Ever wondered where your cycling membership money goes?

You may recall a newsletter article from earlier this year on the costs of running the criterium races at SKCC. This article follows on from that and looks at the services that Cycling Australia/Cycling Victoria (CA/CV) provide as part of a cycling membership.

SKCC members currently contribute approximately $150,000 per annum in the form of licence fees and levies.  The licence fee payments to CA typically represent 60% to 80% of a riders total licence fee.
Racing riders also pay a $1 levy per rider per criterium to CV. According to CV Guidelines; all metropolitan Criterium races (Carnegie, Footscray, St Kilda, Hawthorn, Southern Vets) are required to pay a $1 per senior rider levy with all Junior riders $0.50 per rider (J17 or younger).  

So what do we get for our money? Services provided by CA/CV to SKCC members include:
1. Insurance
2. Open racing events
3. DISC (indoor velodrome)
4. Administration
5. Other
It is the “other” category that is most important here. Behind the scenes, CV have been working away on a number projects that will greatly impact all of us.

There are a number of development initiatives underway that will draw on funds from licence fees and the criterium levy. Most of these should benefit SKCC as well as other clubs.
1. State Facilities Strategy and promotion of the inner city dedicated criterium course. CV is working closely with state government to get the preliminary study underway. This is taking up management resources and possibly requires a shared funding contribution.
2. Facilitate implementation of timing/ results system for clubs wanting to implement such a system by providing open source software that provides a presentation format and can also operate with Tag Hueur transponders. here
 is an example.
3. Development of an online results and event database which will allow clubs to record race results. This service is being adopted from an established system and has no connection to IMG.
4. Provide a “train the trainer” option so that one or more current club Commissaires can be trained to accredit future Level 1 Commissaires in SKCC.
5. CV has also been trialling the mapping of road race courses with the aim of making it easier for clubs and combines to secure necessary permits for racing. This has required extensive liaison with state government.
I trust that this helps with understanding where our licencing and racing levy fees go.  For me the most critical work that CV is currently undertaking for SKCC is to identify and develop an inner city criterium circuit.  The SKCC committee will continue to work with CV to ensure that this project comes to fruition.

If you have any questions, or would like to offer support in any of the above, please contact me here.
 
Anthony Seipolt
President SKCC