Committee Meeting February 2008

Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on Thursday 21 February 2008 at Romsey Sports Centre

Present: Jane Field, Tony Peelo, Greg Roulston, Liz Slade, Paul Bradley, Lynne Whitaker, Keith Stone, Heidi Williams, Alistair Longworth

Apologies: Julia Abab, Gill Callus, Nick Berryman

Minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Matters arising were:
a) Membership database – Membership Secretary agreed to add next of kin details and make these available for the Session Leader
b) Risk assessments of training routes – these are now in the process of being produced. Laminated maps of Thursday routes have been produced and will be displayed in the Sports Centre. Maps for Monday sessions will be brought to the session as there is no permanent display board available.
c) Fixtures have been updated on website – Fixtures Secretary to continue to send further updates and to provide links to race websites which are very helpful. The Website Manager intends to use Google Earth to show routes on the website.
d) It was agreed that in future, committee meeting minutes would be displayed on the website, hence references to individuals should be removed.

Session Leader:

The Session leader reported that the Spring schedule had now been produced and the intention was to return to track sessions at Mountbatten School from April 17th until the Thursday before August Bank Holiday.
ACTION: Secretary to book the track and to check that lanes will be marked out in time for the first session.
Monday nights will revert to Braishfield courses from mid April. It was suggested that the Club should provide bottles of water for the monthly 5k time trial if a volunteer can be found to transport the water to the finish.

Membership:

9 new membership applications have been received, taking the total of current members to 91.
The following applications were nominated by the Treasurer and seconded by the Kit Secretary:

Suzy Copus
Kris Reilly
Wendy George
Paul Baldieri
Stephen Reed
Nick Saunders
James Hunt
Ian Ralph
Vicki Rees-Jones

Kit:

Running gloves have been added to the range on offer and are already selling well. There is a potential need to order more fleeces but it was agreed we should check demand before ordering more, as we are moving towards warmer weather ( we hope!)
It was also agreed that the website could be better utilized in terms of kit availability/ ordering.
ACTION: Kit Secretary to liaise with Web Manager to ensure details of all current kit are added to the website, with a facility for users to e-mail the Kit Secretary directly with any orders.

Social:

A report from the Social Secretary was read to the meeting. The curry evening has already been booked by 30 people. The Blue Hayes restaurant at Shootash has been booked for the pre-Marathon pasta party on 8th April and details will be in the next newsletter.

Press Secretary:

We have been getting good coverage recently in the local press. It was suggested that a supply of good photography would help to ensure continued coverage and that members should be urged to forward any photographs to the Press Secretary for this purpose.

Fixtures:

A report of the RR10 AGM was read to the meeting ( the Fixtures Secretary having sent his apologies.)
Key highlights were:
o Stubbington Green have been elected a full member and will host a race at Manor Farm
o A first aid kit will be passed to the organisers of each race together with basic safety precautions
o “Miles of Miles” race will be held at Southampton University Fields on Weds 18th June
o Test Way relay will be held on Sat 30th August

Treasurer:

The general account currently has a balance of £2298.68
The new Kit Secretary and the new Club Secretary will be added to the list of cheque signatories.
The Kit Account will be closed and merged with the general account.
The race account will also be closed in due course to save additional costs/ admin.
ACTION: Treasurer to obtain a new paying in book for Kit Secretary so that kit cheques can be paid directly into the account.

Newsletter:

The March newsletter is nearing completion, with a very encouraging level of contributions this month.
The newsletter will be printed at the Editor’s offices with a nominal contribution from the Club to be arranged.
The Committee all agreed they were very happy with the current format of the newsletter.
The Editor has started to canvass opinion on whether members would like to receive the newsletter by e-mail/ in hard copy format/ both.
The Membership Secretary agreed to add this question to the application form for new members.

Club Constitution:

The Session Leader has received no further feedback on the proposed constitution since the last meeting. She will circulate a final draft for the approval of the committee and it will then be added to the website.
It was noted that the revised constitution will need to be officially sanctioned at the next AGM in November so will be provisional until then.

Any other business:

1. Renewal fees of £127 are due to the Association of Running Clubs. It was agreed that we would subscribe for a further year before reviewing the benefits of our membership.
ACTION: Secretary to send cheque to ARC
2. Romsey Road Runners flag – a supplier has been found but we need to order a minimum of two banners . The Committee authorized the Session Leader to purchase one Romsey flag and one “START” flag which could be used at races, for a total cost of approximately £200.
3. The Committee authorized the Treasurer to purchase a set of hand weights for £22 for the Friday Circuits session.
4. The Web Manager requested that members should forward details of social runs/ walks etc for inclusion on the website.
5. There was a discussion regarding setting up a Google Group facility for members to communicate with each other regarding runs etc. After some discussion it was agreed that this could undermine the role of the website and hence effort would be focused on getting the maximum benefit from the website in the short term.
6. The Session Leader announced that there was to be a Home Run at Broughton on Monday 9th June. The Newsletter Editor also intends to arrange a Home Run/ birthday celebration in Romsey on 24th July.
7. Contact details for the Club need to be changed at both Woodley Hall and Romsey Sports Centre ACTION: Club Secretary to amend
8. The Session Leader will introduce an “Incident Reporting Form” to log any incidents which may occur during training, in case of any follow up.
9. Race Diary – it was agreed that the file should contain forms for races in Hampshire and surrounding counties, and should ideally cover a longer time period than the Fixtures List which goes in the newsletter.
10. The Membership Secretary is currently injured and so the Assistant Secretary will be looking after new members in his absence.
11. It was suggested that stretching after training could be introduced in a slightly more formal way, particularly for newer members. ACTION: Session Leader/ Assistant to consider whether this can be introduced.

Date of next meeting:

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Monday 31st March at Woodley Hall

The meeting closed at 9.07 pm.