Tuesday 20 May 2008

ACT Masters Athletics

Posted by speedygeoff on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 with
Training last night:
Because I wanted a shorter training session last night, so that we could get to the ACTVAC (now to be known as "ACT Masters Athletics") Annual General Meeting, I organised an intense session of just ten efforts of one minute duration, with a minute's recovery jog between each. Present were Alan, Cathy M, Christine G, Ewen, Gary, me, Helen, Katie, Ken, Margaret, Mick C, Miranda, Neil, Rachelle, Ruth and Tim. It was c.c.cold; until we started running, anyway.

Then at the AGM
Rachelle and I presented our motion to change the name of our club. "Vigorous debate" followed, and it all ended successfully with about two-thirds of those present voting in favour. This is most encouraging, given that one might imagine that those who have the most "ownership" of the old name of our club would be the ones most likely to attend an AGM. Which was indeed the case. So thank you to all who supported us and approved the motion; now comes the hard work of promoting the club under its new name!

The new club committee
is without a Secretary and Treasurer, although these positions will probably be filled very quickly. The new committee members who did nominate and were elected are of the highest calibre and should be congratulated for volunteering. All other positions were filled; President Christopher Lang re-elected, Vice President Rosemary Parker re-elected, committee members Kevin Chamberlain, Rachelle Ellis-Brownlee, Wendy O'Brien, Brad Osborn, Jack Thackray, and Craig Wisdom. Four of these, Kevin, Rachelle, Wendy and Brad, are new on the committee this year. Another who was nominated, Fran Harris, would also make a great committee member, and might be co-opted should one of the others take over as Secretary and/or Treasurer.

Some of the challenges ahead for the committee, as reported by outgoing Secretary Rod Lynch, which are of special interest to me include
. Subcommittee structures
. Canberra Masters Athletics publicity
. How to attract new members generally, and new members under 45 years of age
. Website/Database upgrade with the provision of email capabilities

The Canberra Half Marathon results
are in the paper today, but as ~400 of the ~650 (?) names are there, and no age groups, I will wait a bit longer before I list our official results here. I came 99th! Which shows how good the field was. I might be second in the M60s: I was confused about the age of one of my rivals who I now find out is actually 57! There are two "Peter Clarke"s in the entry list, the fast one is 57 and the other whom I do not know is 60. Peter must have wondered what I was talking about at the start line when I said that Des Brown was an unbackable favourite to win "our" age group (which Des did, of course, being more than six minutes in front of me).



The three speedygeese on the ACT Masters Athletics 2008-09 committee are Christopher, Kevin, and Rachelle. With "friend of the geese" Brad, that's a good representation!
I didn't take my camera to the meeting, so this goose picture will have to do!