Most of the blog entries so far have been race reports, so here is one to break with tradition.
Should competing athletes be expected to take on roles of responsibilty within the club?
An accusation often leveled at athletes is that they are not prepared to take on roles of responsibility within the club. But is it fair to expect this from a competing athlete?
It's a tricky one, and I'm sure views will be divided. But there are 2 key words for me here, competing and expected. I've given this some thought, and my personal opinion is that it is something that should not be expected of a competing athlete, and here are my reasons for saying that...
Should competing athletes be expected to take on roles of responsibilty within the club?
An accusation often leveled at athletes is that they are not prepared to take on roles of responsibility within the club. But is it fair to expect this from a competing athlete?
It's a tricky one, and I'm sure views will be divided. But there are 2 key words for me here, competing and expected. I've given this some thought, and my personal opinion is that it is something that should not be expected of a competing athlete, and here are my reasons for saying that...
- Our club motto is "train to compete", and in order to compete to the best of one's ability, it's necessary to put a lot of time into training, and that doesn't leave much time for anything else.
- We need to attract new members, and that means marketing the club. What better way of marketing the club is there, than week after week, pulling on a club vest, getting out there and competing?
- The club needs successful athletes to get articles in local papers, and to show up in the results in athletics periodicals, again promoting the club.
- In addition to the time needed for training, there is the travel to events, and in the case of those who are also the parents of competing junior athletes, taking them to and from events and providing support for them and their fellow team-mates.
- Contrary to popular opinion, training isn't all about having "fun" (although it can be at times) in fact sometimes it's a real drudge, getting out in the cold & wet and putting in the miles when you're tired from a hard days work is just plain tough!
Taking the above points into consideration, I believe that the competing athlete plays just as important a role (no more or less) for the club as an official of the club. Naturally, if the athlete personally feels they are able to dedicate the time and resources into taking on a such a role, there should be nothing to stop them doing so.
Thoughts anyone?
Thoughts anyone?
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5 comments:
Well, just to get the ball rolling here are my comments.
My gut feeling is at spen there is an expectation that competing adult athletes are expected to play a role in the organisation of the club.
Basically its a numbers thing. More members equals more helpers. In an ideal world no competing athlete would play an offical role within the club but the number of people willing to help seems extemely low so the obvious thing to do is to turn to athletes and ask them to help.
When we have over 200 full members,30+ associate members and all the kids parents that come down, it's surprising that we can't muster enough helpers. Its a little disappointing that this is the case. Are we trying hard enough to persuade some of these people to get involved?
Also most people will have noticed the lack of spen athletes turning out and racing. As Chris says, the more people seen pulling on a spen vest the more it will encourage others to join. Can we do more in this area?
A critism regularly levelled at myself that I have not got involved in the organisation of the club.
For those of you who dont know me I have been a competing athlete at spen for 36 years and been proud to represent the club at all levels.
The last 15 years I have also 'coached' the group of athletes that train with me and I know how much they have appreciated this.
My own children's primary sports are not athletics and in recent years I have committed more time to those areas.
It seems like when I attend the AGM (a forum if I remember correctly where club members can voice their opinions) with suggestions of how I believe the club should move forwards it becomes my responsibility to fulfill those suggestions??
Sorry guys but I just havent got the time but this doesn't make any of my suggestions any less valid or actionable.
Comment by Frank Reddington
There were some good points made at the AGM particularly about club fees and the level of competition that we provide but we need to ask what are the committee doing about the lack of senior athletes? Valid though some of the points are unless there is some co-ordination of ideas and a plan made lead by the committee nothing will come of them. In regard to athletes becoming involved in administration and officiating, before the growth in veteran athletics over the past 15 or 20 years people over 40 involved in athletics were usually officials, coaches or administrators. A recent pole by Masters Athletics revealed that about 80% of veteran athletes were also officials. We do need athletes to run, jump and throw whatever their age and at Spen we have young athletes helping out on a regular basis. Concerning the debate about power in the club being in the hands of a few I feel that wider issues come into play here. Attaining Club Mark is so involved that only a handful of people can be familiar with the process. Other issues such as self management of the track, the boxing club application and repairs to the track are complex matters that only a few people fully grasp. It is not practical or necessary for a whole committee to have full knowledge of all of these matters and the few that are aware of the issues have tried to feed back the general points to the committee but in the end it is inevitable that the final decisions will be heavily influenced by a few people. We have the people in the club to move on after the AGM but I feel we need to look at the way we manage the club through the committee. Perhaps separating the administration from development matters and allocating some meetings to younger active athletes to debate such issues as club fees, refreshments, club
Comment by Anthony Bradford
With reference to your question about club athletes committing to help with roles of resonsibility within Spen AC.
I have been prompted to comment on your recent discussions at the latest A.G.M. and the discussions made on the Spen Ac Blog.
I acknowledge that the messages were not entirely directed at me. Even if they were, I will still take it as fair and justified critism. It has been troubling me for some time, particular with regards to the lack of club commitment I have been able to give. Balancing the time available for me to give to the club in recent years has been ever more difficult.
On purely a personal point, I would consider myself a 'non gifted' athlete who requires large amount of training to achieve my desired level of fitness - and therefore to produce reasonable race results. I equally admire those whose aim is to run for fun and fitness only. It has therefore been difficult to balance the needs of training hard against the needs of Spen AC. However, I did think the balance between the 'commited' athletes down at the club and the others who take on roles of responsibility within the club was not in conflict. This has only been brought to my attention through your recent articles on the Website and Blog. Having read the comments on the Blog(and also between the lines), there as been some 'tension build up' and therefore any critism can only be considered constructive and good for the club in the long term.
I originally joined Spenborough Ac to further my running 'career' (through faster training and track work), and to meet up and train with some faster runners. I am also a believer in success in running(or anything) as being both infectious and contagious, and this having the effect of being publically good for the club - which should in time increase member numbers. I am always proud to wear my Spen vest. However, I have noticed in recent months that Spen vests(and those wearing them) are fewer in numbers than they used to be, even from just a few years ago. So I am sorry I haven't helped out much at the club and don't commit to any sort of role within it, but I hope getting the Spen vest near to the front in races as gone some way to compensate for this.
Regards
Antony Bradford
Tony, you are supporting my opinion entirely in that getting to the front of a race in a club vest is exactly what we need, and long may you continue to do that!
We need and appreciate the sort of success and profile that you bring to the club by doing exactly what you are doing right now.
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