THORNBURY RUNNING CLUB
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
27th January 2012, CTK Social Club, 8pm
Present: Gareth Thomas (Chair), Nigel Hale, Mark Grimsey, Rob Watkins, Judy Mills, Dorothy Thomas, Karen Carr, Malcolm Carr, Angela Bushell, Garry Slater, Wilf Burke, Jan Burke, Jo Plumbley, Arthur Renshaw, Liz Dix, Jerry Clothier, Jim Godden, Sarah Bradley, Janet Constable.
Apologies: Jacqueline Wadsworth, Val James, Graham and Carol Bishop, Fiona Hunter, Mark Williams, John Grimsey, Rob Cowlard, Richard Illingworth
1 Minutes of the last AGM of 28th January, 2011
The minutes were accepted as a correct record.
2 Matters arising
Policy for 16 – 17 year olds.
The Club has posted its policy regarding membership of 16-17 year olds on the web site
3 Chairman’s Report
This is appended as Annex 1.
4 Secretary’s Report
This is appended as Annex 2. The chairman added a comment that although some people do not enter ARC registered races because the results do not get put on to the UKA web site, ARC are much more flexible and easy to work with than UKA. He also mentioned the Fly The Flag competition introduced in January 2012 by Judy Mills in which awards are presented based upon the number of races entered by Club members.
5 Treasurer’s Report
This is appended as Annex 3.
6 Club Captain’s Report
This is appended as Annex 4.
The Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to the Captain for his hard work throughout the year, particularly in leading Club nights.
7 Subscription levels for 2010
The following changes were proposed.
Adult £15 plus £11 for additional family member (£5 late payment surcharge)
Student £8 (£4 late payment surcharge)
Associate or second claim £7 (£3 late payment surcharge)
Junior £1 (£1 late payment surcharge)
The changes were accepted without opposition.
The Chairman asked if on-line payment will be accepted. The Secretary and Treasurer confirmed that the membership application form will be amended to include this option.
8 Election of Club Officers and Committee
Fifteen members were elected to the Committee without opposition. The list of members (with proposers and seconders) is appended as Annex 5.
11 Any other business
Angela Bushell asked who will act as Social Secretary now that Karen Carr has stood down from the Committee. Sarah Bradley said that she would be happy to perform this function if it can be shared as she will have other personal commitments. Janet Constable said she would be willing to assist Sarah in this role.
Gary Slater asked if the list of individual England Athletics members could be made available as this would be useful in getting teams together for cross country events.
Action: Secretary to make EA membership list available to competition organisers.
The meeting closed at 8:45pm.
Nigel Hale
Secretary
29th January 2012
Annex 1
Thornbury Running Club AGM
Friday 27th January 2012
Chairperson’s Report for 2011
My overriding impression of the past year is that we have been successful: we’ve attracted more or less the numbers we expected to recruit, and our finances remain sound. These are essential if the Club is to have an axis around which the social and athletic activities revolve. We need to remind ourselves that the main role of the Club is not only – and obviously it is – to promote an interest in running for the residents of Thornbury and the surrounding districts, but also – perhaps less obviously – to foster a spirit of fellowship and mutual encouragement between members of the Club. We have ability levels to cater for every member, irrespective of ability or age. New members comment on our friendliness and inclusivity, and these are qualities we should continue to value.
As in all organisations, however, there is a tendency for the ‘old guard’ to take on most of the work, and for newer members to hang back because they ‘don’t know what’s involved.’ I hope that in 2012 we can see more new faces helping to run our races and ‘learning by doing.’ Our record of course attendance could also be improved. UKA and Avon network run numerous courses in aspects of coaching and group leadership in running which we largely ignore, despite the fact that financial support is offered by the Club. Do we really have nothing more to learn about nutrition, avoiding injuries, running efficiently, taking on a race director’s role, and so on?
On a more positive note, once again the task of Chairperson has been made an easy one by the help and support of the rest of the Committee. I thank those four members who are standing down. Jacqueline Wadsworth has brought numerous innovative ideas to the Committee and could always be counted on to challenge other peoples’ proposals - which is exactly what you need if something valid is to emerge at the end; Karen Carr has been a brilliant Social Secretary, who wouldn’t let the Club Dinner die, despite our creating a competitor event in the form of the Summer Party. Judy Mills has received deserved praise for cheerfully catching any job that falls her way – as well as her editorship of Prattle and Run, which the Committee hopes can continue, especially now that she has six fewer meetings a year to attend and can devote these hours to pestering Club members for contributions! Liam Jones has led us into new areas of how best to exploit what Andrew Neil and I know as ‘The Facebook’ and ‘The Interweb.’
Outside the Committee, a number of members can be relied-upon to help whenever called-upon, and we all know that the Club could not function without them. There is furniture to move, there are floors to sweep, refreshments to be provided on Club Night, cakes to be baked for races, kit to be purchased and sold, collections for charity. There are races requiring directors, not to mention marshals and helpers, runs such as the Cotswold Way, the Severn Walkway Relay and The 5-Valleys to co-ordinate, there is press liaison to let others know that we exist, and there is assistance to the Oldbury Fun Run and to schools and other bodies wanting help and advice to organise their own fun-runs. I make no apologies to Judy, by the way, for borrowing some of the same words she used in her own report from the chair last year, because these bear repeating.
In the course of the year we transferred our race equipment from one building to another at the farm, at the same time providing new shelving and storage containers to make it all much more accessible. We are grateful to Tom Cullimore for allowing us free access to this space in one of his barns, recently renovated. It is not always appreciated how important it is to keep an up-to-date inventory and to ensure that when race directors and sector marshals go to the farm for their race equipment, they will find what they are looking for. I was reminded of this when I saw Dave Andrews in the farm picking up over a thousand safety pins he needed for the Rollick. A needle in a haystack came to mind….
I have enjoyed my first year as Chairman, and I am most grateful to everyone, both on the Committee and outside, who has made it possible to keep the show on the road – and, of course, off the road.
Gareth Thomas - January 2012
Annex 2
Thornbury Running Club AGM
Friday 27th January 2012
Secretary’s Report for 2011
I have enjoyed my first year as both committee member and Secretary, in spite of the steep learning curve involved.
The Committee has met on seven occasions during the year, since last January’s AGM.
Membership
One of the roles of the Secretary is to maintain a current database of members. The calendar year closed with a total membership of 169, compared with163 last year. Men outnumbered women by 90 to 79. There were 34 new applications (15 M, 19F), compared to 30 last year. Of the total membership, 56 (33 last year) took out individual subscriptions to England Athletics. This increase was largely due to the increasing number of events, particularly Cross Country, for which individual EA membership is a requirement for entry. This year the Club has conferred Honorary Membership to Ed and Jean Hawkins in recognition of their contribution to the Club.
Social Events
The February dinner dance at The Ship Inn, Alveston, was very well received – so much so that a repeat booking of both venue and entertainment has been made for March this year. The success of the 25 year celebrationwas followed by a further summer party at Lodge Farm this year. The venue and the live band were much enjoyed and the weather held fair once again.
EA/ARC affiliation
The Club continues to be affiliated to England Athletics, the Association of Running Clubs and the Avon Athletic Association.
The Club’s subscription to EA is £50, but this does not include our 56 individual members, who pay a separate £5 subscription. The ARC subscription is £209 which covers both the Club and all its members. The AAA subscription was £20.
Our races continue to be covered by ARC permits. (ARC now represents 201 clubs and issued 272 race permits last year.)
The Secretary had some difficulty renewing lapsed individual EA memberships. EA initially asked for payment for previous years as there has been an increased tendency for lapsed members to quote their membership number to get reduced entry fees, which has left some races out of pocket. They finally agreed to re-instate our lapsed members without an additional charge but advised that those who do not renew their membership should be registered as “social” members. In order to reduce the work involved in registering individual members it would be appreciated if membership application forms are submitted in a timely manner so that the club and all individual memberships can be registered and paid for in one single transaction.
As an additional benefit, the increased level of individual membership in 2011 has entitled the Club to two club places in the 2012 London Marathon, which were presented at the Christmas party. However, only two applications were received and therefore the selection panel was not required to convene.
Club Races
The Riverbank Rollick, Aquathlon, Carnival 10K and Oldbury Power Station 10 all went very smoothly again this year, thanks to the excellent work from our race directors. The numbers were down for the Carnival 10K and it was felt that this may be partly due to the name change. It was decided that, as the race is not actually part of the Thornbury Carnival, we will revert to the original name of Sundayshill 10K. In addition to these events we also had a successful return Mob Match against Chepstow, where a good turn out from Club members brought victory to Thornbury. We also had the Severn Walkway Relay which was enjoyed by the three teams taking part. This year we are introducing on-line race entry, which proved to be popular with entrants to the Riverbank Rollick.
Road Race Championship
The Road Race Championship continued in 2011, thanks to the Bettina Broughton continuing to collect the results and calculate the rankings. However, the number of entrants was disappointingly low. It has therefore been decided that for 2012 the entry requirements will be relaxed to allow any 5K plus any 10K plus any half marathon result to be submitted (official results from races with measured courses and excluding club races). Craig Carscadden has kindly agreed to co-ordinate the championship as Bettina has now moved to France. Trophies for Men and Ladies plus two further trophies for age adjusted results have been presented to the Club for this event by Dave Matthews.
Club Charity
The charity selected for 2011 was the Hammer Out brain tumour support group. Thanks largely to Sandra Webber’s fund raising the Club succeeded in raising £1300 for the charity. A presentation ceremony was given prominent coverage by the Thornbury Gazette. The charity chosen for 2012 is PROPS - Providing Opportunity and Support to children and young people with physical and learning disabilities. We hope to be able to raise a similar amount for this local charity.
Nigel Hale
January 2012
Annex 3
Thornbury Running Club AGM
Friday 27th January 2012
Treasurer’s Report for the year ended 31 December 2011
Thornbury Running Club had a difficult year financially in 2011.
Our expenditure exceeded our income, resulting in a loss of £403.73.
Our current account balance at the year end was £5,302.25 with no cash in hand at the year end.
The Building Society account is now held with the Nottingham Building Society following their takeover of the Stroud and Swindon Building Society and the current balance stands at £5,197.01.
Attached is a balance sheet which provides a more detailed breakdown of the income and expenditure for the previous 12 months.
At the time of writing this report, the accounts are being audited although I do not anticipate any changes to the figures when the audit has been completed.
The membership of the Club and Thursday Club Night continues to represent a large proportion of our income.
The Riverbank Rollick, Aquathon, OPS 10 and Thornbury Carnival 10km continue to generate a good income for the club. I must continue to stress the importance of these events from a financial viewpoint.
Overall costs have increased this year. A significant expense of the club relates to membership and affiliation fees. In addition, I wish to mention 3 particular items:-