Wheres the post about the AGm ?

I can't read all the bleeding unread posts so wheres the post about the AGM proposals and where we got all the praise for the Best event and the outstanding achievement award ?

ah come on !! what happened ?
Apart from hearing about Ryan Sherlock claiming to add value to an XC race by just turning up !! and some incredible misers putting forward charging " youth " yeah I believe the Anal Sphincters had their say also, thats all I heard !!
Its a hell of a pity i wasn't there !! so what did I miss ? anything good, nobody is being very talkative about it.
I can tell you now, that EPICmtb won't be charging Youth or Underage people entry to their events. What kind of backwards thinking is that ?
I know..lets charge the parents of kids a tax to pay for the winners of the Senior 1 race..
I would have thought that we should pay a levy to encourage Youth riders to race by allowing them to enter for free !!
Is that what is the most important thing in Irish Mountainbiking..Money? who deserves more money..are we putting a physical value on the participation of children ?
The Commission needs some Jackboots to stamp out this sort of miserable thinking..
Richie

To be fair to Martin (who had submitted this motion), he only wanted an official approval of the commision for what they have been doing for a while now, which is charging youth riders (or their parents rather) something about €2 per race.
I think races up in the north are much more popular with kids (100 ish participants) and the charge was put in place to deter gobishi!es from entering, and also for the parents to feel their kid was taking part in a professional event. That €2 charge was definitely not there to increase profit. From that 'respect it because you paid for it' philosophy point of view I kind of agree with Martin.

Here in the south we don't have 100+ kids races so we don't have that problem, and are at the stage where we want to get as many people into the sport as possible so I agree with the general opinion that we shouldn't be (and won't) charging youth riders.

Just wanted to clarify this as I think it was taken out of context and Martin has done loads to promote cycling among kids up the north so I'm sure he had only good intentions in mind.

I know Martin does a lot for kids MTB up there but I still don't accept it. As the only person around here that got off his arse to do something about the lack of kids involvement in MTB I am more than entitled not to agree.
No offence Max but thats not a good enough reason in my completely unhumble opinion. I particularly dont like your comment that any charge will stop gob****es racing..I would strongly object to calling any youth/underage/ sprog a gobsh1te ...and having to pay to enter doesn't deter grown up gobsh1tes from entering.
I can't believe that the reason for a charge is to prevent people, especially small people from entering..
even if we had 100s of kids entering I still wouldnt charge..
the idea sickens me to be honest and makes me really , really angry. They are kids..they dont need a proffessional event, they need a great experience and a fun day out.

I don't know, you'd have to talk to Martin. That was the impression I got anyway, that some parents where not respecting the event/rules (and perhaps their kids where spoiling others race) and introducing that charge seemed to have solved that problem.

As I understood it they were looking for and got permission to charge underage/youth riders in NPS's in the north, they already charge for all other kids races.

Max, calling ANY kid that wants to race a "gobst1te" is just bull !!

Oh your all so PC now, might be the wrong choice of words but you know what I mean..

Max..its fairly obvious we're going to be PC when it comes to kids and no, I still don't know what you mean, they are kids..most of them charge around like out of control...kids. Thats what they do, trying to impose " proffessionalism " on them at age 8 by charging a miserable €2 makes no sense to me.
Its a pity I wasn't there..I'd have opposed it furiously..

Martin where are you! Listen.. I'm not the antichrist here, just trying to explain what was the reasoning behind this motion but perhaps I'm misinterpreting it.

it is a pity you couldn't be the Richie and a real shame others (who could but couldn't be arsed obviously) didn't. show up.

no problem Max, nothing personal. Unfortunately i wasn't there.

Ritchie, we missed you at the meeting. The Roc looked fab though. Thanks Max for filling in for my absence from the Epic board.

Ritchie, as you well know we run an Ulster XC race series, Spring MTB series and the Ulster cyclo-cross series. The clubs in Ulster made the decision a few years ago to charge youth a token payment for which parents should expect a well run event.

Now of the 16 races that young riders can go in the year we have (2/3/4) as NPS rounds. Now most parents bring their kids to a race. They don't care if its an NPS, Ulster round or any other type. It's a race and their kids enjoy it. All I wanted was the ability to not confuse parents with one race being paid and one race not being paid.

The motion was ONLY for the Ulster clubs to be allowed to charge for the youth races to help reduce confusion for parents. It was NOT to impose charges on youth for all NPS rounds. I know you have been working hard on encouraging youth and you'd probably PAY kids to show up if you had the funds !! I was just fighting for the right to not be forced to give free entry to kids when we then have to emphasis that the parents need to pay next time. And as you can see from the numbers coming forward, the charge is not putting off the youth coming forward.

Apologies for any confusion.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks for the post Martin and while I still refuse to accept having to charge Youth people, I am glad we can have this discussion without tears.
I don't understand charging them at all..Max confused me completely..no offence but I can't understand your reasoning.
If I had my way I would levy the Senior 1s and 2's in order to give every kid that races a medal and a free race.

Richie, I appreciate where you are coming from. We're all trying our best to build up the bottom of the pyramind so that we can increase the numbers moving up through the age categories, fill out our junior races and eventually produce more Seymours, hopefully within the next few years when, most likely, they'll still be able to look up to, and compete against, Sir Robin. My personal goal is to have races with 50 in the Under 8s and 50 in the Under 10s. Is we maintain this level of participation we can at least give the sport a future.

We shouldn't quarrel over our methods. Let's keep focusing on the goal.

Glad you're back.. ;-)

glad to be back..
now whats this nonsense about Ryan Sherlock adding value to every MTB race he does..where do i send Robin Seymours and Joe mcCalls invoices for 20 years of participation and race organising !!

I can't read all the bleeding unread posts so wheres the post about the AGM proposals and where we got all the praise for the Best event and the outstanding achievement award ?

ah come on !! what happened ?
Apart from hearing about Ryan Sherlock claiming to add value to an XC race by just turning up !! and some incredible misers putting forward charging " youth " yeah I believe the Anal Sphincters had their say also, thats all I heard !!
Its a hell of a pity i wasn't there !! so what did I miss ? anything good, nobody is being very talkative about it.
I can tell you now, that EPICmtb won't be charging Youth or Underage people entry to their events. What kind of backwards thinking is that ?
I know..lets charge the parents of kids a tax to pay for the winners of the Senior 1 race..
I would have thought that we should pay a levy to encourage Youth riders to race by allowing them to enter for free !!
Is that what is the most important thing in Irish Mountainbiking..Money? who deserves more money..are we putting a physical value on the participation of children ?
The Commission needs some Jackboots to stamp out this sort of miserable thinking..
Richie

To be fair to Martin (who had submitted this motion), he only wanted an official approval of the commision for what they have been doing for a while now, which is charging youth riders (or their parents rather) something about €2 per race.
I think races up in the north are much more popular with kids (100 ish participants) and the charge was put in place to deter gobishi!es from entering, and also for the parents to feel their kid was taking part in a professional event. That €2 charge was definitely not there to increase profit. From that 'respect it because you paid for it' philosophy point of view I kind of agree with Martin.

Here in the south we don't have 100+ kids races so we don't have that problem, and are at the stage where we want to get as many people into the sport as possible so I agree with the general opinion that we shouldn't be (and won't) charging youth riders.

Just wanted to clarify this as I think it was taken out of context and Martin has done loads to promote cycling among kids up the north so I'm sure he had only good intentions in mind.

I know Martin does a lot for kids MTB up there but I still don't accept it. As the only person around here that got off his arse to do something about the lack of kids involvement in MTB I am more than entitled not to agree.
No offence Max but thats not a good enough reason in my completely unhumble opinion. I particularly dont like your comment that any charge will stop gob****es racing..I would strongly object to calling any youth/underage/ sprog a gobsh1te ...and having to pay to enter doesn't deter grown up gobsh1tes from entering.
I can't believe that the reason for a charge is to prevent people, especially small people from entering..
even if we had 100s of kids entering I still wouldnt charge..
the idea sickens me to be honest and makes me really , really angry. They are kids..they dont need a proffessional event, they need a great experience and a fun day out.

I don't know, you'd have to talk to Martin. That was the impression I got anyway, that some parents where not respecting the event/rules (and perhaps their kids where spoiling others race) and introducing that charge seemed to have solved that problem.

As I understood it they were looking for and got permission to charge underage/youth riders in NPS's in the north, they already charge for all other kids races.

Max, calling ANY kid that wants to race a "gobst1te" is just bull !!

Oh your all so PC now, might be the wrong choice of words but you know what I mean..

Max..its fairly obvious we're going to be PC when it comes to kids and no, I still don't know what you mean, they are kids..most of them charge around like out of control...kids. Thats what they do, trying to impose " proffessionalism " on them at age 8 by charging a miserable €2 makes no sense to me.
Its a pity I wasn't there..I'd have opposed it furiously..

Martin where are you! Listen.. I'm not the antichrist here, just trying to explain what was the reasoning behind this motion but perhaps I'm misinterpreting it.

it is a pity you couldn't be the Richie and a real shame others (who could but couldn't be arsed obviously) didn't. show up.

no problem Max, nothing personal. Unfortunately i wasn't there.

Ritchie, we missed you at the meeting. The Roc looked fab though. Thanks Max for filling in for my absence from the Epic board.

Ritchie, as you well know we run an Ulster XC race series, Spring MTB series and the Ulster cyclo-cross series. The clubs in Ulster made the decision a few years ago to charge youth a token payment for which parents should expect a well run event.

Now of the 16 races that young riders can go in the year we have (2/3/4) as NPS rounds. Now most parents bring their kids to a race. They don't care if its an NPS, Ulster round or any other type. It's a race and their kids enjoy it. All I wanted was the ability to not confuse parents with one race being paid and one race not being paid.

The motion was ONLY for the Ulster clubs to be allowed to charge for the youth races to help reduce confusion for parents. It was NOT to impose charges on youth for all NPS rounds. I know you have been working hard on encouraging youth and you'd probably PAY kids to show up if you had the funds !! I was just fighting for the right to not be forced to give free entry to kids when we then have to emphasis that the parents need to pay next time. And as you can see from the numbers coming forward, the charge is not putting off the youth coming forward.

Apologies for any confusion.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks for the post Martin and while I still refuse to accept having to charge Youth people, I am glad we can have this discussion without tears.
I don't understand charging them at all..Max confused me completely..no offence but I can't understand your reasoning.
If I had my way I would levy the Senior 1s and 2's in order to give every kid that races a medal and a free race.

Richie, I appreciate where you are coming from. We're all trying our best to build up the bottom of the pyramind so that we can increase the numbers moving up through the age categories, fill out our junior races and eventually produce more Seymours, hopefully within the next few years when, most likely, they'll still be able to look up to, and compete against, Sir Robin. My personal goal is to have races with 50 in the Under 8s and 50 in the Under 10s. Is we maintain this level of participation we can at least give the sport a future.

We shouldn't quarrel over our methods. Let's keep focusing on the goal.

Glad you're back.. ;-)

glad to be back..
now whats this nonsense about Ryan Sherlock adding value to every MTB race he does..where do i send Robin Seymours and Joe mcCalls invoices for 20 years of participation and race organising !!

I can't read all the bleeding unread posts so wheres the post about the AGM proposals and where we got all the praise for the Best event and the outstanding achievement award ?

ah come on !! what happened ?
Apart from hearing about Ryan Sherlock claiming to add value to an XC race by just turning up !! and some incredible misers putting forward charging " youth " yeah I believe the Anal Sphincters had their say also, thats all I heard !!
Its a hell of a pity i wasn't there !! so what did I miss ? anything good, nobody is being very talkative about it.
I can tell you now, that EPICmtb won't be charging Youth or Underage people entry to their events. What kind of backwards thinking is that ?
I know..lets charge the parents of kids a tax to pay for the winners of the Senior 1 race..
I would have thought that we should pay a levy to encourage Youth riders to race by allowing them to enter for free !!
Is that what is the most important thing in Irish Mountainbiking..Money? who deserves more money..are we putting a physical value on the participation of children ?
The Commission needs some Jackboots to stamp out this sort of miserable thinking..
Richie

To be fair to Martin (who had submitted this motion), he only wanted an official approval of the commision for what they have been doing for a while now, which is charging youth riders (or their parents rather) something about €2 per race.
I think races up in the north are much more popular with kids (100 ish participants) and the charge was put in place to deter gobishi!es from entering, and also for the parents to feel their kid was taking part in a professional event. That €2 charge was definitely not there to increase profit. From that 'respect it because you paid for it' philosophy point of view I kind of agree with Martin.

Here in the south we don't have 100+ kids races so we don't have that problem, and are at the stage where we want to get as many people into the sport as possible so I agree with the general opinion that we shouldn't be (and won't) charging youth riders.

Just wanted to clarify this as I think it was taken out of context and Martin has done loads to promote cycling among kids up the north so I'm sure he had only good intentions in mind.

I know Martin does a lot for kids MTB up there but I still don't accept it. As the only person around here that got off his arse to do something about the lack of kids involvement in MTB I am more than entitled not to agree.
No offence Max but thats not a good enough reason in my completely unhumble opinion. I particularly dont like your comment that any charge will stop gob****es racing..I would strongly object to calling any youth/underage/ sprog a gobsh1te ...and having to pay to enter doesn't deter grown up gobsh1tes from entering.
I can't believe that the reason for a charge is to prevent people, especially small people from entering..
even if we had 100s of kids entering I still wouldnt charge..
the idea sickens me to be honest and makes me really , really angry. They are kids..they dont need a proffessional event, they need a great experience and a fun day out.

I don't know, you'd have to talk to Martin. That was the impression I got anyway, that some parents where not respecting the event/rules (and perhaps their kids where spoiling others race) and introducing that charge seemed to have solved that problem.

As I understood it they were looking for and got permission to charge underage/youth riders in NPS's in the north, they already charge for all other kids races.

Max, calling ANY kid that wants to race a "gobst1te" is just bull !!

Oh your all so PC now, might be the wrong choice of words but you know what I mean..

Max..its fairly obvious we're going to be PC when it comes to kids and no, I still don't know what you mean, they are kids..most of them charge around like out of control...kids. Thats what they do, trying to impose " proffessionalism " on them at age 8 by charging a miserable €2 makes no sense to me.
Its a pity I wasn't there..I'd have opposed it furiously..

Martin where are you! Listen.. I'm not the antichrist here, just trying to explain what was the reasoning behind this motion but perhaps I'm misinterpreting it.

it is a pity you couldn't be the Richie and a real shame others (who could but couldn't be arsed obviously) didn't. show up.

no problem Max, nothing personal. Unfortunately i wasn't there.

Ritchie, we missed you at the meeting. The Roc looked fab though. Thanks Max for filling in for my absence from the Epic board.

Ritchie, as you well know we run an Ulster XC race series, Spring MTB series and the Ulster cyclo-cross series. The clubs in Ulster made the decision a few years ago to charge youth a token payment for which parents should expect a well run event.

Now of the 16 races that young riders can go in the year we have (2/3/4) as NPS rounds. Now most parents bring their kids to a race. They don't care if its an NPS, Ulster round or any other type. It's a race and their kids enjoy it. All I wanted was the ability to not confuse parents with one race being paid and one race not being paid.

The motion was ONLY for the Ulster clubs to be allowed to charge for the youth races to help reduce confusion for parents. It was NOT to impose charges on youth for all NPS rounds. I know you have been working hard on encouraging youth and you'd probably PAY kids to show up if you had the funds !! I was just fighting for the right to not be forced to give free entry to kids when we then have to emphasis that the parents need to pay next time. And as you can see from the numbers coming forward, the charge is not putting off the youth coming forward.

Apologies for any confusion.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks for the post Martin and while I still refuse to accept having to charge Youth people, I am glad we can have this discussion without tears.
I don't understand charging them at all..Max confused me completely..no offence but I can't understand your reasoning.
If I had my way I would levy the Senior 1s and 2's in order to give every kid that races a medal and a free race.

Richie, I appreciate where you are coming from. We're all trying our best to build up the bottom of the pyramind so that we can increase the numbers moving up through the age categories, fill out our junior races and eventually produce more Seymours, hopefully within the next few years when, most likely, they'll still be able to look up to, and compete against, Sir Robin. My personal goal is to have races with 50 in the Under 8s and 50 in the Under 10s. Is we maintain this level of participation we can at least give the sport a future.

We shouldn't quarrel over our methods. Let's keep focusing on the goal.

Glad you're back.. ;-)

glad to be back..
now whats this nonsense about Ryan Sherlock adding value to every MTB race he does..where do i send Robin Seymours and Joe mcCalls invoices for 20 years of participation and race organising !!

I can't read all the bleeding unread posts so wheres the post about the AGM proposals and where we got all the praise for the Best event and the outstanding achievement award ?

ah come on !! what happened ?
Apart from hearing about Ryan Sherlock claiming to add value to an XC race by just turning up !! and some incredible misers putting forward charging " youth " yeah I believe the Anal Sphincters had their say also, thats all I heard !!
Its a hell of a pity i wasn't there !! so what did I miss ? anything good, nobody is being very talkative about it.
I can tell you now, that EPICmtb won't be charging Youth or Underage people entry to their events. What kind of backwards thinking is that ?
I know..lets charge the parents of kids a tax to pay for the winners of the Senior 1 race..
I would have thought that we should pay a levy to encourage Youth riders to race by allowing them to enter for free !!
Is that what is the most important thing in Irish Mountainbiking..Money? who deserves more money..are we putting a physical value on the participation of children ?
The Commission needs some Jackboots to stamp out this sort of miserable thinking..
Richie

To be fair to Martin (who had submitted this motion), he only wanted an official approval of the commision for what they have been doing for a while now, which is charging youth riders (or their parents rather) something about €2 per race.
I think races up in the north are much more popular with kids (100 ish participants) and the charge was put in place to deter gobishi!es from entering, and also for the parents to feel their kid was taking part in a professional event. That €2 charge was definitely not there to increase profit. From that 'respect it because you paid for it' philosophy point of view I kind of agree with Martin.

Here in the south we don't have 100+ kids races so we don't have that problem, and are at the stage where we want to get as many people into the sport as possible so I agree with the general opinion that we shouldn't be (and won't) charging youth riders.

Just wanted to clarify this as I think it was taken out of context and Martin has done loads to promote cycling among kids up the north so I'm sure he had only good intentions in mind.

I know Martin does a lot for kids MTB up there but I still don't accept it. As the only person around here that got off his arse to do something about the lack of kids involvement in MTB I am more than entitled not to agree.
No offence Max but thats not a good enough reason in my completely unhumble opinion. I particularly dont like your comment that any charge will stop gob****es racing..I would strongly object to calling any youth/underage/ sprog a gobsh1te ...and having to pay to enter doesn't deter grown up gobsh1tes from entering.
I can't believe that the reason for a charge is to prevent people, especially small people from entering..
even if we had 100s of kids entering I still wouldnt charge..
the idea sickens me to be honest and makes me really , really angry. They are kids..they dont need a proffessional event, they need a great experience and a fun day out.

I don't know, you'd have to talk to Martin. That was the impression I got anyway, that some parents where not respecting the event/rules (and perhaps their kids where spoiling others race) and introducing that charge seemed to have solved that problem.

As I understood it they were looking for and got permission to charge underage/youth riders in NPS's in the north, they already charge for all other kids races.

Max, calling ANY kid that wants to race a "gobst1te" is just bull !!

Oh your all so PC now, might be the wrong choice of words but you know what I mean..

Max..its fairly obvious we're going to be PC when it comes to kids and no, I still don't know what you mean, they are kids..most of them charge around like out of control...kids. Thats what they do, trying to impose " proffessionalism " on them at age 8 by charging a miserable €2 makes no sense to me.
Its a pity I wasn't there..I'd have opposed it furiously..

Martin where are you! Listen.. I'm not the antichrist here, just trying to explain what was the reasoning behind this motion but perhaps I'm misinterpreting it.

it is a pity you couldn't be the Richie and a real shame others (who could but couldn't be arsed obviously) didn't. show up.

no problem Max, nothing personal. Unfortunately i wasn't there.

Ritchie, we missed you at the meeting. The Roc looked fab though. Thanks Max for filling in for my absence from the Epic board.

Ritchie, as you well know we run an Ulster XC race series, Spring MTB series and the Ulster cyclo-cross series. The clubs in Ulster made the decision a few years ago to charge youth a token payment for which parents should expect a well run event.

Now of the 16 races that young riders can go in the year we have (2/3/4) as NPS rounds. Now most parents bring their kids to a race. They don't care if its an NPS, Ulster round or any other type. It's a race and their kids enjoy it. All I wanted was the ability to not confuse parents with one race being paid and one race not being paid.

The motion was ONLY for the Ulster clubs to be allowed to charge for the youth races to help reduce confusion for parents. It was NOT to impose charges on youth for all NPS rounds. I know you have been working hard on encouraging youth and you'd probably PAY kids to show up if you had the funds !! I was just fighting for the right to not be forced to give free entry to kids when we then have to emphasis that the parents need to pay next time. And as you can see from the numbers coming forward, the charge is not putting off the youth coming forward.

Apologies for any confusion.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks for the post Martin and while I still refuse to accept having to charge Youth people, I am glad we can have this discussion without tears.
I don't understand charging them at all..Max confused me completely..no offence but I can't understand your reasoning.
If I had my way I would levy the Senior 1s and 2's in order to give every kid that races a medal and a free race.

Richie, I appreciate where you are coming from. We're all trying our best to build up the bottom of the pyramind so that we can increase the numbers moving up through the age categories, fill out our junior races and eventually produce more Seymours, hopefully within the next few years when, most likely, they'll still be able to look up to, and compete against, Sir Robin. My personal goal is to have races with 50 in the Under 8s and 50 in the Under 10s. Is we maintain this level of participation we can at least give the sport a future.

We shouldn't quarrel over our methods. Let's keep focusing on the goal.

Glad you're back.. ;-)

glad to be back..
now whats this nonsense about Ryan Sherlock adding value to every MTB race he does..where do i send Robin Seymours and Joe mcCalls invoices for 20 years of participation and race organising !!

I can't read all the bleeding unread posts so wheres the post about the AGM proposals and where we got all the praise for the Best event and the outstanding achievement award ?

ah come on !! what happened ?
Apart from hearing about Ryan Sherlock claiming to add value to an XC race by just turning up !! and some incredible misers putting forward charging " youth " yeah I believe the Anal Sphincters had their say also, thats all I heard !!
Its a hell of a pity i wasn't there !! so what did I miss ? anything good, nobody is being very talkative about it.
I can tell you now, that EPICmtb won't be charging Youth or Underage people entry to their events. What kind of backwards thinking is that ?
I know..lets charge the parents of kids a tax to pay for the winners of the Senior 1 race..
I would have thought that we should pay a levy to encourage Youth riders to race by allowing them to enter for free !!
Is that what is the most important thing in Irish Mountainbiking..Money? who deserves more money..are we putting a physical value on the participation of children ?
The Commission needs some Jackboots to stamp out this sort of miserable thinking..
Richie

To be fair to Martin (who had submitted this motion), he only wanted an official approval of the commision for what they have been doing for a while now, which is charging youth riders (or their parents rather) something about €2 per race.
I think races up in the north are much more popular with kids (100 ish participants) and the charge was put in place to deter gobishi!es from entering, and also for the parents to feel their kid was taking part in a professional event. That €2 charge was definitely not there to increase profit. From that 'respect it because you paid for it' philosophy point of view I kind of agree with Martin.

Here in the south we don't have 100+ kids races so we don't have that problem, and are at the stage where we want to get as many people into the sport as possible so I agree with the general opinion that we shouldn't be (and won't) charging youth riders.

Just wanted to clarify this as I think it was taken out of context and Martin has done loads to promote cycling among kids up the north so I'm sure he had only good intentions in mind.

I know Martin does a lot for kids MTB up there but I still don't accept it. As the only person around here that got off his arse to do something about the lack of kids involvement in MTB I am more than entitled not to agree.
No offence Max but thats not a good enough reason in my completely unhumble opinion. I particularly dont like your comment that any charge will stop gob****es racing..I would strongly object to calling any youth/underage/ sprog a gobsh1te ...and having to pay to enter doesn't deter grown up gobsh1tes from entering.
I can't believe that the reason for a charge is to prevent people, especially small people from entering..
even if we had 100s of kids entering I still wouldnt charge..
the idea sickens me to be honest and makes me really , really angry. They are kids..they dont need a proffessional event, they need a great experience and a fun day out.

I don't know, you'd have to talk to Martin. That was the impression I got anyway, that some parents where not respecting the event/rules (and perhaps their kids where spoiling others race) and introducing that charge seemed to have solved that problem.

As I understood it they were looking for and got permission to charge underage/youth riders in NPS's in the north, they already charge for all other kids races.

Max, calling ANY kid that wants to race a "gobst1te" is just bull !!

Oh your all so PC now, might be the wrong choice of words but you know what I mean..

Max..its fairly obvious we're going to be PC when it comes to kids and no, I still don't know what you mean, they are kids..most of them charge around like out of control...kids. Thats what they do, trying to impose " proffessionalism " on them at age 8 by charging a miserable €2 makes no sense to me.
Its a pity I wasn't there..I'd have opposed it furiously..

Martin where are you! Listen.. I'm not the antichrist here, just trying to explain what was the reasoning behind this motion but perhaps I'm misinterpreting it.

it is a pity you couldn't be the Richie and a real shame others (who could but couldn't be arsed obviously) didn't. show up.

no problem Max, nothing personal. Unfortunately i wasn't there.

Ritchie, we missed you at the meeting. The Roc looked fab though. Thanks Max for filling in for my absence from the Epic board.

Ritchie, as you well know we run an Ulster XC race series, Spring MTB series and the Ulster cyclo-cross series. The clubs in Ulster made the decision a few years ago to charge youth a token payment for which parents should expect a well run event.

Now of the 16 races that young riders can go in the year we have (2/3/4) as NPS rounds. Now most parents bring their kids to a race. They don't care if its an NPS, Ulster round or any other type. It's a race and their kids enjoy it. All I wanted was the ability to not confuse parents with one race being paid and one race not being paid.

The motion was ONLY for the Ulster clubs to be allowed to charge for the youth races to help reduce confusion for parents. It was NOT to impose charges on youth for all NPS rounds. I know you have been working hard on encouraging youth and you'd probably PAY kids to show up if you had the funds !! I was just fighting for the right to not be forced to give free entry to kids when we then have to emphasis that the parents need to pay next time. And as you can see from the numbers coming forward, the charge is not putting off the youth coming forward.

Apologies for any confusion.

I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks for the post Martin and while I still refuse to accept having to charge Youth people, I am glad we can have this discussion without tears.
I don't understand charging them at all..Max confused me completely..no offence but I can't understand your reasoning.
If I had my way I would levy the Senior 1s and 2's in order to give every kid that races a medal and a free race.

Richie, I appreciate where you are coming from. We're all trying our best to build up the bottom of the pyramind so that we can increase the numbers moving up through the age categories, fill out our junior races and eventually produce more Seymours, hopefully within the next few years when, most likely, they'll still be able to look up to, and compete against, Sir Robin. My personal goal is to have races with 50 in the Under 8s and 50 in the Under 10s. Is we maintain this level of participation we can at least give the sport a future.

We shouldn't quarrel over our methods. Let's keep focusing on the goal.

Glad you're back.. ;-)

glad to be back..
now whats this nonsense about Ryan Sherlock adding value to every MTB race he does..where do i send Robin Seymours and Joe mcCalls invoices for 20 years of participation and race organising !!