WERRINGTON JOGGERS 2016 AGM

CHAIRMANS REPORT 

On behalf of the Officers and committee of the club thank you for supporting the club by attending this meeting tonight, which I believe is the 32nd for the club and my 17th as Chairman. It continues to be important that we have this opportunity to share with you the financial position of the club and also give you the opportunity to raise any club related matters you may wish too.

At the end of the AGM we will once again conduct the draw for the one club place we have received for the 2017 London Marathon for those members who have affiliated to EA this year. There may still be opportunities for those unsuccessful in the draw through the marshal’s places, if applicable, although Barry won’t know how many places he has, if any, until nearer Christmas 2016 in the main seems to have been another fairly quiet year for the club in as much as we have continued to do those things which have been successful in the past & seem to be what you, the membership want. If you’d like to see changes or different things then you need to tell us, otherwise we’ll work on the basis that we don’t need to fix what ain’t broke!!

I must though single out some people for special recognition for the amount of work they do behind the scenes, which you simply never see. Sue continues to work tirelessly on the administration particularly the membership and club championships while Paul keeps a very firm hand on the finances. I make no apologies for sometimes being a control freak but on those matters I know I need never have any concerns. I’d also like to thank all the junior coaches who are constantly trying to increase what we are able to offer our juniors, whether its Sportshall, Quad Kids, XC, Frostbite or informally track and field opportunities.

I’d also like to pay particular thanks to Phillip Hamlyn who only joined the committee last year but has worked incredibly hard on a number of things for us over the last 12 months. The new website I hope you will agree is a massive improvement and the management of the club standards is now very slick with the new standards website. Phillip has also worked hard on your behalf to encourage you to have greater involvement in deciding club awards and championship events. He has also prepared a new handicap programme which we will trial in the spring and then hopefully bring back the summer handicap series, which we used to enjoy, later in the year - thank you Phillip

Talking about plans for next year, we will shortly be publishing the 2017 Club Championships, which will include the Norwich half marathon on the 9th April. In the New Year we need to decide whether to organise a coach to the race or not. In 2015 our coach to the John Fraser 10 was well supported but it wasn’t so popular this year for the Kings Lynn 10k despite it being free of charge. It is not the cost that will stop us booking it, it will be the number who sign up for it

Another couple of new ideas we have are to move the club mile championships back to the summer, but then in the autumn book the track for a second time to run some graded club mile races. That is when the fields will be mixed, both males and females and all ages, but all running very similar times. Both evenings will be on a Friday night rather than mid week with the hope that members might then use the changing facilities at the track and then go into town for a social drink, or two!!

With GPAN we are looking at a track and field evening where everyone tries a sprint event, a distance event, a jump and a throw. Its known as Quad kids for the juniors and is very successful and we think it would be a great way for some friendly competition between the GPAN clubs

Tickets for the Presentation evening on 20th January, which will once again be at the Masonic Hall but with a new disco, will be on sale shortly, production of the 2017 calendar inserts is in hand and copies of Werrington Joggers Cook Book “Eat Cake and Run” are available for sale at £10 each. Hopefully some of our new members might be interested?

Finally before I close I would like to thank everyone for their support of our charity fund raising this year for #TeamGeorge. George, as I have said before, was a former junior jogger, well remembered by our coaches. Thanks to a generous contribution from The London Marathon via Barry we will be able to give the family a record sum of £1000 for Georges trust fund at our pre Christmas buffet. I’m also delighted to say that as things currently stand, George and his Mum Gill will be joining us personally on the 20th December

Turning to our choice of charity for 2017 I can confidently say that it was the shortest conversation we’ve ever had at our most recent committee meeting, it will be the Air Ambulance Service. We will always be grateful for the service their team provided Jude in the summer and it will be our small way of saying thank you, I hope you will be as generous with your support next year as you have been this year

I’ll close now, thank you once again for your support this year and best wishes for your running in 2017.

Tim Cook