Thornbury Running Club Committee Meeting

Thornbury Running Club Committee Meeting

Thursday 16th March 2017

Present: Craig Carscadden (CC)(Chairperson), Hugh McPherson (HM)(Treasurer), Angela Bushell (AB)(Secretray), Jim Godden (JG), Steve Dimond (SD), Kevin Cundy (KC), Emma Barnes (EB), Jo Emerson (JE), Arthur Renshaw (AR), Ros Rowland (RR), John Watt (JW), Dave Beard (DB), Nick Langridge (NL), Kevin Wood (KW)

Apologies:Pete Mainstone (PM)(Captain),Rob Watkins (RW), Jon Welsh (JW), Mike Bennewitz (MB)

Amendments to Minutes of last committee meeting 26th January 2017:

Treasurers report to be included as an Appendix to the main meeting minutes.

Matters Arising from AGM:

How many places club fell short of for 2nd London Marathon place? Craig

Facebook page access, Craig to contact Liam by end March 2017. Craig

Leisure Centre Noticeboard – TRC flyer Craig

Treasurer’s Report: Please see Appendix 1 for Treasurers Report.

Secretary’s Report:

AB reported that to date 66 members have renewed their club membership for 2017 (41 M & 25 F).7 new members have joined the club in2017 (3 M & 4 F).

Including the 6 honorary members(3 M3 F) total club membershipcurrently stands at 79 (47 M & 32 F).

AB pointed out that to date only 23 members have applied for England Athletics membership & was concerned that this may not qualify the club for a London Marathon place but CC thinks that this number should still be enough to secure 1 place.

Stock of Old Club Kit: A Fire Sale of old club kit is to be arranged. The date is to be confirmed but suggestions included on a club night, during a club social event or at the Thornbury 10K.

New Club Kit: KC confirmed that to date he has received orders from 33 members totalling 40 pieces of new kit but that this falls short of the numbers needed to gain any significant price reduction.A discussion followed with a number of points being made:

KW – feels it would be a great marketing tool if every member was given a free club t-shirt which they should be encouraged to wear thus promoting the club.

KC – the club currently has a healthy back balance and as we are a not-for-profit organisation spending some of the money for the benefit of club members should be considered.It was also mentioned that some of the new ladies had expressed an interest in doing the Leadership Courses. This is supported CC & RR and CC will have a chat with them about this.

AR – felt that members should pay £5 towards a new piece of club kit as giving something away for free is not always valued.

RR – concerned that although we have a healthy bank balance at the present time we cannot guarantee the ongoing health of the club given rising competition from other groups in Thornbury.

CC – reiterated that at £15 per year for membership TRC offers good value for money compared to some of the new groups currently operating in the Thornbury area. However, he also mentioned that 3 ladies from the St Marys School group who had come down to the club had said that they had found the club unfriendly.

JG –concerned how the new kit is being publicised, he is only aware of it through the committee discussions and feels that only active club runners take the time to read the weekly emails orlook at club website so injured, non-active members and those that just don’t go on the website are unlikely to be aware of the new kit. He suggested that a separate email should be sent to all members re the new kit.

After much discussion, it was finally agreed that the club would subsidise the cost of a new t-shirt. Any member who has renewed their 2017 club membership by the end of March 2017, and who orders a new t-shirt before the end of March 2017 will only pay £5. A separate email to this effect will be sent to all club members.

Action Point:KW/KC will draft an email and send to all club members.

Park Run Course: ARhas received comments suggestingthe route needs to be flat ruling out one option which was being considered at Old Down Country Park. Not all members agreed with this. JG made the comment that runners should be looking at improving their performance over time, not necessarily a PB over a particular distance, and that this can be done over any route.

AR also advised that South Glos council are keen for a Park Run to be available in the Thornbury area and would support it. AR advises he is still working on it & will keep the committee informed.

Thornbury Carnival 2017: AR mentioned that the club will be involved in some way and that a separate email was being prepared but at the moment there was nothing for the committee to discuss.

Club Membership Annual Payment via Full on Sport or England Athletics:

It had been brought to the attention of the committee that both Full on Sport and England Athletics offer a service, for a charge, whereby they would collect the annual club membership renewal subscriptions. It had been suggested that this might be easier than the current process which is managed by the Club Secretary and Treasurer, however both AB & HM said that they were happy to continue with the current process given the relatively small numbers involved. If the club were to substantially grow in membership in the future, then it may be worth reconsidering but for now it was agreed not to pursue this any further.

Beginners Group including Parents & Teenagers: CC advised that he is planning another Tuesday evening Beginners Group to start end of May/early June. This will be based in an environment such as the Mundy Playing Fields and not on the open roads or streets. It is his intention that children/teenagers will be able to participate as long as they are accompanied by a parent. There was a discussion around whether the parent actually has to run together with the child or if it was sufficient for them just to be present at the training location.

RR advised that she would only be happy to take a child/teenager if the parent was actually running together with them.

EB & JG advise that they are both in favour of encouraging children to start running but also feel that parents should be actively involved.

CC advised that his qualifications and insurance would enable him to coach a child without the parent actually accompanying them on the run.

Action Point: CC will discuss the ideas further with PM when he returns from his travels and a proposal will be made.

Leaflet Drop: This agenda item is to be included as part of the broader Marketing Campaign. See next item.

Marketing Campaign: CC proposed that a separate club gathering be arranged to discuss this issue in more detail. We need to decide on a strategy and what sort of a club members want.

JW agreed that he would approach Jo & Mick Stirrup to see if they would consider helping the club with an initial meeting to discuss strategy & marketing.

Action Point: JW to approach Jo & Mick Stirrup with a view to setting up a Marketing & Strategy Meeting.

Road Race Championship 2017: AB asked for clarification on the subsidy that will be paid as the AGM minutes state the club would fully pay for the 3 named races. Since the AGM the RRC has been changed due to one of the named races already being sold out and there are now 5 named races of which 3 will count towards the championship.

It was agreed that the club would subsidise 50% of the race entry fee for the 3 qualifying races that each qualifying member completes. To qualify for any subsidy the member must complete 3 races. If any member completes more than 3 of the 5 races the 50% subsidy will only apply to the 3 races that count towards the RRC.

Road Race Championship (RRC) and Handicap Races: NL advised that he had no idea what the qualifying criteria had been for the 2016 RRC even though he had apparently won it. He was also concerned at the lack of handicap races in 2016 and that even when there was one organised it wasn’t taken seriously with some members not taking part but going off and doing their own thing, and many of those that ran the handicap treated it as a social run.

NL feels that we should be doing more as a club to promote these events and for recognising the individuals that do well or make improvements. Handicap races should be accessible to everyone with prizes for lower placings to encourage participation and that in general the club should take competitions more seriously, making them more exciting and all inclusive.

CC confirmed that the RRC for 2016 had been 3 x 10K races and that he has the results for this. He also advised that these issues had been discussed at a previous committee meeting and that PM was going to set up a separate group to look at it.

CC also advised that the issue of club handicaps had also previously been discussed and that the general consensus was that there was no appetite from the majority of club members to have a handicap competition hence none had been organised. CC confirmed that he was happy to do handicap races if there was a demand from the club but that the captain needs to set the agenda.

Action Point: NL & PM to get together and to come up with some proposals regarding club competitions.

Keeping Website Up to Date: NL raised this issue as the Tables of Results & Club Trophy sections of the club website were mostly blank for the past few years and the Who’s Who section is also out of date in some cases.

A discussion followed whereby it was agreed that individual committee members, who were happy to do so, would be allocated specific areas of the club website to keep up to date and a website workshop would be arranged to provide training on how to update the website. It is minuted that RR & JW do not want to be involved in this.

DB wondered if it would be possible to upload the Strava Leaderboard to the club website. He will look at this together with SD.

JG confirmed that he would take on the job of co-ordinating the club trophies and to present the trophies as soon as possible after the winners had been decided. He will also take responsibility for updating the Trophy Page on the website.

JW suggested that we should look at arranging club social events where trophies could be presented as was done in the past. This also makes it a bit more special for those being awarded a prize or trophy. JW also suggested that we could use these social occasions to announce handicap dates and to sell off old club kit.

CC advised that although Selina Slater could no longer commit to being on the committee she had mentioned that she would be willing to organise social events for the club. KC also mentioned that Cathy Watkins had said that she would be happy to host a summer BBQ at the farm as in previous years.

Action Point: Website Workshop to be arranged by SD and committee members allocated pages to keep up to date.

Action point: CC to take up Social Event possibility with SS aiming for initial event in April/May.

UKA Rules for Competition 2016-2018: AR summarised that there are 2 main concerns for the club:

Cross country – members must be individually affiliated to EA if they are to count towards the club cross country competitions.
In races organised by the club and held under a UKA permit, when organising team competitions as part of the race, each team member must be individually affiliated to EA to qualify.

We discussed how we could manage this and the general consensus is that it is very difficult to manage as we cannot easily identify who is EA affiliated and therefore who qualifies for a team competition. It was therefore decided that we would not offer team prizes in any of our races held under a UKA licence. This may be an issue for the Avon Championships which are incorporated with the Oldbury 10 Mile race. JW will check this.

With regard to the current EA Rules Change Consultation it is minuted that the club has nothing to declare on this issue.

Action Point: JW to check with Avon Championships whether no team prizes at the Oldbury 10 mile is an issue for them or not.

Thornbury Leisure Centre block booking renewal for 2017/2018: HM has received the renewal form so we need to advise any dates we will not be needing the room as we may still be charged if we cancel at short notice. CC advises that PM needs to decide on any Away Days.

Action Point – PM to advise HM of any dates we will not be needing the Leisure Centre Room due to Away Days or other planned events.

AOB

JE – date of Rollick 2018. Doynton Hard Half will be 21/1/18 so they are suggesting we go for 14/1/18 to avoid clashing, which JE supports. Committee also supports this.

KC – Full on Sport has mentioned that Cadman Management have expressed an interest in sponsoring the Thornbury 10K.

JW – Cullimore family has suffered a recent bereavement so to keep away from the Farm for the next month or so.

AB – raised concerns over slower runners been left behind during the Thursday night run, this is also an issue for new members & those coming from the Tuesday beginners group. This will be discussed in more detail with PM when he returns from his trip.

CC- As we have used JW’s office at the Chantry free of charge when unable to secure meeting room CC proposed that the club offer JW & CW free club membership for 2017. This was agreed by the committee.

Date ofNext Meeting: Thursday 27th April 2017 (The Coach Hall, The Chantry)

APPENDIX 1

Treasurers Report – 16.03.17

Current position

Current account balance £10,865.57
Cash in hand £109.64
Deposit account balance at Coventry BS is £5,249.19

So far expenditure exceeds income by £312.36