Presidents 2015 report

Last month at the Club AGM, Jim Young , Club President, gave his annual report.  The following is a summary and, for those unable to attend, perhaps gives an opportunity to see what Jim had to say about where the Club is, what we are involved in and what we want to do in the future.

“Reviewing the last 12 months activities highlights how far Kilmarnock Harriers has come in developing growth not only in gross numbers, which was our main target when the Club embarked on the Scottish Athletics Club Together initiative, – yes our membership is now something shy of 450, but also at so many other levels.

Our Club is the strongest it has ever been in our 128 year history.

Our Club is in a good place right now and our plan is to consolidate our position with a shift in emphasis. Over the last two years we have been carried along on a tidal wave of new young members inspired by:

• The £7m investment in the Ayrshire Athletics Arena, now our base of activity and a world ahead of what we had before and what many other Clubs have.
• The 2012 Olympics
• The 2014 Commonwealth games when we had the Ghana team visiting the Club, and some of the Scottish team train with us as they based themselves at the AAA.

The timing could not have been better in helping us attain our initial goal of doubling our membership. We’ve certainly done that.

The AAA facilities have attracted major events:

• Ayrshire Track & Field
• West District Track & Field
• National Age Group Track & Field
• National & District Cross Country

Our athletic partnership with East Ayrshire Leisure continues to flourish as we support them in organising Schools Cross Country, Giant Heptathlon and Sportshall athletics.

Our Club’s involvement in all of these things, along with the management of our own growth would not be possible without our volunteers. They are the glue that holds the Club together. Our registration team, our Coach Co-ordinator, our coaches and assistants and our event organising team.

Our Club Together programme is now in its third year. The initial goal of which was to double participation in our sport – well we have certainly done that.

Club Together is a tripartite programme funded by East Ayrshire Leisure, Scottish Athletics and Kilmarnock Harriers and sets out a Club structure, identifying what needs to be done to sustain and retain the momentum.

Lindsay and Andy, our two CT Officers I’m sure get frustrated sometimes because we don’t move fast enough in some areas of improvement, but bear with us!

I believe it is time now for consolidation, to put more emphasis on how well we do things and not just how many we have or how much we can do. We need to give our Coaches and other volunteers the tools and the training to do the job even better than we do now.

Kilmarnock Harriers is of a size that it can no longer be run from notes scribbled on the palm of a hand. Communication alone is a major challenge, and despite having the Club website we still hear – “I didn’t know this was on”. Make it your job to go and find out.

There are many ways to measure success and one of our Club is measured on by Sports Scotland and Scottish Athletics is:

• How many of our athletes compete?
• How many medals were won?

Well the Club’s results speak for themselves. Medalling in County, District and National championships, and this success is across the age groups into our veteran athletes.

I said earlier the Club is in a good place, more than doubling our membership and utilising the AAA 5 nights a week. Our challenge as I see it is to make athletics available to all and to ensure every athlete through our coaching environment gets the opportunity TO BE THE BEST THEY CAN BE!

This, I believe, is why Kilmarnock Harriers exists”