TXBRA Annual Meeting

[troy d.]

Well, at the last minute TXBRA realized that we are, in fact, a member club, and I got invited to the meeting (We are, by the way, the only collegiate team that is going to have representation).  There are a few proposals up that our club gets to vote on, so I thought I'd post the most important ones.  Please discuss and vote yea or nea on them, and I'll tally it up before I go.  If you want anything clarified, I'll do that or get the person who wrote the proposal to do that.

thanks,
Troy D.

[troy d.]

Proposal Synopsis: Exclude Category 5 events from the Texas Cup series awards.

Rationale
Category 5 is identified as a starting point for road racing, with the goal being for riders to gain experience and confidence in a race environment before progressing to category 4. In order to foster growth in the other categories, it is important to encourage riders to advance to the next level when they have met the requirements.

By offering a year-long series for category 5 riders, in which prizes are awarded (i.e. jerseys, trophies, etc), we are encouraging riders to stay a category 5 for the entire year. While it is possible to adopt a mandatory upgrade policy once a rider has ten races on his resume, it isn’t practical due to additional time needed by the upgrade coordinator to maintain and track every rider’s progress.

Proposal
Category 5 (a.k.a. Men’s 5) should remain as one of the core categories for the various Texas Cup road divisions, but should be eliminated from the Texas Cup points series.

[troy d.]

Proposal Synopsis: Mandate the use of Cadence Sports (hereinafter referred as ‘Cadence’) as the official timing provider for all TXBRA Div. 1 events in return for per rider monetary assistance to TXBRA for the further development of TXBRA as an organization and cycling as a sport.

Rationale
Cadence has recently acquired the AMB transponder timing system (as seen in the Tour De France, Vuelta a Espana, and Olympic Games) in order to solve a long-standing issue with bicycle racing events: Results. Depending on the event, most cyclists are forced to wait hours, even days waiting for official results that, in many cases, are inaccurate. Cadence sees this consistent issue as a hindrance to the growth of the sport and overall quality of TXBRA events. The AMB timing system provides instantaneous, printable results once a group crosses the finish line, which could eliminate the constant protests and berating of officials that is currently the norm in bicycle racing. In addition, we are firm believers that timely, accurate scoring will drastically increase the credibility of the sport and add an element of professionalism to our events.

Proposal
To become the official timing solution for all TXBRA Div. 1 events while providing a fixed monetary ‘kickback’ to TXBRA which could profoundly impact the TXBRA budget in a positive manner and consequently provide the TXBRA organization with the tools needed to grow the sport of bicycle racing.

Cadence will handle necessary aspects of scoring and timing (The TXBRA camera will still need to be utilized in order to verify the ‘leading edge’ for the Top 10 finishers – ALL results are finalized by the USCF Chief Judge) including database management at the closing of online registration, rider tracking, communicating to race announcer (where applicable), and uploading results to specified web sites (including TXBRA wizard). Using the state-of-the-art AMB system, Cadence will be capable of any type of event—multiple loop road races, Time Trials, Criteriums, and Stage Races. Cadence is also currently developing an advanced web site that will archive all rider results along with the eventual capability of providing instantaneous rider data while still on course.

Cadence acknowledges the economics of a ‘typical’ TXBRA event are far from monetarily rewarding. Therefore, Cadence has already informed many event organizers that a small increase in entry fees will be necessary in order to maintain a consistent ROI relative to prior years. Our demographic research and recent surveys support rider commitment to our vision, as well as the willingness to pay a small additional fee in return for the added value timing will provide to TXBRA events. Every event is different with varying amounts of participants and requirements. Cadence has established a tier system that accounts for all events and will provide each organizer a specific ‘break-even’ price relative to past event numbers/current expectations and rider entry fee increases.

Comments
Cadence has prepared a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation for the TXBRA membership. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Gary Metcalf at 806.786.3943.

[troy d.]

Proposal Synopsis: Increase rider surcharge to assist with operating expenses and planned equipment purchases.

Rationale
The rider surcharge is used to help fund many things in the TXBRA organization. Items include website hosting fees, annual awards and jerseys, TXBRA trailer and finish line equipment, travel expenses for the trailer, laptops, cameras, etc.

With the number of races increasing every year, our goal over the next year or two is to begin establishing a second trailer and duplicating the contents. This trailer will be located out of a north Texas location and enable Texas Cup promoters to have easier access to trailer and its contents.

Rider surcharge fees were decreased last year by approximately the same amount that we are asking to increase them by for 2006.

Proposal
Increase the per-rider surcharge for the following division/discipline events:

Current and Proposed:

ROAD
.50 DIV I --> 1.00
.50 DIV II --> .75
.25 DIV III --> .25
1.00 STAGE --> 1.50

TRACK
.25 DIV I --> .50

CROSS
.25 DIV I --> .50

[troy d.]

Proposal Synopsis: Awards the Texas Cup series awards based on category across division, not division and category, in order to eliminate awarding more than one set of awards for the same category.

Rationale
In 2005 we introduced a division level for road, track and cyclocross races, in which smaller promoters could gain the sponsorship from TXBRA as a Texas Cup event by offering a reduced number of categories and cash purse. The divisions seemed to be a positive addition among the smaller promoters and riders alike.

The original proposal noted awards would be awarded for each category in each division the category was held, provided the division/category occurred at least five times. In a sense, this seems to have taken away from the true meaning of Best-All Around-Rider (BAR) in each category by awarding multiple champions. For example, in 2005 we are awarding duplicate category awards on the road as follows:

Masters 45+ Division I
Masters 45+ Division II
Junior Open Division I
Junior Open Division II
Men 3 Division I
Men 3 Division II
Men 3 Division III
Men 4 Division I
Men 4 Division II
Men 5 Division I
Men 5 Division III
Pro/1/2 Division I
Pro/1/2 Division II

Track events essentially duplicated every category in Division I and Division II, with the exception of two categories. Cyclocross wasn’t an issue in 2005, because Division I was essentially the only Division offered for 2005 but we will see similar problems with the current structure in 2006 where multiple division levels are offered.

It seems to have a certain appeal to be the “Men’s 3 2005 Texas Cup Champion”, but it sort of loses its luster to be the “Men’s 3 2005 Texas Cup Champion – Division xxx”, where xxx refers to the division.

Proposal
Update Appendix A of the Bylaws: Texas Cup Requirements, section A-4 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 as follows:

Updates in bold.

4.1. The Texas Cup will offer season-end awards for the following designations:

Person or Team Categories Series Disciplines
1. Individual Person All Combined All Combined All Combined
2. Individual Person All Combined All Combined Road
3. Individual Person All Combined All Combined Track
4. Individual Person All Combined All Combined Cross
5. Team All Combined All Combined All Combined
6. Team All Combined All Combined Road
7. Team All Combined All Combined Track
8. Team All Combined All Combined Cross
9. Individual Person Individual Category* All Combined Road
10. Individual Person Individual Category* All Combined Track
11. Individual Person Individual Category* All Combined Cross

* The Texas Cup will offer season-end awards for any categories having least eight ( events.

Delete sections 4.2 and 4.3

[troy d.]

This isn't a proposal, but I thought I'd keep you guys up to date

This is still being reviewed, but here is the list of Texas Cup races that are tentatively scheduled. The only events still unscheduled for 2006 are Charlie Hall Memorial Crit, Badlands Classic and the AMLI Crit.

State Championship events will be announced at the annual meeting.

Jan 14,15
Jan 21,22 TBI/Copperas Cove Classic (non-TXBRA)
Jan 28,29

Feb 04,05
Feb 11,12 GVGP/Omloop Stage Race (non-TXBRA)
Feb 18,19
Feb 25,26 Walburg RR, Pace Bend RR

Mar 04,05 Southwest CycleSport Crit (Austin) / Solar Eclipse (San Antonio)
Mar 11,12 Lago, Lago
Mar 18,19 Fayetteville SR
Mar 25,26

Apr 01,02 Aledo Road Race (Ft. Worth), Mineral Wells RR
Apr 08,09 Baptist Temple Heights Crit, Coldspring RR
Apr 15,16 SCCC Road Conference (collegiate)
Apr 22,23 Ft. Davis SR / Nicole Reinhart Junior Cycling Classic (Alkek), AVPAC Crit
Apr 29,30 PACC State Time Trial (bid for age-based TT), Matrix Crit (bid for age-based crit)

May 06,07
May 13,14 **OPEN**, GCCA Crit (Houston)
May 20,21
May 27-29 Mirage (Crit or 40K TT), Victory Circle Crit, Cowtown Crit (bid for skill-based crit)

Jun 02,03 (Track Regionals - Alkek)
Jun 10,11 Prairie Dog Classic Stage Race
Jun 17,18
Jun 24,25 Waco Bicycle Club, Copperas Cove State RR (bid for skill-based RR)

Jul 01,02,03
Jul 08,09
Jul 15,16 Tyler RR, **OPEN**
Jul 22,23 State Time Trial (b>bid for age/skill-based TT and TTT)
Jul 29,30 Denton, Lewisville

Aug 05,06
Aug 11,13 Tour of Columbus SR
Aug 20-21
Aug 25,26 HHH

Sep 02,03 Old Tacosa
Sep 09,10 SCCCC Track, Chappell Hill RR
Sep 16,17 Youth Regional Track Championships (Alkek)
Sep 23,24 Michelob Ultra Road Race, **OPEN**
Sep 30,1

Oct 07,08 Power Pedal RR (bid for age-based RR), **OPEN**

Again, this is still a work in progress.

[ThePrez]

That txbra schedule does not leave many weekends open for collegiate events, can we still hold road races on some of the less important txbra weekends?

[cyclingmo]

1- Nay
2- Yay
3- Yay
4- Nay

[ThePrez]

nay
yay
yay
yay

[FitAlex]

1) Yay
2) Yay
3) Yay
4) Yay

[The Islander]

1) Yah
2) Yah
3) Yah
4) Yah

[quick25]

1. yep
2. yep
3. yep
4. yep

[troy d.]

That txbra schedule does not leave many weekends open for collegiate events, can we still hold road races on some of the less important txbra weekends?

There's no restriction to overlapping races.  MSU always asks that we not conflict with major races, and I agree with that.  Usually that just means that state championships and older races (Fayetteville, Lago Vista, Pace Bend) are off.  Also, if there's a race in one school's backyard that weekend, expect lower attendance. 

[troy d.]

The results of the proposals I showed you guys were:

Pass
Fail
Pass
Pass

There should be a full posting on TXBRA sometime soon.