MINUTES OF THE AGM OF TRENT PARK RUNNING CLUB

HELD ON 17thOCTOBER 2016 AT SOUTHGATE HOCKEY CENTRE

1. Apologies

Dave Arnold, Ray & Julia Bull, Linda & Dave Grindall, Michael Wolff, Franca Edmonds, Steve Dodd, Caroline Coles, Beverley Golding, James Harden, Peter Lambert, Barbara Edlin, Lesley Turner, Julian Tracey.

2. Minutes of the AGM held on 20th October 2015

The Minutes were agreed.

3. Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

4. Chairman’s Report (Chas Taylor)

Thinking about what the Club provides it can be expressed in F words – Fun, Friends, Fitness and Firsts. We deliver on all of these.

I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and commitment of all the committee. I shouldn’t pick any individuals out but I would like to make special mention of the great work done by John Rose. We have some changes to the committee with Malcolm, Ellen and Alice standing down and the Ley’s switching as the Junior Rep.

Volunteering has been good – Geoff has done really well with volunteers for the Handicap, cover for Malcolm standing down is good and 100+ volunteering at Triffic Trail. Please come forward earlier.

Competitive side of Club – another great year. Malcolm will cover in depth. Some great performances outside of the leagues. Overall I think we have best strength in depth ever. Sadly we are not getting the ladies out in numbers.

Hockey Centre arrangements – I don’t want to go into detail but we have reverted to the per member deal at £90. We reduced what we paid by £2000+. 2016/17 arrangements to be finalised but will be similar.

Finances – thanks go to Jason Maloney and previously Felicity and David and also Andy Andreou for auditing the accounts. Jason will go through the numbers but I would like to highlight the surplus made in 2015/16 is due predominantly to one-off non-repeatable contributions.

Communications – Ellen Conlon is standing down and we have interest from Paul Brennan in taking over. Ellen has done a great job with social media. Park Life has been published quarterly, thanks go to the guest editors and all contributors. James Joy has developed a new website which only requires new content and I am culpable in not pulling that together. We must get this finalised.

Berkeley Homes Development – I sat on the Community Council for the development looking for benefits for us, protection of our needs and protection of the environment. No benefits transpired but we will have all access required. Biggest concern for us is limited parking but shuttle bus will benefit our members when that comes in.

Triffic Trail – Alan Collingbourne provided a report. Despite increased costs and some last minute dramas it was a success. We had 552 entrants and 471 finishers. We were able to make charity donations from our profit. Profit was £3630.93. Huge thanks go to all the team leaders, volunteers and the runners who make it so enjoyable. Alan is already planning next year’s race, which is on 25th June 2017 (note for the diary).

Charity contributions – We are very pleased to confirm we have made a number of donations to charity from the Triffic Trail (Nightingale Cancer Care, Chickenshed and the Wildlife Rescue Centre). We also made charity donations from the Quiz Night and Cake Sales as well as Bread Pudding Club.

5. Treasurer’s Report (Jason Maloney)

I took on the role as treasurer from 1 April 2016 replacing Felicity and David, and I would like to pass on my gratitude for the systems they put in place during the time that they took on the role and also for the help they gave me when I replaced them.

The club accounts for FY15/16 have recently been audited and signed off, and I pass on my gratitude to Andy Andreou for his assistance in this.

Turning to the Profit and loss account:

  • The club had a successful year financially in that a surplus of £9,074 in year to 31 March 2016 across both Seniors and Juniors was achieved. This compares favourably to the deficit of £9,708 in the preceding year
  • The surplus of £9,074 includes donations totalling £5,340 (2015 - £3,329).
  • Broken down the
  • Senior surplus for 2016 was £6,306 (2015 – negative £11,945)
  • Junior surplus for 2016 was £2,768 (2015 positive £2,237
  • Subscription income for 2016 totalled £38,566, made up of seniors £32,776 (2015 - £30,564 an increase of £2,212 from the previous year), and juniors £5,790 (2015 - £5,585 an increase of £205 from the previous year)
  • Net income from Triffic Trail totalled £2,162, broken down as seniors £1,595 (2015 - £1,849), and juniors £566 (2015 - negative £64)
  • Net income from Triathlon section reached £78 (negative £1,581 in the preceding year)
  • Hockey club rent paid £25,180 (in 2015 this was £27,400 a decrease of £2,220)
  • Over notable expenses
  • Race expenses - £2,848 (£3,183 – 2015 figures in brackets)
  • Track hire - £2,355 (£2,860)
  • Social/celebratory events - £2,184 (£10,944)
  • Donations £1,729 (£619)

Turning to the Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2016:

  • The Club’s financial position remains strong with a net asset position (i.e. book value of assets less book value of liabilities) of £42,434 after the surplus from trading of £9,074 is taken into account.
  • The Fixed assets of the club (i.e. the container) had a book value of £1,504
  • The Current assets of the club had a book value of £45,273, made up of
  • Cash at bank and in hand £41,972 (£31,097)
  • Stock valued at cost £3,301 (£89)
  • Current liabilities totalled £4,343; being income received in 15/16 that related to 16/17

6. Membership Secretary’s Report (Alice Campbell)

Similar membership to last year, 291 members so far, 6 students, 6 social,. There were 56 lapsed memberships and 9 resignations. Encouragingly there was 100% take up from beginners.

7. Club Team Manager’s Report (Malcolm Allen)

As always we start with last seasons cross country. We are now running in 3 leagues. This has lead to a very full race calendar with a good fewweekends having a race on Saturday and Sunday.

In the Chingford League there were 5 races + the relays to complete the season. Turnout was significantly down in this and the Sunday League, it was partly caused by the large number runners heavily involved with marathon training.

For the fifth year running we won the team relays at Wansted Flats, our team of Nick Sturge, Ricky Owers, Carl Redondo and Tom Cursley doing the club proud. We also had Scott Aiken and Stuart Manktelow winning their age groups.

In the Sunday League’s 5 races, Robert Pick was 3rd in his age group and our men’s team came second.

For the first time we took part in the Start Fitness Met League, headed up by Jan Bowman. Our juniors have run it in previous years, so Adam and co decided the seniors should give it a go. It also has 5 Saturday afternoon races, but the standard is somewhat higher than the other leagues we are in. It is so big it has 3 divisions, with upwards of 1000 runners. We had a good men’s turnout, with two or three women running. As a new club we had to enter in division 3, but our men’s senior and vet’s teams have already gained promotion to division 2.

We had runners taking part in a few of the Championship races, we did not compete in the Nationals, but did run the Southerns, and Middlesex Vet’s champs where our Men’s 60 team of Ray Clarabut, Frank Moran and myself came 1st.

So moving on to the Scott’s Travel Mid-Week Road Race League (We must thank Mike Prior for supporting the league again.).The turnout for these 5 evening races is traditionally higher than winter Leagues and it proved the same this season. We had similar numbers to last year, averaging 71 runners per race. We did stay in Division one, now our 6th year of doing so. Our men’s team finished in top spot, a great achievement, considering the quality of the opposition. Our individual winners were Zoe Redondo and Graham Lewis both won their age group with Frank Moran coming 2nd.

We continue to use the QE2 track on a Tuesday evening, football permitting. Numbers have increased, with a large contingent of our faster runners, going through some rigorous training sessions. We would love to see more faces, so if you have not tried a track session, why not give it a go for a change.

Thanks to everyone who ran for our club last season and of course a big thank you to all of you who helped at our own races and other events, either marshalling or taking the scores at one of our League races. I would also like to thank Melissa and Adam for being inspiring team captains, and naturally Jan, and her team for their consistent hard work in nurturing all our younger athletes, some of whom are now running very successfully in the senior races.

As you know, this is my very last day serving on the Committee; I think I have been involved since 2002 It has been a pleasure, playing the role of team captain, first for the women’s team and then changing to the men, and finally becoming overall team manager.The thing I am most looking forward to in my retirement is having the opportunity to warm up before a league race. Normally I am waiting to see if anybody else turns up just minutes before the start wanting a number, vest or pins.

Thank you again to everybody who has made my job so much easier over the years.

8. Junior Section Representative’s Report (Jan Bowman)

Junior membership is 150+ with 90+ turning up every Saturday.There were 7 ability groups; Leaders:Ed, Tom, Alison, Andrew, Paul Hart, Matt Berger,Jan, Phil & Pete. Between 30-40 races every year, a lot of success including Triffic Trail, Enfield Fun Run, Track Mile; and in the NW London League.

9. Communications Officer’s Report (Ellen Conlon and Chas Taylor)

The biggest success was the promotion of this year’s Triffic trail on social mediawhich included paid advertisements on Facebook and Twitter, Coach Magazine and Tweets on the day.

10. Social Secretary’s Report (John Rose)

In February we had the Bollywood night at the Enfield golf club which was a success.We hope to have a Salsa night again in Feb 2017

In April we had the cake sale organised by Foulla.

We met at the Jolly Farmers again after the marathon to celebrate those that had taken part in the London Marathon.

Sally Minks organised a quiz evening in May.

In August 17 people from the club went to Le Touquet for the weekend and took part either in a half marathon or 10Km race.

The beer race in September and BBQ was a fund raiser for the Animal hospital.

Dinner Dance was held at the Enfield golf club and was well attended in October

In November a Real Ale train was planned

The Christmas party was going to be a jointly organised affair with Jan in December.

11. Handicap Organiser’s Report (Peter Lambert delivered by Chas Taylor)

Handicap Organiser’s Report – Peter Lambert was away on Triathlon management duties in Turkey but had provided a report to Chas to deliver.

We are ‘bouncing along at between 40 and 50 competitors each month. So far this year 144 runners have taken part each month, 40 have run at least 4 times. The majority are members but there are a fair number of non-members. The mass start is popular. Requests for a flat route are regarded as impractical. Pete is still looking at ways to overcome limitations of the SHC internet connection so we can use the new system, especially for the Juniors.

Aquathlon – Numbers were down this year in common with a number of other triathlon related events. It did just about break even, the small charge to members helped. British Triathlon asked if we would consider hosting an event next year. This would be an ‘Enfield’ event and great for the Club.

12. Triathlon Section Representative’s Report (Pete Hughes)

The triathlon sub committee was set up last year, the aim was to encourage more participation in triathlon within the club. We also wanted to 'spread the load' and get more input in the organisation of the triathlon section. We believe this is working well and we will continue to follow this method for the next year.

Highlights for the year:

  • hosted Lee Valley VeloPark Trent Park Mince Pie's Revenge - this was a big success and we will host the same race again next year
  • Trent Park Aquathlon - this was a successful club event and was well organised with a reasonable turnout
  • we had a big club turnout for early season races - HSV Hatfield, Windsor, Dambuster
  • we had a big club turnout for club relays at Dorney Lakes
  • the club continues to support aquathlon at Lee Valley, both organisation and participation has been very successful
  • Saturday morning swim training continues to be well supported. Monday night swimming was launched and has been successful and expanding
  • Open water swimming has been popular at Lee Valley on Tuesday nights. A small group continues to regularly use Blue Lagoon on Saturday mornings.
  • cycling on Sunday is still well supported.

Lowpoints:

  • beginners triathlon group that was planned for early in the year was not supported and had to be cancelled
  • turnout for triathlon races has been sporadic

Other points:

  • the triathlon team would like to mention and thank Pete Lambert as he still continues to contribute a lot to the triathlon group

Plans for next year:

  • existing training sessions will continue as before
  • for cycling on Sundays, we are planning to improve this with an extra riding group and some ongoing training/coaching to help cyclists to become more 'self sufficient' and less reliant on others or the need for the same few individuals to always lead a group
  • we will still continue to advise on club friendly races and hope to include one key foreign race next year and try to include some new races
  • further coached sessions can be arranged but will only be done if there is a demand and commitment from a significant number of people
  • we need to decide on whether to continue with club aquathlon as Pete Lambert has suggested that he would like to hand over to someone else

13.Coach Coordinator (Ed Simmons)

I took on this role after sitting next to Chas at last years dinner dance so let that be a word of warning!

Since that time 7 people have completed the Leadership in Running Fitness course and the majority are now leading groups regularly.

Of these, I think three people deserve special mention: Kathleen Sinnott, Michele Watters and Miranda Bowie the leaders of the Transformers group. The group is a mixture of runners from the beginners groups over the past few years. It's great to see how they have organised the group and how they have brought on the runners over the course of the year, some of whom ran in last week’s x/c country race at Hog Hill.

We are also again indebted to Garrett Turbett for providing training plans with which to base our sessions during the Midweek league and X/C seasons

So focussing on the main three sessions.

The Saturday mornings warmup have been revived. Initially this was rotated across whichever leader was available. However Jason Dodd from the sub 20s suggested that it would be a good thing to have a joint warmup as a means of bringing everyone in the club together

These warmups sessions have been really well received and feedback has been very positive
As we are now getting into the winter months and I would like to highlight the Tuesday session at the track. I know this is not always easy for everyone to get to but it is a safe, floodlit environment

On Thursdays generally we now have coverage over the different paces, with new leaders leading groups.

However we do still need more people to come forward and offer to lead groups so we are not always reliant on the same few people who regularly take groups over a number of different days – a

big thanks to Paul Ward, Martin Cullen & Chris Thompson

I'm happy to take on any advice so if you think there are ways we could improve or there is anything missing from the coaching setup please come and see me

14. Presentations

The Ralph Martin Trophy will be announced at the club Dinner & Dance

The Pig was awarded to Adam Bowman

Presentations were also made to Ellen Colon, Alice Campbell Malcolm Allen & Peter Ley in thanks for their service on the Committee.

15. Election of Officers

The following nominations for Committee positions were uncontested, a block vote was taken and the Officers were elected.

ChairmanChas Taylor

Honorary SecretaryStephen Clayton

Honorary TreasurerJason Maloney

Membership SecretaryVacant but Alice Campbell will carry on for a while.

Club Team ManagerThe Team Manager’s duties will be shared by members: attending various races: Carl Redondo, Tom Cursley, Des Denning and Paul Brennan

Communications ManagerPaul Brennan