New Plymouth Joggers and Walkers Inc

CLUB CAPTAINS REPORT for AGM : JULY 2009

I wish to extend a warm welcome to the Annual General Meeting of New Plymouth Joggers and Walkers Inc.

COMMITTEE :

Thanks to you all our Committee members for your contribution to a yet another successful 2008-09 year and particular mention to our Secretary Jan Dempsey and Treasurer Alison Franklin for yet another 12 months of commitment to our Club. As Club Captain I continued to endeavour to spread the work load within the Club continuing with our Half Marathon Manual - and thank all committee members and helpers for your contributions!

COMMUNICATION / MEMBERSHIP

We continue with our club email database and noticeboard at the Park Pavilion as effective communication channel with our members and committee . I have formulated the most current club membership list I can (as attached) – this list is only as good and/or accurate as the information provided to me – but forms an excellent starting document with which to communicate.

Our current CLUB membership list as at 21 July 2009 shows a total of approximately 112 members which shows our club is alive with an active and more importantly an active membership base. I believe these numbers reflect a healthy and growing membership which is a vital element for the future prosperity of our Club.

 

FINANCE:

Thank you to Alison Franklin our wonderful Treasurer – who will table her Financial Report to follow.

Our current balance as at 30 June was $8779.08 leaves us in a sound position to continue forward for 2009 .

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:

Members continue to demonstrate a healthy appetite for coffee and casual impromptu meetings occurring most Sundays at various local coffee shops. Thank you to myself for hosting our annual 2008 Xmas BBQ – although held in the rain this did not damper our Xmas spirits on the night!!. Other activities and events included the March 2008 Mountain to Surf Marathon; Easter Coffee Morning which turned into Anzac Biscuits and Hot X Buns morning tea at the Park Pavilion – an advertised casual get together for all members ; Rotorua Marathon; Port to Park Drink Station, and Taupo Half Marathon.

CLUB HISTORY

As promised in my 2008 AGM report – I took upon myself to commence the production of an ACTIVE CLUB HISTORY FOLDER for Club Members to regularly view and appreciate the history of the Club. This partly updated folder is now prominently and permanently displayed on our Club Noticeboard at the Park Pavilion – readily available for weekly member viewing - and I would invite updates to this as information comes to hand containing:

  • Old and current committee lists
  • Club membership lists as known
  • Half marathon stats as known since 1975
  • Club Captain reports
  • Half Marathon donation charity list
  • Life members
  • Club Constitution

This folder together with booklets held by Jan Dempsey our Secretary form the history of our club which is continuously acknowledged.

CLUB CONSTITUTION

The Club constitution has been rediscovered and revisited by our current Committee at the commencement of the year – and after consultation to both the committee and full circulation to our full club membership list inviting feedback - its amendments are to be presented to this AGM. To summarise these amendments include:

  • defining voting rights of a committee member as opposed to a club member
  • change of financial year from 30 June to 31 March
  • defining systems for our committee to make changes
  • ability for Club Captain to remain in office for two consecutive years as opposed to one
  • limiting the number of committee members to not less than six and not more than 12 – excluding Patron/Club Captain/Secretary and treasurer

Our Club Constitution is also currently displayed in our Club History Folder.

CLUB MEETING TIMES

Our full Club Committee voted unanimously in favour of changing our club meeting times through the day light saving period October 2008 to March 2009 – to 5.30 pm Wednesdays and 8.00 am on Sundays.

It is noted that the discovery and revisiting of the Club Constitution was brought about through the process of checking the role of our Committee members following this vote to alter the times of weekly runs and walks – and as Club Captain note the Committee only has the right to vote to change training times after consultation with the Club membership base – as defined in the Constitution #18 (c).

HALF MARATHON:

"RUN FOR EXERCISE AND HEALTH - ENTICE OTHERS TO DO LIKE" – the philosophy of our Club when formed in 1975 and continues to be honoured today. I think you will find these statistics for Half Marathons interesting:

FINISHES

1981

2005

?20th Ann Medal Year

2006

2007

2008

 

Runners

673

3?87

282

255

393

 

Walkers

-

545

364

269

316

 

Teams – runners and walkers

-

38

48

48

X10 running X22 walking

 

First timers

 

320

185

165

Not yet defined.

 

CHARITIES:

A record of donations in the last five years read as follows:

Year

$

Charity

2004

$3,000

House for Karen

2005

$3,000

House for Karen

"

$2,000

Taranaki Parkinsons Society

2006

$4,000

Taranaki Arthritis Foundation

"

$4,000

HHELP Trust – Youth Suicide Prevention

2007

$2,000

Rotary New Plymouth

"

$2,500

Energy City Harriers

2008

$7,000

Taranaki Independence Games 2009

We look forward to our 29h annual Taranaki Daily News Half Marathon scheduled for Sunday 4 October 2009

HALF MARATHON SPONSORSHIP:

We have confirmed our sponsorship partners for our Half Marathon and although altered somewhat for 2009, continue with our main event sponsor Taranaki Daily News, Mason Appliances / The Frontrunner / The Quality Hotel Plymouth International – joined in 2009 by Taranaki Construction Maintenance - making this our combined line-up organised for 2009. A very big thank you to our Sponsors.

HALF MARATHON CLINIC:

Introduced in 2008 designed primarily to assist beginner runners and walkers to complete our Taranaki Daily News Half Marathon – we repeated the Clinic again for 2009 and currently run this growing event in tandem with the training guide advertised weekly in the Taranaki Daily News. I wish to acknowledge our Sunday Group Leaders who have yet again made the commitment to assist over these 12 training weeks and the input offered by Kelvin and the team at FrontRunner to foster and promote the clinic. Clinic numbers amazed us in 2008 and continue to amaze us in 2009.

We have worked closely with Energy City Harriers and continue our positive sporting affiliation with them –culminating in our members supporting their Marathon Clinic which is in turn reciprocated to support our Half Marathon Clinic.

Once again the weekly emailing this group of keen participants is an effective channel to communicate I feel these figures continue to reflect both a need for a training Clinic and a sign of the public in general acknowledging a need for exercise and reinforce our Club Motto from 29 years ago - RUN FOR EXERCISE AND HEALTH - ENTICE OTHERS TO DO LIKE"

2009/2010 TARANAKI DAILY NEWS HALF MARATHON

Our 2009 Half Marathon sees the introduction of transponders, entering online and printing certificates from a website – all new incentives to make life easier and more professional for our organisers and helpers.

This - along with our well rehearsed traffic safety plan and a committed group of helpers – I think we are ready for the challenge of celebrating our 30th Half Marathon in 2010!

THANK YOU

I have enjoyed my four consecutive years as Club Captain of New Plymouth Joggers and Walkers Club Inc and wish our incoming Committee and Club Captain continued success.

 

MARIE HUNTER

CLUB CAPTAIN