A cross country event is taking place at the centre on Saturday 18th and whist they will not be using any of the field or track areas the route will take them into the fenced track (attached is an image of the route).

The event is likely to attract a large amount of participants and as such our car park is likely to be full.

Any users of the track on Saturday’s that we would advise public transport or car sharing as much as possible when using the track next weekend.

The AGM was held on Monday 9th December and notes from the meeting can be found on the Charity section of the website.

After many years of successfully leading the club Richie Pearson has stepped down as club Chair and Tracey Jones was elected as Chair. Our Treasurer Ashley Cooper also stepped down with Debbie Callaway taking on this role. Having fulfilled both Vice Char and recently Acting Chair, Tim Hall was elected at Vice Char to the club. 

Election of Executive Committee members as follows: Mary Axtell: Club President Diane Reavey: Secretary Stuart Saint: Membership Secretary Elizabeth Pugh: Welfare Officer and Election of General Committee members: Michael Coker Jon Tilt David Blackman Nicci Bolinger

In 2020 the committee will be spending much of the early part of the year digesting the results of the recent England Athletics review, thank you to all who contributed to the survey. The results of the survey plus the review have highlighted an number of priority areas for us to concentrate on and we hope to share a summary of the survey plus an action plan with you in the coming months. 

Kind regards

Tracey

I just wanted to get the message out early regarding membership and the process in joining the club.

I have received a lot of emails this season, asking to join the club on a Monday and all be processed to race on the Saturday, to be clear this is not possible. In order to make everyone aware of the process I thought it was best to detail the steps involved.

It is also worth remembering that throughout this process, the manual interfaces are volunteers, who will generally dedicate a fair amount of time to their roles; however, they also have work and home commitments like anyone else, so SAC may not always be their first priority.

• The membership season runs from 1st April to 31st March, we can begin the process in March as this allows people to be fully signed up ready to go for the 1st April.
• In the period from the 1st March 30th April, membership applications will be processed weekly. With over 500 competitive athletes, this period will capture the majority and as a committee, we are aware this is the critical time.
• As we move into May, the application rate declines so we will reduce processing to two weekly, as highlighted below, due to the work involved maintaining a weekly check is not sustainable.
• From July, onwards the membership applications will be checked on a monthly basis around 5-7th of each month. This will continue until the next March where we start the process all over again.
• Every time a new member joins a number of things need to happen for each,
  • A New or Existing member applies through Love Admin,
  • Each membership application needs checking to ensure the following information as a minimum is present as this is required for EA application and for coaches information to ensure they have a handle on who is expecting to attend their sessions,
    • Name
    • DOB
    • Address
    • Contact Email
    • Contact phone number
    • Emergency Contact details
    • If a junior member (U18) parent or guardian details
    • Coach
    • Training Days
  • When this information is checked correct (there is often a period of to-ing and fro-ing to ensure it is) the application is accepted and payment is requested.
  • When payment is made by the applicant, it takes approximately 7-10 days to appear in the SAC accounts.
  • I will process the application, when the payment is received in the SAC account.
  • At this point, I will raise the UKA membership, this involves the manual transfer of Love Admin data to the UKA site, as frustrating as this is, there is no automatic way to do this and it is a manual process.
  • When this is complete an invoice is raised, in line with the information provided prior to this, we attempt to group these together in weekly, two weekly or monthly invoices to limit the amount of time the treasurer needs to dedicate to paying invoices.
  • When the treasurer has made payment, it takes UKA 7-10 days to process before issuing an active URN number. It may be possible to speed this leg of the process up, but that will be down to the individual concerned contacting UKA and discussing on an individual basis, this is not something we as a club would do.

In a nutshell that is it, depending on the time you join will reflect the hold time before being processed.

I agree it is long winded, I agree it should be quicker, I agree it is 2019 and things should not take this long, but unfortunately, this is what we have. We will be working hard to try to see if we can reduce hold times, but with limited manpower and resource, this is the best we can do at the moment.

Coaches and Team managers, could you please let any perspective new joiner / new joiners parents/guardians know this process and we will be able to reduce the amount of time spent answering emails regarding joining and being able to race the next day.

I am happy to discuss this process if required, however I hope it is quite clear.

Thanks

Stuart Saint

Membership Secretary

Officials Courses  3^rd November 2019

Hampshire Athletics have arranged Courses for prospective new Officials at the Mountbatten Leisure Centre, Alex Way, Portsmouth, PO2 9QA on Sunday 3^rd November 2019 starting at 10.00.

We will all meet initially in the Function Suite which is on the 1^st Floor at 10.00 for registration and also to explain the ‘Way Forward’. This will be followed by the separate discipline sessions and all should be finished by 3pm.

Whilst Tea/coffee will be available on arrival please bring your own lunch/refreshments and also outdoor clothing in case of poor weather.

Course reference numbers are as follows:-

Field – OS0007FD
Track – OS0007TR
Timekeeping – OS0007TK
Starters/Starters Assistant – OS0007ST

To apply go to:-

www.englandathletics.org/officiating

Booking is now online and the cost is £20. You will also need to apply for the Health & Safety Course which is now an on line module.

When applying for your DBS if you put Terry Williams down as your Verifier and bring your documents to the Course he will deal with the verification then.

SAC will cover the cost of the course for any new official who commits to officiate in the 2020 season.

COURSE FLYER

Outside of our training sessions (Tue and Thur)  AN need 6 members of the club to attend to meet the criteria for putting the lights on.

We are looking for a volunteer to fill this crucial club role.

In brief the duties include :
• Managing the club’s finances
• Raising payments on behalf of the Club
• Preparation of annual accounts for review by the Club’s accountants
• To present finance updates to Committee meetings

This is a really interesting role that gives a great understanding of how a sports club works. You do not need to be a qualified accountant, just have an understanding of finance, be comfortable working with spreadsheets and have a love of athletics !

An informal , no obligation discussion can be arranged. A full handover will be given by the current post holder who is moving on due to a change of job.
If you, or your friends or family can help, please get in touch with Tim Hall, acting Club Chair – tim.hallts@ntlworld.com

The Active Warrior event takes place on Saturday 19^th October and the track will be unavailable that day. There will have some bits and pieces being set-up before and after. This won’t impact our training in the week before or after but it may appear a little messy/unusual as they set-up and pack down again.

If any of our adult members would like to volunteer to marshal a station Active Nation are offering 5 free child tickets to participate in exchange for their efforts and time. If you would like to volunteer please email or PM me to talk about how you would like those places to be allocated.

Tracey.h.jones@btinternet.com

The committee is pleased to report that Tracey Jones and Gemma Saint , both qualified coaches with the club, have volunteered to support the academy until the end of the current membership year, 31 March 2020. This will be run as a pilot scheme to assess the feasibility of this forming a long term solution for managing the academy.

We anticipate that other coaches in specialist disciplines within the club will come in to lead sessions on a rota basis so that our young athletes are exposed to all these different disciplines. 

Tracey and Gemma will be at the sport centre on Wednesday 25th September to meet the athletes and parents and discuss some of the changes.

Confirmation of Winter Training arrangement

• Fundamental academy (school years 4 and 5) 5.45pm to 7.15pm – indoors for the first hour then 6.45 pm to 7.15 pm outdoors

• Foundation academy (school years 6 and above) – registration at 5.50pm – training will start at 6pm to 7.30pm. The first 45 minutes  will be outdoors then indoors 6:45 to 7:30. Please bring a change of clothes and shoes if the weather is poor.

You will know that the club is run entirely by volunteers, so if you can help out in the academy is any way, do please let us know. The  success of the club depends upon people coming forward.

Kind regards

SAC Committee