We’re delighted to today be sharing our Annual Report, for 2020-21. It highlights the achievements, performances and awards from right across the club, a few of our favourite photos, as well as the statements and details our charitable status requires us to make.
We hope it helps show what a positive impact being a member can have, both to other members, but also the communities we are a part of.
Club President, and Chair of the Board, Richard Leyton, said the following in his introduction:
I am delighted to share the Bellahouston Road Runners Trustees’ annual report, covering the period from August 2020 to July 2021.
Our previous reporting period was a story of two halves, pre-lockdown normality, followed by the club and its membership coming together over the first Coronavirus Lockdown. All in our 20th anniversary year.
This reporting period picks up the story – and challenge we set ourselves – for the club to build forward. It has been a remarkable year.
We were honoured and delighted to receive Scottish Athletics’ Impact and Innovation Club of the year award, Glasgow Sports Council’s Club of the year award, as well as many individual nominations and awards for the club and its amazing membership. We think these awards are a reflection on the huge contributions, achievements and innovations from, and inspired by, our members.
We continued to innovate. Our Coronavirus plan, built on the Scottish Athletics framework, was widely shared and referenced. Directly because of our plan, our group training setup could respond quickly to rule changes as they impacted group sizes, travel restrictions and social distancing regulations.
We were able to organise club-internal training events, enabling members to experience something close to a normal race experience in a club setting. We could also, when rules allowed, work collaboratively with other clubs to organise small scale track events.
Looking to the future period, we are mindful of strategic challenges. There are significant changes to our local sports facilities, as well as changes in support from local authorities impacting them, and us. There will be additional risks and costs for event organisation which may have an impact on our finances.
I am confident that the club and its membership will respond and adapt to these, and other, challenges. I’m continually reminded that the club has a real appetite to grow, build and innovate. At every training session or event I attend, our members are fostering a friendly, welcoming and supportive environment that embraces everybody.
The feedback I regularly hear from members is that the club, and the friendships they’ve made through it, are important parts of their lives, supporting their physical and mental wellbeing.
I’ve always felt that if we get these foundations right, everything else flows from that. I think this report reflects that, and I’m confident and optimistic we’ll continue to do so into the next reporting period.
Richard Leyton, Chair of the Board of Trustees
20th February, 2022
NB: You can find full details about our charitable status, and all of our previous annual reports, on our Charitable Status page.
