Here is an unofficial report about what happened at the May NCNCA meeting.
USCF membership in NCNCA territory is down slightly from this time last year. As of 5/7/04 we had 2782 licensed riders. This is down 45 riders from last month and down slightly from last year.
There have been 137 Cat 5 to 4 upgrades, 64 Cat 4 to 3 upgrades and 30 Cat 3 to 2 upgrades.
Jan Luke is running a contest for the regional associations in her territory. The regional Association that increases their USCF membership by the highest % will get prizes that they can use as they wish. The prizes include things like CUSTOM TSUNAMI FRAME, a Reynolds Composite Fork and Oakley merchandise. The contest will run the 3rd quarter of this year.
NCNCA received the rebate check from USAC for the first quarter. It totaled $12,525 and it covered 1181 adult annual licenses and 143 add on licenses.
As announced earlier the LeGrand Preston LeGrand RR has been canceled due to cattle transportation trucks scheduled to be on one of the narrow roads at the same time as the race.
USAC sent out a reminder to promoters and officials tat the 50 rider field limit for Cat 5 men and Cat 4 women is a hard limit that can not be increased.
In light of the close finish at the Wente Crit 1/2/pro race we have been looking into getting a real digital finish line camera ( one that acts like a real strip camera). The options found so far are the Alge Optic, a color camera for $13,500 and the Finishlynx black and white camera for about $12,700. Both cameras would need a laptop computer to run them and review the results. We discussed options for funding a purchase of a digital finish camera. We could seek donations from riders and clubs, increase the race surcharge for a period of time ( about a year) or kill off the Newsletter next year. In the case of killing off the Newsletter we wouldn't have the money to buy a system until the end of next year. If we increase the rider surcharge for races from $1 to $2 we could have the money in about a year. If we depend on donations for most of the cost who knows when we would have the money. It should be noted that if we get such a finish line system only a few people will know be able to run the system and it probably would not be used at all the races but mainly be used for the bigger races n the region. We might also be able to rent out the system to some of the bigger races that currently have to hire out this service.
The equipment manager doesn't know the location of the old Canon video camera. Hopefully who ever has it will contact the equipment manager. The equipment manager is working to restock and improve the first aid kits.
Newsletter subscriptions are up to 490. The News letter editor is always looking for team photos to run in the newsletter. The Newsletter will run a 1/2 page photo of any team photos that are sent into the newsletter. The photos should be in black and white or have enough contrast that when converted to black and white they look good.
Since the NCNCA club membership dues have not been increased since the late 1980's it was voted to increase the NCNCA club membership dues to $50 starting next year. This increase will help generate a little extra revenue that can be used for things like the digital finish line camera.