From: Joe Kopena @ Drexel Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2005 9:51 PM Subject: [ECCC]: Meeting Notes Corey has a more official version, but I thought I'd share some of my notes from the meeting. The basic agenda followed the lists Mark put out the last couple weeks, this email just recaps some results. For informational items like scholarships & training camps you'll have to dig up those messages or talk to Mark. Administrata - People interested in being part of a leadership board and volunteering to take a more active part in directing and running the ECCC should get in touch with Mark. - Again, Mark's willing to reimburse people who get officials' licenses. As far as I can tell, this entails attending a clinic & taking an open-book exam. The next closest clinic seems to be Jan 28 in Charlotte, NC. I am going to do this. If anyone else is interested & wants to travel together, please let me know. Off-Road - Much of the MTB and cross discussion was tabled for the spring meeting, but several points were made: + If I understood correctly, by NORBA regs MTB races need not require 1-day licenses (this is surprising, hence my uncertainty). Not charging for these may be a way to get more new racers out. + A consistent points scheme and format guidelines will probably be introduced for team and solo endurance races. + The conference needs to find and is willing to subsidize a consistent, high-quality scoring system like PEP, or even someone to help manage & handle results & scoring at races. John Frey can't do the MTB season due to cross racing. If anyone has leads on this, including anyone interested in taking on the job themself, the conference has money to put toward it. + We are looking to expand the cross season. Mark has been talking to the Verge and MAC series promoters about possibly piggy-backing on their races. Road Race Promotion - Mark's been pinging coaches & experienced racers about running workshops at races in the spring. I think the consensus was that it'd bee good to try and run workshops at as many races as possible. Promoters should coordinate with Mark to line up volunteers & go over ideas. - It was agreed to introduce a green jersey competition this year. The conference is looking for any tips on good short-run jersey printers to make these. - There was much discussion on split weekends (a north & south race). In addition to eventually agreeing to try this and scheduling a weekend (see below), other points raised were: + It can't be done in the March half of the schedule because of the weather up north. + It probably makes the most sense for John Frey to attend the northern race as its closer for him. The split promoters (with the conference's help) will have to come up with a high quality scoring alternative. + Mark's willing to put money from the ECCC budget toward the promoters of the split weekend in order to help cover any extra costs (such as finding a scorer) and reduce the risk/damage from possible low attendance. - It was agreed that all promoters must schedule to run two D races at any event where there's a chance the field will have to be split to handle large sizes. This probably includes all crits. It was further agreed that the split will be by Division I/Division II. Introducing an E category was voted down. Categories - Introduction of forced upgrade rules was voted down. - Downgrade rules were changed slightly: Now both men and women cannot downgrade w/out the director's approval once they score points. Previously women had no restriction. - To enter in either men's or women's A races, you must meet any of the following criteria: hold a Cat 3 license, have the director's approval, have completed 5 B races, or earned 64 points. Prior years are included in this (e.g., you can race A this year if you did 5 B races last year). This rule was introduced to try and ensure a basic level of experience before entering A races. Race Rules - The TTTs at Easterns will be run the same as nationals, by the third wheel for both men and women. The rest of the season will be run as last year, 3/4 start for women/men and finish is by 2nd/3rd wheel. - Teams will only score at 1 race on a split weekend. Riders score individually. For example, a rider may race apart from his team and may earn individual points, but will not contribute to the team point totals. Spring Schedule - After much discussion, the spring schedule was determined to be: March 04/05: Rutgers 11/12: UPenn/Drexel 18/19: Columbia/Princeton 25/26: Lehigh/Bucknell April 01/02: PSU 08/09: Beanpot 15/16: UVM & Mercy Hurst split weekend 22/23: Army 29/30: Easterns at Cornell If you're unaware, Mercy Hurst is in Northeast, PA, which is actually in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania. The PA schools showed up in force and sort of dominated the presentation of race bids and the voting. Nationals are of course May 12--14 in Lawrence, KS. Any errors in these notes are my fault & I'd appreciate anyone pointing them out. If you have any questions about some of the discussions, you probably should have been there, but myself & I'm sure others would be happy to fill in the blanks as best we can. -- - joe kopena bring your dancin' shoes!