DD meeting on the 18th of November
 

I can't find the thread in which I made a few suggestions about how the club could run DD next year... Anyway, I do remember it was following a post about the same topic by Madmav and also my suggestions were welcomed by the current Chairman of the club (which made me happy as Larry).

That's why I've decided to write them down:
- not to forget anything
- and because I wanted to have already thought about the issues before turning up on the 18th.

This is only a draft.
This may contain a lot of rubbish.
And I may be an utopist.

Feel free to comment, just don't be rude :)

Cheers
Tonio

Kofi Annan for El Piloto!!

Fair play Antoine. Nice to see something constructive.

I read this because I'm coming to the DD meeting and thought it very constructive and well laid out Antoine. Sorry if that sounds a bit patronising but it's the only thing I've read so far that makes an attempt to address problems that I don't understand, being a non-racer.

I think the idea of having members pay an extra £10 as a fee for being part of the 'DD RS' is a very good solution to address concerns from ordinary DSC members worrying that their membership fees are being diverted into activities in which they have no interest.

All Very constructive, Antoine, well done. Will make for some interesting discussion at the DD meeting, methinks.

Good work Tonio, a lot of sense in there....

Good document Tonio, gets my vote.

thanks for your comments guys, appreciated.

That's some great initiative antoine, some ideas there which can be taken seriously.

But can can we be rude anyway, Just for the entertainment value?

I'm glad this is taking place and hope that it kicks off in the morning or I won't be able to come :( I'm out in the afternoon - lot's of round and oval ball events taking place and I'm already triple booked!!

As a potential (significant) sponsor of a DD rider next year I'm obviously very interested in the outcome.

I have one question, in addition to this well crafted piece -

WHO WILL CHAIR THE MEETING?

The chair person needs to be independent (as far as possible) and not a member of the MT or DD and no, I'm not volunteering, otherwise I forsee a lack of control

RedRuth gets my vote.

Good work Antoine.
I have a couple of comments -
first, I dont think il piloto ( or la pilota) should be _expected_ to attend every race meeting,
and secondly, should _not_ be the only person talking to NE - they should be able to delegate that.

Re chair for the meeting - who it actually is this time isnt important per se - its just that they need to have a very firm hand on the proceedings, and not be one of the current 'protagonists'. We have a couple of volunteers, who presumably wouldnt ahve volunteered unless they have had to chair antagonistic meetings before ?

Because you're an old racer my friend :D
I think novices expect to have the series organizer present in the paddock with them. You can't expect new entrants to get help from other racers right from the beginning. People need to know each other first. And at that point, they can only rely on the guy who they sent their emails and their forms to when they just arrived in the country ( :lol: ). I do think Mr. (or Madam) DD -El piloto- must attend every meeting. Or they need to delegate that task, but IMO there needs to be a representative of the DSC RS at least on every race days.


They can delegate as much as they want, I'm talking about responsibilities.

"El piloto" is a very very bad job. I wouldn't do it myself. Who want to take the responsibility of taking care of a group of 60 nutters? I guess it will be rewarding as well at some point, when looking back at the work done.

To me, at the end of a race season, El piloto should be looking at the racers as if they were all the racing kids he/she had to take care of and make happy for 9 months...

I guess it's how it worked (well or not I don't know but it lasted quite a few years...) in France with the Coupe Ducati.

I have read through the draft and it makes a lot of sense (not saying I agree at this stage…still considering).

However, I can see that there are many racing DSC members who race in other series than DD (BEMSEE, North Glos etc) where would these members fall?

That's a very good point, and tbh I did not think about that.

I guess it will depend whether they're interested in the racing activities of the club or not... The "Racing Section" (or whatever name it can be called) would promote the racing activities of the club only.

There is nothing wrong with racing with BEMSEE and being a standard member of the DSC by example. It would even make sense, i.e. you chose BEMSEE for racing and the DSC for the rest.

But then if for any reason you want to help the DSC developing their racing activities, you would be welcome to give your dosh to the RS and so becoming a member of it.

That's how I imagined it :)

i thought lily and rally had already offered their services on the thread that is no more?

and your words make good reading froggy

As Chair for the meeting?

you an armchair mike?:lol:

DO you mean to chair the meeting? I guess Rally can be seen as not being "fair" (sorry must not be the right word) as he owns a DD bike, but I'm sure Lily or Ruth would be perfect for the job.

Cheers guys.

I'm just trying to do my bit to help. Will it be useful or not? I don't know. At least I will have tried.

I'm right now in touch with the correct DD address (or at least one of the correct DD addresses) about that, so I can't see it not included. It may be rejected for any reason, but not ignored :lol:

I'd like to point out that although PJ suggested it, I never actually volunteered to Chair the meeting. (I'd like to but the thread seems to have gone missing.)

I don't think I should Chair the meeting anyways: Not because I have an interest - I just own a bike - but because I think Lily would be better at it! Plus, as Chair, you're not supposed to express your opinions. I think I might want to reserve that right. ;)

That being said, if enough people wanted me to then I'd consider it. But judging from the responses so far that doesn't seem to be the case :D

Great typo Mike - are these ponces of the reserved type :lol: :lol:

Sorry I'll get my coat :D

France may be leaded by a woman for the first time in its history next year, so I'm just preparing myself for having to obey to a woman not only at home :lol:

So Lily or Ruth will be fine. The meanest one please :D

I think if Lily's up for it, she should do it. She knows racing and she's very good at dealing with difficult and unruly people

(I've been to her house, so I've seen her in action ;))

I don't want to do it because I think I may have things I want to say as a member.

There's only one ponce aound here mate :p :D

I think that's what you might call a Freudian slip :o

I think we decided on the middle of the country: Salisbury. :D

I seem to remember from the thread-that-is-no-more PJ was asking people to email him their postcode so he could perform some magic computation to work out where would be most central.

Just out of interest, does the thread being deleted mean that the thing's off?

Sorry, expecting a knock on the door from the thought police any minute now :devil:

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: You complained about the proposed location in the PJ thread!

Anyway, it'll now be where Rally said!

I would suggest that there's a very good chance that it'll be Postcombe (or certainly not far from there) Ian simply because the majority of the DSC live in the Midlands and South now.

Ta for the PM acknowledgement

Phew took the dog out for a walk, bad move :eek: :lol:

Yes meeting still on, still 18th November. Claire (Lily) is hopefully giving me a call to sort out whether she will chair as she sounds like somebody you folks see as "neutral" in all of this.

I've sent the info to Ian for next Pronto and still plan to sort the venue to be as central to those attending as possible. It may end up being Postcombe, who knows ? They do have the facilities for us to meet there.

It would be great if we could just park it for now, the whole idea of having the meeting is to give us all a chance to wind things back a bit here and talk things through face to face.

Nothing to hide but if we all put up our suggestions peacemeal we'll just be going back to the same old problem.

So can we agree that with a meeting planned we take a breather ? There isn't any panic, we have time to resolve all the issues well before next season starts.

like what your saying Antoine good effort to move us all forward and i like the plan.

hope to see you all at a productive meeting. i still would like to see agenda set and published bfore the meeting to stop us getting boged down

Hello folks, been a busy day at work for me (oh and 3 hours on the bike commuting :D)

Subject to the date being ok I am happy to chair the meeting if requested.

I have just spent 2 hours typing a 4 page message to PJ with my suggestions for organising and running the meeting. I think as Paul made the original suggestion it is worth him having an opportunity to consider my points, the main one being that this meeting should be run by an impartial individual or group.

My hope is that some of my suggestions make sense (even if typed badly) and the meeting goes ahead.

It is hard to please everyone in terms of how the meeting is organised, how it is run and what topics are covered. Withouth dragging the timescales out and letting the stressing continue on the forum I have suggested an approach that I have seen work under similar (if anything could match up to this) conditions in the hope that if it is adopted people will see the benefits and can propose modifications that could be adopted if it's feasible in the timescales.

For those that don't really know me....

I am a DSC member and have been for about 3 years I think
I ride a Ducati
I love bike racing
I raced a ducati last year (badly) but not in DD
I attend lots of club races organised by different clubs in different locations and have many friends that race in these series
I have attended a couple of DD rounds where possible
I have friends that race in DD but I am not actively involved.
I have (and still would like to) considered racing in DD but if I do it is unlikley it will be in 2007
I believe the DSC is going through a rought patch, but it's nothing that cannot be improved if we get it right

I could tell you all about my real job, but don't want to send you to sleep ;)

nah, you smell :P

oh, well ok, maybe, guess as you know even less about what is going on than I do you could not be seen to be influencing me....:lol:

However have to see if folks want me to do it and if the dates are ok.

Got your email thanks Claire. Bit lengthy to reply by a return mail probably best if I give you a call as you suggested. Maybe one person chairs the meeting and one takes the minutes, probably need to have great shorthand skills to keep up though ? How does that sound ?

Date wise we have pretty well fixed it at 18th November so it can go out in Pronto and give everyone a chance to attend who has an interest. We seriously want to listen to everyone who has a view don't we.

We have some new riders for 2007 already signed up so hopefully they will come along, would be good if they did then they could meet up with some of you old hands.

We can all work together to make this the turning point for DSC from the current problems if we approach it with open minds from all sides. I'm actually looking forward to it (my doctor has said that my medication needs reviewing though :rolleyes: )