The last month has seen us complete the annual winter training seminars with over 400 Clerks and Stewards attending from across the UK , including meetings in Scotland and Northern Ireland . Whilst the main purpose of these seminars is to impart the latest information about rules and regs , it is also a valuable opportunity to get feedback from the community who act as a bell weather across many critical subjects in the sport , especially when things are changing for the new season .

As you will no doubt be aware , the two main projects over the last 18 months has been Sport : 80 , the new digital CRM platform , and the National Competition Rules ( NCRs ), the new digital version of our traditional Blue Book . As with any change it is inevitable that there is a crossover period from an old system to a new one and that causes a degree of extra work for everybody involved . For both projects the content is not fundamentally changing , but rather it is the format and presentation that has changed . You may well ask , why would we go through all this trouble to simply have the same output ? The answer is that in both cases this is very much the beginning of a journey into a new digital world . Until now we have been heading up a cul-de-sac in both workstreams . Although we had gone someway to developing digital versions , they were ultimately constrained by the platforms on which they sat . The new digital frameworks that we have developed for Sport : 80 and the NCRs will over the next few years unlock enormous benefits to the community , with an ever-extending digital universe that connects our members , clubs , events , officials and volunteers as well as the event related information including results and eventually the cataloguing of vehicles to tie it all together . On the Blue Book , it is fair to say that few people would be able to recite all 468 pages and the move to a fully searchable and interactive digital format will release the inherent knowledge for all . This will be further enhanced with the introduction of an app-based format in the spring .

As I said , there have been challenges for the community in adopting the new Sport : 80 platform and I thank everybody for their patience and persistence in finding your way through this new architecture . The good news is , that despite these adoption hurdles , the monthly permits and licences have not dropped below that of last year , with over 700 permits issued for January , February and March and a further percentage already completed for the balance of the year . Competition licences started in November and have accelerated faster than in previous years , one assumes due to the ease of use for many applicants . These are currently running five per cent above those of the last few years as we head towards the end of March . I mention these only to illustrate that although Sport : 80 has required a good deal of extra energy it has not posed any fundamental concern for the sport to continue to thrive .

Claire Kirkpatric

The annual winter training seminars had over 400 Clerks and Stewards in attendance

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Revolution - March 2025