Co-Ordinators Corner Feb 05

This year we have an early Easter, which means that our first meeting is at the end of March. We all have to be that much quicker off the mark in terms of registration and of applying for entries to the earlier events, Harewood for example is on March 27^th.

The latest copy of our regs. is now on the website and will shortly be circulated to all registered competitors. If you need the MSA permit number it is CHS05045.

Target Times

Iain McDougall Bell has worked tirelessly on the 2005 Target times, and these too are about to be published. �You will find that many of the targets are unchanged from 2004. Where competitors beat the targets the new time has been used for calculation of the new target on the basis of 98% of the record time. Iain has also tried to cover all the modern MG models with a realistic target time. (He is even including the odd diesel car). However Iain does acknowledge that he is only an ordinary human being. As such it is possible that he has made the odd mistake. If you find such an error please e mail Iain at once (With copy to me) at

iain@McDougall-Bell.fsnet.co.uk� or ian.McDougall-Bell@powertrainltd.com,

although Iain is about to go abroad on business he will be able to keep in touch by e mail, and promises to make rapid corrections.

Iain also has a scheme to deal with the problem of New Venues. There was a slight problem last year in that the fastest time recorded at a new venue gave the competitor an automatic 100%. This was to some extent an unfair advantage. On the other hand we want to encourage competitors to go to new venues.

The modified scheme would be to give the fastest competitor in each group a score of 98%, this being the score which was often achieved by competitors in 2004. The scores of other, slower competitors would be calculated on the basis of the virtual target created by this score of 98%.� Your early comments on this idea would be greatly appreciated.

Co-ordinator

When I took on this job a few years back, I promised to do it for three years. At the end of 2005 my three years is up, and I would like to hand over the job to someone new. I am well aware it is a job with a considerable learning curve, from which you all suffered in my early days. I am therefore hoping that it will be possible to find a new coordinator during this season who can work with me and approach 2006 with some confidence. In any case I will be available in the early part of 2006 for help and advice.

If you are thinking of volunteering it is an enjoyable job, with some periods of intense stress. You need a working Knowledge of XL spreadsheets and word processing (Mail merge is a great blessing), You need e mail access and just sometimes, a thick skin.

The Speed Committee used to meet every month, but we have managed to reduce this frequency by using e mail. This has reduced the travelling burden, but some face to face meetings are vital.

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A competitors view of the Speed Committee��������������������� ���������������Alternative Speed Committee views of the Coordinator

If any one is interested in taking on this job, please get in touch with me, and I will give you a run down on the job. You may well ask why, if it is so enjoyable, am I retiring? The answer is that in a couple of weeks I shall be 75 years old! I have always believed that one should retire before people are fed up with you, and 75 seems to me a good time to go. ( I am conscious of quite a few older people in motor sport, but I can think of very few that I believe are actually contributing anything useful anymore)

While on that subject, a small item that is worth a mention. My wife Ann, (Company Secretary, Director of Human Resources, Catering Manager, telephone operator and Dog Handler) is currently in Hospital. As you will appreciate, with so many members of Senior Management absent at the same time the organisation is somewhat stretched. (Chaotic would be a good word)

In these circumstances please forgive me if you often get the answering machine, and requests are not always dealt with as promptly as they usually are.

As they say on the TV, normal service will be resumed shortly.

Registrations

To date I have received some 25 registrations for this years championship. I would remind you that this season starts very early, and that your scores do not count until you have registered for the championship. If you are receiving this message by post you will find a registration form enclosed. Please get it off to me as soon as possible.

Some address label runs for events organisers have already been sent out. The policy on these label runs is to include last years registered competitors in the run for the first few events, but this does mean that some organising clubs have very large numbers to send out. After the first few events the label run is restricted to 2005 registered competitors. Register Early to ensure your name is on the list.

Lawrie Brown