Notes from the May 2011 Committee meeting

Dear colleagues,

Here are some notes from the club’s last committee meeting, for your interest.

Bobby Rossborough, Kath Scott and Gary Dick have all left the club for pastures new. To balance this out, three new adult members have been accepted into the club. A warm welcome to Stephen and Evelyn McKee from Erskine, and Tricia Stevenson from Bearsden.

We have applied to Clydebank Golf Club for the use of their clubhouse for a celebration of the club’s 125^th anniversary. We hope to have this event on Saturday 17^th September. The actual format of the event has yet to be finalised but there will be a dinner, speeches, plus either entertainment or some form of music/dancing. Details to be finalised when we have a firm date and venue.

There was a discussion at the meeting on coaching and coaches in the club. It was agreed that it would be helpful if the club coaches could get together and provide details of when, who and what they coach , so that current and new members know who to approach for advice.

Peter Rudzinski

Important Announcement - Annual General Meeting

The Club's AGM will be held in Clydebank Town Hall on Friday 16th April 2010.
Meeting starts at 6.30pm - all Club members welcome.

Yvonne Green
Club Secretary

The Club and Young Athletes

Immediately after the War, Clydesdale Harriers organised the first annual race for Under 17 athletes. It was praised as an excellent venture meeting a real need in Scottish athletes. It was a Ballot Team race - all the entrants names were entered in a draw and the first three athletes were team A, the second three team B and so on. Teams were therefore made up of athletes from different clubs and all, regardless of the strength of their individual clubs, had a chance of a team prize. (How would that go for seniors today???) The Johnny Morgan Trophy went to the individual winner and many who won it went on to excellent careers are senior athletes (Harry Fenion, Ian McCafferty, etc). Later the club proposed to the Annual General Meeting of the SAAA that there be annual championships for the Under 15 age group. It was carried and so the National U15 championships were born. We have also organised the Clydebank Highland Games for young athletes of both sexes. Derek McGinley had an annual 1500 metres race for local schools and we gained some first class athletes from that venture and in the days of John Tonner and Billy McLaughlin we had annual Clydebank Schools races with trophies donated by the Clydebank Council for the winning schools in the P6, P7, S1 and S2 age groups.

In recent years our record vis a vis events for young athletes has not been as goos. We organised the Clydebank Schools cross country championship and when we were asked by the County Sports Development Group to incorporate a County Schools event, we agreed. But then when the County people asked if it could be a DALAP veent we agreed. The result is that they organise it, staff it, lay the course, present the prizes and generally organise the show and Clydesdale is not involved. That brings the total of events organised by the club for young athletes to NONE. From National significance to nothing in about three generations. It's a sad record. The Committee seems to be at a distance from the younger generations. If all the Committee does is agree with what the coaches suggest, then I would suggest it is not doing its job. The Committee should be making suggestions, looking at the needs of the Juniors in the club and doing what it can to devise ways to support them. It would also be good to see a Committee member - any Committee member - coming to see the young athletes in their League matches during the summer - or even in Kelvin Hall at the end of January.

For next winter, why don't we offer to host the County relays or Championships, or even the District relays or Championships? Give the club members a home run for a change. If we have held International and National Championships in Clydebank in the past, why not now? The question for the Committee is not 'Can we do it?' but rather 'HOW can we do it?' Look for the answer to the question of how we host the races not ask if we can do it.

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!

Not What They Used To Be

I went to the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships at Grangemouth on Saturday. They have been held on this weekend (Friday and Saturday) since I was at school but the meeting is nothing like what it used to be even nine or ten years ago. Numbers of competitors and spectators have dropped disastrously. For instance at local level, there were only four (FOUR) athletes entered from Clydebank schools and I didn't see one there - this might have been my eyesight but to the best of my knowledge no Clydebank school pupil actually competed. This is quite a comedown when you remember that St Columba's and Braidfield used to send a bus each on both days, that Clydebank High and St Andrew's used to send at least a minibus, often a bus. If you head towards Bearsden and Milngavie, the situation is almost as bad with Boclair which on occasion sent two whole buses of athletes entering fewer than ten pupils. Peter Bowman told me that Bearsden Academy had only three boys competing om Saturday.

When you see and hear Scottish Athletics boasting about the quality of the sport in the country and then look at the reality it is a bit like inhabiting a parallel universe or talking to Alice in Wonderland.

Where does it put us as a club?
The first and biggest message is that we have to do our own recruiting and coaching and not rely on anyone to do the work for us. We need to sharpen up our act in this respect.
Second and partly emerging from that, we really need to be ready for a whole club approach to making the most of the new track at St Peter the Apostle when we finally get access to it. I say whole club because the seniors need more new blood and they won't get it if they are training elsewhere away from the new blood; I say whole club because the youngsters need the senior role models on the same site. The Committee might have to take a hard decision when some of the seniors refuse to leave the comparative comfort of their own wee howff in the Antonine but will surely have to nominate the new venue as the 'official' club training venue.
Third it tells us that we will have to make greater efforts to cultivate the local schools as recruiting territory - re-enthuse them with athletics as the base sport for all other sports. Rugby, hockey, football and even lacrosse (I suppose) all have athletics as their basic fitness sport and this should be made apparent to all schools.
Fourth it tells us that with the shrinking pool of available talent we need to realise that we are in a competitive world where all sports and all athletic clubs compete for the same talented individuals. The coaches have to take it on board and I believe that they have already done so - it is also incumbent on the Committee however to make sure that they are not operating with one hand behind their back. eg if Vicky Park and West Dumbarton have the clubmark, we must have it too.

From 250+ members in centenary year of 1985 down to 60+ is largely down to the lack of a proper track facility in the burgh as well as the other underlying national factors. We need to get back there.

Annual General Meeting

The club's AGM was held on Friday in the Town Hall and was the best attended for some time. In the absence of Peter Rudzinski, Yvonne Green chaired the meeting very efficiently and the full agenda was completed quickly and with no awkward moments. The main office bearers remain the same with Peter Rudzinski remaining as President and Yvonne and Jim Wright continuing as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Continuity is always a good sign at the top end of the club. The club accounts were as well laid out as usual and explained comprehensively and in a very professional manner by Jim Wright. The best news from Jim was that club subs are NOT going up this year.

The Magnificent Four (Paul Carroll, Gary Dick, Brian Gallagher and Ian Robertson) were there to see Gary be elected as Club Captain with Paul and Ian going on to the Committee for the first time. Brian pleaded that his shift work made it difficult but he is more than welcome to attend committee meetings as well.

The youngest member in attendance was Under 20 athlete Ryan Savage and it would have been good to see more in attendance from the younger age groups. The Parents Rep is again Mary Ann Savage who took over the post from Donald MacLeod a year ago.

The other major position on the Committee that must be noted is that of Club Welfare Officer. Donald MacLeod has that honour and is responsible for all issues to do with the welfare of club members - he is not simply a Child Welfare Officer - his remit includes that but is wider than that.

So - congratulations to last year's Committee for the work that they have done and the best of luck to the new committee in 2009/2010.

Committee: The Club Executive

In any organisation - Social Club, Sports Club, whatever - the President, Secretary and Treasurer are known collectively as the club executive. There are times when a matter has to be decided quickly and there is no time to call the wole committee together, there are times when something is so unusual (the John Tonner situation)that you don't want too many folk knowing about it and these are the kind of situations where the club executive can take a decision on behalf of the club. It follows that the three people involved have to be fairly experienced and trusted by the club. They may go for a year or even two without taking an executive decision but on the occasions when one has to be made, the power is invaluable.

We are fortunate in the club this year to have a very good trio looking after the fortunes of the club. All positions are up for grabs at the AGM although the committee does have its own nominations. This is not to stop any counter proposals but rather to make sure that by the end of the AGM there is a name at every position. My own position would be to seriously ask the top trio to stay in post and then look for alternative nominations for all ther posts. This is not because the current holders are not up to the job BUT it is a sign of a healthy club that there is competition for the committee posts and it also gives the holders of the offices after the meeting a bit more confidence knowing that they have been elected.

The big posts for me this year are Men's Captain - with no disrespect at all to current holders or those in the recent past we really need an active Captaian on the Men's side - and a team manager for the Ladies who will look after the young girls, enter their teams, collect their numbers and take them round the course at races. I also feel that the old idea of having associate members who will not be running members but who are prepared to help the committee or the club in some way should be resurrected. David Bowman's wife's brother was Jack Picken and he came to committee meetings and attended Dunbartonshire AAA Meetings with David on behalf of the club; Doug Gemmell's Dad was club secretary for many years in a similar capacity of associate member. Just as we recruit runners, so we should maybe recruit committee members. Not being a runner should not ba a bar to committee membership.

Anyway, that's just me - the meeting is on Friday at 6:30. Members should make every effort to attend. If you don't want to come you will find a reason - it's too wet, the weather is too good to be indoors - but we are only asking for an hour or an hour and a quarter once a year to attend to the business of your club. If you really, really can't come at least send an apology for your absence.

Committee: The President

The Club President is posibly the most important job in the club. The President is the person who sets the tone of the club and who decides the direction in which the club is going. These often depend on the state of the club - and at times of the society - in which he/she holds office. For instance during the Second World War Charlie Middler was president and his job was clearly to maintain the club as a going concern so that it would start up efficiently and smoothly on the cessation of hostilities. In the Thirties when the club was not successful athletically and society was riven by the Great Depression with members out of work and many leaving the area to find work, the task was to keep up spirits, keep any momentum going and there was as great a concentration on the social life as on the athletics.

Presidents tend to be of two kinds - those who push and prod the club in a particular direction and those who take a steadier approach and concentrate on keeping the club on an even keel. As I said the function is dependant on the state of the club, the demands of the time and also on the personality of the president. David Bowman was a canny mixture of both and when I joined the club he was a superb example of what a president should be. Our President this year is Peter Rudzinski, a man of vast Committee Experience having held most of the significant posts on the Committee. This year he has been an excellent example of the 'steady as you go' president. If everyone else does their job properly, he could do a good job next year as well.

Some clubs have a President who is a leader and figurehead and who is separate from the chairman. Our version is a president who also chairs meetings. Some clubs have two vice presidents along with the president himself: one of them is the immediate past president, the other is the prospective next holder of the office. This has a LOT to commend it. Keeping the immediate past president ensures an element of continuity and we have not had that at times in the recent past when three presidents that I can think of, left the committee completely the minute their term of office is over. So there are two alternative models of the top of a club: (a) separate the president and chairman functions - I doubt whether we have enough to do that yet; (b) elect two vice presidents with the immediate past president as one to ensure some continuity and another who will take on the job next.

President, Scretary and Treasurer are usually referred collectively as the club exeutive and I'll have a look at the executive as a whole next time.

Committee: Club Captain

Communication between the runners and the club committee is all important if the club is to prosper. In the beginning the club had five Glasgow Sections plus Sections in Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire. Each Section had two members on General Committee and the General Committee had one rep on each Section Commmittee. There was also communication with athletes from outwith that area - eg Hugh Barr came from Edinburgh, Stewart Duffus from Arbroath. There was someone resposible for communication with each runner. When I joined the club, the club captain filled that role: he discussed places on the Edinburgh-Glasgow team, he knew who was fit and who was not, he was in fact the go-between between the Committee and the athletes. It worked well. In recent years the position has not been filled effectively except for the short time that Gus Cairney did it.

The team captain was responsible for finding out who was able to run, persuading the reluctant, assisting the important but unfit runners and going to the Secretary with the team and probable runners. The Secretary has plenty to do without selection being one of the extra duties! The captain picked the team, the secretary filled in the form and the treasurer wrote out the cheque. Who is the best candidate for club captain at present? With the AGM coming up, thoughts should be turned to who is the best person for the job so that the club gets the best man for the job.

Tied in with the captain is the issue of whether we have a team manager or not. In the past there have been team managers at some times, at other times not. By and large a non running team manager is an asset. He is available for consultation by the captain about doubtful selections, provides support at committee meetings and enters the teams on the day. The captain has too much to do on the day to collect numbers. We only have to look back at the last cross country season and note that four different people were responsible for collecting the numbers etc for the Senior Men's Team. The club really needs a conscientious team captain, selected by the runners and elected at the AGM.

The Ladies and Girls are slightly different and I will return to them very soon.

Committee Meetings: Minutes

No club can function effectively without a good committee which should be a blend of experience, ability and with a regular infusion of new blood. It should be noted that any club member can ask for an item to be put on the agenda and any club member can attend any committee meeting. At the meeting they can take part in discussions but are not allowed to vote on any issue requiring a vote. We are currently blessed with a committee which has experience and ability but it may be that, as with all committees in any organisation these days, it could do with some new blood. Important as the President, Secretary and Treasurer are - and they are very important, the Minute Secretary is vital to the smooth running of any club.

I have club minute books from the early 1890's to the early 2000's and they vary immensely in the degree of detail contained but they all have one thing in common - they allow the reader to reconstruct the meetings that they cover. This is important. The Minute of a Meeting is not just a list of action points or summary of what decisions were taken. It should reflect accurately the discussions, the various points of view expressed and the decisions taken at the meeting. Two examples: first from time to time there are suggestions that the club vest be altered in some way and a special meeting is called. The Minute of the meeting is not just that two vests were discussed and one was decided upon. The flavour of the discussion and the arguments for and against each one should be recorded for future reference along with the results of any vote taken. Second, when there are applications for membership, the actual names of the applicants should be recorded. On occasion the club has had the proposer and seconder for each applicant recorded in the minute. This is vital because when an athlete leaves the club Scottish Athletics need to see an extract of the Minute at which the athlete became a club member. It also matters because when an athlete joins from another club we need to have an accurate note of their joining date since they may have to serve a period of time before they are eligible for team competition.
The Membership Secretary is one of the more important members. I saw Minute Books for a Church Group and also for a Sports Club recently and both stick to the handwritten version in a Minute Book. In a documentary about Manchester United FC the Minutes at the Meeting were read from a handwritten Minute Book. This way the minutes have a permanence missing from typed minutes which can scatter to the four winds if you are not careful!