St. Bede’s AGM 2004 – Secretary’s Report

This will be my 15^th secretary’s report.

This last year has seen some amazing changes. The club has been negotiating for some time with Green’s and finally this has come into being and we have seen a good number of additional people training with us both on a Tuesday here at Esholt and on Thursday’s at Green’s. I have been amazed to come down running these last few weeks and seen well over 30 runners here. I think we should all show our appreciation to the people that have led this to this stage. Dave Armstrong whose original idea it was, the Development Committee under Colin Huntley with Roy Wilks, Graham Eastell, Jack Verity and Mick Jones and Helen Love. From what I hear Graham’s evangelism of running within the Gym, swimming pool and changing rooms at Green’s is something to be admired.

At this point I must say a big thank you to all of you who have assisted by providing food week in week out. It is much appreciated and has, if anything, grown along with the numbers training. Thanks to Marjorie and others who have organised this.

Early in the year we competed in the CalderdaleWay relay and later in the Leeds Country Way and managed to get teams round. Congratulations to all who took part.

We competed in the West Yorkshire Winter League and whilst being slightly better than the previous year didn’t really cover ourselves in glory. The new series will have started by the time of the AGM. Lets give it our support. If you can’t run come and cheer on the teams or even offer your services to marshall. It is always appreciated. If any of the new members are not sure what it is all about come and speak to one of us that competed last year. They are mainly off road but they shouldn’t be particularly difficult.

We organised the John Carr series of 5Ks again and had record turn outs in all three races and have raised a good sum for charity again. Thanks to everyone on the organising committee. Plug – There is space available on this committee for anyone who feels they could help.It would be much appreciated.

We organised the Bradford Millennium Way relay for the third year and had 25 teams taking part with many appreciative comments. Roll on next year’s event on 19^th June 2005 (another date for your diary). Thanks again to the team involved in organising that.

We organised the Vets relays again which appeared to go well and it looks like we should get the fixture again next year.

We have had some good individual performances and were represented in the London Marathon (Mick and Lynne) and by a group of our newer members at the Great North Run. Congratulations to everyone.

The club has continued to use its committees fairly well. The development committee, BMW committee and John Carr Committees have all produced many innovations and ensured that the public profile of the club has been positive. I want to thank in particular the members of the development committee for their continued efforts to improve the club. However I am sure they would welcome any new blood with new ideas.

The overall committee (in its cut down form) continues to meet regularly and is able to function efficiently as most of the decisions have already been made in the sub-committees.

For the second year we have tried out holding a short (three mile) race usually on the first Tuesday of the month on the same course each time to allow members to see how they are running and to give a view to improvement. I don’t think we have had less than 12 runners compete and most appear to have enjoyed the experience. It is our intention to continue the series next year starting with the first Tuesday in April.

The annual club dinner moved to Baildon Golf Club this year and I think everyone enjoyed the evening. Thanks to Marjorie and her team that did all the organising and added those finishing touches. Next year the dinner will be on 26th February 2005. Price will be £12-50 a head. Marjorie will be taking bookings and deposits soon.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed this year and a big thank you to Esholt Sports and Social Club for continuing to support us and allow us to meet and hold races here. Please support them as well.

Finally it would be wrong to finish without mentioning Tim Stobart and Marjorie Lee who are both standing down. We thank them for their service. Particularly we thank Marjorie for all the effort she has put in to encourage the ladies.