Hi Everyone, I thought that it was about time that I gave you a short update on what we have been doing behind the scenes at the ICA since I assumed the Chair in 1 January.
You will recall that some of my first tasks were to get an understanding of how the RG65 class runs in the various countries and at the same time try to set up a working party to help me develop the ICA further so that it better serves the RG65 class internationally. So what has been happening about this.
A few days ago I sent out a mini survey to all the National Representatives to gather some information about the size of the class in their countries as well as how it is run and operated, and then to gather their thoughts about how the ICA should go about establishing a working constitution and revised set of rules. We have received a number of responses to that survey and what they show us is that on a national level there are big differences in the size of fleets but also big differences in how the class is run and administered, none of which is a surprise to me. What we are seeing is that everyone wants to see some improvements in the way the Rules are set out and also that the ICA needs to be formalized through a Constitution but with differing views on what format that constitution and the rules should take. I am going to leave the survey running for another week or so and then will report back to you all with more details and then start to come up with proposals on next steps.
Moving onto the Working Party, I am pleased to say that we have some early take-up and so far we have Vangelis Simonides from Greece and Ireland, Andrew Cook from Australia and Achille Chatin from France taking an active part, with a number of others offering their services too. What I want to ensure is that the working party is representative of the whole world and so we are still seeking volunteers from North and South America, so please volunteer if you think you can represent those regions.
Vangelis has also volunteered to become our Webmaster and his first task is to totally revamp the website. Between us we have decided to set up a totally new site rather than use the old site as a starting point. Work is progressing well on moving all the content from the old site to the new one and we hope to launch the new site in a few days. The new www.RG65.org will have a Forum section for everyone to share and discuss topics and ideas and so once it is launched I will encourage you to sign up to it and use it. We will try to ensure that this forum is not used for any commercial purposes, and we ask all of you that are commercially involved with the class not to use it as an advertising platform for your business.
Thanks again for allowing me to take over the Chair of the ICA, and ask always, please drop me a line if you need or want anything from me.
I will further update you on progress in a week or two.
Wayne