Redditch STARS
Monthly Message from The Chair
May 2024
Open Letter to all member, LIRFS, Coaches and our Club Committee
Well its now 1 month into our tenure as your new committee and I think it is fair to say it’s been a busy and productive month for everyone involved. But …… how are we really doing?
Feedback is always welcome, so don’t be shy, if there is anything you want to share with us in terms of the stuff we are doing well so we can continue to do it, or where you may feel we perhaps need to sharpen our act up in other areas.
So, what has happened in a month?
C25K - Sonia as our new coordinator for Couch to 5K has done a brilliant job getting the latest 9-week sessions up and running and we saw over 70 turn up for the first session. We are delighted to tell you that we are running an additional session this time round, with a new day time session led by David on a Friday.
- Great Kudos for the club and with so many new runners turning up please consider popping along to track and supporting Sonia, David, or Chris at one of the sessions either on Wednesdays, Fridays, or Sundays
Membership – A massive thank you to everyone who has shown their confidence in the direction the club is going and have renewed their membership and EA affiliations. Also, a big thank you to Michelle and Zoe for the effort they have put in to keep on top of what has been a large volume of renewals and new members from our last C25k. In terms of EA affiliations at last count we had 47 which is greater than last year, we hope we will reach this year’s benchmark for a London Marathon spot. As of 5th May we still don’t know what the threshold level will be since ballot was only closed last week. So, please consider whether you want to affiliate for 2024. Benefits have been shared on my previous weekly newsletters but basically involve supplier and race discounts.
Our membership renewal window has now concluded, and Michelle is chasing a few final outstanding names from 2023 to check if they still wish to renew. Please note anyone who has not renewed will no longer be able to log on to the app from w/e 17th May, so if you had forgotten, please renew and pay the membership fees so you don’t lose your opportunity to keep running. If your membership does lapse and you wish to rejoin in the future after this date, please contact Michelle through Contact Us
Administration – You should recognise Linda has started to align our documents across our various platforms to ensure ‘one version of the truth’. This will continue for the first few months of the year as she works though them, if you are concerned about any outdated documents, please let Linda know.
In keeping with an open approach for our members, we will also be sharing the minutes from our committee meetings. We are planning to share via the e-mail tool to all members. All pretty self-explanatory but any questions please ask any of the committee members for further clarity.
Coaching – Member safety, wellbeing and enjoyment remains at the forefront of everything we do. In support of this we have issued a set of run guidelines to all LIRFS and Coaches. These are a refresh of the standards they all currently follow and have been reissued to ensure we continue to deliver to the same EA standard across all of our runs. These also include expectations of yourselves as runners to ensure we continue to provide safe and enjoyable runs, so please make yourself aware of these. They will be posted on the Running App this week for you to read.
As I said in a previous newsletter, we currently have a 7/7 Club Standard with EA that we extremely proud of and wish to maintain.
Charity - We were very proud to present a cheque for £1850 to Primrose Hospice during the month of April. A great amount for a very worthy and local cause.
Redditch 10k and Half Marathon - Cassie Webb is leading our volunteering for the Redditch Half Marathon and 10k on Sun 16th June. If you can help, then please contact Cassie direct.
CPR Training - BBC recently interviewed football stars Patrice Muamba, Tom Lockyer and Charlie Wyke who had life saving CPR on a football pitch and who are championing everyone to understand how lives can be saved if we understood how to do CPR. Here is the BBC interview for more background.
Here is a 15-minute training course on how to do CPR. Its not formal medical training but a little knowledge may just help one of us save someone’s life if we are ever in these circumstances. Please have a read and progress at your own decision.
A few key points for your attention
1. Run Capacity - Spaces on runs is now at a premium with so much interest following the recent C25K. We recognise that plans can change so we ask that if you cannot make a run you remember to log off on the app, so it releases a space for someone else. Whilst we are seeing this increase in demand for spaces, we are working on solutions to accommodate as many runners as possible, including multiple LIRFS
2. Exchanging Run numbers for booked Races – From time-to-time circumstances change and we cannot attend a run we have booked and paid for. Race organisers provide a service for transferring the number to another runner for a small fee so that the new runner is the recognised participant for that number and health details are captured If you cannot attend a run and you wish to transfer you number to another runner, please do so using the race organisers transfer process. Redditch STARS do not condone or support anyone participating in any race under the name of another runner.
These were the promises I made on the night as incoming Chair, are we living up to them?
- Our primary objective will always be to ensure that we provide you with a safe, supportive, and enjoyable environment in which to run and we will act on any issues that impact our ability to achieve this.
- As a committee we will lead by example, and we will support and champion our constitution and we will demonstrate integrity, discretion, respect, confidentiality, empathy, and fairness in everything we do.
- I will communicate with you in an open manner for those things that members need to be aware of and in line with any GDPR guidelines, and we will share action plans for any future surveys.
- Above all we will try and keep it simple
That’s it for my second Monthly Message, so once again a big thank you for the support you have given us.
Regards and enjoy your running,
Nigel Watson,
Chairperson - Redditch STARS