Dates for
Your Diary

17-19th Feb   Vic Open & U20 Champs, MCG
Sat  25 Feb   Kings Allcomers Meet, Ballarat
Thurs 2 Mar   Allcomers 3000 m races, Box Hill
Sat   4 Mar   Kings Allcomers Meet, Box Hill
Sat  11 Mar   Association Final, Knox
Thur 16 Mar   Vic Milers Club Meet, Box Hill
19-25th Mar   Commonwealth Games, MCG
Sat   2 Apr   Australian Club Champs, Adelaide
Sun   9 Apr   Run for Kids, 14.7 km Road Race
Sat  22 Apr   5 km Handicap, Gardiners Creek
Sat  29 Apr   Cross Country Relays, Yarra Bend
Sat  13 May   10 km Road Race, Sandown
Sat   3 Jun   16 km Cross Country, Frankston

Commonwealth Games Representatives
Time for a Change
Disabled Ramp Update
Northern Ireland Visitors
Victorian Club Championships
Victorian Relay Championships
Region Final Success
Association Final - 11 March 2006
Australian Club Championships
Winter Season

Steven Hooker and Andrew Letherby

Congratulations to Club members Steven Hooker and Andrew Letherby who have been chosen to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games next month.

Steve vaulted 5.75m to take 2nd place in the national titles in Sydney to cement his place in the team.

Andrew Letherby (who has been living in the USA) was also selected to represent Australia in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games. Let’s hope Andrew can produce the form that gave him a Bronze medal in the last Commonwealth Games and a brilliant PB 2:11:42 in the Berlin marathon last year.

The current 10 Year Plan for the Box Hill Athletic Club is drawing to a close as it concludes in 2007.

It is important that the Club starts planning for the next 10 year period so all Club members are urged to start thinking about where they would like to see the Club develop in the future and provide feedback to the committee so that it can be incorporated into the new plan.

It is also important that there are new people involved with preparing and implementing the new plan. The current executive of the committee (President – Graeme Olden, Secretary – Julie Milner and Treasurer – Angela Robbie) have all been in their current positions for over 10 years and have decided that it is time for a change and would like to hand over to new people within the next 12 months. Hence, the Club needs to find new people to come onto the committee this year so that there can be a smooth transition and handover period.

It is apparent that many people are reluctant to agree to volunteer to join the committee for fear of becoming stuck with a huge workload with no prospect of escape! To avoid this situation, it is imperative that at least 6 new members are recruited onto the committee so that the many tasks can be distributed more evenly so that a great load does not fall onto any one individual. The current executive are all prepared to continue with at least some of their current roles, however feel it is important that others step in to take over the main executive roles.

A brief summary of the many roles which need to be undertaken to ensure that the Club is successful, retains existing members and recruits new members is included below. Most of these roles are not particularly onerous or time consuming for one person to undertake.

President
Responsible for coordinating overall operation of the Club and ensuring that all roles are performed in a manner suitable to enable the Club to be successful and meet short term and long term goals. Also responsible for development of goals, plans and procedures for operation of the Club and measuring performance against plan.

Vice-President
Provides assistance to President and fulfils roles of President should they be absent.

Secretary
Responsible for preparing official correspondence issued by the Club, notifying committee members of meetings, recording and distributing minutes of committee meetings and distribution of newsletter and other correspondence to members. Responsible for coordinating production of an Annual Report and notifying all members of the Annual General Meeting.

Treasurer
Responsible for the collection of money from all income sources including membership, ground hire and fundraising efforts, issue of accounts for payment and receipts as necessary, payment of all accounts for payment and taxes as necessary, preparation of an annual financial statement, arranging audit of the financial statement and preparation of regular reports for committee meetings.

Public Officer
Responsible for submission of an annual registration form to the Office of Fair Trading.

Registrar
Responsible for collection of registration forms and payments from new and existing members, updating membership details on the Club’s membership database, sending registration details to Athletics Victoria, receipt of competition numbers from Athletics Victoria and distribution of numbers to members.

Canteen Manager
Responsible for selection and purchase of stock, coordination of volunteers to serve in the canteen, collecting and banking takings and preparing an annual statement of income and expenditure.

Ground Hire Coordinator
Coordinates with Ground Hire Manager to communicate policies of committee and to ensure that the procedures for managing hire of the ground are being followed. Reports to committee regarding ground hirings and resolves issues raised by Manager.

Equipment
Responsible for ensuring that training and competition equipment is maintained in good condition and meets technical requirements. Prepares plan for equipment replacement and provides recommendations to committee regarding replacement and repair of equipment.

Maintenance
Maintains register of maintenance tasks and arranges working bees throughout the year to ensure that these tasks are attended to. Liaises with the City of Whitehorse maintenance department to arrange maintenance tasks falling within their jurisdiction.

Fundraising
Responsible for planning, promotion and coordination of fundraising initiatives such as lolly drives, trivia nights, raffles etc.

Sponsorship
Responsible for updating the Club’s sponsorship proposal document and approaching potential sponsor requesting support. Also responsible for ensuring that appropriate recognition is provided to existing sponsors and following up to ensure ongoing contributions from them.

Social Coordinator
Responsible for planning, promotion and coordination of social events such as Presentation Night, trivia nights, BBQ’s etc.

Newsletter Editor
Responsible for production of at least 6 newsletters each year. This involves collecting results, photos and articles from club members and re-formatting them so that they are suitable for loading into the standard template for publication on the web site.

Web Page Editor
Responsible for maintaining and updating the club web site on a regular basis (at least once a fortnight). Regular tasks include updating the forthcoming events section, uploading the latest results and uploading news items. Other information about the club such as membership forms, records, coaches contact details etc. also require updating on an irregular basis.

Uniform
Responsible for sale of club uniforms to members, including maintaining a register of stock levels and ordering new stock from the Club’s uniform manufacturer when stocks become depleted.

Little Aths Liaison
Coordination and liaison with the Box Hill Little Athletics Centre to resolve issues between both clubs and to promote a smooth transition from Little Aths to the Box Hill Athletic Club. It is advantageous if this person is a member of both committees.

Council Liaison
Responsible for liaison with officers of the City of Whitehorse regarding issues related to lease of the ground, capital works and ongoing planning and development issues as well as promotion of club successes to the council.

Coaching
Responsible for maintaining regular communication with club coaches to inform them of decisions made by the committee and receive feedback from coaches on issues associated with operation of the Club. Ensure that club coaches comply with the Coaches Code of Conduct and encourage the athletes that they coach to support club functions and compete for the Club. Encourages coaches to upgrade qualifications.

Team Management
Responsible for ensuring that team manager are provided for each grade of competition for which the Club enters teams and communicating policies of the Club and decisions of the committee to team managers.

Donations (Barlow Fund)
Responsible for management and administration of the tax-deductible Barlow Fund in conjunction with the Australian Sports Foundation. The role also involves publicising the fund and soliciting donations from members.

Recruitment
Responsible for developing and implementing schemes to promote the club to prospective members and recruiting new members to the Club.

Schools Liaison
Responsible for developing and maintaining close links with local schools in the area to facilitate use of Club coaches to conduct coaching clinics for the school and promote links between the schools and training groups at the Club.

Publicity
Responsible for publicising general results, and in particular successes by Club teams and Club members in the local, State and National media. Also responsible for publicising and promoting major events hosted by the Club at the ground.

Club Merchandise
Responsible for design, arranging production and sale to members of various club merchandise for sale – such as T-shirts, track suit tops, socks, caps etc.

Capital Works
Responsible for management of various major capital works that are undertaken by the Club. This will generally involve close liaison with the City of Whitehorse as most capital works are undertaken in conjunction with the Council. Major works anticipated over coming years include resurfacing and widening of the track, upgrade/replacement of the throwing circles and upgrade of the hammer cage.

Club Records
Responsible for maintaining lists of club records and all-time rankings, updating records on the club record boards in the club rooms and forwarding updates to the club web page editor for posting onto the club web site.

Officials
Responsible for recruiting new officials, encouraging helpers and existing officials to gain accreditation and attend training sessions, coordinating attendance of officials at competitions and maintaining communication with officials to thank them for the efforts and inform them of developments within the Club and the sport as a whole.

Volunteer Roster Coordinator
Responsible for preparation of a roster of helpers required for tasks such as serving in the canteen, assisting with set up and packing away equipment on competition days, helping at State Championship events and assisting with officiating at Shield competition. Also responsible for writing to people on the roster to inform them of their obligations and confirming that they are available on the dates rostered.

Venue Delegate
Represents the Club at meetings of the Eastern Region competition committee and reports back to committee. The Eastern Region competition committee meets about 6 times each year.

AV Delegates (5 required)
Represents the Club at the three General Meetings of Athletics Victoria each year and reports back to the committee about decisions made at these meetings.

It is important that all Club members give this matter careful consideration. It is planned to hold a special meeting at some time in April or May to identify new recruits for the committee. Even if you are not able to stand yourself, you may know of somebody else that can make a useful contribution.

For the future success of the Club, it is essential that we have a good attendance at this meeting. Further details regarding this meeting will be published in the coming weeks. However, if you are interested in assisting with any of these roles or know of someone that might be, please contact Graeme Olden on 9885 0890, or by email at golden@sprint.net.au.

After 18 months of frustration since our new club rooms were completed but not available for use, work is finally about to commence on construction of a new access ramp to the upstairs rooms. It is anticipated that construction of the ramp will be completed by about mid-March, after which a stair climber will be fitted on the new section of stairs, so hopefully be early April we will finally get access to the upstairs rooms.

During the period of the construction works, a temporary fence will be erected from near the canteen across the caoncrete paved area and up the bank to the main gate to block access to the area of construction. While there should be minimal disruption to people training at the ground, please be aware that there will be heavy vehicles entering the ground at various times so please keep well clear of the areas of work.

Given the problems that we have had with this project over the past few years, we are reluctant to make any promises about when we might be finally able to celebrate gaining access to the upstairs rooms, however updates on progress will be posted regularly on the Club web site to keep veryone informed of progress towards completion.

During the next month in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games, you may notice a number of international athletes training at the track.

The small Northern Ireland athletic team will be basing themselves at Box Hill. The team consists of a female pole vaulter, 2 male javelin throwers, a male decathlete, a female shot putter, a female sprinter and a male 800 m runner.

In addition to the athletes from Northern Ireland, there will be a Canadian and several English pole vaulters training at the track with Mark Stewart's squad.

Please make these athletes feel most welcome if you see them at the track.

Box Hill dominated the Victorian club championships at Williamstown on 17th and 18th December 2005. On the Saturday, in tough windy conditions, Box Hill women won the division 1 title.

On the Sunday, the Box Hill men did the same, winning the men's division 1 title. Both teams also won the right to compete in the national club championships in Adelaide at the end of the season, on Sunday 2 April 2006.

Box Hill were also successful in the under 18 girls competition, finished second in the men's division 2 and third in the men's under 18s.

Box Hill had a successful day at the Eastern Region Shield finals on Saturday 14th January 2006, winning three region premierships.

Box Hill were premiers in the Men’s Division 1 and the Men’s Division 2 and also in the Women’s Division 1. Unfortunatley, due to a protest by St Kevins regarding ranking of athletes in the men's Division 2 team, it appears that the Division 2 Region premiership may be awarded to St Kevins, however the Division 2 team will still be able to compete in the Association Final. We also finished a close second in the Men’s Under 18s and the Women’s Under 16s.

All five of these teams now progress to the Association finals which have been re-scheulded to be held at Knox on Saturday March 11th.

As noted above, the Association Finals have been rescheduled to be held at Knox on Saturday 11 March 2006. We need every available athlete competing at Knox. If you have not already done so, please contact your team manager regarding your availability for this day.

Box Hill has teams in men’s division 1, division 2 and under 18 and in women’s division 1 and under 16. Note that this will be the Labour Day long weekend.

Australian Club Championships

Following our wins in the Victorian Club Championships, Box Hill has qualified both a men's and women's team to compete at these championships. Although very late in the season, we are hoping to have a strong team traveling to Adelaide to help us defend our national club championship in the men's competition, and to challenge for the women's championship.

Please contact Chris O'Connor or Cathy Tilley if you are available to compete for the Club at these championships.

The winter season starts early this year, with the Herald-Sun/City Link “Run for the Kids” being incorporated into the winter season calendar, replacing the 15k race usually held at Albert Park.

This is a run of 14.7km which travels over the Bolte bridge, through the Burnley tunnel and up through the city to finish at Royal Park. There is a shorter event for junior athletes.

The cross country relays are being held on Saturday 29th April, once again at Yarra Bend and we are planning to hold our annual 5 km Handicap Race on the previous weekend on Saturday 22 April 2006. Further details of the winter program will be sent out to members over the coming weeks.