1

Seeding regulations leaflet

PH: this leaflet is at the moment being updated as part of the Race Manual Update

86.2.2

Ski Racing leaflet

IR: update of this leaflet to be completed when changes to the BCR are officially available.

86.2.3

Squad Policy in plain English

JW produced this useful handout. The cost of printing was paid for by the Eastern Region Ski Association, Norfolk Ski Club as well as by the ESC. This information sheet has now been distributed to all ESC members.

86.2.4

ESC Year book/News Letter

GP reported that the first issue would soon be published. DM apologized that he had not submitted a report on ARC business for publishing. He will do so for the next issue. ESC plans at least 2 or maybe 3 issues a year.

86.2.5

Racing for Skiers with Disability

PH: discussions with Graham Peacock of NHSA (National Handicapped Skiers Association) on how to encourage disabled skiers/racer to compete in ESC run competitions had taken place One suggestion was to adopt the RHC-KREK handicap system. In disabled ski competitions on snow, this system finds the overall race winner by applying an appropriate factor. ESC has a category for skiers with disability in the All England Championships as well as in the Club National races. In those races athletes compete as one group and the numbers have been falling, especially since Mike Hammond’s retirement. ROTP asked to research this with organisations representing disabled athletes and develop an appropriate way of increasing participation.

ESC Board to ask the Coaching Committee how they can help as participation depends on local Coaches within the Clubs to train and encourage disabled athletes to compete. AS reported that the ESC Coaching Committee is at the moment searching for a suitable person to take on the issue of ‘Coaching Skiers with Disability’.

GP reported that ESC would fund one racer with disability to take part in the Olympic trials selection. DM pointed out that ARC has adopted a ‘disabled policy’ within the ARC Statement of Intent which was accepted in June 2000.

86.2.6

Arc’s Finances

GP stated that ARC’s activities were within budget.

86.2.7

The future funding of ESC committees

A number of different models are currently being developed to ensure fair and effective income and expenditure patterns for all committees.

86.2.8

ARC Committee-Members

DM to contact all ARC members, who have not attended 2 or more meetings consecutive, to see if they wish to continue as members of ARC.

86.3.0

REPORTS FROM GROUPS

86.3.1

ROTP

Alan West

ARC thanks Helen Parken for her extensive work for ESC and as ROTP’s coordinator for many years. Even though Helen is leaving ROTP’s committee at the end of the year, ARC hopes that, from time to time, she will be available for special duties so that we can continue to use her experience.

ARC ratified the selection of Alan West as Chairman of ROTP and the membership of ROTP as it stands. DM asked ROTP, when looking for an additional member, to consider a female nomination. At the same time, he asked Club and Regional Committees to nominate a suitable person.

ESC Race officials Database:

ARC asked the Board to make the ESC Database electronically available to ARC, STP, ROTP and the National Seeder (PH) to enable them to do their ESC work. GP reported that at the last Board Meeting this very request was discussed and passed.

DM also asked the Board to make sure that the Data Protection Registration is appropriate and up to date.

ROTP Terms of Reference:

ARC asks ROTP to continue fulfilling all its Terms of References, including 1.2, 1.6 and 1.7. ARC asked ROTP to develop a method of feedback for Chiefs of Championships to complete after the event, and to develop a job description for the Chief of Championships.

Race Registration for the day:

ROTP confirmed and ARC ratified ‘Registration for the day’ for Club National Races in 2001.

Club Registration:

ARC asked the Board to develop a process that would ensure that individuals who are not current Club members do not use Club name and initials on the database.

Where a racer nominates two clubs, the ESC seed list will show a Dry slope or Home Club first and Snow or Alpine club second, The BASS list will reverse this. National seeder to liaise.

Inter Regional Race:

STP/ROTP to assess seeding options for the inter-regional, for 2001 the present arrangements will remain.

Race Calendar 2001

The venues for the 5 Grand Prix (Chatham, Rossendale, Hemel, Swadlincote and Wycombe) the Inter Regional (Sunderland), The All England Championships (Norfolk) and the British Championships (Sheffield) are in place. 10 Clubs have asked to run Club National Races, all using homologated slopes to be accepted. (Bromley, Rossendale, Hemel, Gloucester, Swadlincote, Pendle, Southampton, Sunderland and Wycombe).

A request had been received from Wycombe Summit for ESC to calendar and seed a European Championships on 9/10 June 2001 and World Championships on 29/30 September 2001 at Wycombe. (Snowsport Wales is staging the European Championships 14/15 July 2001 at Llandudno and Belgium has shown interest for 2002). Unfortunately, an earlier request had not been received by ROTP. AW had e-mailed Wycombe Summit with the proposed calendar. FIS has taken a stand on the World Championship and neither BSSF or any of the Home Nations can recognize a World Championships as proposed. Equally, ARC will not recognise a European Championships to be held at Wycombe Summit in 2001 as it is counter to the original agreement that if there were other countries willing to host it the Championships would move venue on a 2 year cycle.

Soft Ski Database:

ARC agreed that to ensure consistency of results and speed of processing, the program SKI must be used for all ESC dry slope and snow races from January 2001. At least one training course will be offered in spring 2001. A limited version of the programme is available to download and ESC will provide 2 dongles for race organizers, at no additional charge.

Masters Category:

ARC had experimented with ways on encouraging masters races in 2000. JW’s e-mail and Mike Creasor’s letter were circulated. After a lively discussion ARC decided to consult on a proposal for the existing Senior to be split into four categories in Club National Races and the All England Championships (ages 21 - 30 = Senior, 31 – 40  = Masters 1, 41 – 50 = Masters 2 and over 50 = Masters 3). For the English Alpine and Grand Prix series Seniors would be an open category for all over 20

Moguls competitions at Club National Competitions:

DM reported of request by the Freestyle Committee to run a Moguls competition on the same day as a Club National Race on appropriate slopes. The initial competition could take place while the Jury prepares the 1^st and 2^nd run protocol (max. 1 hour) and the final after 3^rd run. The organization of these events is up to the Freestyle Committee. ARC recommended this to clubs organizing club nationals.

Race Manual

Draft of the Race Manual available from dmanns@btclick.com   Update was sent to DM. ARC appreciates the incredible amount of work David Manns has done in producing the new Race Manual. AW hopes to have the final version available early in the New Year.

Hard Copies will be available at cost from the ESC office and as a free download from the internet. All changes of the Race Manual in the future will be clearly marked and easily identified. The Website will always have the definitive version.

86.3.2

STP

Ian Roberts

IR attended the TD Forum in Scotland which was very good weekend. The Policy committee meeting on Friday was very positive. There was a much greater willingness to allocate British TD assignments to Member Group TDs. IR has passed his written TD candidature with flying colours.

STP’s English TD forum will take place at Gloucester on December 10^th 2000. There are some potential candidates identified to become English TDs. For the first time, Race Organisers are invited. Wales and Ireland have also shown some interest in taking part.

86.3.3

BSSF

PH represented ESC at BSSF’s AGM on Monday, 6 November 2000. The following were elected: Tim Alcott – Chairman, Peter Clarke – Vice Chairman, Alan Hartley – Finance Director, Ewen MacLean – Disciplines Director, Jennifer Greenbury – Commercial Director, Cliff Webb – Events Director. John O’Grady – Snow Boarding. Ewen MacLean to chair the Alpine Committee.

86.3.4

ESC BOARD

Graham Pickles

GP had nothing to report.

86.3.

BRITISH ARTIFICIAL SKI SLOPE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Went well. RH on behalf of the Organising Committee, ARC and ESC thanked Andrew Lockerbie and the staff at Wycombe Summit for their superb help and support before and during the race weekend and the willingness to change arrangements because of the fuel problems on the original date. Thanks also to Peter Willis who did an excellent job as CoC and to AW for his efforts at finding officials for the weekend. KM pointed out that the GS was a very good, rhythmical course but suggested the use of GS banners would improve it in the future.

86.5.0

RISK ASSESSMENT - HELMETS

DB action ongoing

86.6.0

ALPINE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2001

Will be held in the Kaunertal, Austria. The Organising Committee had not yet been able to visit the resort but DM and RH would aim to visit in January.

86.7.0

SQUAD MATTERS

86.7.1

2000 progress report + Programme for rest of the season

CH, KM and GG have now been asked to develop and submit the future programme to DM.

86.7.2

Squad management

Gillian Gilyead has been offered the position of Squad Administrator.

86.7.3

Artificial Slope squad - Action ongoing

86.7.4

Squad Camps

CH had produced a written report on the Summer Camp and KM produced a written report for the October Camp.

KM reported on both Camps. In the Alps the camps had gone well, a mentoring system was being developed and team spirit is very good.

86.7.5

Fitness sessions

1^st session is planned for 12 November 2000 at Swadlincote together with a Photo Session for the Clothing Sponsor.

86.7.6

Alpine Squad Selection Criteria for 2001/2002

DM asked committee members to look through this year’s selection criteria and come back to him (e-mail or fax) within the next 7 – 10 days with any recommendation for changes.

86.8.0

OCCASIONAL RACING BULLETIN

The need for this was discussed as a new manual was being published. ROTP/STP requested to publish in March each year. However, if the ESC Newsletter is published in April i.e. before the dry slope season starts, this could be used. In any case it will be published on the internet. 

86.9.0

BRITISH/FIS Competition Rules, seeding and other matters, if not dealt with elsewhere.

The FIS competition rules 2000 (ICR) with 2 precisions have now been published. The booklet is available for £ 9 from the BSSF office. If there are significant changes STP/IR will highlight these and we include them in the English Alpine Acceptance Bulletin.

The BCR has been replaced by the FIS Competition Rule Book for snow racing. There are British Precisions, which will apply to all non FIS snow races and various British championships races. For example, the vertical drops in slalom for Children and Juniors were changed so that Club Races can take place. Children I can now have two runs for the Giant Slalom.

David Parsons and IR updated the British Artificial Slope Championship Rules during the TD Forum. PH has found some anomalies, which he will take up with Susie Berry.

There is a recommendation that Children 1 should use skis of a minimum length of 130 cm with a radius of not less than 14 metres and that length is measured from tip to tail along the base of the ski. Children 2 should use skis of a minimum length of 130 cm with a radius of not less than 17 meters. These recommendations will become rules for the 2002/2003 Winter Season.

The TD Forum have adopted the FIS penalty calculations to limit the maximum value of penalties and reduce the number of races which cannot be seeded due to insufficient seeded finishers. STP will look into these technical issues for dry slope skiing.

86.10.0

PROGRESS ON FOUR YEAR PLAN

Written summary was circulated

Goal B

AW has now collected baseline date for the last 2 years

Goal C:

There have been some changes as only 2 racers signed up for a full time programme.

Goal D

More or less as planned.

2 of the 3 identified as candidate British TDs had to withdraw due to family circumstances.

Goal C/E

As planned - STP are undertaking a feasibility study of running the English Alpine Championships as FIS races. There are both practical issues and issues of policy to be resolved.

86.11.0

DATES FOR 2000/2001 ARC MEETINGS

Jan, 27, 2001

March, 24, 2001

May 5, 2001

July 7, 2001

86.12.0

AOB

DM is asking the Board to identity 3 or 4 dates (November/January or February/May or June) in the year when combined mailings can go out from the ESC office. The board wants the bulk of the information to be published in ESC News. The dates for inclusion in the next publication of any ESC News must be made public as soon as possible so that all Committees can meet dead lines.