I think if you look at the president's latest report you reliese how much he has done for Cycling SA Well done!!!! REPORT BACK FROM THE PRESIDENT (15 OCTOBER 2007) There is so much negativity in South African cycling administration circles at times, much of it often based on false rumours and ignorance of the true position. I thought that I should clear the record so that we can all see what is going on at CSA and judge for yourselves: 1. First, some good news, the World B-Championships has netted us R900 000,00 not the R250 000,00 as was initially thought. Much of this comes to us courtesy of the profit share arrangements we have set up with our commercial partners. Next year will be Junior Worlds which will be a very prestigious event for S.A. to host and my educated guess would be that we should make at least R2million from it, not to mention all the other benefits of hosting a World Championship. As you know, we will also host the BMX Championships in 2010. Also, as I have earlier informed, we will be hosting a Tour of South Africa in March 2008 which should nett us a further R2million. And then again we will be hosting the Pro Training Camp in early February 2008 together with 5 single day events and I'm estimating we could make another million rand from all of that. Personally, I cannot recall a time in SACF/CSA history which comes close to all of this. In previous years, especially recently, CSA has struggled to break even or make a paper loss but now we're looking at a position where, I believe, we will soon be able to appoint a CEO and open an office in Gauteng. 2. Yet further good news ? our compulsory licensing initiative for all cyclists, countrywide, is beginning to bear fruit. Let's not forget that this is an initiative which I and my Board have taken and that for years such a system has been talked about but no-one has had the energy or enterprise to initiate it. Out of the Cape Argus/Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour, alone, we have accrued some 20 000 new e-mail addresses of cyclists who we can talk to ? or at least will be able to talk to when our IT is up to speed which will be soon. This also yields us a further approximately R400 000,00 we never had before. And as to the IT, we are well on track to setting up our system and going "live", hopefully by mid-November. More of this later. 3. When I took over as President the CSA Board had been dysfunctional for about 18 months. In fact, we were voted in with only 7 pale males. None of the Provinces had even nominated enough people to fill the Board and incredibly, not even a Financial Trustee was nominated. Government was making it clear that we were "the racist sport". 4. My first action was to amend the Constitution to have a full Board including 4 people of colour and a full strength Transformation and Development Commission which CSA never had before. None of the Provinces nominated people for these positions but my Board members and I found them. Today we have a strong T&D Commission and together we have workshopped a 10 year transformation programme at all levels, even down to procurement. 5. I also appointed a Financial Trustee ? unhappily he didn't work out but we have obtained a replacement, I'm happy to say. Mark Bradley, a Chartered Accountant from Port Elizabeth, joins us for our next Board meeting in Durban on the 20th. 6. One of my first actions was to seek the Board's authority to appoint a Chief Operations Officer which we have done and which I am sure you are all aware, has contributed substantially to the smoother running of CSA although I am not pretending that we are anywhere near where we want to be and the operational side of CSA is very much work-in-progress. I pause to mention that our COO's remuneration is being paid for over the first year by PPA, Western Cape, a deal which I and my Vice-President, David Bellairs, organised with them earlier. 7. Until 10 months ago, CSA was totally financially dependent on Government/Lotto and licence fees. We now have a commercial arm for the first time working jointly with people in private enterprise whose job is solely to look after the financial interests of our sport and CSA. The commercial arm is a joint venture with us. In the last 10 months we have negotiated time/space on TV. I have already informed you of our earnings from World B Champs and what we should earn from other Events we will be hosting ? not only Junior Worlds and the BMX World Champs but also Mountain and BMX World Cup Events. Great news is that we are currently negotiating a R750K for Transformation and Development. We are also negotiating with our commercial arm for a R2million advance on anticipated profits in the form of a non-refundable loan. 8. For a long time the SACF/CSA infrastructure has been sadly lacking. No transparency; no accountability and the heavy hand of a few. Three Selectors trying to cope with Teams nationwide with no budget and Selectors not even going to races. As you know, at my instance, we effected changes to the Constitution at the last Congress and we now have Selectors panels for Vets, Elites, U23s, Juniors and Women. We also have a Selectors panel designed to set objective criteria for selections and to ensure down the line that our Selectors have budgets and get to see the races and that the best Selectors are appointed. 9. Similarly, we have appointed a Coaching Commission, designed to upgrade our coaching; get more Coaches and improve their training, also a first for cycling in this country. 10. We have appointed a Managers Commission, designed to get more and better trained Managers. 11. Another first, we have appointed a Women's Commission whose objective is to focus purely on Women's cycling as we feel that South African can really make a mark in this area. 12. In consultation with leading riders, we are setting up a South African Riders Association which has been tried before but which needs revitalising. 13. We have had meetings with cyclists and Managers for the improvement of our "professional Teams" and we have redrawn Club and "Pro" Contracts although admittedly this remains work in progress. 14. Our website has been greatly improved. I write a monthly "President's Newsletter" and we are currently going to expand this to include Reports from Directors of all the Commissions; Transformation and Development and also our Commercial arm. 15. We are trying as hard as we can to improve matters for cyclists out there. Both Carinus and our Vice-President, David, are happily, able to travel around the country even mid-week as they are both employed by cycling fulltime and can do this. 16. The CSA office is running well and despite intermittent criticisms, I can assure you that we have many, many e-mails of people congratulating the office on their efficiency. There is so much "behind-the-scenes" work being done on an almost daily basis that I can't even begin to go into it and it would be boring for you to read anyway. Let me assure you that your Board is working hard at improving and strengthening our sport, country-wide. These are people who give of their time voluntarily and I go back to what I said at the outset, namely that we need a CEO but the good news is that we will be able to fund this very shortly. I will in fact be talking to our Board about this at our very next meeting.
