CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2016.
Well what can I say about the last 12 months, one thing for sure is that it has not
been uneventful with numerous honours for the club.
As a running club we have certainly become a force within the North East circuit.
I am ashamed to admit that I cannot name all the achievements made over the 12
months so apologies for all those that do not get a mention in this report its got
nothing to do with any individual.
I will just mention a few of the achievements. Everyone is aware of Markim’s
achievements and we all at the club wish him every success now he has his new
coach installed. In the same stable we have Jayne Henderson who has been
sprinting at various events in the indoor season. Jayne is an inspiration to
anyone at what can be achieved from running a marathon to winning all her
sprints at the NEMA events in her age group.
Ever since I joined the club Geoff Hewitson has been banging on the drum about
entering the NEMA track and field events held during the Summer months. A few
years ago I think there may have been only 3-4 representing Crook but slowly
from the ashes the club has moved up the rankings to finally win the overall
competition in 2016. This was due to a lot of the club embracing what its all
about and taking part. I can even vouch for that doing the triple jump getting
maximum points and been ruled out for over 4 months. So if you have not taken
part please come and join the family even if you cannot take part at every fixture
we will need everyone to chip in if we are going to hold onto our place at the top.
The club has also one a number of prizes in the age group categories.
The membership numbers are now just over the 100 mark and we are gaining
more members than we are losing which shows the progress we are making.
The committee has taken a back seat with the junior section who now has its
own committee in place and also their own bank account. Without going into a
lot of detail this part of the club continues to flourish with a waiting list for new
members. We have though lost a couple of members in the last year who feel that
their development would be better suited at another club. I do have my own
views on this however it is essential that should the club continue to grow we
need more people to take up coaching roles and also have more specialist
coaches on board.
After a number of years protracted talks regarding Peases West work finally
commenced in October. We have been told that the build is a 26 week progress
so we can expect to have the new facilities in place in early Spring.
What this will entail we do not know and there are more unanswered questions
but we have been led to believe that there are no changes. I will take any
questions and what we need as club under any other business. It is essential that
we maintain our spirit and stay together I know it is not ideal with no real
facilities and having to use torches on the track but we need to stay together and
I am sure that we will in turn having a far bigger voice going forward.
Bill Ford was the lucky winner for the one place the club were allocated for
London. Good luck Bill its not as if you have not done any marathons before and
in particular London.
There were some impressive Marathon performances last year and again good
luck to anyone doing a marathon in 2017.
This report is not about singling out individuals however I must mention this
year a few people who we all take for granted the work they do behind the
scenes.
Phil Carter has been responsible for the handicap for a few years now and I know
some of you wonder how he comes up with some of the times but it’s a thankless
task.
Craig Downs took over the PR for the club and has increased the profile of the
club over the last couple of years. This includes among some of the areas the
twitter feed and articles in the local newspapers. These all take time and Craig
has also just set up his own business. Thanks to Craig’s efforts we submitted
applications for a couple of awards. We won the local competition for the club of
the year and Harry Binyon one the award for the volunteer of the year award. At
the County Durham awards the club was up against stiff opposition but again it
got us on the map.
Last month the Northern Echo awards were held at Wynyard with both Harry in
the frame and the junior section.
I am sure that you will all agree the awards one by Harry are completely justified
for the work he does behind the scenes for both sections of the club.
Lastly we are fortunate to have Crook Ed on a weekly basis I do not know of any
club in the area having a weekly newsletter. Again this is a thankless task and
Rob has given 100% to this and at the same time has been the club captain. Rob
has indicated his desire to step down as editor.
So we have 2 big holes to fill but the groundwork and structure is now well in
place.
As some members will be aware we have had a few spats on social media I do not
want to go into detail but we certainly do not want any legal action taken against
either any individual or the club. A decision was therefore made to make the
Facebook page a closed site for members only. This is in keeping with most other
clubs and we do not want outside members seeing all of our posts. We do think
that all members are now on this closed site but if you are not it is easy to get you
added so please let me know.
The club is also grateful for the work that went into the organisation of the
Presidents Ball that took place at Redworth Hall in May. There is an intention to
repeat this again this year building on the success of 2016. A big thank you to
Geoff Hewitson and Simon Fell for organising this event.
The relays have become an established part of our calendar taking place in July.
2016 was no exception with record numbers attending and also new clubs. We
also included a juniors relays as well as a first taster. Personally I do not think
that we can cope with any further numbers and we must wait to see what
happens with the track first as clearly if these are not ready we will not be able to
run this event from the portacabins we have currently.
As I have repeatedly said in the past if there any areas you are able to contribute
please come forward as this does take some of the pressure off the existing
committee members. After all we are all just runners.
I have one last plea and you will see that I do send a number of emails out during
the course of the year. It is not possible to send them out any other way as time
prevents this. It is therefore important that your personal details are correct on
the EA site so can I please ask that everyone spares some time to check that their
details are correct. It will not take long.
So the club enters a new year and I am continuing to be optimistic that the club
will have a bright future at Peases West. If we have challenges ahead we will face
these as a united club and deal with them as and when they are presented. I am
sure everyone will agree that you cannot plan for speculation.
Good luck to everyone associated with the club regardless of whatever you have
planned in 2017.
GRAHAM LAVERICK
Chairman
Jan 2017