This is just a couple of points before I go to our annual October timeshare week at Kilmelfort south of Oban. First a quote from Athletics Weekly. There had been a ceremony to make awards to people and clubs who had done well over the year or ober their career. These included 'Services to Volunteering' which went to Stephen Jackson who had led the overhauling and restructuring of the club, the Lifetime Services to the sport went to Mike Smith who had been a coach for over 50 years and still going strong and to many others. But the one that tickled my fancy was the award for 'Club to Community Partnership' and I just quote direct without comment: "Ivanhoe Robins Junior Athletics Club has developed all aspects of the club and thrives on creative partnerships and relationships with local organisations to develop an innovative, exciting environment that encourages a "learn and grow" culture".

When Jan Shields was club assistant secretary she was keen on the club minutes being available to all club members and at times posted them on the club notice board. Cliff when President used to talk often about 'communication within the club'. If it was important then it is even more important now when the club is split as far as training venue is concerned. My suggestion here is that we maybe think about posting Committee Meeting Minutes on the blog. The blog would then have two regular features - the weekly Press Report from Marina and a monthly Committee Meetings slot - as well as the other occasional items that appear. It would keep people informed about what goes on at Committee and maybe drum up more interest in the AGM and in standing for election.

For instance, I hear that the Committee last night decided on the races for the Winter League and it shows several differences from past years. The races are the Glasgow Uni 5 Miles, the Dunbartonshire Cross Country at Maryhill, the West District CC at Irvine, the Nigel Barge Road Race, the Scottish 4K Cross Country Championships, the Club Championships, the National Cross Country, the Balloch to Clydebank half marathon and possibly the Tom Scott. It looks like a varied and interesting selection: road and country, short distance and long (4K to half marathon) as well as encouraging entry to club, county, district and national championships. It is also quite significantly different from the summer league which by it nature is almost all on the roads. The difference between the two seasons is shown in this selection.

Any comments on these three items would be welcome. I don't doubt that I will have personal emails about at least one of them. Last week I had three on the same post, one from a woman and two from men, which could well have been in replies via the Comments facility.

I'm off on holiday!