OFFSHORE RACING DRIVERS ASSOCIATION
Affiliated to the RYA
Dear All
Following a meeting of the new 2012 committee on Sunday 19th Feb 2012 various matters and issues were discussed relating to the 2011 season, and certain changes have been made to the way the club will from now on operate on a day to day basis.
We all accept that 2011 was a difficult year for the club, particularly when you bear in mind the lack of committee members due to reluctance for people to nominate themselves, and indeed resignations from the committee.
The effect of a lack of committee members in turn created a huge pressure of workload for those remaining, and it is therefore fair to say that we as a club were perhaps not as well organised as we now hope that we will be, now that we have the committee back up to full strength.
We would also like to point out that all the members of the committee give up their own personal time to carry out tasks on behalf of the club, and would ask club members in particular, and also any other person having dealings with the club, to please remember that sometimes we as committee members need to put other personal, and or work commitments first, and would therefore ask for a little understanding, if matters are not being dealt with as promptly, or efficiently as you might otherwise like.
Therefore turning to the positives for the future we would like to explain a few changes that the club has now put in place, which predominantly relate to how the club communicates, with its members and indeed the outside world.
With immediate effect Mark Brewster has now taken over the role of communications, and will from now on be the main point of contact for the club members, or indeed anybody else, that requires any form of question answered by the club. He will on a daily basis be checking e mails to him in this regard, and will respond on behalf of the club, in writing, setting out in detail the clubs position in relation to any question raised by any person.
To that end we are now in the process of setting up specific ORDA e mail addresses for each and every committee member, so that they do not have to use what are normally work e mail addresses, which will make life easier for all the committee members. However this is likely to take a week or two to set up, and we will issue another statement to all parties once the e mail addresses have been set up, and in that statement we will provide the e mail addresses of ALL committee members.
In the meantime, if you could now address ALL correspondence to the club to Marks work e mail address mark@stark-cs.co.uk he will be happy to answer any questions or issues that you might have. Obviously he might need to take the advice of other committee members, and so immediate responses might not always be possible. However we would hope that most queries can be answered within 48 hours, or if not, then an explanation of the process and the likely timescale involved will be given. What we do promise though is that ALL questions will be answered in a considered and reasoned way, and in that way we hope to provide a more positive atmosphere for resolving any issues that any person might have, either with the club, or with something the club is involved in.
This then brings us to the question of public forum websites, and in particular the use of Boatmad.
We have agreed that we do NOT think it is appropriate for issues and debates to be played out on Boatmad, in full view of the public, future potential racers, etc. We have decided therefore that ORDA will not get into any debate on this or any other website on any subject whatsoever. Therefore any questions asked of the club by this medium will from now on unfortunately go unanswered. We are perfectly happy to have the debates on any matter, but we feel they must be through the appropriate channels, and this is as detailed above. Please send your questions to Mark and he will deal with them. Please feel free to debate any matter as much as you like via Mark. All we will not do is have the debate on Boatmad.
The reasons for this are many, but the main one being the perception of the sport by the outside world. If the outside world continually sees arguments, being played out in a public arena, then the likelihood of attracting new blood into the sport is in our opinion somewhat diminished, and to be frank makes us all look like children arguing in a playground. We feel it is of paramount importance, that we ALL promote our sport in a positive manner so that we can attract this new blood in, or else when this current generation of racers retire, (which many are doing already) the sport will be gone.
That said we do recognise the good sides of Boatmad as well. It is a fantastic medium to get information out from the club to anybody we want to reach, and we will continue to use Boatmad in this positive way. We will continue to use the ORDA sub thread as an area where we can issue any information that will be of assistance to members, racers and the public, such as advance notices of events, race instructions, race results, general statements etc. All we will not be doing is getting into argument and debate on the website for the reasons outlined above.
Turning now to race teams in particular, we would hope that you all see this as a positive step forward in the way that racing issues can be dealt with by the club. Mark has been racing for 12 years now, both as driver and as navigator. He has raced 2 litre and V24, his son Sam last year raced OCR and 1.3 litre and both of them will be racing again this year. He is possibly therefore better placed than most to understand any issue, from the race team’s perspective, and guarantees you, that his main aim in this role is to create an atmosphere where we have a positive environment that provides fair and fun racing for ALL race teams no matter, at what level, or within what class they race. He gives you his personal assurance that he will deal with any issue raised in an unbiased manner, and that he will do everything he possibly can to keep the racers as happy as possible within the confines of the rules that exist.
To that end Mark will be writing to various race teams over the next day or two, which we know to have outstanding queries or issue with the club, in an effort to clear up such issues and clear the way forward for a successful 2012 season.
Mark awaits any queries or questions that you may have at the above e mail address.
The Committee.
Affiliated to the RYA
Dear All
Following a meeting of the new 2012 committee on Sunday 19th Feb 2012 various matters and issues were discussed relating to the 2011 season, and certain changes have been made to the way the club will from now on operate on a day to day basis.
We all accept that 2011 was a difficult year for the club, particularly when you bear in mind the lack of committee members due to reluctance for people to nominate themselves, and indeed resignations from the committee.
The effect of a lack of committee members in turn created a huge pressure of workload for those remaining, and it is therefore fair to say that we as a club were perhaps not as well organised as we now hope that we will be, now that we have the committee back up to full strength.
We would also like to point out that all the members of the committee give up their own personal time to carry out tasks on behalf of the club, and would ask club members in particular, and also any other person having dealings with the club, to please remember that sometimes we as committee members need to put other personal, and or work commitments first, and would therefore ask for a little understanding, if matters are not being dealt with as promptly, or efficiently as you might otherwise like.
Therefore turning to the positives for the future we would like to explain a few changes that the club has now put in place, which predominantly relate to how the club communicates, with its members and indeed the outside world.
With immediate effect Mark Brewster has now taken over the role of communications, and will from now on be the main point of contact for the club members, or indeed anybody else, that requires any form of question answered by the club. He will on a daily basis be checking e mails to him in this regard, and will respond on behalf of the club, in writing, setting out in detail the clubs position in relation to any question raised by any person.
To that end we are now in the process of setting up specific ORDA e mail addresses for each and every committee member, so that they do not have to use what are normally work e mail addresses, which will make life easier for all the committee members. However this is likely to take a week or two to set up, and we will issue another statement to all parties once the e mail addresses have been set up, and in that statement we will provide the e mail addresses of ALL committee members.
In the meantime, if you could now address ALL correspondence to the club to Marks work e mail address mark@stark-cs.co.uk he will be happy to answer any questions or issues that you might have. Obviously he might need to take the advice of other committee members, and so immediate responses might not always be possible. However we would hope that most queries can be answered within 48 hours, or if not, then an explanation of the process and the likely timescale involved will be given. What we do promise though is that ALL questions will be answered in a considered and reasoned way, and in that way we hope to provide a more positive atmosphere for resolving any issues that any person might have, either with the club, or with something the club is involved in.
This then brings us to the question of public forum websites, and in particular the use of Boatmad.
We have agreed that we do NOT think it is appropriate for issues and debates to be played out on Boatmad, in full view of the public, future potential racers, etc. We have decided therefore that ORDA will not get into any debate on this or any other website on any subject whatsoever. Therefore any questions asked of the club by this medium will from now on unfortunately go unanswered. We are perfectly happy to have the debates on any matter, but we feel they must be through the appropriate channels, and this is as detailed above. Please send your questions to Mark and he will deal with them. Please feel free to debate any matter as much as you like via Mark. All we will not do is have the debate on Boatmad.
The reasons for this are many, but the main one being the perception of the sport by the outside world. If the outside world continually sees arguments, being played out in a public arena, then the likelihood of attracting new blood into the sport is in our opinion somewhat diminished, and to be frank makes us all look like children arguing in a playground. We feel it is of paramount importance, that we ALL promote our sport in a positive manner so that we can attract this new blood in, or else when this current generation of racers retire, (which many are doing already) the sport will be gone.
That said we do recognise the good sides of Boatmad as well. It is a fantastic medium to get information out from the club to anybody we want to reach, and we will continue to use Boatmad in this positive way. We will continue to use the ORDA sub thread as an area where we can issue any information that will be of assistance to members, racers and the public, such as advance notices of events, race instructions, race results, general statements etc. All we will not be doing is getting into argument and debate on the website for the reasons outlined above.
Turning now to race teams in particular, we would hope that you all see this as a positive step forward in the way that racing issues can be dealt with by the club. Mark has been racing for 12 years now, both as driver and as navigator. He has raced 2 litre and V24, his son Sam last year raced OCR and 1.3 litre and both of them will be racing again this year. He is possibly therefore better placed than most to understand any issue, from the race team’s perspective, and guarantees you, that his main aim in this role is to create an atmosphere where we have a positive environment that provides fair and fun racing for ALL race teams no matter, at what level, or within what class they race. He gives you his personal assurance that he will deal with any issue raised in an unbiased manner, and that he will do everything he possibly can to keep the racers as happy as possible within the confines of the rules that exist.
To that end Mark will be writing to various race teams over the next day or two, which we know to have outstanding queries or issue with the club, in an effort to clear up such issues and clear the way forward for a successful 2012 season.
Mark awaits any queries or questions that you may have at the above e mail address.
The Committee.
