ECCC Fall Meeting 2010

This year's meeting will be hosted by Army in West Point, NY on Saturday, November 20th:

  ECCC 2010 Fall Planning Meeting
  9am, November 20, 2010
  Benny Haven Lounge/Cow Club room
  3rd Floor, Eisenhower Hall
  US Military Academy
  West Point, NY

All individuals must have government issued ID with them in order to enter the base!!!

Pizza lunch will be provided. Directions and an agenda are below.

What?

The ECCC has a lot going on---four seasons, over twenty weekends of racing, and more than a thousand racers currently make up the conference. Key to organizing all of that is the annual ECCC Planning Meeting. At the meeting, all teams get together to discuss the state of the conference, vote on rules changes, and schedule upcoming seasons.

This year, the ECCC will be holding its traditional Fall Planning Meeting on Saturday, November 20th. The Winter Planning Meeting will also be held in February 2011. The imminent Fall Meeting will focus on general topics and the road season, including rules changes and the spring schedule, with some discussion on cyclocross on the mountain biking. The Winter Meeting will focus on cyclocross, track, and MTB.

All teams should have a representative at the fall meeting, particularly those that participate in the road season. Representatives from schools looking to start new teams are also more than welcome to attend. All promoting teams *must* have a representative in attendance and prepared to present their proposal.

Pre Meeting Materials

Slide decks:

Race proposals:

Outcomes

Raw notes are available (PDF).

Spring schedule:

Mar 5/6: Rutgers---Circuit race will move to Saturday with a new ITT, same crit.
Mar 12/13: Columbia/Stevens---Classic Columbia crit, new Stevens circuit course in a different park, with an ITT.
Mar 19/20: Philly Phlyer---Very similar TTT and circuit race, may be moving crit to Temple campus.
Mar 26/27: RPI---An all new weekend, featuring a circuit race, ITT, and 9 corner crit of doom!
Apr 2/3: Boston Beanpot (BU/MIT, Tufts)---TTT and road race in Westminster used by MIT in 2009, slightly longer Tufts Crit!
Apr 9/10: Yale---Same hillclimb ITT and crit, new circuit course with ~7 mile loop through the park and over East Rock each lap!
Apr 16/17: Dartmouth/UNH---Slightly modified Dartmouth TTT and frat row crit, road race based on UNH 2005 course.
Apr 23/24: Easterns @ PSU---Same TTT and frat row crit as 2009, and the dreaded Black Moshannon!!!

Rules & policy changes:

Discussion on better balancing the men's fields and encouraging a reduction in the size of the Men's D field generated many good points and proposals. The decision was made to table the topic for now, going back to generate concrete proposals and commentary, and returning to the issue at the February meeting. However, some key points were:
- There are riders who should be moving down to Intro, but by far the larger issue is upgrading top riders.
  - Complicating shifting riders down is that the Intro fields are already full at the start of the season, though they do frequently get too small as it goes on.
- Adding another field could not be done without great difficulty, and shouldn't be done until all fields are maxing out.
- Any solution should be entirely positive, not negative.
- A new proposed idea is to alter the points tables, deepening the points tables for C, B, and A at an increasing rate, thus creating more incentive for teams to push riders up.
- Coaches and teams are the biggest part of policing this.
  - Many riders and teams aren't really worrying about points, people the many one-person teams in the D field, so the force of points-based approaches is limited.
Teams are willing to take on a small increase in race fees if necessary, in particular if it will support higher quality courses. However, this has been shelved until promoters make a convincing case that this is either necessary or will dramatically improve event quality.

Also of note, a serious candidate for track coordinator has stepped forward, something badly needed to revive that season.

Agenda

  ECCC Fall Planning Meeting
  November 20th, 2010

  0900 Overview
    Introductions

    2010 Quick Review
      - Outcomes from last year, growth and participation

    Trailmap
      - Where we are, where we're going, where we could go, general
        conference structural items, current significant projects


  0945 Women's Cycling
    Current state of women's cycling in the ECCC, feedback and
    discussion on 2010 road changes and new ideas


  1015 Cyclocross and MTB
    Current status, discussion on future directions
      - Shift in cyclocross scheduling paradigm toward smaller events,
        updates on collegiate promoted races

      - Bringing women back to MTB season, MTB officiating


  1045 Rule & Policy Changes
    Two major topics to discuss:
      - Balancing rider distribution to reduce Men's D fields
        + General proposal: Not tracking Men's D standings
        + General proposal: X/Y scoring for lower categories
        + General proposal: Mandatory upgrades

      - Increased registration fee cap for road races (as opposed to
        crits or circuit race courses)
        + What's a helpful but affordable increase?
        + Defining criteria?  Most likely based around race schedules
        + Do promoters want this?  Won't enact with evidence of need


  1145 Race Policies and Expectations
    Guidelines, rules, and expectations for promoters and racers

    Promoter Best Practices


  1245 Break
    Grab lunch!


  1300 Road Race Proposals
    Short briefs from each potential promoter on their planned event


  1500 Road 2011 Scheduling
    Determination of final schedule for Spring 2011

The meeting is expected to close by 1600.

Directions

Eisenhower Hall is the tallest building on the West Point campus, the building over the tunnel on the extended USMA crit course.

Directions to West Point & Ike Hall from all areas can be found here.

Attendees are recommended to enter West Point from the Stony Lonesome Gate, at the top of the hill climb time trial. At the Stony Lonesome gate go through the security gate, taking the right lane unless you have a Department of Defense vehicle decal. After all occupants have shown their photo ID to the guards, continue down Stony Lonesome Road past Michie Stadium, the football stadium, on your right---bear left and do not turn off Stony Lonesome Road. Continue down the hill to the stop sign and turn left onto Washington Road. Take the next sharp right onto Ruger Road. Proceed down the hill to the traffic rotary, passing it on the right and yielding to traffic in the circle. Eisenhower Hall Theatre is the large red brick building straight ahead. There is a parking lot just beyond the traffic circle where parking will be available. Signs will be posted directing participants to the third floor meeting area in the Benny Havens Lounge.

Contact

For all questions or comments, please contact:

  Joe Kopena
  Conference Director, ECCC
  jkopena@usacycling.org
  267-738-2278

From ECCC

Events: FallMeeting2010