Leeds Athletics Network
LAN General Meeting – Monday 2nd July, 2012
Attendees
- Louise Purdy (LAN Co-ordinator / West Yorkshire Sport)
- Bob Jackson (LAN Vice Chair/ LEAF Sub-group Leader)
- Louise Walker (Leeds City Council, Active Lifestyles Coordinator / Run Leeds Sub-group)
- Ray Rundle (Horsforth Harriers / Run Leeds Sub-group)
- Helen Cowley (Kippax Harriers)
- Val Pell (Kippax Harriers)
- Andy Cook (Pudsey & Bramley AC / Track & Field Sub-group Assistant Leader)
- Gill Hurley (Leeds City AC parent)
- Holly Williams (Valley Striders / Run Leeds Coordinator)
- Jill Stocks (Kirkstall Harriers/ LAN Volunteer Coordinator)
- Peter Leach (Abbey Runners)
- Martin Browne (Abbey Runners)
Apologies
- Shaun Mulhern (Schools rep – PDM, Boston Spa School Partnership)
- Martin Horbury (Leeds AC Chair)
- Lucy Archer - formerly Birkenshaw (England Athletics)
- John Marshall (Pudsey Pacers)
- Kevin Meakin (Pudsey Pacers)
- Previous Minutes
LP: Can I have Katie D’s from Kippax Harriers contact details please
- LAN Committee Update
a)Chairposition
LP: Sara Birkenshaw has stepped down as chair as she has too much on at Run for All to commit time to the position
BJ: Martin Horbury has stepped down as Track & Field Sub-group Leader.
LP: MH’s passion is endurance and he is trying to step away from track and field at the club in general
BJ: We will need to appoint these positions at the next meeting
b)Year 3 Funding
BJ: Year 2 funding comes to a close in November and therefore we need to submit year 3’s plans by September. In order to decide what goes in the plan we need to organise sub-group meetings.
AC: When we are looking at these plans I think it would wise to speak to other networks such as Calderdale that haven’t any finished their year 3 funding/projects.
- LAN Commitee Update
a)Club Accreditation
We had an England Athletics Club Accreditation Evening the following Leeds Clubs attended
- Leeds AC
- Otley AC
- Kippax Harriers
- Hyde Park Harries
LP: All of which were interested in going through the accreditation process but wanted to speak to their committees first.
HC: I thought it was a good way of getting everything in order at the club and making sure we had the correct policies in place.
LP: Accreditation packs are availablefor:
- Clubs with juniors members, obviously there are a few more policies that need to be in place for a junior clubs so the list is a little longer
- Clubs without juniors members
HC: The biggest issue that I foresee is the criteria that on most club nights there must be a Level 2 or a Coach in Running Fitness (CiRF,equivalent to Level 2) present. To ensure this we need to qualify more CiRFs.
BJ: We have asked Tracey to speak to clubs with leaders interested in the CiRF course to provide them with information about what the course is really about. Holly is going through the course at the minute, so Holly will also be able to give guidance.
HW: There is a big jump, but it’s really interesting! The tutors suggested that we purchase Athletics 365 Coaching Packs (cost £35); this will give us activity ideas and various bits of support. Is it possible to get these through the network?
BJ: Yes, we’ll look to purchase some for the network.
LP: If we get 10 packs they will cost a reduced rate of £30. I’ll order them with EA.
b)Family Sports Day
Middleton Park
LP: Middleton Park Family Fun Day was our first promotional event to promote Leeds beginner running groups across the city and specifically around the South Leeds. Our promotional team consisted of HWCo,LP,SC,RR, BJ. We organised a fun run which was the main activity of the day. This went really well although numbers to the fun day in general were low due to the bad weather and also currently the park isn’t used a lot. They are regenerating the park at the moment with a new community centre situated within the park. We are also looking at promoting at Roundhay Park (Sat 7th July) and Horsforth, Hall Park (Sat 11th August) if anyone wants to help.
HC&JS: We are happy to help at the next one!
c)Communication
Website
BJ: The website has been updated with the following;
- Info for members area
- Workshop info and booking formsare now on the website
- Run Leeds – now also has a separate domain that links to this page
LP: We now have a twitter account @LeedsAN, please ‘follow’
LP: A facebook group has been set up, “Leeds Athletics Network”. I’m uploading all pictures from the events on to the page, please ‘like’ and feel free to add any comments etc!
LP: Also we have “Run Leeds Leaders” facebook available to all LiRFs
BJ: At some point we will be looking for acommunications volunteer to update the facebook and twitter accounts on a regular basis
LP: It’s quite a lot of work, more than you think and you need to be on it a lot!
AC: I think it would be good in the future to have an E-Newsletter for LAN
MB: Might be difficult to pull together what goes in it, it could be a big job! I know the difficulty we have pulling our club newsletter together.
BJ: There was an interesting workshop at the recent England Athletics Conference that Julian from West Yorkshire Sport delivered about marketing and social media
LP: If anyone would like Julian to come and speak to any clubs and maybe even do a mini workshop with a few clubs, please let me know and I can organise.
JS: I thought the whole conference was good and as volunteer coordinator I am going to type up some notes and send round
LP: Thanks Jill.
- Endurance Update
a)Coaching Workshops
BJ: We have had four workshops so far, two Drills and two Injury Prevention. All workshops have been well received. Valley Striders are currently in first place with the highest number of attendees from their club, second place goes to Kippax Harriers. At the first course I announced that the first person to write a report about the workshop and send it back to me would get a free place on the next course. Wanda Macdonald of St Theresa’s wrote a poem about the workshop which has been posted on the website and after having a free place on the next workshop wrote another!
LP: I thought the Injury Prevention workshop was great as you could actually speak and ask questions to a highly qualified physio.
BJ: How can we make the workshop more interesting and get more attendees from clubs?
HC: Do it on a club night and advertise it as a club social.
PL: We could do one at Abbey where there is a bar and an outside area, the astropitches could be used.
JS: You could also do an event at the Kirkstall Leisure Centre then come over to the Kirkstall Harriers’ bar?
PL: Put round to clubs to see if they’d be interested.
b)Leeds Race Series
BJ: Leeds Race Series has now had 101 people sign-up, 4 races so far, 3 have run all 4, 30 have run two or more which is great. It also means we are engaging more of the network and have email address to promote other things too.
BJ: Junior race series hasn’t started but we are looking to start in September. We’d need all other races organisers that have a junior race to agree to change to school year entry to make it consistent, can we agree this? Peter?
ALL: All agreed.
c)Parkrun
BJ: At the promotional event at the family fun sports day at Middleton Park we met someone who’s looking to set up a parkrun at Middleton Park. The LAN are going to support with the set up fees. This has been okayed by Lucy Archer (England Athletics). There are no clubs in South Leeds and the surrounding area other than Leeds City which are currently very elite. The parkrun should help with feeding new runners into the beginners group that Holly has set up e.g. South Leeds Sisters and general developing running in the south of the city.
AC: Are parkruns pulling runners away from our club runs? Clubs bring funds in from organising club runs and the parkruns are free!
LP: There are positives for having parkrun, it can pull in new runners if you use the parkrun as a platform to promote you club/beginners group.
BJ: There are no clubs in the area of South Leeds to conflict
d)Course Subsidies
BJ:Standard subsidy is £30 for LiRF and £125 for CiRF but we may not enough in the total LAN funding foreveryone, we’re looking at other ways to fund courses, there’s something we can do through the Running Investment if you register your group with Run England, so please get in contact.
LP: WYS have a 50% bursary that we can use that I’m happy to help with; I have details to hand out.
- Run Leeds
Running Investment Project
WYSport have had some funds from Sport England from underperforming sports to get more beginner runners. LeedsAN are a delivery partner in this project and are aiming to get 800 new beginner runners and train 40/45 new leaders.
HW: We have 15 leaders that have come through the Running Investment Programme so far. Some leaders have established groups, others are in the process of setting up and some haven’t done anything yet! Those that have set up group have been fantastic, such as Helen’s group. Those that haven’t done anything are difficult to get hold of and pin down to setting up a group and haven’tresponded to my emails. However I’m going to be calling and visit leaders.
Run Leeds (clubs)
JS: Regarding Run Leeds @ Kirkstall, we have been struggling for numbers, however I thing Collette Spencer is running a group at work
BJ: The Run Leeds (clubs)scheme has now changed regarding the incentive. If you come on board and register your group and participants instead of receiving £6.67 per registered member you will receive £5 for every new member and up to 10 registered members and £3 thereafter.
BJ: PL will Abbey come on board?
PL: I’ll speak to the club
LP: The incentives for leaders/ clubs coming on board are all detailed on
HW: We are thinking about putting on an evening for all Leeds leaders, Running Investment and Run Leeds. Details TBC.
- Track & Field Update
Circuits
LP: Circuits sessions sent well, few attendances from other clubsnamely Kippax Harriers.
HC: Adam said he enjoyed the session from our club
AC: In order for me to put on another set I need 10 people to sign-up for £25 for 10 sessions (only £2.50 per sessions) in advance to make it viable.
AC: could do with promoting to more clubs
LP: Would Adam be okay to say a few words to promote to other clubs?
AC: The new session time will be 8-9pm due to restrictions with the facility
LP: I will do a new poster for the sessions with updated details
Hurdles
LP: At the last track & field meeting we discussed setting up academies for certain activities, such as sprinting and hurdles. Andy has now set up hurdles session every Friday and is working with a group of 5 athletes. I have a hand out.
We welcome any coaches or club members to this session. We have 3 packs of scissor hurdles, 2 for this session and 1 for the general network hire (5 hurdles in each). If anyone’s interested in getting Andy Cook to along to your sessions to deliver some specific hurdles training this can also be arranged. If you have a hurdle trained coach and would like to hire the LAN hurdles set please get in touch:
Coaching Subsidies
LP: Not many people from Track & Field clubs have taken up our coaching subsidies, only Ian Legg at Wetherby AC recently for qualifying an Assistant Coach. Please get in touch if you have coaches/assistant coaches interested in courses. The LAN subsidy is £30 for Assistant Coach, £125 for Coach.
There is also a West Yorkshire Sport Coaching bursary that we can tap into which is 50%. In order to get the funding you’d need to register as a coach on The information about the bursary can be found on here. Please let me know if you are interested.
Coaching
LP: Lucy Archer our CCSO (formerly Birkenshaw) has a few spare places on her coach development list. If you have any really keen coaches that you think would be ideal for Lucy to work with to develop please contact Lucy.
LP: On another note Leeds City are also doing pole-vaulting sessions for beginners, details to be sent out.
Indoor Competition
LP: I have had a meeting with Martin Horbury who has suggested doing an indoor competition in October. Several club members at Leeds City wanted to organise more events. There is the potential for a free venue as a result of Leeds City being owed venue hire by Leeds City Council. After a conversation with Matt Barton he said he would organise as this was originally one of the projects suggested back at the track and field meeting in December.
- Juniors
School Sports
LP: Pudsey & Bramley we organised a school sport partnership club event. The Pudsey & Bramley coaches organised a Super 6 and 8s competition at Priesthorpe School for all 6 secondary schools across West Leeds. The event was well received from all participants and the school teachers. All schools attended. The competitions will now be going ahead next year. Please see press release I have as a hand out. I have also poster all photos on the LAN Facebook site (we had consent for this!)
West Yorkshire League
AC: They are changing the Yorkshire League to Saturday, under13s and 14s and Sunday U16s and 17s this is going to make it difficult to get teams, it might be worth joining forces to ensure teams are entering as I know I struggling filling teams
LP: MH has also informed me that they struggling filling teams at this level, therefore it might be worth looking into this?
- Funding
BJ: We have been struggling to spend any money. A lot of projects have required minimal funds as people/partners have given the network things in kind. Not a bad thing! But we need to allocate more funds and we can only use 10% of all network funds on coaching subsidies!
JS: are there any other courses that we can attend?
HC: I would like to attend a first aid course and possible get some of the Leeds Country Way marshals on so we can prevent the huge costs of St John’s ambulance
BJ: WYS put on courses, so I don’t think there’s a need for us to organise more course
LP: They cost around£30
BJ: We can subsidise the cost so that the course is half price, £15 per LAN member
HC: Brilliant, can you send round the course dates.
AC: If LAN do decide to organise courses we need to be linking up in general with other networks
LP: I’ll send round other course details from our Coach Development Manager, Les Ford at WYS.
LP: Sportivate funding is still available for clubs interested in putting sessions on/targeting 14-25s. Anyone interested?
AC: We would like to put in a bid for the circuits
LP: As part of my coordination support I will put a bid together
LP: At the club accreditation evening, Rick Pullen from Hyde Park Harriers also wanted me to put together a bid as they are looking to target uni students, extending their ‘slow group’ and establishing a beginners group.
- AOB
a)CRY
GL: I am a parent of two children from Leeds City wanting CRY session
-Cost is £3500 per day
-Testing is for 14-35 year olds
-Maximum of 100 people can be tested in a day
BJ: We could do with finding out if there is a cancellation policy and the details, how far in advance, if there’s a cost attached?
We could charge people £35, or £40 each
We could ask other clubs and see if they have names/numbers of member’s interested
LP: We could also ask the uni students/staff if they were to host the event at the uni and also other sports
BJ: We need to rewrite the CRY information to put around clubs to promote the opportunity; the current info is too long and not specific to athletics/ LAN clubs
LW: I will help rewrite the information to promote to LAN clubs
AC: We can promote the information at WY Athletics Meeting
b)HC: Leeds Country Way, Sunday 2nd September–Entry is now open
c)JS: Abbey Dash, Sunday 18th November – Entry is now open
d)Community Days – England Athletics are asking clubs to host an event between 12-29th August to promote clubs and hopefully capture new members and raise awareness of athletics during the Olympic buzz, please see document.