Welcome to the federation news of our new look monthly e-mailer. The federation has moved forward over the past few months since the resignation of former President Mr William Newman, at the Annual General Meeting. Mr Yster Xatasi was unanimously appointed as President by Exco.
Mr Xatasi has started off by driving an agenda of inclusivity in Cycling, to make cycling more accessible to all South Africans. In addition Cycling South Africa has worked to improve its governance, financial and strategic objectives. One of our focus areas was to improve effectiveness and efficiencies, through the reduction of administrative expenditure and finding new technology/systems at a better cost to the organisation.
Administration expenses have been reduced by 34% since 2015 with an estimated decrease of a further 7% for the 2018 financial year. At the same time membership fees were brought in line with many other sporting codes in South Africa. Cycling SA has managed to still remain one of the cheaper sporting federations to belong to. Currently we foresee that these fees will remain static in the medium term. During this process real membership value was created and additional membership value will be sought to the benefit all Cycling SA members.
Cycling SA has an annual membership of R250. This funding is utilised as follows:
R100 – per member per year is for medical and death insurance of R25,000 (per incident) and Road Cover (free road accident fund administration and claims)
R150 – sporting and administrative costs
As we approach our new financial year, the Tokyo 2020 qualification process begins, Cycling SA submitted a new National Lottery application, with a strong focus on grass roots development and high performance. Changes to our operating platforms, will allow us to realise funds faster and improve our communication network. Current fiscal applications will result in Cycling SA returning to offer support to riders during the crucial Olympic Qualification periods. This support will apply through a much more focused a stringent approach, derived from lessons learnt during the last qualification periods, in order to achieve the best possible outcome. We have to cognisant of current macro-economic variables that are out of our control, which often have a far greater impact on our sport.
The CyclingSA mobile app has an online entry portal that has been developed to reduce event costs and offer convenience to members – the proverbial “one stop shop”. The system is built around our database, so membership/licence checks are done on entry, levies and day licences (where necessary, are collected up front). We are in the process of designing a new communication interface that will increase benefits to members and allow our affiliates to communicate with you, the member, on developments within your region.
Cycling SA is working on initiatives to host more UCI categorised events in SA, inviting an increased number of international athletes to compete locally, providing, you the fan, with some exciting racing to watch. We are forging ties with countries to facilitate exchange of skills and ideas, as well as participation for our athletes. This facilitates a greater number of our athletes the opportunity to gain international experience and exposure.
The coaching commission is hard a work designing generic training programs for our everyday members that will lead to members participating more frequently and maybe even looking for a bit more of a personal touch with a number of our registered Cycling SA coaches. We have a signed a MOU with Training Peaks, thereby giving coaches and riders access to use the training monitoring system to bring about better results in performance, irrespective of level of competition.
Photo credit: Tour de Limpopo / @haydsbrown
