Alpine Racing Committee Minutes of the 82nd ARC meeting held on Saturday, 27th November 1999 at Swadlincote Ski Centre PRESENT: Graham BECK GB Chris HILL CH Gordon COLE GC Ros HUMPHREY RH Gillian GILYEAD GG Derek METTERS DM Peter HEATH PH John WILLIAMS JW APOLOGIES David BLACKWELL DB Ian ROBERTS IR Kelly MORRIS KM 10.00h - 10.30h ARRIVAL, COFFEE, READING TIME 81.1.0 MINUTES minutes of the 81st meeting were approved and signed. 82.2.0 MATTERS ARISING 79.3.0 Declaration of Interest: Gordon Cole promised to submit his copy the same day as he receives the papers from the ESC office. 81.3.3 Safety Helmets: HSC have not yet replied to PH letter. ROTP and the feeling of some of the members around the table was that ARC recommends to all racers to wear helmets rather than to make it obligatory to wear some kind of head protection for all (not for children only). The ICR, which were created for snow races only, require Children to wear helmets for GS and for all for speed events and not at all for Slalom. On plastic, we only race Slalom. It must be up to the racers/parents/clubs and trainers to insist of wearing protective head gear. ARC is concerned about any injury to the skull and the frontal area of the head. ESC to carry out a risk assessment over the next 12 months before deciding on ESC's position. Any feed back from the individual coaches/clubs/parents/individuals will be welcome. To be discussed again at next meeting. Racing Software PH reported that the French Firm no longer provides the DOS version but have changed over to a Window version. Price of new copy of the programme is FFR 2000. To upgrade from DOS to windows is FFR 1000. PH has updated the BSSF dongle and Alan West to do the same for the ESC dongle. PH to run a day course before the Summer on the use of the software as well as create a written guide on this subject. Date to be confirmed at the next meeting. PH/DM Slalom poles: ROTP to ask all slopes who will run a race only to use slalom poles in perfect order. TD's will be asked to monitor this closely. CH wants to move to 19 mm slalom poles (especially for children) ROTP 82.3.0 REPORTS FROM GROUPS ROTP Gordon Cole 82.3.1 Race officials Training Weekend: was very successful - 28 participants. Venue was excellent. Feed-back-sheets from participants showed how much they enjoyed it. 82.3.2 ROTP meeting: 17.10.1999 ROTP confirmed * the venue for the British Artificial Championships to be High Wycombe. * All Qualifying Races from now on will include a Masters Race. Organisers to produce 1st place medals for the 3 Masters Categories (male and female). * Race Pack should only include 1 copy of all paperwork used for the Organisers to re-produce/photo copy. * Race Entry Fees for Qualifying Races will be set by the Organisers (min. £8.00 - max. £ 13.50). * Grand Prix entry fee = £ 13.50. * Qualifying Races will from now on be called: Club National Races. * ROTP to ask ESC office to produce and circulate the 'late entry form' for the Qualifying Races in time. * All Organisers of Club National races have to pay the ESC fee of £260.00 before the venue can be put onto the Race Calendar. * Boys & Girls races: ROTP will make sure that the rule 'Boys & Girls racers can only take part in 3 Boys & Girls races plus the All England Championships' is adhered to by the racers. ROTP will monitor all participation. Also, only Boys & Girls who have at least taken part in one Boys & Girls races are eligible to take part in the All England Championships. However, an explanation should be made to the racers/parents. ROTP should draft the wording and circulate to ARC members before publishing. 82.3.3 2000 race calendar: Is well in hand and will be distributed before Christmas, subject to agreement on the European Championship. 82.3.4 Alpine Championships 2000: Venue is still not found for the dates in question. Wengen, Switzerland and maybe Innerkrems, Austria are interested. It could be that no Super-G can be run in either of those resorts. ARC suggests that we still run 6 races + 1 or 2 Minis races. 1 Slalom and 1 GS for Children and 1 Slalom and 1 GS for Juniors/Seniors (the 4 Championship Races) plus 1 Slalom and 1 GS for Children/Juniors. If a suitable venue is not found by the Prize Giving Ceremony for the BARSC races 2000, the 3rd English Alpine Championships 2000 will have to be cancelled. 82.3.5 European Championships 2000: L&SERA and Wales both want to run the race weekend, a group chaired by Susie Berry will arbitrate and help identify a framework for progress. As the original agreement had anticipated that this event would move from nation to nation ARC agreed to support Wales in this matter. 82.3.6 The Club National (Qualifying) Race to be held at Rossendale Ski Centre was to be run by Sharks/Lions because Rossendale SC had not applied to run a race in 2000. STP REPORT of Ian Robert Circulated 82.3.7 British TD Forum 1999: The TD forum has determined that all member group championships should have an externally appointed TD. ESC does not agree with this because it limits the extent to which member groups can train and give experience to their officials. ESC are happy to invite a championship TD from outside ESC but feel it important that they appoint individual race TD from appropriate officials. Sue McGregor Ogden successfully sat her British TD exam. PAM BOULTON has resigned from STP. ARC thanks her for her outstanding work in English Skiing over such a long time. BSSF: all available reports are readily available on the internet 82.3.8 ESC BOARD Graham Beck 82.3.9 Financial report 82.4.0 COMMUNICATION 82.4.1 ESC Website 82.4.2 Year Book 82.4.3 Seedlists 82.5.0 ESSKIA Gillian Gilyead to be discussed at the next meeting 82.6.0 DUKE OF EDINBURGH'S AWARD Derek Metters produced an updated paper for the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. This paper will be submitted as the proposal from ARC. DM will contact all ARC members if changes are requested by the Duke of Edinburgh committee. 82.7.0 BRITISH/FIS COMPETITION RULES 82.8.0 4 YEAR PLAN Graham Beck not discussed 82.9.0 ALPINE SYMPOSIUM 5th February 2000, 10.30h -15.00h at Cannock. Invitations have been circulated to all ESC members. 82.10.0 COACHES ISSUES 82.10.1 Performance Coaching 82.10.2 Report on Coaches Panel 82.10.3 Way forward 82.11.0 SQUAD MATTERS Derek Metters papers circulated 82.11.1 1999/2000 progress report 82.11.2 Rest of the Season programme 82.11.3 Seniors in English National Squad: This issue was discussed thoroughly. Exceptionally talented Seniors are allowed into ESC Squads. As member of a recognised squad, exceptional seniors, not part of the British Team, would have priority treatment when entering into FIS races i.e. giving them a chance to improve their FIS points and chance of being selected into the British Team. On the other hand, they will not take away resources from younger racers with potential. Training with the National Squad can also be available to those Seniors but they have to comply to the rules of all participants. For this Season, Robert Brown (Senior) will be invited to become member of this year's English National Squad - however the Juniors in the English National Squad will still have priority over Robert when entering into FIS races. A policy on priority entries will be determined 82.11.4 ARC's objections: updated papers on ARC's policy was circulated by e-mail to all ARC members. This paper was discussed at length. CH, as Squad Coach, is asked to be the official ARC representative on the Coaches Technical Panel. ARC needs at all time to have a representative on the Coaches Technical Panel in order to assure that the performance side of coaching is not neglected. DM to ask Alan Ashfield to join ARC as representative of the Coaches Technical Panel. At the same time, ARC should also work closely with the Schools Panel. 82.11.5 Selection Policy 2000/2001: updated papers were circulated by e-mail to all ARC members. Some feedback from various groups were taken into account when DM updated the paper. This paper was discussed at length. Names for the English Squads were decided on: English National Squad A English National Squad B and English Artificial Squad. ESC will support any racer who is de-selected from any British Squad and is still of the ESC considered standard to create continuity. All athletes accepting a place in any Squad will be required to sign a contract which will include the code of conduct. They must agree to follow a programme negotiated with the National Coach. English Squad entries to FIS races will be directed through the ESC office to allow for co-ordination of FIS race entries and ensure that squad members receive priority over non-squad members. If a racer cannot agree to follow an appropriate programme, he/she will be offered "English National Squad Standard" status but this will not carry priority entry or any negotiated sponsorship. English National A Squad members must normally follow a programme with the National Coach and ESC should aim to reinstate an alpine base to facilitate this. This Alpine Base could be used at holiday times by the English National B Squad and their Coaches. English National B Squad members will be allowed to train with their local Club or Region as long as they agree their programme with the National Coach and take part at some compulsory training sessions/days/week. (Taking Alan Ashfield's SKIP programme into account). The meeting felt that children should not normally be considered for either the English National A or B Squad. Members felt that the most appropariate place to the development of Children was in clubs and regions. DM to update his paper taking today's discussions into account. 82.12.0 DRAFT SUGGESTED DATES FOR THE 1999/2000 MEETINGS 22nd January 2000 18th March 2000 13th May 2000 82.13.0 AOB The meeting closed at 16.00h Kings Langley, 19/12/1999