Runners to affiliate to England Athletics - Clubhouse

Tired Legs (Mrs Punch)

01/02/2007 at 13:05

Just interested in peoples views. If you are attached to a club you will now need to be affiliated to England Athletics if you are a competing runner, they will also have all information about you held on a data base that clubs with have to supply them with. This is from the age of 11 upwards.

For clubs this is a nightmare on the administration side think they've forgotten that we do this in our spare time, some club will be able to absorb the extra fee but smaller clubs won't.

Are you happy with this???

Wilkie

01/02/2007 at 13:08

Mrs P, is there a link you could give us on this? I'm a club secretary, and struggling to find information about what changes will take place. I'm not getting any help fom the SEAA, or Essex AAA!

Tired Legs (Mrs Punch)

01/02/2007 at 13:28

If you email me I'll send on what England Athletics sent me.

SEAA are not interested anymore as they are just for competitions.

But if you google 'England Athletics' you should be about to find some info.

Grendel

01/02/2007 at 13:32

Not going to help, other than to say that I am quite relaxed about it, after all, unless you are doing the big races which charge an exorbitant entry fee running is a relatively cheap sport, so another £3 is ok, I would like to think however that that road running will benefit from the extra money, in a way that it hasn't in relation to the unattached levy.

and this is a link for you Wilkie if you have not already seen it

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.keeley810/essexaaa/index.html

Essex have set up a Road Running section (about time too)

Tired Legs (Mrs Punch)

01/02/2007 at 13:40

Take it you're not on a club committee then
Gendel ;-)

Grendel

01/02/2007 at 13:49

Not any more, served my time in the late 80s and during the 90s in all capacities so happy to sit back now and let others do it (it also helps that I now live 75 miles fromthe the club)

Swerve

01/02/2007 at 14:15

It's all about consolidating England Athletics' control over all forms of running, or specifically the wallets of runners, and to conform to the government's idea of how a sport's governing body should queue up for elite Lottery grants. It will make it harder for new runners to get into racing, and there will be no tangible benefits to you and me..... Oh, sorry, I forgot, we'll get our race times stored on a website somewhere. And I expect we'll get a membership badge and decoder ring.

The "consultation exercise" which RW (rightly) participated in was a farce, and the whole thing stinks as far as I'm concerned.

But, er, yes, I'll shell out whatever I have to shell out.

TL - I think the fees will be on a per-member basis. Cost-wise, it shouldn't hit small clubs disproportionately(?). Admin-wise it will, of course.

Beagle

01/02/2007 at 14:22

See this week's Athletics Weekly.

Very interesting that on p6 Ed Warner, the new UKA chairman is asked about the issue and says: "I have a rather laissez-faire attitude where I believe someone should be able to stick on some trainers and run without any palaver or without getting caught in a big administritive net."

Does that sound to anyone else like a diplomatic way of saying it's a bad idea?

Whether you think it is right or wrong to have a registration scheme (I think the idea is good in principle) you have to say the way it is being brought in is a bodge job. It has alienated so many people and, as is raised above, even those who want to do what they should are not able to do so as the idea is up in the adminisphere.

Brooks the beast

01/02/2007 at 15:00

England Athletics have made the point that is is still cheap compared to the unattached levy which is true BUT of course as a club member you already avoided that.

To be honest many of the road running clubs are absorbing it because they are generally well off as they don't have many expenses compared to a Track and Field club. There is extra administration although it is not yet clear exactly how it will be collected.

Its still a cheap sport and most others have higher affiliation fees.

Anybody who wants to remain unattached just puts their shoes on and runs and anybody who wants to join a club, pays as before and gets the benefits of club membership (social, coaching, no levy, insurance) and even in a purely financial sense they should still save unless they race rarely.

Wilkie

01/02/2007 at 15:06

I don't see why all the affiliated members' details have to be stored on a central database.

Aren't we on enough databases already? What the point of keeping all that data on people who race a few times a year (and are never going to be top athletes)?

Podro

01/02/2007 at 20:13

I'm having a strange sense of deja vu Wilkie.....

popsider

01/02/2007 at 20:36

It starts at £3 - I can't see it staying that way for too long - it's a way of milking runners to fund elite athletics when some local races are finding it hard to keep going. I don't run regularly or race at the moment so it's easy for me to make a token protest but I wont be rejoining the club as a result.

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