Club News: News & Reports
Annual General Meeting 2010 Chair's Presentation
13th October 2010
Welcome to all of you and thank you for coming this evening.
I had every intention of standing here this year making my farewell speech but your powers of persuasion have been such that I have relented and will continue as chair but this will be my final year due to an increase in my work and family commitments.
2010 has carried on the trend of the last couple of years in that the club has continued to expand and progress.
I am really pleased with the way our decision to make members compete at least three times a year has impacted on the number of athletes we have seen at league competition, a vast improvement to previous years.
Another factor that has contributed to our success in the leagues has been the recruitment of more team managers who have worked tirelessly during the season in pre-selecting the majority of athletes before the fixture date which has led to far less chaotic scenes and hopefully a much calmer atmosphere on competition days.
Another initiative that we introduced this year has been our athlete induction sessions which have been really effective in lessening the workload for the multi-tasking Sue on gate duty. Not only do these sessions inform the new athletes of essential health and safety issues, they also involve their parents by making them aware of the structure of the club with the emphasis being put on the fact that we are an entirely volunteer-run organisation.
It is from these parents that a new wave of club volunteers will hopefully spring.
Other ongoing successes have come from our pool of talented athletes.
Many club records have been broken and re-broken, a significantly higher number of athletes than compared to previous years have competed at county level and PBs have been continually smashed from the beginning of April right through to our Club Championships last month. These achievements are two-fold; the passion and drive of the individual athlete is key to their performance but so too are the crucial skills and knowledge imparted by their coaches.
These accomplishments have been made across all disciplines so my thanks to our team of coaches for giving our athletes the inspiration and ability to succeed.
We are so privileged to have you all at Braintree and I know from comments that athletics colleagues make to me from outside the club that we are held in high esteem.
This reputation has also started to have an effect on attracting a significant number of already established athletes from other clubs who have maybe become disillusioned in some way and are looking for a fresh start.
I have been welcoming them with open arms. Our closer links to local schools, both junior and senior, state and private, have led to an influx of gifted athletes.
This year we have been unfortunate in losing Eddie Hawkins our head coach and lead long jump coach. On the plus side, Eddie is continuing to coach his elite group of athletes and I am pleased to see that Ken Hills has taken to his appointment of head coach with great enthusiasm.
Once again we seem to have found ourselves in the same old situation of having just the right amount of coaches to cover all disciplines for a short period of time to me having to re-schedule and plead for a number of coaches to cover extra sessions to whom I am so grateful for their always positive response.
Hopefully with the roll out of the new coach ed courses from England Athletics we'll be able to encourage more parents to come forward and qualify.
A large group of volunteers attended officials courses this year and this has helped enormously fulfil our obligations at league fixtures. We seem to be ahead of the crowd in this area as many of our rival clubs are having increasing difficulty in supporting this field.
This time last year I was overwhelmed by the response of individuals who put themselves forward to fill a number of vacant positions that became available on the committee and who have subsequently provided invaluable input to ensure the continued positive management of the club.
All that remains is for me to thank everyone involved in the club; athletes, coaches, officials, committee members and parents, for your continued support and I look forward to working with you in the forthcoming year.
