EA membership

[Bill Wright]

I am going to bring this matter up at the Committee meeting on Wednesday. I feel as if the club ought to be doing something to encourage more folk to take part in the GP races. It also disappoints me how few folk take part in non-GP races, many of them excellent ones with great PB potential. I know folk younger than me, the ladies in particular, have commitments I don't have and that their Sundays are precious family time. I understand that, but the Paddock Wood Half, for example, had only 3 TRAC members running.

[Rick Ryder]

copy sent to EA

Hi EA, we shall never meet but i am a typical club member, came into running at aged 50 .. fat very unfit and started running walking  2 miles.. well you know the rest a typical story and 12 World Marathons later.... but the bug starts with a 2014 VLM club place via EA placing under our club policy of.... must have helped or marshaled 2 events and have a VLM BALLOT REJECTION SLIP. now i understand fees must raise to improve the EA profile... but to find the allocated VLM places have dramatically been reduced (to 1 place despite 90 adult members!) is a double whammy too far! our / your membership are up in arms may i suggest you tell the people in position of power "the natives are revolting...."

with an expected marathon time of 4.5 hours I'm smack in the middle of peak average finisher time, so unlikely ever to get a good for age, the graph suggests unlikely ever to get a ballot place... and now unlikely ever to get a club place! "if" i was a selfish person i would be asking "whats the point?"

so if all i read on my club forum is true?...  http://www.thanetroadrunners.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=303.msg944;topicseen#new having enjoyed easy access to the Barcelona, Moscow and last weekend Alexander The Great Marathon Greece (thank the lords for easy jet!)  I will be asking my club secretary to rescind my EA membership and donate it towards junior costs

[Bill Wright]

Rick

Good luck with that, I suspect it will be water off a ducks back.

Andy

Whether you are EA affiliated or not your entry into GP races, which of course are our club championships, WILL count towards Club Champs. I will be telling everybody at the club meeting on Wednesday what needs to happen going forward and it will also be put on the website.

Whether affiliated or not a member must run in club top to score in club championships. The Webmaster will post the "official" results showing every affiliated member who took part. Members who were unaffiliated and took part will be asked to let the Webmaster know their name, position and time within 7 days of the race and the Club Championship table will be amended.

Hope that helps.

Bill

[Sharon Foster]

Rick - I have emailed you

Bill I agree

[Ian Lockyer]

Hi Bill. 

The other thing that needs to be taken into consideration about the club championships is the amount of time that Ed has taken in organising, collating and pubicising it on the web.  Ed wont be in that position and someone may need to take that work on.


PS apologies if other people are involved in this process.

[Ed Heardman]

Hi Ian,
No panic, for now at least! I'm happy to see this year's champs through. But then someone else will have to take it over next year....

[Bill Wright]

Ed

If we can get somebody else to act as Webmaster I am quite happy to take over the spreadsheet. After all, spreadsheets were my "bread and butter" for the whole of my working life.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

Following all the kerfuffle about EA and their diktat that you must be an EA member to run for your club in GP races, I have just entered the Deal Dinosaur 10k on 24th July, which is a GP race. I entered via Runners World, who of course charge you £2 for the privelege. I entered as affilated, put TRAC down as my club and then was asked, in a non-mandatory box, for affiliation number "if known". I did not put anything in and my entry was accepted.

For years I have suspected that the RW site works on the basis of the Club being affiliated not the individual. If you book a race through RW at the £2 cheaper affiliated rate you must put down a club name, but you do not have to put an affiliation number because, presumably, they know that most members will not know what their club's affiliation number is. This might be a way for folk like Andy to continue to score points in the GP races without being an EA member.

[Steve King]

The Junior membership is also affected by England Athletics' latest money-making scheme. To compete for the club in league events, they now have to be individually registered with EA.   After our successful first season in the Kent Young Athletes' League last year, it looks as though TRAC representation will be reduced this year as a result of the rule change.  A great pity, considering some of these athletes are still at primary school and getting their first taste of 'proper' competition.  Just the stage at which you would think the national governing body should be doing everything they can to encourage participation, not putting obstacles in the way.

The email sent to KYAL team managers from KCAA this morning included this paragraph:

As you are aware from 1 April the UK Athletics Rules for Competition has changed and athletes who compete in competition must now be registered (Rule 21 S1(i)). England Athletics are checking these registrations with the assistance of competition providers to ensure all athletes who have competed have been registered to their National Association. Should a competitor not be registered they will be liable to disqualification and in such a case the competition shall be decided as if the ineligible competitor had not taken part (Rule 21 S1(ii)). To aid the registration process athletes will have one week’s grace to enable clubs to register their athletes retrospectively (Rule 21 S1 (iv)).   This applies to all age groups even u13s.

[Sharon Foster]

Steve this week will be the last before the second week in June I will be processing memberships so if you have any juniors who need to affiliate can you remind them please?

[Bill Wright]

Steve

At the last club meeting the suggestion was made from the floor that the Club should sponsor the EA membership fees for competing juniors to encourage them to carry on competing. We are currently looking at how many that would need to be so if either you or Sharon can let me know before next Wednesday I am happy to take a costed proposal to the next committee meeting.

Bill

[Andy Stevens]

Just an update to this - entered North Downs and, following Bill's advice, didn't enter an EA reg number in runners world but put TRR down as the club and, hey presto, entry went through as affiliated.