Harriers AGM & Annual Report

Details: Written by: Paul Chadwick; Created: 24 May 2012; Last Updated: 31 July 2012; Hits: 5231

Wells City Harriers Committee Annual Report 2011/12

As reported to the AGM held on May 23^rd2012

In this Olympic year the Club has continued to grow with over 200 members and a full range of training and competition activities to suit all ages and abilities. I thank the committee on behalf of the members for their endeavours this past year.

At last year’s AGM in 2011 I talked about THE FOUR CHALLENGES.

Olympic torch carrier John Reynolds with 2011-12 prize winners.

Ian Eddy, Lucy Baldwin, Katie Hellier, and Oliver Fox with Chairman Paul Chadwick (behind)

Can you come and join the small, but dedicated, band of coaches? We
especially need parents of juniors, and members in general to help with
the junior section on a Monday and Tuesday evening.

Can you take on a specific role that eases the burden on one of the
other committee members – e.g. can you manage one particular Harrier team
(by age group, or a specific Championship); or take more of a leading
role, say, with the Street Series of races: one of our principal sources
of income?

Do you know of a potential sponsor, or are you able yourselves to
sponsor some kit, say, for one of our successful junior teams?

Can you join the committee and attend 4 meetings a year to set the
strategic direction and review actions of the Club?

How have these challenges been met?

COACHING: The Monday sessions for juniors aged 8-16 have continued to go from strength to strength with some
Monday’s seeing record numbers of eager and keen juniors attending. Coaching is provided by a dedicated band of long-standing volunteers who give up their Monday evenings on a regular basis. I am now coming up to almost 10 years of
coaching but continue to learn from my fellow coaches, including Lawrence Whitehead who has been coaching Long-Jump for well over 15 years and between March and October of each year he provides patient and gentle instruction to all that attend.

Kaye Watts attended the same coaching courses as myself back in 2003 and for the past 3 or 4 years has
become the Throws coach to help youngsters have their first experience at javelin, shot, discus and even hammer. Graham
Goldsmid has provided the backbone of endurance coaching for the older juniors all year round. Al Thorner has
established a successful sprints group that also operates 12 months round, taking over the role from Isaac
Whitcombe who left for University last September but still comes back and helps out when he is back home. Clive
Thomas, of course still helps (now 20+ years of Harrier coaching!) at the Monday track & field sessions from spring onwards, alternating between High Jump and Hurdles for us. Clive Gibbons has also been able to oversee some Long Jump sessions for us this season.

Two of the older juniors, Sam & Toby Bedford, attended coaching courses in the autumn and were able to assist
over the winter period; whilst two parents Tom Dukes & Wayne Packard have just attended courses this spring and are
due to start assisting this summer. Juniors Roo Black & Emily Smith have been able to assist from time to time in between preparing for GCSE’s In addition we have seen some dedicated support to long-standing coaches from juniors Callum Moir & Abigail Gibbons, with Matthew Dickinson also starting to help out recently at some sessions. We hope that these three
will be able to attend Assistant coaching courses soon, but we are looking for additional parents of juniors/senior Harriers to assist and are especially looking for someone to take on the mantle of ‘throws coach’ next season.

Tuesday endurance training sessions have also continued to thrive under the direction of coaches, with Clive taking the major lead once again and with support from Adrian Marriott, Pete Darton and other qualified coaches as required. Marion Colman continues to provide the group warm up and Ian Eddy, supported by Rex Whitcombe has brought a deal of structure to the administration of these endurance sessions attended by all ages from very able 12 years olds through to those nigh on 70.

Other coached sessions have run on occasional Saturday mornings on Street hill, organised by Simon Prior and Adrian, with athletes from Taunton AC sharing these from time to time. A number of the ‘Wednesday’ runners have also attended
Running Leadership courses this past year and no doubt that has improved input In addition, Graham and I have been running coached after-school sessions at Ansford School over the past two terms, concentrating on endurance running.

SHARING IN THE TASKS: The call is always for people to step forward and share in some of the many tasks that a Club like
Wells Harriers needs to be organised. This too often falls to the same people, or person, and this continues to be a challenge. For the 2012/13 Street 5k we will have a new Race Director, and I hope that Ed Tickner will be able to take
us through to our 25^th anniversary in 2 years time in this role, supported as ever by the band of volunteers that roll up for 6 editions of the race every year. The Street races are the only ones where the Harriers as a Club take the lead, all the other local races that we support has or should have local groups/committees that organise them.

Team management has continued to be shared out but the call has now gone out for a ‘lynch pin’ or ‘pins’ to act as Championship entry supremo(s) for the various XC and road championships that we compete in. This task entails promoting & then chivvying our members to ensure they are entered for the events by the deadline. Quite often this is over 50 members to corral, but is an essential part of explaining why we are so successful as a club at County, sub-regional and regional and national level competitions.

SPONSORSHIP: There has been little success in securing any significant external sponsorship towards team/Club
activities this past year, but a counter-argument would be that we live within our means, basing all of our spend on the membership revenues and those derived from the voluntary coaching sessions held on a Monday & Tuesday, and the
Street 5k income. For the forthcoming Mary Rand celebration weekend & the Olympic themed activities we have however secured some £300 income from local races that we support and we thank those groups/organisers for that support.

COMMITTEE: some Club committee meetings have been poorly attended, though the quality of discussion, and hopefully the decision-making, has been as high as ever. As the committee meets only 4 times a year there is a great dependency on a small group of committee members to take executive decisions and ‘just get on with it’ based on previous years activities. Whilst this is sound it may also be a weakness in terms of the long-term health of the Club, and this will be something to
rectify this year. There may be a tendency for Club members to make assumptions that all sorts of things (coaching; team management; press articles; web mgt; kit mgt; membership; etc etc.) will just carry on being done as they have
before, but I would like to see Members offering to shadow existing committee members in order to take on full responsibility later down the line.

What a talented lot we are! Harrier’s Annual awards for 2011

The Club’s Annual Awards for 2011 can be announced following a committee discussion looking at several performances and achievements across the calendar. Awards were made at the AGM to a number of the recipients.

Senior Man – Frank Tickner (succeeding his brother) – for selection to Team GB at European XC Championships 2011. The committee also noted the great performance by Ben Tickner in winning the South of England Championships this year. (Jan 2012)

Senior Woman – Katrina Prior (succeeding Laura Parker)– for her efforts at cross-country in 2011. The committee also recognised the great efforts by former women’s captain Anna Lewis, despite injuries.

Junior Boy –Oliver Fox (succeeding Matthew Dickinson)– for his 8^th place at the English Schools XC Championships back in March 2011 and selection for the England schools team. The achievements of Sam Bedford (800m) and Sam Sommerville (XC & track in 2011) were also noted, with Sam achieving England selection in 2012.

Junior Girl –Lucy Baldwin– (succeeding Emily Smith). For her improvement over all distances and terrains this past year especially her 1^st at County Xc Champs (2010 & 2011); and her 1^st at Somerset & SW Schools Championships. Lucy is also currently ranked 3^rdnationally for her 5km time of 19.49 (u13g).We also noted the performances by Isobel Glaisher, Lilly Hawkins & Rebecca Carver in XC matches, with Isobel going on to gain selection for England after the English Schools Champs of March 2012.

Marathon performance –Tim Hawkins– (succeeding Clare Prosser). for his 2hr 36mins 24 personal best at the Chester Marathon..

Veteran Man –Clive Harwood – (succeeding Jon James). for being selected as 1^streserve for the English Masters V60 Team, and his performances on the road in the relays and at 5k where he was ranked 3^rdnationally for his time of 18.05.

Veteran Woman – Jenny Moore – (2^nd year in succession) for being ranked 7th nationally at F45 at the half marathon (83.54 at Bath, March 2011).

Most improved Runner – Katie Hellier (Wednesday Group) –(succeeding Laura Darby-Jones) for her improvements over 2011

Club Person of the Year – Ian Eddy (succeeding Rex Whitcombe) for his Street Marshalling work and
his organisation at the Tuesday training sessions.

BOG SEAT AWARD: The AGM made the unanimous choice of long-standing member Gary Tubridy for his ‘performance’ at the Grizzly 2011. The Bog seat is the most coveted of awards to celebrate one of the members achieving something daft. Please ask Gary for his tale of woe from the Grizzly. Gary succeeds Bob Powell & Ian Carpenter from 2010.

The AGM also voted unanimously to honour Club member John Reynolds for his achievements in raising funds for the Childrens Hospice South West through his recent world record run by making John one of the very special group of HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS. ( a list of other Hon Life Members appears on the About Wells Harriers page).