Clubs confirmed for Leaders’ Conference

Four Scottish athletics clubs will present on their progress over the last few years at the Club Leaders Conference at Hampden Park on Saturday November 22nd. This free conference for Scottish athletics clubs is targeted at club leaders, committees and development staff. This is a great opportunity for clubs to benefit from the experiences of others and share good practice.

The four clubs are – Kilbarchan AAC, Falkirk Victoria Harriers, North Ayrshire AC and Whitemoss AAC – read on for full details.

Places at the conference are limited so to book your place, please reply to me on mark.munro@scottishathletics.org.uk.

Kilbarchan AAC
One of Scotland’s premier athletics clubs with a strong reputation for consistently developing International endurance athletes as well as success across the age groups, Kilbarchan AAC have undergone significant change and much progress over the last few years.

A particular emphasis has been placed around the club’s structure, their data collection and communication as well as financial sustainability recently, resulting in a change in their legal status and significant benefits being generated via Gift Aid amongst other areas of governance.

The club are also focused on evolving their coaching structure and the long-term development of their coaches. They have probably the largest school-club programme in the country where they are formally linked to a network of 47 schools in their local authority area and work proactively with the education team in Renfrewshire.

Falkirk Victoria Harriers
One of the most proactive and forward thinking clubs around, FVH have increased their membership by 100% since 2012, a fantastic achievement also reflected within the growth and retention of their volunteers and coaches within the same period.

The club have developed some interesting systems around coach development, competition attendance and rewarding athlete improvement. A new approach to league competition has resulted in a 25% improvement in capacity of athletes competing and an increase of 37 new athletes now ranked on the Power of 10 in last two seasons (increase from 65 to 102).

The club are presently working to develop their coaching standards and have been through a process of identifying gaps in coaching knowledge and addressing these as well as developing a fantastic Competition Database – allowing them to recognise and reward new PB’s and badge standards on a weekly basis and identifying shortcomings in events amongst other areas.

North Ayrshire AC
A relatively new club on the Scottish landscape, North Ayrshire AC have doubled their membership in the last three years. A significant focus has been placed on their coaching structure and coach development with 15 new coaching assistants and four athletics coaches recently trained.

Considering they are a relatively small club they have recently started to compete in leagues and have a very strong corporate brand locally with a strong presence on social media, a new club logo and striking kit provided to every athlete.

The club are also taking a modern approach to their financial planning with new standing orders introduced to pay for weekly training sessions as well as corporate coaching sessions established locally to generate additional income outside of club training nights.

As the club has progressed they have also successfully built a new club house at their home track.

Whitemoss AAC
The club was established in August 1990 with an initial membership of less than two dozen members. The club has steadily grown over the years with the current membership at 211. The club has a very forward-thinking and strong leadership with a clear vision and plan of where they see the club growing to in the next 10 years.

Recent developments include the introduction of standing orders, a change in legal status and the club now benefiting significantly from Gift Aid on a regular basis helping boost the club’s financial position.

The committee have recently confirmed the funding to build a new ‘hub’ building at the John Wright Sports Centre which will act not only as a club base but will prove multi-functional with space for seminars, a kitchen and strength and conditioning area amongst others.