Many thanks to the many members who joined us for our 2020 AGM, the very first one we’ve ever held virtually. We had at great turnout, and with all our content available to view on our YouTube channel, we’re delighted by the engagement and interest shown by club members into our governance. We hope by being open about our governance process, and outcomes, it’ll even interest and engage more of our members, and even a few potential members. A few of our presentations were pre-recorded, and we are delighted to share these with you here if you wanted to watch them. They’re also embedded below. Club President Richard Leyton’s report and club update is here (and embedded below), which contains a fantastic section with our lead coach Gerry, and Team Manager Leanne looking back over the last year of club training and racing, and gives a real taste of what the club has got up to. The ‘Bella Twists’ highlight reel is here (and embedded below), and we’ve shared it on our public social media – We hope it captures the enthusiasm club members have shown for continuing with club activities, just differently, right through the lockdown. If you like it, do please give it a like or better yet, an onward share. The Financial update from treasurer Kenny Crawford is here. There’s detail too in our Trustees’ Annual Report. If you want to watch the entire AGM(!), you can catch the full live stream recording here. Our previous annual reports are all available via bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/charity/ A few key takeaways to report from the motions that were discussed, and voted on: The membership supports, in principle, a change of training venue: As the President’s report detailed, this is something we’d been working on for some time, which will hopefully continue when restrictions allow. The membership, and club, fully endorses and supports the Run Equal campaign. Whilst gender equality in Scottish running events is well ahead of the UK, there are still unequal events (National Masters XC, and some county events as of 2019/20 season). We’ll be making more public statements about that in due course, and to encourage other clubs in Scotland to take a similar stand. Club members supported continuing the membership fee freeze (and longer-term deferral for impacted members), which the Board will keep under review pending a resumption of training/substantive costs. The fees themselves remain unchanged from last year. Members approved three new Honorary Lifetime Members, in Jane Wild, Oscar Wild and Robert McEwan, who have been important members in the development of the club. We’ll be posting a separate news item to welcome them officially as Honorary Lifetime Members. Thanks again to all our members, and we’d encourage them to get in touch with us on any point. Whilst the AGM is an important point in the year, club Governance is a continual process and really depends on members getting involved and helping out where they can: the Board can only do so much. Plus the club is […]
the club
Time for another update! We’re hoping to make these rollups of what members, and the club, have been up to a regular thing whilst we’re in this strange lockdown situation. Members should now have received the full May 2020 update in their mailboxes, and it’s also published on our club members’ forum. The last month or so has been really busy for the club, with lots of ideas and inspiration and it’s hard to know where to start! Club member Alan Digweed has been a force of nature with his hosted Facebook Live video quizzes. An amazing achievement that was loads of fun to take part in. Alan, and fellow Bella Marty Campbell put together this amazing video on ‘Running Etiqette’. If you’ve not seen it yet, you’re in for a treat! (It’s also embedded below) We were the biggest club by participation at the Easter Weekend Scottish Athletics Virtual relays. A fun selfie compilation brought a smile to everybody’s face! One of seven photographs is the featured image here, you can see them all on our event write-up, and on the members’ forum. We won the overall title (and seven 1st places in total!) in the Scottish Athletics 15 minute challenge. Here’s our writeup! The ‘bella twist’ was an amazing shoe relay video right across the club, which Laura Henderson did a brilliant job of coordinating. (It’s also embedded below). Many thanks to everybody who took part! Scottish Athletics published the online version of their articles about our 20th anniversary, which you can read here, together with some lovely words by Bryan Burnett about the benefits of being in a running club. Over on our members’ facebook group, Gordon Goldie has been running an amazing series of “Meet the Bella” interviews, which we’re all absolutely loving, finding out so much about our fellow Bellas, and enjoying some pics from our younger years (and one or two fun hairstyle choices!). Oscar continues to run his brilliant three-times weekly Zoom virtual fitness classes. We’re looking to start a club social get together in the next wee while, details will be published soon! Our coaches, led by Gerry Scullion, continue to inspire and motivate our members with regular training schedules, tips and suggestions, over on our Whatsapp announcement group. Don’t forget, we’ve the Scottish Athletics Virtual 1 mile time trial challenge (8th-11th May), as well as our Strava virtual segments in our club championship to take part in (following the currently applicable rules about travel, social distancing etc!) Just to finish on a personal note to encourage you all to be kind to yourself, and do what feels best for you. If you’re inspired to train, that’s fantastic, but like many, I’ve really struggled to find consistency or a routine, so just getting a run done, or achieving a personal goal through the day, is every bit as important and to be celebrated. I’ve resolved to take it day by day, week by week, and really relish the amazing things that I’m […]
The membership of the club unanimously voted to introduce honorary Lifetime membership at the 2019 AGM, in order that it may recognise individuals who have made a significant and valuable contribution to the club, community and sport of athletics in Glasgow. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jimmy and Sandra Irvine as our inaugural recipients of this award. We now have a dedicated page on our website for recipients, and are delighted to add their names to the list. A presentation was made to Jimmy, on behalf of them both, before the 2019 3k track race, details of which will be following shortly. Many congratulations, and many thanks, to Sandra and Jimmy, for all their hard work.
The club has been working to review it’s processes and policies ahead of the new GDPR legislation that comes into effect on 25th May, 2018. This new legislation puts people in firm control of the uses to which their personal data is put, and requires organisations that use that data to be clear and open with the reasons they use it. We’ve recently posted a note to members, available for them to read and comment on via our members’ forum here, and will be updating our website to reflect that over the next 14 days.
Club members were recently sent formal notification of the club’s first AGM since becoming a SCIO charity. We’re hoping as many members can make it along on the 19th February to help support the club. if you didn’t receive the email, please check your membership to ensure you’re able to take part, or contact the membership secretary, or another trustee, if you’re uncertain. As well as a few housekeeping items (details here), we’ll be putting a couple of proposals to members to review and consider: A Strategy for the club – The Board has taken the results of our recent members’ consultation, and discussions with members over the last six months, to publish an outline strategy for the club over the next 3-5 years. It’s published today on the forum for members to read through and comment on in advance of the AGM. Members can access it here on the club forum. We’re also publishing a proposal to reorganise our club membership fee structure, to replace ‘stripping fees’, to help put us on a strong financial base, and offer greater flexibility to existing members with flexible payment options, concessionary rates, and hopefully extend our appeal to new members as a great value place to train. Members can access the proposal, and figures behind it, on the club forum. We’ll also be taking the time to thank a number of Trustees who are stepping down, as well as appointing a number of new members who are keen to get involved with the club. We look forward to seeing you on the 19th, Bellahouston Road Runners
We’re pleased to share the news that Bellahouston Road Runners has recently become a charity: a Scottish Charitable Incorporate Organisation (SCIO). Our charity number is SC047300. All club members should now have received a fuller explanation in an email from Camilla – with links to the OSCR website for further info. Questions and discussion for members can be found on the Forum at https://forum.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/t/scio-status-update/893 The change means the club is now a legal entity and we have a modern flexible constitution. It gives us a great opportunity to develop our club – and we will get back to you soon – to ask your views on how we take the club forward. In the meantime – happy reading!