Draft Minutes of 2014 Annual General Meeting

PO Box R1227

Royal Exchange

Sydney

NSW, 1225

Australia

Email:

Web: www.sydneystriders.org.au

Draft Minutes of 2014 Annual General Meeting

John Colet School, Wyatt Ave, Belrose, 8.45am Sunday 23rd February 2014

1. Opening: Meeting opened at 8.55 am chaired by Joe Degabriele (President)

2. Apologies: Steven Jackson, Chris Jackson, Sue Hill, Allan Wareham, EJ Davie, Nigel

Huband, Liz Huband, Lenore Lawler, Barry Rutter, Shirley Rutter

3. Quorum: 87 members attended of 632 Financial Members at 22/2/2014

4. Minutes: The minutes for 2013 AGM were presented and accepted -

moved by Bruce Graham 2nd by Jo Cowan.

5. President’s Report:

I am pleased to present the President’s report to the Annual General Meeting of Sydney Striders; in general 2013 was another successful year for our club with 838 members in December 2013.

It is always important to remember that our club is a running club, organised for runners by runners, relying on the volunteers’ efforts of our members and families.

Fortunately the club has a very capable Committee to coordinate the events and affairs of Sydney Striders, especially with the quality of members like David Bray who stepped down as President at last year’s AGM but played an equally valuable role as Sergeant At Arms (code for do everything).

·  The membership is down from 872 in 2012 and the peak in 2010 of 899. The 838 members of the club were made up of 561 male runners and 277 female runners with a skew to older runners - 8% under 18, 8% between 18-30, 40% between 31- 45, 33% between 46 -60 and 11% over 60. Pauline Evans’ report is interesting and something to consider - how to attract more younger runners in the future.

·  It has taken years of discussion and this year we managed to get a new website on a user friendly platform which allow Striders to quickly and easily update the website and the co-ordinator of particular functions to manage their own page. A special thanks to Bruce Graham who took on and delivered the major part of the project with assistance from David Bray and Angus Searcy. We are currently seeking a talented Strider with the eye for web design to help us make the web pages more attractive and easy to read.

·  Athletics NSW - we continued to improve our relationship with ANSW registering all Striders as Community Members – automatically becoming the ANSW’s biggest club and nearly 10% of their registered runners. Registration with ANSW also gives all of our members improved insurance during races and Strider events. Special thanks to Jo Cowan, Mary Stringer, Tom Highnam and EJ Davie for organizing the senior men and women teams running in ANSW events

·  Juniors - continued to grow under the capable stewardship of Caroline Yarnell and Tony Wong and reached 80 members during 2013. The Juniors continue to lead the way at Athletics NSW events not only in sheer numbers but also outstanding performances picking 8 medals in the 2013 Nationals and recently winning 5 State Championship and qualifying 13 for 2014 National Titles.

·  Six Foot - Sydney Striders have long been associated with the Six Foot Track Marathon supporting the event with volunteers and large numbers of participants. The 2013 event resulted in raising $36,000 for the Rural Fire Service. In the past few years, the club has attempted to clarify its role, providing insurance and accepting liability for the event etc. In 2013 Striders took a more direct involvement in the planning of the event and clarifying ownership has remained unclear. In 2013 the club proactively became involved in the debrief of the 2013 event with the Rural Fire Service and became actively involved in planning the 2014 event, signing an official agreement with Jenolan Caves House, setting up a committee to plan the event, organizing a new car park arrangement outside the Jenolan Caves precinct, improved Traffic Management Plan, registering the Six Foot Track Marathon Trademark & current logo and conducting a competition for the future logo. Thanks to the efforts of John Bowe, Colin Jeftha and David Bray.

·  Marathon Training Group - TomTom came on board as a sponsor as they launched a new range of GPS watches. Again a small team have contributed to the club by leading new members through to their first Marathon. Phil Skurrie, Tony Kellner and Mary Stringer lead the TomTom MTG group through to the Sydney Marathon. A new TomTom MTG started in November aiming for Canberra 2014 with Phil and Tony backing up with Shika Raju replacing Mary Stringer who stepped down due to injury.

·  The 10km Series - continues to be a feature of Striders drawing hundreds of runners in 2013 and certainly adding substantially to the club’s income. The club continued the long term partnership with the Sydney Running Centre and Mizuno. Again a team of volunteers made it all possible - a big thanks to James Masters, Jo Cowan, Peter Woods, Paul Hannell, Shirley Rutter and a host of volunteers.

·  The 2013 Super Series - was a new format with a wide variety of distances available for members to choose from including the new 10km handicap with 143 Striders trying the event.

·  The club’s magazine - Blister had a change of editorial team with Amy Cheung and Debi Thornton putting up their hand for the challenging role and delivering without dropping in quality, with a notable memorial in the December edition to the passing of 5 Striders in 2013 which brought sincere thanks from the families.

·  As you will hear from our Treasurer Lynn Herisson, the club delivered a small profit which was a planned reduction in surplus attempting to return more to members.

Looking forward the club looks in good shape for 2014 with:

·  A continuing evolvement of our web site

·  New Committee members, Kerry Ross as Secretary, Nigel & Liz Huband to organize Social Events, April Palmer-Lee as Super Series Co-ordinator and Jo Cowan stepping up to Vice-President

·  We are looking for three volunteers to manage uniforms, the calendar and to assist the club improve the web

Committee 2013:

Joe thanked the committee (listed below) for their support during the year:

·  President Joe Degabriele

·  Vice-President Angus Searcy

·  Treasurer Lynn Herisson

·  Secretary Deanna Lum

·  Star/Calendar Co-ordinator Louise Arnott/Jo Cowan

·  Social Events Jo Cowan

·  10 Klms Racing Director James Masters

·  Timing System & Results Paul Hannell

·  Membership Coordinator Pauline Evans

·  Uniforms Gill Cavanagh

·  Sgt-at-Arms/Special Projects David Bray

·  Super Series Co-ordinator John Bowe

·  Volunteers Georgie Moore/Jo Cowan

·  Juniors Tony Wong/Caroline Yarnell

Joe made special mention of the outgoing members of the committee – Angus, Deanna, Louise, Gill & Georgie for their contribution to the club.

Joe also acknowledged the many who have undertaken various roles off the Committee which are invaluable to the success of our club.

6. Treasurer’s Report: Lynn Herisson presented the Treasurer’s Report on the club’s operations for the year ending 31st December 2013. See full report attached.

The Club made a net profit of $16,473 for the year compared to a profit of $32,517 for 2012 – representing a decrease of 49%.

·  Total Income for the year was $79,284 ($94,056 - 2012) a decrease of 15%

Ø  The decrease was the result of a reduction in membership income as a result of reduced fees, reduction in the numbers of members and greater number of juniors as members

Ø  Total Interest income was lower by $1,254 due to reduced interest rates

·  Expenses for the year totalled $62,811 ($60,329 - 2012) an increase of 3%

The increase was attributable to an increase in club functions and junior sponsorship and an increase in ANSW subsidy for members insurance program.

·  Major activity for the year:

Ø  Two major events the May awards dinner & Christmas brunch

Ø  Event facilities at the Sydney Marathon, C2S, Canberra & Gold Coast Marathon

Ø  Free breakfast star for the last Sunday of the month

Ø  Member key tags

Ø  ANSW Insurance Program in membership fees

Ø  Continue/increased sponsorship of ANSW team events & Junior activities

·  Assets were increased by 11% to $188k. The club holds cash at bank of $53,480 and investments of $112,492

·  Total equity increased to $181,198

The club continued with financial controls with dual signatures on all payments and separate cash handling at 10k races.

The club can look forward to 2014 and having funds available to use towards providing more benefits to members.

Lynn thanked the committee for their continued support, Shirley Rutter for 10klm banking and Liz Huband for mail collection.

7. Election of Committee for 2014: All positions were declared vacant and the following members were elected unopposed in the following positions:

·  President Joe Degabriele

·  Vice-President Jo Cowan

·  Treasurer Lynn Herisson

·  Secretary Kerry Ross

·  Star/Calendar Co-ordinator Open

·  Social Events Nigel & Liz Huband

·  10 klms Racing Director James Masters

·  Timing System & Results Paul Hannell

·  Membership Coordinator Pauline Evans

·  Uniforms Open

·  Sgt-at-Arms/Special Projects David Bray

·  Super Series Co-ordinator April Palmer-Lee

·  Volunteers Greg Puttick

·  Juniors Tony Wong/Caroline Yarnell

·  Special Projects John Bowe

Members in attendance voted the 2014 Committee elected unanimously by way of show of hands.

8. Other Business:

7am Host: The club continues to struggle with the appointment of 7 am hosts. After discussion Gill Cavanagh volunteered to host as many of the runs as she could during 2014 to assist with this ongoing issue.

Juniors: Club members acknowledged the continued success of the Juniors throughout 2013 under the leadership of Caroline Yarnell & Tony Wong.

Life Membership: The club members present at the AGM voted unanimously to induct 2 members for Life Membership for their services to the club over many years - David Bray & Kevin Tiller.

A brief summary of their outstanding contribution to the club is outlined below:

David Bray

David joined Striders in early 2003 after running Striders 10km race and started running with the 7am group mainly with the goal of getting fitter and faster for Orienteering. In September of 2003 he started running with the MTG under Jim Moody with the goal of his first marathon in Canberra, which was successful with a debut time of 3:22.

In 2004 David joined the committee and started to look after the clubs results and Super Series information and this was at around the same time that the club purchased our electronic timing system and so he also became involved in the setup and operation of this system.

In 2006 David was voted President, succeeding Stephen Jackson and held the position for just under 2 years, having to resign due to being transferred to Singapore for work. Upon his return to Sydney in 2009 David re-joined the committee and assumed his second term as President, stepping down in 2013 but still remaining an active member of the Striders committee.

Through his term as a Striders committee member and President there have been a number of initiatives introduced to the operations of the club that David was involved with, these include:

·  Electronic Timing of 10km series and automated results collation and publication to the web

·  The introduction of an integrated membership database and online payment system

·  The introduction of member season pre-registration for our 10km series

·  The introduction of visitor pre-registration for our 10km series

·  The introduction of the Sydney Striders Juniors program

·  The introduction of a volunteer rebate on membership fees for all members who volunteer in a year

·  The introduction of member key tags

·  The drafting of the members code of conduct

·  Closer club association with the Blackmore’s Sydney Marathon with pacers and members discounts

·  The transition of the 6ft Track Race management to Striders stewardship

·  A closer association with ANSW, including the recent Club Athlete program for benefit to members

·  The introduction of the Striders Honorary Life Membership program

In the background, David has and continues to uses his skills around IT to support the various club operations, especially around membership renewals, changes to the website before the recent revamp, as well as changes required each year to the Super Series and 10km series calculations.

David's running achievements are varied, but in his words, not stellar and include 6 Six Foot Track finishes, many marathons (still to eclipse his debut time though!) as well as participation in various ultras and continued interest in Orienteering and Rogaining and recently also extending back to triathlons and cycling.

Kevin Tiller

Kevin started running with Striders in April 1990 within weeks after arriving in Sydney from the UK. Kevin had already run 4 marathons and many other races so was already quite a seasoned club runner. His stand-out to date had been taking out the U20 age group in his first marathon in West London (3:24 as a 19 year old).

Kevin took to Striders with a vengeance and quickly progressed from a 6.00am runner to running at 6.20am and running sub-3hr marathons and many other longer runs. Among some stand-out achievements were a 8th and 9th placing at Six Foot and being selected to run in the Australian 100km team in the World Championships in 1994. Kevin has an unbroken streak of running one marathon or Ultra every year since 1990 – into my 25th year so far.

Kevin’s Personal Bests

·  10km 0:36:06 Manly, NSW May 1993

·  City to Surf 14km 0:51:43 Sydney to Bondi, NSW Aug 1993

·  Half Marathon 1:18:47 Sutherland, NSW Jun 1991

·  Marathon 2:49:26 Sydney to Blacktown, NSW Aug 1993

·  50 mile 7:08:20 Victoria, BC, Canada Aug 1994

·  100 km 9:40:31 Victoria, BC, Canada Aug 1994

·  100 mile (162km) 21:58:00 Liverpool, NSW Oct 1994

·  24 hours 176.4 km (110 miles) Liverpool, NSW Oct 1994

·  Ironman Triathlon 13:10:00 Triple-M, Sydney, NSW Nov 1993

Within Striders Kevin became Uniform Director for a few years then the Database & Results manager for a number of years. Around that time Kevin started the first Striders website and registered the domain name and started the Striders email list. Kevin also was the first person to convert a lot of the photocopy maps to computer format files from maps.