| What an excellent thread.
As a member of the MT who does not have any 'official' involvement with DD, it's very heartening to see the support that exists for the DSC continuing to run the series and some recognition for the hard work that has been put in to get the series to where it is today.
I know that some mistakes have been made, some of them thumping great big ones, but that just goes to show that human beings with all their faults are involved.
From my point of view running the DD series splits into several areas that all require attention and some improvement. Just as in any business there is the day to day operational management (ie: the nitty gritty of organising the events and schedules, communicating the same to riders and remembering the damned trophies to name but a few tasks) this role should be to ensure that all riders have to worry about is turning up and racing - I used to compete in international rallies and I know theres enough for a competitor to do without having to worry about what the event arrangements are. The way I see it, whoever does this role (whether it's the RC or an individual) and the riders themselves have absolutely the right to have the most involvement in this aspect. Same goes for sponsors.
I'm speaking for myself here not as an MT representative, but I think that DD should be one of the flagship activities of the club and it is important enough (in my view) to have a dedicated MT 'role' devoted to the running of DD. It would not be fair to dump that volume of work on one individual, so I would also like to see a structure of volunteers who would assist the MT role but not necessarily have any say in how the series was run.
So the MT role would do all of the operational management, liaising with New Era, Riders and Sponsors (making sure that the sponsors relationship with the DSC was equitable). maybe they wouldn't do all that themselves but they would be accountable to all of the above for the successful day to day operation.
In the same way, that MT member also needs to be accountable to the MT and MOST IMPORTANTLY to the membership of the club. On an operational basis that needs to be the case so that any money spent on DD (which of course belongs to all the members) can be justified and spent with required approval.
As far as the membership of the DSC is concerned I think that it IS a DSC series and therefore EVERY member should be entitled to a view of what DD is all about and how their money is spent in it's support.
I'm not advocating that we run a poll for every member on every decision, that would plainly be ridiculous, that's why I'm suggesting that the full time MT member should be elected for that purpose and given the mandate to make 'day-to-day' operational decision by the membership.
What I am suggesting is that the full membership should have a mechanism by which their suggestions and voice about the strategic direction of DD can be heard and considered. That is all I've ever advocated. Some type of suggestion box, if you will, that can be periodically considered by a DD comittee (chaired by the DD MT member) so that everyones input can be fairly evaluated, decisions made and the results of those decisions communicated.
I don't know precisely how this would work but I believe that if this governance structure was put in place it would give the members a chance to voice their ideas about whether the strategic direction of DD was in line with the aims and values of running the club in the first place. Clearly, DD as it now stands is consistent with those aims (as spelled out in the club constitution) but we do need some form of governance structure that ensures that DD remains consistent with those aims. For example, if we turned round and said "OK, this years DD effort is to spend the clubs entire reserve on doing all the GP circuits in the world" that would be stupid and I believe it IS the whole mebership who need to apply a sanity check to the strategic thinking behind DD.
If we do this with the right mechanisms and in a clear, open and honest way I believe that we can give the riders and sponsors the respect they deserve for their financial and time commitment and ensure that the members have their say as well. What members don't want to see IMHO is the riders electing themselves as some type of elite echelon of the DSC and cutting them out of the decision making loop |