MESSAGE FROM THE NEW CHAIRMAN

As you may be aware I was elected as Chairman of the Tamar Trotters at the AGM on Thursday 13^th March. This is a great honour for me and I would like to thank everyone that attended that meeting and also thank everyone that voted for me and placed their trust in me.

Listed below is some of my thoughts about how I think the Club should progress over the next 12 months, these are just my ideas and I would welcome input and suggestions from others:

• We must continue to cater for all runners including the very best and the complete novice. We already do this well, our club training nights are excellent, but we should always look for ways to adapt and improve.
• I would like to develop a junior’s squad, liase with schools, host after school training sessions for local children. Hopefully, one day, we can enter Tamar Trotters’ junior’s teams into cross country leagues, Sports Hall competitions etc.
• We will work towards getting ClubMark accreditation.
• To get closer to building our own clubhouse, find a site, get permission and raise funds. I am sure that we can do this, it is not fantasy
• We should have more social / fun club runs i.e. on Saturdays or Sundays maybe involving a beer or meal afterwards.
• I would like to see us enter several teams in the summer relay events and the Westward League etc. We should aim for at least one team in each category, we have got enough members to do this all we need is the enthusiasm.
• Let us organise one Club trip each year to a big run somewhere that is open to all members. The trip should vary each year and could be in this country or abroad.
• To involve the club with the local community and the running community. We should try and get a representative on every group that is relevant to our sport. We are already represented at the Armada Athletics Forum and the Cornwall Road Running Group but there are other groups out there that may be beneficial (especially as we will soon be looking for assistance with funding)
• I would like to see more articles about us in local newspapers, we have members that travel abroad to races, some that win things and others that undertake their first marathon for charities etc. We should tell the world about us
• To have some cracking socials, the Summer Ball and Christmas Party are always good fun. The Summer Madness run organised by Kevin S is a fantastic day out and the Ladies and Lads nights out are popular. We could also explore the possibility of taking on other clubs at non-running events like cricket, quizzes etc.
• I would like to involve more club members in the running of the club maybe have sub-committees for areas like training and coaching, juniors, socials etc. with all members invited to attend these sessions and have input. Create a list of ‘volunteering opportunities’ to try and get more Club members involved.
• Maintain our website as the No.1 information source for running in our area. It is a great way to spread information so if anyone has any ideas on how to improve it please let me know.
• I will try to make the committee more transparent and accessible, minutes of meetings will be easily available and communications to the members to be improved. However, in return I ask that you all please feedback to the committee any questions, suggestions or concerns. I promise that all letters received by the committee will get a written reply and that all suggestions placed in our club suggestion box will be discussed by the committee, if there is a name on the suggestion then you will get a written reply.

There is a lot of potential in the Club and a lot that we can achieve; exciting times lay ahead

Finally I would like to thank Bill, the outgoing Chairman, he has done an awful lot for this Club and works extremely hard behind the scenes.

Onwards and upwards!!

Colin Bunting