AGM and 2026 races.

I thought I would add a few words about the AGM to extend the discussion. Most of it was routine and went quite fast and smoothly. Mark volunteered to take over Treasurer duties from Heather.

The bit that I was interested in was the choice of race venues.

The group liked the weekend events with races over two days. Quite a few agreed with my concern about the increase in small very twisty circuits. They’re not great for streamliners or velomobiles. When I started in this over 30 years ago, there were no classes. It was all about the fast stuff. I appreciate that people get a lot of fun from the sub classes and that it includes more people, but we may be losing the top end.
We talked about a number of courses including Lancaster and Preston. There are some issues with the former, but we raced there for many years.

It was remarked that cycling is the new golf and there is a lot of demand for circuits. Some can make more money from other activities (Castle Coombe with car boot sales).

An issue we have is that the Comp Sec has not attended races or meetings for 3 years, so isn’t part of the discussion. It’s not a fun job, but if someone would like to shadow or take over, raise your hand (or message or email).

The club is fairly well-off at present. It can afford not to raise race fees and can pay for some other venues. Some, such as Colchester, are great, but stupidly expensive.

It’s worth mentioning that our club has the most extensive race program of any club in the world. 40% of the membership take part. 10% of the membership are not in the UK so e-membership is doing well. All things to be proud of.