Closed to club

[faussy]

The club i have most often competed with in the past have resumed events, but say that they are only accepting entries from club members. This year im not a club member of said club (mostly because of covid), im a member of no club, and because they aren't accepting any more members in 2020, i cant compete for another 5 months (maybe this will change in the near future). Ive noticed a lot of clubs throughout the UK are taking this stance, for reasons ranging from 'limited to numbers' and 'we want to support riders who have supported us pre covid'... Im a little vexed by this, and feel its a little discriminatory (and i am not the usual person who feels discriminated over the smallest of things). Are new people/people who don't join clubs in january just screwed? BT wouldn't take this stance, new customers always get the best deals! Seriously though, i didn't think numbers were restricted that much, and if its such a big deal why not accept pre entries from current members first and then fill remaining entry slots with non members up to the number they feel the venue can accommodate. Is this an ACU/AMCA ruling/advice, or just a clubs easy/discriminating way to keep numbers low?

Any other thoughts or is it just me up here on this horse? Im happy people are getting back out, just annoyed it won't be me anytime soon ?

Edited August 1, 2020 by faussy

[4stroke]

If this second spike carries on, none of us will be out there!

[jonboy883]

It's not just you, I had a bit of a lay off, and need to renew a club membership and my ACU licence.

Club first obviously, restricted to only on line, all payments for everything must be bacs, what ever happened to join up on the day and pay. If I hand over money, leave it in the tin for 48 hrs, no virus, collect it with disposable gloves on, no issues.

it seems that our world has gone over the top with safety, why, gyms reopened, they take cash to go in, they allow new members joining at the desk etc, and they share the equipment inside! Go figure, if the ACU ran gyms, that'd never happen!

We need a sensible approach that we can all comply with but that does not limit new people from getting involved. Possibly, with lockdown and YouTube, we may see an influx of new people wanting to join, who have been sat on their sofas watching all the videos! Do we want to put them off, surely they are the very people we want to encourage as they may save our sport from dying!

[arthritic]

As an Organiser, pre-pay should stay, and I hope we can keep it that way. A little effort and commitment from the rider to plan ahead a few days and the Organiser's job, including getting the results done quicker, is so much easier.

[ChrisCH]

Our club is (AFAIK) accepting new members and I don't feel it is any great inconvenience to have to sign up prior to rather than on the day.  I am sorry to the OP if the club is not allowing renewal that sounds a bit daft.  The supplementary regs for our events are club member and no more than 40mi from the trials ground.  Seems to work OK.  Also online event entry.  Personally I prefer this as I don't ever have any cash to buy anything or pay for anything.  If you can't pay by card mostly I don't buy it, whatever it is.  Even the sandwich van takes car nowadays.

Our event numbers are down as we don't get the 20 or so riders from neighbouring clubs who normally turn up.  This makes for a more relaxed meeting and I like it.  My missus is very much a fan of it and is enjoying this year's "summer series" much more so than last year.  (I'm pleased to say she is riding this year and often just sat it out last year).

What this does to the clubs finances I don't know - I do not have that information.  Personally I would happily pay a bit extra (like the barbers).

Of course this is more difficult to the casual rider who wants to turn up now and then if they feel like it.  In that respect it is "discriminatory" if you like that word.  I would use inconvenient.  But it is not universally a bad thing.  Perhaps the answer is to have more events?  All for that!

[faussy]

I don't mind pre paying, yes its an inconvenience, but we all have to do our own bit in this pandemic and if our role as competitors is to prepay online then thats no problem. I imagine the organisers have it harder, but i can also understand how it could be an inconvenience to some. It is annoying how overboard the clubs are going (maybe thats only right) and then you walk into a shop and see total disregard to any form of distancing or hygiene. 

[ChrisCH]

2 hours ago, faussy said:

... It is annoying how overboard the clubs are going (maybe thats only right) and then you walk into a shop and see total disregard to any form of distancing or hygiene. 

LOL.  Yes, that is very true.  I am beginning to wonder why we worried about all the old people that now are quite keen to push you out the way in the supermarket as they scrabble for the cheap cat food.

[petert]

A lot of the clubs down my way have limited number events (SE centre) 40-50 riders seems the norm and this in a lot of cases is due to restricted parking at venues because of the extra space that has to be left between vehicles. I am a member of 3 clubs, one in each of my bordering areas (SE, Southern and So Midland) and only one of the 3 have run any events as yet. Please bear in mind that a vast number of the organisers are older members (70+) and may not feel comfortable exposing themselves to a large number of people outside of their "bubble". It strikes me as being an ideal situation to get a few of the younger members to step up and run events until things settle down, maybe they will have a little more respect for the current organisers and appreciate the effort involved! I could probably join 1 or 2 more local clubs just to ride but I feel that is a bit silly in the long run.

Faussy, have you tried calling the club secretary of you old club and talking to them? After all you are renewing and not a new member per se. I think the no new member thing is more aimed at my statement in the last sentence of the above paragraph.

[rabie]

as above

if you are an organiser should you be using over 70's as officials (that seams to account for many in most clubs)

the guidance from above (ACU/AMCA/etc) says among many things you must try and reduce risks, such as taking measures such as pre entry only (means your got all contact details, no cash, forms all filled in, licences all OK, etc). you've then got to decided how many riders your venue can accommodate in a socially distanced fashion (and given the small bits of land we have down here, some are a real tight squeeze). Then how many vehicles can you park 3m away from each other.

we as motorcyclists have got to look the part when we run these events and not make a bad name for ourselves. there are many things going on (be it pubs, beaches, shops, riots, etc, etc) that are not doing such a good job.

 

at my club we've decided to do the same (existing club members only) to start with (august) but mainly due to our numbers for our mx's and enduro's - it's something we can review later when we are more experienced at doing all the social distancing stuff.

[ChrisCH]

13 hours ago, rabie said:

...we as motorcyclists have got to look the part when we run these events and not make a bad name for ourselves. there are many things going on (be it pubs, beaches, shops, riots, etc, etc) that are not doing such a good job...

 

Yes.  Very much the case.

We have a pair scoring system so no need for observers.  Seems to work very well.  Very strict on paper and a bit more "commonsense" in situ.  Next ride tonight.  Looking forward to it very much.  I intend to very much "show willing" whether one thinks it is pointless or not.