Chairman's Report, AGM Update and 2021-22 Free Membership

Ealing Eagles Running Club – Annual General Meeting (AGM)

(Circulated via weekly newsletter, Facebook and Eagles website)

Date: 27th April 2021
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Virtual meeting until Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted

Committee: 

Chair: David Carlin
Coaching: Wei Hei Kipling
Communications: Jodie Vickery (Maggie Roxburgh & Anna Shierson)
Membership: Terena De Abaitua-Hind & Phil Cairns
Race: Alix Burge
Social: Claudia Aviles
Treasurer: Greg Fernandes-Lawes

Index - Item by

Welcome - Chair 
Chairperson’s Report - Chair
Annual Accounts - Treasurer
Election of Committee - Chair

Chairperson’s Report

The last 12 months have been extraordinary! The Covid-19 pandemic meant we had to cancel all our social nights, Eagles 10k event, weekly coaching sessions and club runs. We also missed out on other well-loved events such as Green Belt Relay, Summer League, Norfolk Relay, Cross Country and the Ealing Half Marathon!! 

Once again, I’d like to convey a big thank you from The Committee to all members for adhering to the Social Distancing rules. Your care and thoughtfulness when you have been running around Ealing, or wherever you may now live, has been exceptional. We know runners have had a bad press in local Facebook groups, however, our understanding is that the club has been mindful of the rules and adhered to them.

The Committee’s main concern has been the Health & Safety (H&S) of our members throughout the pandemic. Our focus moving forward will be continuing with your H&S in mind and so our plans to open up the club activities will be controlled with a gradual move back to face-to-face coaching and club runs. With this focus, as events start to go ahead, we can all remain as safe as possible as individuals and as a club. We will, as always, adhere to both government and England Athletics (EA) guidelines through this transition back to the ‘new normal', until hopefully the ‘normal’ does return!

We remain aware that some of our members will have had family illnesses due to the virus, mental health challenges and some may have lost their businesses/jobs due to the economic knock-on effects of the lockdowns. Our members will have different views on risk, so we need to make sure we are sensitive to our peers around us. Future coaching sessions and club runs, when these do start to open up again, will come with expectations of respect and care for each other. Many of us may have had one or both Covid jabs by the time we open up, however, this doesn’t make us invincible! We all still need to follow the EA guidelines to maintain our EA membership and insurance cover. 

A few ‘Thank You's' before I move on to the proposed AGM
 

  • Thank you to Wei Hei Kipling, Dineke Austin, Angela Duff, Rachael Job, Mike Limpert and Rhiannon Williams for continuing to provide face to face coach sessions when this has been possible and virtual events or programmes to keep us involved with running-related programmes. Also thank you to Jenny Bushell and Rhiannon Williams for putting together the Zoom session on Garmin tricks etc.

  • Thank you to Lisa Emerson who manages our Club Championship table (CC). Although the CC had to be dramatically cut back (2019-20), this is always an unenvious task to manage due to the solid numbers of members taking part. Obviously, the 2020-21 Champs couldn’t take place due to Covid-19. We are looking at how we can encompass a 2021-22 season at our next committee meeting.

  • Thank you to Dan Vandenburg for his regular Mental Health posts.

  • Thank you to Catherine Mulrenan for the weekly ‘Eagles Run Corner’ posts.

  • Thank you to our two Welfare Officers, Teresa Connolly for the Adult section and Ann Gallagher for the Junior section.

  • The committee also received much support from Gerbrand Alkema and Catherine Mulrenan to review our Covid-19 Risk Assessments which allowed face to face coaching to take place when we were allowed to do so.

  • Lastly thank you to our local sponsors/partnerships who have been making online fitness available to us all during Lockdown and are always promoting the club on our behalf.


Coaching

We would like some additional club coaches, especially for our Juniors. If you have an interest in coaching, please contact coaching@ealingeagles.com The club will cover all coaching fees for those members who are accepted onto EA training courses.

Awards 2020

There are some outstanding awards from 2020. Due to our social events being cancelled we were unable to present these formally, however, a trophy will be handed over to the winners as soon as possible!

  • Most Improved Beginner – Christina Wilson

  • Most Improved Runner – Jack Whitebury

  • Club Personality of The Year – Abi Barber

  • Club Person of the Year – Piers Keenlyside

  • Club Championship (Female) – TBC

  • Club Championship (Male) – TBC


Life Members

We have five ‘Life members’ Alan and Liz Brown, Kelvin Walker, Godfrey Rust and Richard Tuson. They were recognised by the club for their part in setting the running club up and/or for the work they had undertaken on behalf of the club. There have not been any new Life Members for some 5 years or so. Life Membership is not awarded liberally, however, the committee has decided to award two more members Life Memberships this year.

Congratulations go to both Lisa Dumais and Jennifer Watt for their work and commitment in setting up the Junior Eagles section. The Junior section has been very successful, and our thanks go to both Lisa and Jen for their time and commitment over the past five years or so. They have now passed the Juniors baton and I am sure that this section of the club will continue to thrive.

Lastly, I’d like to thank the current committee for their help and support to me as Chairperson but also for all their hard work and commitment to make sure our great club has been virtually active and for the work now in hand to energise us all post Lockdown.

The Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will not take place on 27th April 2021 on a face-to-face basis. We have decided to see if there is interest in a virtual AGM.

Please complete the linked spreadsheet if you wish to attend. If you could simply add your name by 17th April so we can make the necessary arrangements on Zoom to ensure we buy the package to cater for the expected numbers.

Last year we declared that the majority of the committee wanted to stand again, and members approved this. The Communications role was taken up by Jodie Vickery with Maggie and Anna both taking on additional aspects of the Comms role, so we have a team of three, although only one officially is on the committee.

Whilst the majority of the committee members wish to stand for another year, there are two committee positions that need filling: Race and Membership. After 3 years of dedicated service, Phil Cairns would like to step back from his role as co-Membership Secretary. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Phil for his hard work. As we move towards a hopefully ‘racier’ future, the committee is seeking to also recruit for the role of Race. If you are interested in either position, please contact membership@ealingeagles.com.

Further information on the election of the committee members is at the end of this document.

Membership Fees 2021-22

Due to the reduced club activity last year together with the club’s healthy financial position, the membership secretaries proposed that we, the club, cover the 2021-22 membership fees whether in full or part. After careful consideration and reviewing the financial implications, the committee has decided to renew all members EA membership (£15) and not charge a club membership fee for those members who paid last year (April 2020 to March 2021). To clarify… free membership for 2021-22 for current members.

We are working with EA to make this happen seamlessly!! If you have had dealings with EA before you will know this is not an easy exercise! Terena and Phil will make this happen and be in touch soon. If you receive a payment request before we contact you, please do not pay this!

We hope this news on membership fees will be both a pleasant surprise and one which shows we are committed to ensuring we want to do what is best for the club members and continue giving value for money for the membership fee. Any returning members who didn’t join last year and new members from 1st April 2021 will pay £30 (or £15 for second club status).

We will, assuming we are able to under government regulations and EA guidance, continue to raise funds for our two club charities and for an additional charity related to Scott Mitchell (Move Clinics) who sadly passed away last year after a long fight against cancer. We hope that members will support the club events and in turn support our charities.

Financials

We have a cash balance of £36,598.32. In order for the club to meet the EA fees in 2021-22 we have accrued £8,021 of our 2020-21 income into next year’s accounts. This means our 2020-21 profit is £100.97. We are holding a retained surplus will be £25,659.54.

It’s wise to leave the accounts to be signed off until we have our AGM, however, please be assured that Greg reports to the committee at each Committee meeting. Last year we introduced the Annual Accounts being reviewed by two other financially qualified members of the club.

Last year the independent reviewers were happy with the administration of the accounts and from their review commented “there is a good audit for our financial processes, and we were compliant”. The financial report is attached. If you have any questions about the accounts, please email chair@ealingeagles.com so we have a separation of duties and I’ll get the response(s) from Greg and include the two independent reviewers as well, so our response is transparent. I will then publish the Q&As to the club in my next report. This approach worked well last year.

So 2021…what does this mean for the club and our community

1. Club

I am sure we will rejuvenate our club ethos of socialising and being a strong community running club as soon as external decisions support us doing so. Please continue to be responsible when running around your community and we will soon be back together trying to remember how to order a drink, whether a soft or an alcoholic one! No doubt there will be some Social Distancing rules to obey but we won’t rush into this, our socials may be the last part of our club DNA we get back!

We decided to delay any decisions about the Eagles 10k until we have more clarity regarding government and EA policies, however, we are hopeful that we may go for an early September date as a preparation for the Ealing Half Marathon.

2. Community

Through our own charity, the Ealing Eagles Charitable Foundation we are pursuing a permanent base for both the Adult and Junior Sections. This will hopefully include a clubhouse, inside training facilities and an outdoor track (not necessarily a full track).

This will be in partnership with another sporting organisation and is a longer-term plan. The EECF committee is having positive meetings with Ealing Council’s town planners, another Ealing sports club and England Athletics to pursue these facilities on our behalf. Ealing Eagles would be a strong stakeholder in these facilities. There will be no financial liability for the club itself.

The club beginners programme has an excellent reputation in the local community and so the run leaders intend to wait until restrictions are relaxed to the extent necessary for a similar programme to be offered again and subject to the availability of volunteers. In the meantime, the beginners' run leaders have been offering virtual support to a small group of people making use of the Couch to 5k programme

3. Election of the Committee

Once again, I have enjoyed another year as Club Chairperson, and I wish to stand again for another year. The stability in keeping most of the committee together last year would have made the operational side of the club stronger, however, COVID-19 placed our plans on hold.

Once again If you are interested in the Race committee role, Membership committee role or any other role please email membership@ealingeagles.com.  We meet once a month for 1 to 2 hours.

Committee members only have a one-year term, so each role has to be elected/re-elected at the AGM.

Proposed Chairperson: David Carlin
Proposed Coaching: Wei Hei Kipling
Proposed Communications: Maggie Roxburgh
Proposed Membership: Terena De Abaitua-Hind & TBC
Proposed Race: TBC
Proposed Social: Claudia Aviles
Proposed Treasurer: Greg Fernandes-Lawes

If you are interested in any of the positions, please follow the timeline below.

4th April 2021 Letter sent to the membership

16th April 2021 Nominations for the Committee places to be sent to membership@ealingeagles.com
(Please supply your name and which role you want to be elected for). If only one application made, the applicant will be moved to ‘Proposed status’ at the AGM.

19th April 2021 If more than one member applies you will be requested to send a short personal statement to  membership@ealingeagles.com in the near future.

20th April 2021 Vote for candidates will start.

25th April 2021 Vote counted if there is competition for the role(s).

27th April 2021 Chairperson’s report, Financial accounts to date and election of the committee.

If you want to speak to me about the roles and expectations of committee posts please do contact me at chair@ealingeagles.com

I look forward to seeing you via Facebook, Strava or in-person while out exercising and in the longer term at a social or a running event!!

David Carlin
Chairperson, Ealing Eagles Running Club