6 minute read
2020 Post Covid 19…
By Lionel Cox
We find ourselves here in 2020 in an ever changing highly technological world where its management has changed beyond belief. Gone are the days of analogue devices changed on a wing and a prayer, gone are the days of hierarchical management were do as I say is the enforced rhetoric for a meaningfulorganisation.
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Trials bikes are evolving and we are seeing programmable ignition maps and fuel injection creeping slowly in, but interestingly the carburettor remains the staunch favourite of most manufacturers as they aim to recoup maximum profit from their existing technology. Or as some might suggest "if it ain't broke don't fix it!" However the age of electric trials bikes that brim with software driven technology is now knocking at the door…
However lets look at technology and management of trials… no not the bikes, but the technology that supports the running of a trial. Here we see a slower embracing of technology and management change as "it makes NO money" and the entrenched attitude of "we have done like this for years".
One of the jobs it is so hard to fill in any meeting is Secretary of the Meeting (SOM) as it involves so many different jobs needing to be done both before and after themeeting. It is also one of the jobs that has no official training, unlike Clerk of the Course (COC) that holds ACU assigned qualification. However COC is predominately a one day job and can be suggested as being no more responsible or indeed complicated than the SOM tasks.
ACU online entry was slow to take off, but is now seen as a standard SOM job. The system is long winded to input, but importantly it is reliable, used by most hence well supported.
On the day entry has remained the same for so many years, a paper entry form, show your licence, sign in, leave a cheque (rarely now) or pay your cash and off you go. Trials survives on "on the day entries" as it is more of a wake up, decide and go activity. Hence is it not time to have an electronic licence that you can input into an app on the day and enters you. Oh that would save so much time and effort! Not only that Covid -19 has showed that we must minimise the handling of paper documents.
Then it comes to the results. Pencil marked observers cards are taken and input into a home made spreadsheet from which the results are calculated. Before this task is suggested as simple, 50 riders doing 4 laps of a 10 section trial means inputting and checking 2,000 entries, only after the names, club and class is entered for each rider. Electronic marking systems are about & being tested but need uptake to increase confidence and acceptance.
This of course begs another question why are local trials accepting of results well after an event has finished. Trials GP and many local youth trials have results published minutes after the last rider finishes and almost all other motor sports have instantaneous results. A drive to expect more in terms of results will drive the technology that would arguably make the SOM job easier and more accessible to all as the automation increases and the learning curve decreases.
Now lets look at the support of trials atthe front end, trials clubs who "voluntarily" run the meetings. There appears to be a theoretical top down hierarchical structure of ACU to Centre Management to Club. In reality this is very rarely the case and Clubs "answer to" both Centre & ACU. However "answer to" needs clarification.
ACU Rugby and its personnel are set up, in my experience, as a "customer facing service" organisation with an aim of helping in the process of running a Club and meetings. The online system and its associated licensing and accounts personnel backup being an example of an effective "service organisation" in the support of its front end i.e. customer facing users (the Clubs) and riders. Their telephone support for license, permit, Club, rider or ACU hand book issues is always friendly and concerned, with follow up that can be suggested as always being there. However the ACU will need now to apply resource to making more of the form filling online as the completion of paper clearly needs to die along with Covid-19.
However Centre Management can be suggested as that, "management". Clearly I can only speak on a local level, with the trials element being my main contact concern. However I feel the lessons learned here could would be applicable nation wide.
How can Centre Management quotes like riders or Club officials wanting to attend an "open" meeting..... "whilst we are happy for any ACU South Midland members to attend Management meetings we would expect them to let me know before the meeting and also if there is an issue they want to discuss that they let me what it is so that it can be added to the Agenda". Surely the concept of encouraging active bottom up involvement and ensuring transparency should be intrinsic in the organisation of any amateur run sport. Reactive discussion is established as the basis of debate and evolution in schools of thought.
Encouraging local ACU members to drop in on an ad-hoc basis to watch, listen and use the formal framework of AOB as a mechanism of interaction is surely the only constitutional method of overview interaction. The other advantage of course would be that non coopted members could also give feedback to the Clubs and riders and provide a breeding ground for future Centre Support.
People give up their time freely to run and further the sport, involvement and encouragement is surely a strategic aim at ACU Rugby and Centre level? In terms of encouragement and involvement I feel that both Centre Management and Centre Stewards should not adopt a sole "checking of therules" role, but one of advisors helpers and most importantly educators. For example encouragement of new COC or SOM roles are paramount. Help, supportive guidance and education, not imposition, is the only way to ensure amateur motorcycle sport will flourish. We all see that not only loss of land is an issue, but the volunteers at Club level, willing to run the sport in an ever increasing formalised environment, is becoming an ever more scarce commodity. I am not suggesting that there need be less formal structure to the sport, but far more encouragement and guidance to those attempting to promote, manage and run it.
In all I would like to see ACU Rugby review the running of the Centre level structure. I feel that the name "Centre Management" should be changed to "Centre Support" to strategically redirect Centre level thinking. For ACU motor sport to flourish, I, like many others, feel it would be worth while that Rugby ACU effort be spent into vastly improving the amateur Centre level support for those many other amateurs running clubs "at the sharp end".
