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AGM Minutes 2025
Agenda
Prestatyn Running Club AGM
Friday 28th March 2025, 19.00
Scala Cinema, 47 High St, Prestatyn LL19 9AH
Attendance: Duncan Longley, Nicki Triggs, Gareth Hughes, Ben Thomas, Jo Lewis, Mike Davis, Marc Jones, Clare Manley, Sue Hughes, Chris Bennett, Nem James, Mark Dakeyne, Linda Friar, Gordon Jones, Arwel Jones, Martin Cortvriend, Steve Hatfield, Gareth Jones, Julie Evans, Cara Jones, Gareth White, Meg Lewis, David Ellis, Reg Jonas, Helena Cox, Tim Cahill, Lee Bailey, Liz Martin, Karl Martin
1. Chair's welcome: Duncan: A very warm welcome to you all and especially to those that are attending for the first time. This is your opportunity to have a say on what is happening with the club so please get involved. Having said that, there are some rules that I would ask you all to adhere to. Firstly, only one person should be speaking at any one time, and I will ask you to refrain from having more than one discussion at a time. We have a very strict agenda. Your input is very welcome for those specific points but anything outside of that will not be discussed. If you do have anything else you would like to be discussed, please forward it to Nicki and we will discuss it at the next committee meeting. None of us want to be here all night so I will try to keep the meeting moving along as quickly as possible.
2. Apologies for absence: Debbie Jones, Sophie Johnston, Mandy Cartwright, Neil Davidson, Helen Ashworth and Ally Reid.
3. Confirmation of previous minutes: Duncan: Minutes from the previous AGM are available to be viewed this evening. Mike has now signed the minutes to confirm them and they will be passed around should anybody like to take a look at them. We will also look to get a version uploaded to the website.
4. Chairman's report: I sat in a committee meeting over a year ago and came out thinking this club is going to the dogs and I wasn’t sure how much longer it would last. I said to Mike and probably a few other people that I had had enough and would probably be resigning from the committee. I then thought, hang on, this club has been a big part of my life for well over 30 years and I have made some very good friends, do I really want it to collapse. The answer was obviously no, so I put my name forward to be Chairman. Probably because nobody else was daft enough to do it, I was elected. The moral of this little tale is, if you like being part of the club, and you obviously do or you wouldn’t be here, get involved where you can and help to make it even better. I would like to blow my own trumpet and say we have done this and that, but the fact of the matter is, all I have done really is given the committee members the freedom to do some of the things they want to do and let them get on with it. I have been very pleasantly surprised by the way people have stepped up to the plate and therefore, the first thing I would like to do is say a very big thank you to ALL the committee members. I think you have done a great job over the past 12 months and your support has been very much appreciated. Not everything has gone to plan to be fair. I certainly didn’t want James to leave the club, but he decided it was time to move on. I would like it to be put on record that the club appreciates all the effort James put in over the years. On the positive side, Debbie and Ben have taken over the planning of routes and encouraged others to get involved. Club nights are more structured, and we are making www.prestatynrunningclub.com more use of our Run Leaders, more of which are in the pipeline. Some of the run names are a bit iffy but I’m looking forward to some new routes, especially with the light nights starting next week. When I started in this position, there was a lot of concern about dwindling numbers and competition from St Asaph. My view hasn’t changed, if people want to join other clubs, then they must have more appeal than we do. The fact of the matter is, our numbers have been steadily increasing so we must be doing something right. What I am particularly pleased about is there is a good mix of ages joining us. At this stage, we still don’t feel in a position to do beginners or junior sessions, but when we can, we certainly will and that will boost the numbers again. A lot has changed over the last year and I’m not going to steal everybody else’s thunder by saying too much about it. I have already said that membership numbers are increasing, which makes it very embarrassing for me as I can’t remember half the names. The club accounts are in a healthy position and plans are taking shape for fundraising ideas. Thanks go to Sue for her work. We can then look at the best way of using this money as it’s no good just sitting in a bank account. The new kit is now featured in races all over the place. I know there were one or two issues but generally it is another big step forward for the club and is a lot more distinctive than previously. We now have a kit we can be proud of and my thanks go to Sophie for the work she has put into this. Watch out for more things becoming available. Mark has taken on the ordering of the kit so feel free to give him a shout whenever you want anything. The Captains have put some great reports together over the last 12 months as well as trying to boost numbers for our league races so a big thank you to them. We can’t mention reports without giving Gareth Hughes a shout as he collates everything on a weekly basis. Make life easier for him and send him your results! We are also in the process of creating a new email address, specifically for race results to be collated, so watch this space. I must also personally thank Gareth for the support he provided when I was starting in the role and a little unsure of things. Let’s not forget we are very much a social club as well as a competitive one so thanks to Clare for all the events she has and is organizing. Some of the committee have decided to move on and I would like to say a special thank you to those people. Ally has been our Membership Secretary for at least 8 years so deserves a special mention for the effort she has put in. Our dynamic duo of Mandy and Sophie have also decided to step down after doing a great job as 2 of our Captains and again I would like to say a huge thank you to both of them. We are also losing Nicki as one of our Captains but I’m very pleased to say she is happy to stay as Club Secretary if re-elected. Nicki deserves a special mention as she has given me a massive amount of help in the past 12 months. Sophie told me she thinks certain roles should be refreshed on a regular basis and I definitely agree with that, so in a little while we will select the committee. We have created a list of the roles but nothing is set in stone so roles can be adapted as required. That will be the point where I would like everybody’s input, don’t just sit back and think, that person is doing a good job, think about could you or anybody else do any better? Thanks for staying awake, let’s move on. www.prestatynrunningclub.com
5. Treasurer’s report:
Discussion: ● Sue: Thank you to Steve for his work preparing this report. I have highlighted a few things - on the bottom right you will see the balance at the end of December. At the top, you will see that £782 is profit from the British Masters XC. The container, which is no longer sited at the cricket club, was costing us £75 per month, so we are also that much better off. The total funds as we speak are £3,454. We have money remaining from the grant and for kit to come out, but we will soon have membership fees coming in. ● Duncan: We are in a healthy financial position. 6. Membership report: Duncan: Unfortunately, Ally can’t be here tonight, but can share the figures of our Membership in both 2023 and 2024. These figures include full, unwaged, social, honorary and honorary affiliated. 2023:
● Total: 97, made up of 57 male and 40 female
● Second claim: 6 Jan 2024 to today:
● Total: 115, made up of 71 male and 44 female
● Second claim: 13 .
Discussion:
● Duncan: On behalf of Ally, what I can see is that the numbers are going in the right direction. www.prestatynrunningclub.com
● Gareth H: Added that the previous number included juniors, but we are now seeing those numbers replaced by seniors.
● Duncan: We have said we can’t currently offer Juniors or Beginners, as we don’t feel in a position to at this stage. We can’t say any further on membership, as this is the only information we have.
7. Captains’ report: Lee: It's been a strong showing this year from the Team Captain’s! Captains have encouraged member participation in a variety of races and disciplines, including Border League, Cross-country, and Tuesday Night Fell Series. They've communicated race information and updates to members on at least a weekly basis. Including short notice cancellation of races. They have regularly attended league fixtures and been responsible for registration and bib allocation. Provided informative monthly reports highlighting member's achievements across a whole range of disciplines and abilities. Acted as a key point of contact for our members, both online, in person at club nights, and through personal correspondence with members. I would also go on to say that the current Captains (including those that have expressed a desire to step down), never actually volunteered to undertake these duties. They were nominated by the committee. They were asked to act as Captains with little or no guidance from the Club as it was and as such have had to figure this all out for themselves. There has been a huge positive change in the club over the past year or so and that is thanks in part to the work of our Captain's. I would specifically like to put on record our thanks to Mandy Cartwright, Sophie Johnson and Nicki Triggs who have undertaken much of the heavy lifting on behalf of the Captain's. Those Captain's that remain owe them a debt of gratitude, as they (along with others on the committee) have played a huge part in the professionalisation of the Club and the huge increase in numbers not only at club nights but at league races and other events too. So please acknowledge our thanks on behalf of the remaining Captain's. Moving forward, I think I would have stepped down already for this year - my availability for club nights and races has not been great. Having said that, we’re thin on the ground and therefore I don’t think this would be the right thing to do. Now we have greater numbers, we’re in a much better position than when we all came on board. In terms of tenure and succession planning, I believe other people stepping up will be a good thing and perhaps we can strive to develop Road, XC and Fell Captains.
Discussion:
● Mark: At the committee meeting last night we discussed if we need 6 Captains or perhaps 4, made up of 2 male and 2 female. It’s something for us to think about.
● Duncan: Soon, we will sort out who’s doing what. If any roles aren’t filled tonight, we won’t panic. We will leave them open and work with what we’ve got if we need to.
● Ben: For all of the roles that are in place now, part of the responsibilities we should have during the year should be finding people and developing them throughout the year too. I think this is a fundamental thing to consider, so I want to acknowledge that point, Lee.
8. Run Leaders’ / Club Nights report:
Ben: This year represented a re-fresh into how we wished to run our twice weekly club nights. Last year there were far too many club nights when we only had half a dozen members turn up, plus we had lots of people who came to a club night, then we never saw them again. It’s something I’ve become really passionate about, so we had conversations and sought feedback, then the Run Leaders got together to discuss how we could move forward to put us in a better place. We wanted to offer more groups, so that people who may be slower in pace or want to www.prestatynrunningclub.com have an easy run aren’t pressured to keep up. Then, people who run at a faster pace don’t need to stop and wait or loop back. Whatever our abilities, we wanted to offer a consistent run. When James left, I took on a lot of responsibility for the organisation of the club runs - I accidentally ended up in this role, since it didn’t exist before, but I feel privileged for members letting me get on with it. Members have had so many route ideas, referrals and suggestions for different types of sessions. I have a file on my laptop now, which just shows the level of engagement we’ve had. I believe that our club runs should be the heartbeat of our club, so I wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone at the club for sharing their ideas. I will keep asking for feedback. For current Run Leaders - they do more now than they did when they initially signed up for the role, so I wanted to give a heartfelt thanks to them for their flexibility, availability and willingness to lead a group. Low numbers of Run Leaders has meant a reliance on the same individuals to lead groups. To enable the 4 groups we have today, we’ve had to make some flexible decisions on letting groups go. We have 10 leaders, 7 are active, and we secured funding as a club for 10 additional Leaders. The first 4 have been put forward and are doing their training in May, plus we have another 6 people who have registered interest. Gareth Jones has also put himself forward via external funding so a huge thank you to him for doing that. We also now have a process in place to get people onto these courses, which we didn’t have before. My hope moving forward is that we have 2 Run Leaders per group on all occasions, which will provide a brilliant way for people to progress. The Club Runs are twice weekly and we made the decision to fix Mondays as an easier base run and Wednesday as the effort session. We have increased the number of routes available. We managed to add 2-3 different runs this year, examples being T-Shirt Loops, Rownd a Rownd and upcoming Lees’ Rubber Ducks. We also included some monthly away days, examples being Clares R+R, Mark and Regs’ Golden Grove Adventure and next weeks “You’re Afon me on” run along Afon Clwyd. If anyone has summer routes they haven’t yet shared, they need re-mapping, so please send them over. We have also seen a huge increase in average attendance. We started tracking this in January, when we saw an average of 22. The average this month has been 26. We don’t have records for last year, but we believe we are regularly doubling attendance from last year. Other achievements have included Improved planning and visibility of the club night schedule, a routine for Run Leader planning with routes planned and mapped out in advance of month. Members are now also informed through the events Calendar, club website and social media posts. We’re also regularly engaging with our members on route choices, ideas and feedback. In terms of our future plans and goals, our Run Leaders will work closely with the Welfare Officers to ever improve the safety of club nights. We’ll also look to develop a “run library” to ensure we can efficiently plan club nights, plus we’ll continue to investigate new and interesting opportunities for club night events.
9. Welfare report:
Duncan: Debbie has shared the following report: It is great to have Gareth White back in the position of male Welfare Officer & I look forward to working with him to continue to keep our runners safe. I have recently introduced the use of SPOND so that run leaders can have access to runners emergency contact details and any relevant health details in case of an emergency. It is important that as many regular club runners as possible join the app so that we have immediate access to this vital information if needed. Currently 30 members have joined the app, www.prestatynrunningclub.com We now have 4 first aid kits, which are carried by a run leader in each of the 4 different paced groups. I will be checking the contents regularly to keep them stocked up and am trying to work out the best way that all 4 are available on each run night, when not all run leaders are present. I have updated the club risk assessment and combined the club night risk assessment with the social risk assessment. All committee members have a copy of this and it will shortly be available for all on the website. Ben has recently completed the Mental Health Champion training & I am hoping to get at least one run leader from each paced group trained up as spaces become available on the courses. After Linda had a nasty fall and broke her ankle, I would like to remind everyone that the club provides a basic level of insurance, which is included in your annual membership fee if you sign up as a full member. However, it is worth noting that this insurance is unlikely to pay out unless the circumstances are severe. Therefore, the club recommends that members consider taking out individual personal injury insurance to meet their specific needs, if necessary. It is great to see that Linda is making a good recovery and we are hoping to see her back at club once the light nights are here.
Discussion:
● Duncan: Added that he supports the use of Spond. We also really didn’t know how poor our insurance was until Linda had a fall. To reiterate, unless the injury is life threatening, the club insurance will not pay out. I would recommend anyone who can’t afford to be out of work, to get their own insurance cover. This is not just our club, it seems to be similar for others too. It’s great to see Linda here tonight and we hope to see you back at club soon.
● Linda: Shared she’s not currently running outside as she doesn’t feel comfortable
● Lee: Offered his support to walk with Linda at club one evening
● Duncan: Shared that he was taking a walking group and there’s no reason we can’t continue with these groups. They don’t require a Run Leader so anyone struggling is welcome to come along.
● Gareth W: Added that he feels an increased obligation to complete the recent Welfare Training so asked that members please bear with him. Since some members may not know him, he hopes to be more visible if remaining in the role.
10. Marketing report:
Jo: Anyone who has seen the minutes from the last AGM will know that I spoke out. Having been in the club since 2012, I was busy with my own job and family. I kept trying to come back and run on club nights but found myself running around a housing estate I didn’t know particularly well. I felt the heart and soul had gone, so I had to speak up. I also came back onto the committee. With a background in marketing and market research, I felt I could make a valid contribution to the members. Marketing is about understanding people and consulting and listening to our members to find out what they want, like the good work Ben does with our members. We’ve run into times where traditional athletics and running clubs are being challenged by being more commercially savvy. We have obligations to have Run Leaders, and there’s an expense that comes with that - £160 to train a new Run Leader, plus insurances etc. I’ve also noticed that British Athletics and Welsh Athletics are employing salaried staff to help modernise athletics clubs, so keeping pace is challenging. That's what I’ve been trying to do since I came back in September. I’ve tried to help with promotions, tailor our provision and make it appeal to prospective people who want to join us. Meg has done a great job supporting that through social media, thanks Meg. Marketing is now a regular item on the agenda at committee meetings. We’ve been heavily involved in the launch of the new kit and the new graphic that’s gone along with that. It’s great to see that being www.prestatynrunningclub.com worn. In terms of recruitment, we have seen a 19% increase in members since January 2023, with a 25% increase in males and 10% increase in females, so perhaps something we can do is look to reach out to more females. We’ve also seen our second claim increase by 117%, plus we’ve seen an increase across all social media platforms. We’ve set up a media sharing group, so you don’t have to be on the committee to be sharing photos. Gareth H has also continued reporting in the traditional press. I wanted to say thanks to everybody for cooperating and working together.
Discussion:
● Duncan: I wanted to personally thank Jo, Sophie and everyone else for getting this off the ground (new kit). A 19% increase in membership numbers this past year is high.
● Mark: I wanted to add one point on the kit. We’re now looking at providing buffs. There is a sample at the back of the room, of what it will look like. If you are interested please put your name on the list so we can understand the level of interest to order.
● Duncan: Watch this space, there will be more stuff coming on board.
11. Social report:
Clare: Well what a year we’ve had for social events, we’ve been rather busy! Here’s what we’ve been doing:
May: ● Talacre Dunes run followed by drinks at The Lighthouse Inn
● Over 20 of us went for drinks at the Old Station pub after the 5 mile Deganwy Dash race ● Cake and cat cuddles at NCAR after the Sunday social run and a walking group in Trelogan ● Club run to Rhewl organised by Gareth H, with a buffet and quiz at the pavilion afterwards
June: ● Sunday social run on Halkyn Mountain then drinks at the Bluebell afterwards ● Aberdaron weekend, running and walking groups along the beautiful scenic coastal paths and over 20 of us had an evening meal at Ty Newydd overlooking the beach. It was a fab weekend, the weather was fantastic and we’re looking forward to this year already.
July: ● Friday social run from the Salusbury Arms in Tremeirchion, followed by a nice buffet ● Race the Train 5k race in Caernarfon, then afterwards we had Ainsworth Fish & Chips which were delicious
August: ● Sunday social run at Caerwys followed by drinks at The Piccadilly afterwards ● Talacre Dunes run, followed by drinks at The Lighthouse Inn ● Awards night at the Scala ● Oli’s 18th birthday Beer mile run, which turned into a sea rescue mission!
September: ● PRC crazy golf evening, thanks to Martin for hosting followed by drinks at the Nova ● Thursday off road run at Halkyn followed by Pizza at The Bluebell – thanks to Debbie for organising ● Sunday social run in Henllan and Denbigh
October: ● Curry night at The Suhail after club run, where Lisa and Will were given gifts for their baby ● Halloween and fancy dress off road run in Cwm followed by drinks and food at The Blue Lion www.prestatynrunningclub.com
November: ● Sunday social run and Cake at the Pet Cemetery
December: ● Christmas get together for drinks and food at Torellos and The Jolly Sailor ● Christmas fancy dress club run around Prestatyn followed by drinks and mince pies at The Ffrith Astrobowl ● Christmas Quiz at the North Wales Bowls centre
February: ● Sunday social run at Lady Bagots Drive in Rhewl, followed by Cake at the Sugar plum tea rooms. ● Gwaenysgor off road club night run with food and drinks afterwards at The Eagle and Child, thanks to Mark D and Reg ● Ceilidh with band Mooncoin at Rhyl Rugby club – what a fun, entertaining evening that was had by all and we managed to raise £210 for the club.
March: ● Ed’s send off Nova park run drinks and cake
Not forgetting Emma’s breast cancer awareness group Feel Find Mind, these are just a few park runs that members have visited with her this year: Conwy, Hafan Pwllheli, Nova, Dolgellau, Y Promenade Barmouth, Nant y Pandy, Old Railway Trail Llangollen, Ruthin, Alderford Lake and Greenfield Valley. There's loads more socials planned for this year including Casgen Sauna, Oli’s laser combat at Llandegla, Sychnant pass run, which will be organised by Mark and Reg, Bowling night, Cyffylliog run and curry night and loads more. I also just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone else who has helped in the organising of these events, it is definitely PRC team work, so keep them coming, guys! To wrap up, a big thank you to everyone making suggestions for events too, we have a lot going on so let’s keep it going.
Discussion:
● Mark: We have the Awards Evening coming soon. We thought about doing it here at The Scala on 16th May, but we’ve just found out the Bar area is not available. It’s possible to do it a week before or after. This is something we will take away and discuss with the committee.
● Duncan: This is a plea to all of you to encourage people you know or meet to come and join the club, especially if they feel they are nowhere near good enough to join. What Clare has just shared shows that we are also a social club and we don’t want people to be frightened to join a running club.
12. Committee selection:
Discussion:
● Duncan: Now, the way I want this to work - every role on the committee is up for grabs. If you’re interested in a role, let us know. If we have multiple people interested in the same role, we will vote on who is interested, then confirm who gets the role.
● For the first part, I’ll have to hand over to Gareth www.prestatynrunningclub.com
● Gareth H: Taking advantage of my role as President, I wanted to reiterate what has been said about the transformation that has taken place over the last 12 months. The last 2 years were becoming concerning. We were having more at committee meetings than we were at club nights or races. The club was struggling, which is absolutely no reflection on James, in fact we’d have been in an even worse state had it not been for James. He decided to go and Duncan, with great reluctance, took on this role. I knew he was wary, so it would be wrong of us to let tonight pass by without us recording our thanks for what he has done over the past 12 months. Committee meetings are now refreshing, everyone is pulling their weight and bringing reports. There’s an awful lot going on that general members may not be aware of. As President, I would like to thank everyone. Us older members are not as in touch through social media and so on, but it has been commented to me so often how greatly improved communication is within the club these days, by emails Duncan and Nicki send out, plus the Captains’ reports that go out. For the first time ever, meeting minutes are sent and readily available to all club members. These things are all reflected in the number of people we have here tonight. I echo everything that has been said about the healthy position we’re in now.
Now to the voting - I believe everybody was told in advance about positions available tonight.
Chairman: Duncan Longley Proposed & seconded
Vice Chair: Debbie Jones Proposed & seconded
Club Secretary: Nicki Triggs Proposed & seconded
Treasurer: Sue Hughes Proposed & seconded
Membership Secretary: Nicki Triggs Proposed & seconded
Welfare Officers (male/female): Gareth White and Debbie Jones Proposed & seconded Club Night Coordinator: Ben Thomas Proposed & seconded
Marketing, Research & Development Officer: Jo Lewis Proposed & seconded
Club Captains: Jonah Armstrong (Road), Lee Bailey (Off-road), Liz Martin Proposed & seconded (At least one more required when we can find one)
Social and Events Coordinator: Clare Manley Proposed & seconded
Social Media Content Coordinator: www.prestatynrunningclub.com
Discussion:
● Nem: Many people have access to the social accounts and I always thought the more the merrier. I know Meg doesn’t use Facebook, but Meg and Debbie combined works quite well.
● Lee: Instagram is very different and the way we use it as a club is different.
● Chris: It’s possible to link Instagram and Facebook for consistent posting
● Nicki: I agree with Lee’s point about differences between Facebook and Instagram. Our audiences are perhaps different too. This role would closely link to Jo’s role, to look at this. ● Ben: There are lots of ideas there, perhaps we do need someone to coordinate them
● Lee: My suggestion would be to take it outside the meeting for the small group of people who already have access.
Website Officer: Debbie Jones Proposed & seconded
Volunteer Champions: Nem James, Duncan Longley and Julie Evans Proposed & seconded
Discussion:
● Lee asked for clarification on the role
● Nicki explained she suggested this role, with the aim of having a point of contact for external requests for event marshals and also to promote and encourage marshalling participation in the club, to give back to the community.
● Duncan: We always get a team of marshals together for Race for life. For these kind of events, surely race organisers will contact the club to ask for marshals.
● Nicki: Requests for marshals usually come in via existing relationships, for example Julie and her connection with Run Wales.
● Lee: Would we benefit from having multiple Volunteer Champions?
● Nem, Duncan and Julie all expressed an interest in being a Volunteer Champion
● Gareth W: Organising volunteers is a collective responsibility. Personally, I would like to see someone outside of the committee ticking off volunteer roles - traditionally, the same group of people have done it. I do see an opportunity for someone to do this role, but perhaps it shouldn’t fall to someone on the committee, maybe a bit of a split.
● Gareth H: I agree, but feel it may be wishful thinking
Club Kit Coordinator: Mark Dakeyne Proposed & seconded
Discussion:
● Jo: Asked if Mark would like anybody to help him, since the role is all consuming.
● Mark: At the moment, is happy to head this up but will ask for help if needed.
Mental Health Champions: Ben Thomas and Debbie Jones Proposed & seconded Discussion:
● Lee: Ben, since you have recently completed the training, can you tell us a bit more about what it involves?
● Ben: The info is available online, but in short you attend two evening sessions, which talk about what the role will entail. A large portion of the role is not interrogating people regularly. There’s e-learning modules explaining how you become a point of contact and keep things www.prestatynrunningclub.com confidential. I’ve already had a couple of people reach out to me directly. There are so many reasons why someone may just want to speak with someone.
● Lee: What support does the trained Mental Health Champion receive?
● Ben: The resources provided are by Mind via Welsh Athletics. It’s basically a listen and refer service, it’s a signposting role and we will liaise closely with the Welfare Officers as well. ● Duncan: In an ideal world, how many should we have?
● Ben: There’s a goal of having at least 4, so 1 per run group. For those interested, it’s a case of putting names on a list as the training comes round in batches. Mental Health Champions don’t need to be Run Leaders.
● Gareth W: Perhaps this action can be given to Welfare and we can promote the role
● Cara: Offered to do the training.
Club Press Officer: Gareth Hughes Proposed & seconded
Additional committee members: Ed Shirt, Gareth Jones, Meg Lewis, Mike Davis and Julie Evans Proposed & seconded
Discussion:
● Gareth H: As per the club constitution we require four committee members in addition to those taking on specific roles. Currently we have Julie, Mike, Nem and Andy.
● Mike, Nem and Julie confirmed their interest to remain on the committee.
● Duncan: I know that Andy has had commitments preventing him from coming. He’s not said if he wants to stay on. Since he’s not here, we will assume he doesn’t want to stay on. ● Lee: It will be good to have a younger person's representative on the committee.
● Gareth H: Out of interest, if we have some members further afield, do we feel it would be beneficial for someone to join who doesn’t come to club nights regularly?
● Gordon: I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of people actively involved in the club and here tonight, so hats off to everyone. I’m a bit of an outlier, but I want to reiterate that the communication has been excellent in the past year. For someone like myself who turns up at races but trains by myself, it’s been really welcoming to get minutes, Captains’ reports, and emails. I’m afraid I’m just not in a position to commit.
13. Set subscriptions:
Discussion:
● Duncan: Our current fees are £40 for full and £19 social. We know that we have members now who wouldn’t be members if it wasn’t for the social membership. They can come and run with the club but can’t race with us, as they’re not Welsh Athletics affiliated. It’s a stepping stone for people to come in, who might think they are not good enough to race. Ben, I want to use you as an example.
● Ben: I came in as a social member. I didn’t run so wouldn’t have joined a club I thought I had to race at.
● Mark: Asked if social is the same as second claim
● Duncan: Second claim is when someone is a full member of another club, but they pay £10 to run with us and represent us at the Border League.
● Gareth H: An example would be Brian Wiliams who comes and trains with the club, but represents Ellesmere Port. www.prestatynrunningclub.com
● Duncan: Welsh Athletics are putting up their price by £2 this year, so I am proposing our fees go up to £42 per year to accommodate. We’re looking for people's input
. ● Nem: Asked if someone started off as a social member then joined WA would they be paying an extra £1.
● Gareth W: I would suggest we round up social to £20. My opinion has been changed by Ben's experience of joining. £20 is slightly less than half the membership, so it has to be seen as an incentive if we want to use it as a way of getting new members.
● Ben: We don’t have stats on it but the majority of those who join in a season, move on to affiliated. No objections were raised to the increase. Second claim membership will remain at £10 Further discussion:
● Lee: Personally I’m not a fan of the current category names - waged and unwaged. Perhaps we could focus on enabling younger people to join at a cheaper rate.
● Jo: I have some information on what Eryri charge. It’s £25 for students or 65+ and £36.50 for everyone else. But we would need to do the maths
. ● All: Various discussion was had about considering a discount for over 65’s.
● Duncan: Supports the idea of us providing a discount to students in full time education. We won’t make a reduction for over 65’s due to them making up a large portion of our member base.
● Gordon: It would be useful for those who aren’t here tonight and are over 65 or unemployed to have an explanation of the decision. Some people may be shocked by the change.
The final subscriptions for the 2025-26 season are:
● Standard membership: £42
● Full time student: £32
● Social: £20
● Second claim: £10 Discussion:
● Jo: On the subject of money, I’m interested to know how members feel that club money should be spent, if we do generate it through fundraising.
● Gordon: It would be useful for the committee to discuss that. If we are making some money, we should have an idea in advance of what we aim to use it for or what it could be used for.
● Nem: A few times we’ve thought about providing a welcome gift to new members, then we moved away from it. We could look at a buff or some race magnets.
● Duncan suggested we refer that back to the committee
● Lee: The topic of use of money is worthy of a full agenda item at committee. What I would like to see is subsidised social events, or events where we’ve asked for the club to turnout but we’ve not been able to fill a minibus.
● Duncan: Agreed that for any Border League, Cross Country or Championship event that is further afield, it will be useful to have a bus and this is a good use of funds. Thank you to everyone for coming along, if you have any ideas you want us to discuss at committee meetings, please let us know.
Meeting close: 21.03