HRCA

MINUTES OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF THE HRCA.

HELD AT MOTOR SPORT IRELAND HEADQUARTERS, DAWSON STREET, DUBLIN

TUESDAY 31^ST AUGUST 2010 AT 8:00PM

PRESENT:

Ken McAvoy, Stephen Boden, Barry Smith, Clive Brandon, Liam Ruth, David Miller, Ed Cassidy, Wolfgang Schnittger, Edward Bourke, Nick Bennett, Bernard Foley, Nino Forte, Jackie Cochrane, Dominick Peel, Mick O’Shea, Pauline White, Martin White, Matt Dunne, Alan Kessie, Vinny O’Reilly, Kieran White, Kevin MacBride, Michael Doyle, Mike Dennehy, Leo Nulty, Mark Kelly, Frank Harte, Maurice Cassidy

APOLOGIES:

Dave Moloney, Noel Kavanagh, Hugh Webb, Sean Murray, Billy Crosbie, John Porter, Barth Maxwell, Conor O’Brien

1. GENERAL.

The meeting opened with Ken McAvoy welcoming everyone to the meeting and setting out the purpose of the meeting. Ken McAvoy also presented a short introductory address as follows:

WHAT IS THE HRCA?

• HRCA is a Sports Club
• Run by the Members for the Members
• Largely self-regulating and depends on the integrity of the members
• HRCA is all about preserving the heritage of historic racing cars – not as museum pieces but as functioning historic race cars
• Therefore in my view it is not only about winning
• There are a wide range of interests within the membership both in type of car, type of sport and activity (fixing/racing etc)

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

• The Committee of the HRCA is voluntary and elected by the members
• Historic Racing is probably the most difficult group to manage and more particularly in Ireland where we operate with a small pool of cars. It has been the policy of the Committee to be relaxed about the application of the Regulations in the interests of maintaining good grids. It is possible to apply a more strict regulatory system and we can do this if that is what the members want – but be aware that there are very few cars that will be left to race in these circumstances
• For the Members information the Committee has met formally  9 times in the last 9 months, and the members have carried out numerous other tasks outside of the formal meetings.
• This year was destined to be a very difficult year and yet the Association finances have never been better and the membership is as strong as before
• Our grids and entries have generally been better than many other classes
• In the last 2 years the Committee has been subjected to an almost continuous barrage of e-mails etc criticising the efforts of the members

• Much of this correspondence has been copied outside the HRCA to other clubs or Motorsport Ireland making the members of the Committee feel that they are being presented to the rest of the motorsport fraternity in a poor light
• Almost 50% of committee time has been spent dealing with the issues raised
• Whilst many of the issues raised are legitimate some are not
• However this process has come to a head this year when I was confronted with the resignations of a substantial part of the Committee and indeed considered throwing in the towel myself
• You have all received copies of the e-mails sent to the Committee and the Committee response.
• In a moment I will throw the discussion open to the floor and all can have a say on any of the matters raised. I hope this can be conducted in a constructive manner. Time for discussion 40 mins and then a vote
• There is no doubt that in some areas the Committee has not succeeded in doing what it proposed to do – but please bear in mind that in these difficult economic times some members of the committee have found themselves being asked to work away from home by their companies and we have all found it harder to find the spare time to devote to HRCA work
• This Committee has in my view been the most workmanlike of any I have worked on in the last 3 years. Some of the new members have done great work
• However right now they are demotivated and feel personally insulted – therein lies the problem

WHAT CAN WE DO?

• I have asked all of the committee to rescind their resignations until after tonight, as I believe that the majority of the members will express their support for their work. This they agreed to do
• I would hope that we can review the issues raised and listen to the opinions of the members
• I am personally committed to a vision of the HRCA as I described earlier. I know that this vision is shared by other members of this Committee. If that vision is the same as the majority of the members then we will try to continue to serve the sport of historic racing as best we can
• We will not be perfect – but we will try – but only if we are allowed to do so without threats and with the support of all members

2. DISCUSSION BY MEMBERS.

The meeting was then open to the members to state what they felt. Contributions were made by:

Maurice Cassidy, Dominick Peel, Jackie Cochrane, Mick O’Shea, Martin White, Matt Dunne, Alan Kessie,Vinny O’Reilly, Leo Nulty, and members of the Committee.

The main points arising from this discussion were as follows:

• An acknowledgement that the diversity of interests and cars in the HRCA make the administration difficult (MC)
• Criticism that the “eligibility procedures” being applied by the HRCA at the moment do not work and are not in accordance with Motor Sport Ireland Regulations (AK)
• Criticism that the drivers “classification list” has taken a long time to come out and is possibly not correct and emanates from a flawed system as stated above (AK)
• Suggestions  that Elligibility should be handed over to Motorsport Ireland
• A general agreement that possibly a self-regulated “driver declaration sheet” system with sporadic scrutineer car audits during the season would be good, but this would need to be written into the technical regs
• Criticism of the timing of the publication of the results on the web site disputed by Ed Cassidy
• Criticism of the accuracy of the results (AK) and in particular the recent MEC hillclimb
• A personal attack on two committee members by Matt Dunne, which was ruled out of order by the Chairman
• A general agreement that pragmatic application of the tech regs is the only practical way to maintain the HRCA grids and a feeling that a rigid “no exceptions” rule would not be good for Historic Racing.

3. ACTIONS REQUESTED BY MEMBERS.

The members requested that the two key issues discussed be addressed as follows:

Elligibility Procedures:

A review to be undertaken by the Committee and a proposal circulated to members before the AGM (within 1 month) to allow a better system to be introduced in 2011 and which will be transparent and fair.

Results:

An audit to be undertaken of all results to date for 2010 and updated tables to be posted on the web within 2 weeks

4. VOTING.

Members were then issued with a voting slip and asked to vote on the motion as follows:

“to confirm a vote of confidence in the Chairman and Officers to continue in office to the date of the 2010 AGM”

Matt Dunne objected to the fact that the voting slips were numbered and suggested that this was to see who voted which way. KM explained that the reason for this was to check that the total votes cast accord with the numbers present and to ensure that only paid up members would receive a voting slip. A vote was called on whether to allow the vote to continue and this was passed with a large majority.

The votes were counted by Mike Dennehy and checked by Wolfgang Schnittger and the result was as follows:

In favour of Committee continuing in office:                   20 votes

Against Committee continuing in office:                           6 votes

Spoilled paper:                                                               1 vote

5. CONLUSION OF MEETING.

The meeting concluded at 9:30pm and Ken McAvoy thanked everyone for attending.