Membership
September 2023 to August 2024
Last year’s Annual Report stated between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023 our junior membership increased from 130 to 146. And that during the rest of 2023 (to the end of our membership year) we recruited 8 new members giving a total of 154. There were also 13 who had come for one or two sessions and were expected to join.
From 1 January 2024 to 31 August 2024 (the end of the financial year), 19 resigned (much lower than usual), 111 renewed and 27 joined, giving a total of 162, an increase of 24 members from August 2022.
Our strength is to train a large number of juniors, improve their fitness and athletics skills, and offer them the opportunity to compete at whatever level suits them, from parkrun and Peco, through to West Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Northern and National Championships, also offering a wide breadth of athletics – road running, cross country and track & field.
We know that we currently aren’t able to offer more than one training session a week, nor experienced event coaches other than running, nor regular higher level competition in the Youth Development Track & Field League. In previous years around 12 juniors have transferred to “bigger” local clubs. In 2023/24, we lost two members due to relocation and two older girls transferred to Leeds City.
Since 1 September 2024
As at 31 December 2024, a further 21 have joined, and so, at 183, we are 29 ahead of December 2023.
4 more have had trial sessions during December and we will offer them places in January.
Our waiting list is now fairly short – but not considered a problem.
Over the last 12 months, four sets of twins have joined – Ella & Sophia Ball, Ben & Sam Fowler, Joe & Tilly Hawkes and Ben & Seb Rollison. We now have seven sets of twins in the club, the others being Helena & Nichola Bolhasani, Joel & Will Caleb and Emmy & Tom Deverill. Reading www.twinstrust.org, on average 2 in 66 children are a pair of twins, so for 183 members we’d only expect 3 pairs. This could be the basis of a thesis for a sports science student!
See https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/juniors/ for general information about our junior section.
Membership Analyses
Prior to 2021, we reported the membership figures at 31 August, that being the end of the financial year and the membership year.
Below we are showing the positions at the end of the financial year 31 August (which correspond to the published accounts) and at the end of the membership year 31 December
Although this is more complicated, there are now great benefits of being able to ask our members for their fees a month in advance of the year starting rather than 2 or 3 months in arrears.
Junior Membership Analysis 2021 to 2024
| Membership Categories (“1st claim” means first claim affiliation to England Athletics paid via VS) | 31 Dec 2021 | 31 Aug 2022 | 31 Aug 2023 | Change In/Out | New | 31 Dec 2023 | Resign | 1 Jan 2024 | Change Out | Renew | Change In | New | 31 Aug 2024 | Change In/Out | New | 31 Dec 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juniors, first claim | 15 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 25 | 25 | -7 | 18 | 5 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 28 | |||
| Juniors, not affiliated | 108 | 112 | 115 | -9 | 5 | 111 | -17 | 94 | -8 | 86 | 15 | 26 | 127 | -3 | 19 | 143 |
| Juniors, social (not training) | 6 | 13 | 16 | -1 | 3 | 18 | -2 | 16 | -9 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 12 | -1 | 1 | 12 |
| TOTAL JUNIORS | 129 | 130 | 146 | 0 | 8 | 154 | -19 | 135 | -24 | 111 | 24 | 27 | 162 | 0 | 21 | 183 |
Junior Membership Analysis 2023/24 – Explanations
| FINANCIAL YEAR Membership Categories | 31 Aug 2023 | 31 Aug 2024 | Chnge on Fin Yr | This compares like-for-like at financial year end | |||||
| Juniors, first claim | 15 | 23 | +8 | Affiliating for Brownlee 5k, road relays, WY track & field etc | |||||
| Juniors, not affiliated | 115 | 127 | +12 | Net increase of 20 junior training members (affil and unaffil). | |||||
| Juniors, social (not training) | 16 | 12 | -4 | Several compete without training, others are school year 1 or younger, others true social | |||||
| TOTAL | 146 | 162 | +16 | The fact that the Competitive group now rarely train at Leos has given opportunity to recruit more. | |||||
| MEMBERSHIP YEAR Membership Categories | 31 Dec 2023 | 31 Dec 2024 | Chnge on Memb Yr | This compares maximum numbers at calendar year end | |||||
| Juniors, first claim | 25 | 28 | +3 | Affil for WYXC & North XC Relays | |||||
| Juniors, not affiliated | 111 | 143 | +32 | Net increase of 35 training members | |||||
| Juniors, social (not training) | 18 | 12 | -6 | ||||||
| TOTAL | 154 | 183 | +29 | And more |
Training
Training numbers
Of the 52 Tuesdays between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024, 2 training nights were abandoned completely due to the weather, for 3 we ran with reduced numbers, for 2 more we ran with reduced numbers but also allowed Training From Home to be counted, for 1 the club went en masse to the Golden Acre Relays and 1 was Boxing Day when a day later 28 juniors and about 18 parents ran round the lakes in Roundhay Park. We trained 11 weeks at the Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) and the rest at Leos.
For the 43 weeks of normal training, average attendance was 70 (65 last year) and the highest 99 – our all-time record. There were 7 weeks where we had 90 or more.
The sports day at GSAL in September 2023 was one of the weeks that was abandoned
On 7 May 2024, we held six 1-mile races at GSAL to celebrate 50 years since the first 4-minute mile. 64 juniors took part. We handed out commemorative certificates to the first 3 in each race.
All training counted towards attendance medals for 25 appearances (bronze), 50 (silver) and 100 (gold). During the year, we presented 13 gold, 28 silver and 33 bronze to add to the 52 gold, 142 silver and 249 bronze since we started junior sessions in June 2012.
We presented a trophy to Kate Irvine for reaching 200 attendances on 13 August 2024. She was the 4th recipient of this award.
In February 2025 we expect to reach 25,000 individual attendances since our first session in 2012.
Training groups
The “competitive” group – secondary school children competing in cross country and road running – became almost a separate group during the year. They had trained at Beckett Park on the 2nd Tuesday in the month for several years and, in late 2023, introduced a session at the Brownlee Centre cycle track on the last Tuesday in the month. Then in spring 2024, partially forced by the rutted condition of the rugby pitches, they added the 3rd Tuesday, also at Brownlee Centre. The 1st Tuesday became a hill session at Parkside Road or Allerton Grange.
This group has been coached by Richard Irvine and Alex Gostling, both fully qualified coaches. A third qualified coach, Phillip Tedd, joined the group on a regular basis early in 2024.
Most of the members of the group have come through from primary school and the transfer usually takes place in the spring of their last year at primary school so that they get training with the group before the next cross country season which is when they’ll then be eligible for county, regional and national competition.
As at December 2024 there are 28 in this group and the average attendance for autumn 2024 has been 20.
There is more information about the competitive group in a separate section in this report, written by Richard Irvine.
The fact that the “competitive” group now very rarely trains at Leos or GSAL has released capacity for the other groups.
The other training groups have continued to train at Leos and GSAL.
At Leos we continued with the 3 timeslots (4:45, 5:30 and 6:15) first introduced in September 2020 to maximise capacity during Covid restrictions. We have a maximum of 5 groups and 5 activities per timeslot and a maximum of 12 juniors per group.
Typically 25 came at 4:45, 30 at 5:30 and 20 at 6:15, in which case there would have been 8 groups in total with each group having a leader and an assistant, all of whom are parents. Other parents also help with the activities.
Contingency Plan. There was a lot of rain in November 2023 and February/March 2024 and we implemented a contingency plan for Leos being waterlogged. This was a session on the cycle path on Alwoodley Green connecting the car park near the playground to the Buckstone Estate. We had the usual 3 timeslots but with a maximum of 18 per timeslot. Those not “selected” for the session were able to do a TFH (training from home) session and email the details to count towards their attendance medals.
At GSAL in summer we booked 2 hours for 12 weeks, generally alternating with Leos. We had 2 timeslots – 6:10 and 7:10 in term time, 5:30 and 6:30 in holidays. We also had 5 groups. 4 of these groups did 4 activities – 80metres, 400metres, long jump and shot. At 6:10, if the 4 groups were over-subscribed, we had a 5th group of the youngest members and they did short sprints, relays, long jump and tennis ball throwing. The long jump had been refurbished in Summer 2022 and we were able to use 2 pits and 2 runways so this enabled our athletes to have more attempts in the 10 minutes allocated to the activity. Also GSAL had moved the discus circle to be adjacent to the shot circles and we used both for shot practice, again enabling our athletes to have more attempts.
Typically in term time 55 (4 groups) came at 6:10pm and 20 (2 groups) at 7:10pm. In holidays 25 (3 groups) at 5:30pm and 10 (1 group) at 6:30pm.
Since 1 September 2024
In the 17 weeks we had 8 occasions with 90 or more attendees and on three of these we had 99 …but never reached 3 digits! (Figures include the Competitive group).
There was one week when a 16 year old had come to Leos to try out the adult improvers group but had arrived 5 minutes late. She came across to see what we were doing and I eventually persuaded her to join in for a couple of activities. If I’d included her in the numbers we would have had 100 but I fear this would not have got past our auditors.
We have had have 2 special sessions. One was at GSAL where 72 took part in a sports day. Gold medals were awarded to the best athlete in each age group, silver medals to those that had won an event in their age group and bronze medals to everyone else.
The other special session was on the morning of Friday 27 December when 30 children and 20 parents ran in Santa hats round the lakes in Roundhay Park and then competed as 9 teams in “Café-Lake relays”. Many thanks to Nicola Hartley for leading a group of older children, to Jermaine Benjamin for pacing this group and to Andy Fowler and Tom Fordham for pacing my group (I can scarcely keep up with our 7-year-olds these days!
And there were 2 weeks when we had to implement the contingency plan on the cycle path.
The competitive group had a record high of 21 on 24 October.
Nicola’s group
Within the main junior section, since Covid, most weeks Nicola Hartley has led a group of older girls at 5:30. Caitlyn Hartley, Kirsten Reid, Mary Venning and Natalie Ward joined prior to Covid and are still running with the group now. Grace, Indi, Kirsten B and Lucy joined in 2021 and Milly in 2022, and several other secondary school girls have joined since. The parents now have a WhatsApp group and there are frequent parkrun tourism Saturdays. The average age is 14; 2 years ago I would not have believed this to be a possibility.
Nicola has now nearly completed her LiRF (Leadership in Running and Fitness) course which will gives her England Athletics insurance to lead a group of ages 12 and above. This will give them options to train away from Leos, indeed they have started to join the “C” group at the Brownlee Centre on the last Tuesday in the month and as part of the contingency plan have run on the quiet pavements near Alwoodley Primary School.
Nicola has written a page about the group’s other activities, see later in this report.
Coaching and Leading
Again, a huge “thank you” to all the parents who’ve helped over the last year.
Prior to Covid, we used to have four groups turning up at 6pm and had four parents leading from a pool of 6 or 7 names .
Now we regularly have 9 or 10 groups, each with 1 parent leading and 1 parent assisting. each group. For the younger groups, other parents act as “activity assistants” supervising slippery corners, hill running and backwards running at Leos. At GSAL there are also activity leaders and assistants for each activity e.g. starters, timekeepers, finish line judges, long jump measurers, shot putt technique demonstrators, shot put safety assistants.
It is marvellous that so many parents are actively involved and I’m sure that it doesn’t happen to this extent at many other clubs.
Richard Irvine and Alex Gostling have continued to lead and coach the “competitive group” and Phillip Tedd joined this team early in 2024. All 3 are qualified Athletics Coaches.
As mentioned in the “Training Groups” section, Nicola Hartley has now nearly completed her LiRF course. And her second-in-command, Becky Baldaro-Booth has just started the same course.
Insurance and Safety
Our insurance with England Athletics covers us for training sessions, led and managed by fully qualified coaches, for juniors aged 8 and above. Nicola’s LiRF qualification will cover training sessions for adults and juniors over 12 years old.
We’ve tightened up on some safety aspects during the year e.g. a signing-in form for parents not staying by the side of the field during the training sessions and e.g. making sure that when a child needs a loo-break that either the parent who brought them or two other adults supervise their trip.
This obviously leaves some gaps, and for this reason we have recently taken out a second insurance policy. We are in the process of reviewing all aspects of training to ensure that we are covered by one (or both) of the insurance policies.
One recommendation is likely be to ask more leaders to go on a course (probably a LiRF course as this is a way to get DBS) to ensure cover for all locations and timeslots
Hannah Corne has relinquished her post as Junior Welfare Officer; this role is now covered by the James Slater who is Club Welfare Officer. We are intending to announce Hannah’s replacement before spring.
Competition
From September 2023, the first main competition for all was the Peco Cross Country League of 5 races and one relay. This was open to school years 2 and above. 72 (75 in 2022) of our junior members took part in least one race and average attendance was 41 (45 in 2022). Levi Woodger, Imogen Burton and Isla Butterworth all finished third in their age categories and there were 4 other top-six places.
In the Peco Relay we had 12 teams of 3. In the Boys year 2-4 category, the winners were Samuel McLarkey, Leo Freer and Levi Woodger. Also Joseph Urquhart was a member of the “Yorkshire Triathlon” team who won the Boys year 9=11 category.
Ten Striders – Niamh Archbold, Abigail Bottomley, Imogen Burton, Caitlyn Hartley, Nye Mason, Samuel Mclarkey, Søren Pailor, Ella Shanks, Mary Venning and Levi Woodger– took part in all 6 events. There was 1 other – Emmy Deverill – who ran all 5 Peco races (but not the relays) so also qualified for the Peco mementoes.
From October to December in the West Yorkshire XC League (year 5 and above), 27 junior Striders competed in at least one race. Two Striders – Niamh Archbold and Dan Breedon – ran all 4. Ruth Friend won the U13G category and Imogen Burton was 4th in the U11G category.
10 Striders took part in the 2023 Wetherby junior run (Harry Whittaker was 2nd), 6 in the Golden Mile (Joseph Whitehouse, 5:39.2, was fastest) and 9 in the Abbey Dash junior race (Joseph Urquhart was 2nd ).
We’d intended to take 6 junior teams to the Northern XC Relays at Sheffield but it was cancelled. 3 teams ran in the National XC Relays at Mansfield – Ruth Friend, Isla Butterworth & Caitlyn Hartley in the U13G, Dan Breedon, Harry Whittaker & Ewan Reid in the U13B, Simeon Tedd, Joel Caleb & William Caleb in the U15B.
In the Yorkshire XC Championships at Lightwater Valley (year 7 and above), 8 took part and in the Northern XC there were 3 junior Striders.
In the summer, 19 of our junior members took part in at least one track & field meeting. Harry Richards attended 9, Esmé Clark 7, Josh Salmon 6 and Niamh Archbold 5. Many only did one (but this is an objective of the club, to try things out, hopefully many of these will feel confident to take part when the season restarts in April 2025).
In the Cookridge Community junior run Eadon Lyons was 1st boy and Niamh Archbold 1st girl.
32 junior Striders took part in the Eccup junior 1 and 2 mile races. In the 1 mile race, Joshua Salmon was 3rd, Levi Woodger 4th and Imogen Burton 2nd girl. 21 of the 68 runners were Valley Striders including 7 of the first 11. In the 2 mile race, Oliver Lubiecki was 2nd, Ewan Reid 3rd and Mary Venning 3rd girl. 11 of the 25 runners were Valley Striders.
93 took part in the Golden Acre Relays. We had 25 teams in the races for school years 2 to 7 and won 3.3 of the 6 categories – Older Boys (Eaden Lyons, Sammy Whitehouse, Ewan Reid), Older Girls (Imogen Burton, Jess Rollings, Flo Morris), Older Mixed (Matilda Dark, Dore Walmsley, Elliot Rushgrove), Younger Mixed (Esmé Clark and two friends from school). We had 6 junior teams (years 8-11) in the adult race and won both junior categories – the Boys (Conor Butterworth, Joseph Urquhart, Sam Redmond) and the Girls (Hope Wearing, Isla Butterworth, Ruth Friend).
There were 10 V S juniors in the Golden Mile at Beckett Park. Levi Woodger was fastest Strider in 6:01.6.
Harry Richards competed in a number of race walks at Track & Field meetings in the summer, coming first in his age group at all of them.
See https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2023-24/
and https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-spring-summer-2024
Since 1 September 2024
In the Wetherby Junior Run, Abigail Bottomley finished 2nd. In spite of this being one of the “cashback” races, she was the only junior Strider there.
In the Abbey Dash junior race, 17 junior Striders ran with Ruth Friend 1st overall, Isla Butterworth 2nd girl (3rd in race) and Caitlyn Hartley 3rd girl (10th in race). NB Ruth and Isla ran in their Leeds City vests. In the Abbey Dash 10k, there were 5 junior Striders, Conor Butterworth being the fastest in 36:49.
16 took part in the West Yorkshire XC League. The under 11 girls team WON their age category. The team members were Niamh Archbold, Abigail Bottomley, Esmé Clark, Matilda Dark, Emmy Deverill, Dora Walmsley. Emmy and Abigail also won individual awards for 4th and 5th place. Ewan Reid won an individual award for 5th U13 boy. Dora, Matilda, Niamh, Imogen Burton and Joseph Urquhart all ran at least 3 races so showed in the individual league rankings.
65 juniors have run in at least 1 of the 3 Peco races that have taken place so far.
See https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2024-25
Schools Cross country
Over 60 of our juniors took part in the Leeds Schools Cross Country League in Autumn term 2023 and over 70 have taken part in the same series so far in Autumn 2024 (one meeting still to take place at time of writing). This league comprises 4 meetings on Saturday mornings and is for school years 3 to 10. One of these meetings is for school years 7 to 11, the qualifier for the team to represent Leeds at the West Yorkshire Schools championships.
In both years a large percentage of our juniors in years 3 to 6 took part in a local round of the Leeds Primary Schools cross country Games. Top schools and top individuals qualify for the Leeds final in early February and from this, some qualify for the team to represent Leeds at the West Yorkshire Primary Schools event later in February.
These above sets of events are schools competitions but we hope that training at Valley Striders has helped their performances.
Club policy (if anyone asks) is, in the case of a clash of events on a day or weekend, that schools events take priority over club events except perhaps that a county or regional club competition should take priority over a minor schools event.
In the questionnaire for new members I ask for school name and also at the start of the school year I included a question in the training booking form for school name. Currently the highest representation in our membership are
- Primary schools: Gledhow 14, Roundhay St John 12, Roundhay PS 10, St Matthews (in Chapel Allerton) 9, Meanwood 5
- Secondary schools: Roundhay HS 19, GSAL 12, Allerton Grange 7, Carr Manor 5
Interestingly (?), for the three schools most local to Leos, the numbers are St Paul’s PS 1, Alwoodley PS none, Allerton HS 2.
Most of our recruitment is by word-of-mouth via current members but there is clearly scope for local recruitment too
Awards
Participation Awards
We have two perpetual cups, one for a boy, one for a girl, which we present every 6 months for participation in training and at events. To qualify, members must have attended at least 13 training sessions and have taken part in at least 13 races/events (which may include parkruns) in the previous 6 months. The cups cannot be awarded again to previous winners.
Because there are not a huge number of competitive events, most of the previous winners have run a lot of parkruns (parkrun isn’t competitive is it?!). Unusually three of this year’s winners have run 6 or fewer parkruns and all of them have found 7 or more competitive events elsewhere
September 2023 to February 2024 –
- Caitlyn Hartley 22 training, 6 parkruns, 9 other events including 6 Peco
- Harry Whittaker 19 training, 17 parkruns, 12 other events incl. 4 Peco and 4 Leeds 5k
March 2024 to August 2024 –
- Esmé Clark 22 training, 5 parkruns, 10 other including 7 track & field
- Ewan Reid 18 training, 6 parkruns, 7 other including 3 Leeds 5k
Performance Awards
We purchase and award two trophies, one for a boy, one for a girl, every 6 months for the best age-graded performance in parkrun or junior parkrun. The trophies cannot be awarded again to previous winners
September 2023 to February 2024 –
- Best boy Samuel Keene 81.7% – 20:01 at Woodhouse Moor aged 9
- Trophy awarded to Joseph Urquhart 77.0% – 18:25 at Potternewton aged 14
- Best girl Isla Butterworth 77.6% – 7:27 at Cross Flatts aged 13
- Trophy awarded to Ella Shanks 75.1% – 9:03 at Horsforth Hall aged 7
March 2024 to August 2024 –
- Best boy Levi Woodger 80.5% – 20:18 at Woodhouse Moor aged 9
- Trophy awarded to Simeon Tedd 78.7% – 6:36 at Bodington aged 14
- Best girl Ella Shanks 75.8% – 8:58 at Horsforth Hall aged 7
- Trophy awarded to Grace Keene 73.1% – 9:40 at Horsforth Hall aged 6
The “C” Group (from Richard Irvine)
“C” stands for competition. This group has been in existence for several years and represents those young athletes ages 11 – 17 who wish to continue competitive endurance running.
Numbers have grown over the past 12 months to almost 30. In Spring, Bob and I review the school year 6 athletes for potential new additions.
A number of our athletes are involved in other competitive activity, including regional and national-level.
Our aim is to offer our athletes a more progressive and personalised session than they would receive in the “main” junior groups.
During 2024 we added another coach (Phillip Tedd) to make 3 qualified coaches. Plus we have a handful of parents who provide support.
At the start of each “season”, we develop session plans that follow the annual race calendar (Yorkshire, regional and national events), according to age group.
We provide athletes with a session plan for independent training on Thursday and provide other ad hoc plans to develop core strength, etc.
Training venues each month:
- Leeds Beckett.
- 2 x the Brownlee Centre, sharing the circuit with the UoL XC Club (and recently Abbey Runners juniors).
- Hill session – this has taken place at Parkside Road (Smithy Mills), Lidgett Lane (former Allerton Grange HS site) and Goodrick Lane (summer only).
- + other sessions take place at Leos, or on the surrounding roads.
In Summer, we blend the above sessions with the track session at GSAL, joining the other junior groups.
Most of all, we aim for the sessions to be fun.
Development
This year, some of our juniors have trained with the advanced seniors group where the session has been appropriate. I suspect we will increase our contact with the advanced senior group during 2025. The transition pathway to senior groups is documented on the website.
Jamie Walker and Alfie Jones, who were in our junior group from 2016 to 2020, prospered with our advanced seniors group, prior to moving away to study.
The Girls 12-16 Group (from Nicola Hartley)
At the start of 2024 my own personal running and physical journey was trying to say the least, blighted by injury and illness and I took solace in the coaching aspect that this group brought. The accomplishment of the group over the last 12 months has been astounding.
2024 saw the girls group (12-16) bloom throughout the year. From a small handful of regular attendees at the start of the year, battling the dark nights and unpleasant weather the group has grown to a group of 10-12 young ladies who you will find regularly participating in weekly sessions, park runs, PECOs and even split events. Aside from the actual running aspect of the group the girls have created an inclusive, positive and sociable environment and it has been a pleasure to watch them all develop over the year. Their love of a hilly park run instead of a flat to quote “boring” course still leaves me slightly disconcerted having been a runner who has always previously avoided a hill wherever possible.
October saw our two key achievements for the group with the eldest member (Kirsten Reid aged 15) undertaking her first 10km at the Abbey Dash in a fantastic time of 52.50 whilst Caitlyn Hartley came 3rd girl in the Abbey Dash Junior Race (2km).
Kirsten enjoyed the event so much she then decided to take on much more difficult terrain and weather by completing the Bah Humbug 10km in December.
We also saw our highest turnout for this group at the first PECO in November, with all members achieving several PBs throughout the year.
I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the girls and the parents that have assisted in helping this group thrive.
We cannot however continue to be known as the “N” or “Girls A” group so one specific non running objective for 2025 is to find the group a fitting name. Suggestions welcome!
I am looking forward to the next 12 months and more sessions, runs and social events with the group.
Accounts Analysis
| Item | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | Explanation of change in 2024 from 2023 | Forecast 2024/25 | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INCOME | |||||
| Membership fees received | 4337 | 5080 | Increase in members | 5000 | |
| Membership Discounts – race fees paid by member in previous year | -309 | -538 | Eccup races and Peco races | -680 | Peco, Eccup, Wetherby, Abbey Dash, Nat XC Relays etc capped at 50% of membership fee |
| Membership Discount 10% | -275 | 0 | New offer in 2023, not done in 2024 | 0 | Discounts now all via race fees |
| Donation from Peco League | 150 | 150 | 150 | ||
| Bank interest | 24 | 44 | 30 | ||
| TOTAL INCOME | 3927 | 4736 | 4500 | ||
| EXPENDITURE | |||||
| Leos hire of fields etc | 2000 | 2000 | 2000 | ||
| GSAL hire of athletics track | 346 | 348 | Booked for 2 hours x 11 weeks (12 in 2022) | 440 | Rate increase |
| Brownlee hire of circuit | 60 | 0 | 2 sessions in summer holiday in 2022 | 0 | Not planned |
| England Athletics club affiliation | 43 | 57 | NB This is juniors share of club fee, not affiliation of individual members | 60 | |
| Races paid for by the club in current year | 390 | 248 | Only Golden Acre Relays in 2023/24. Also Peco Relay and North/NatXC in 2022/23 | 250 | Only Golden Acre, all other events paid by members and refunded in memb fee in 2026 |
| Awards – 25/50/100 medals, Annual awards | 396 | 308 | Attendance medals in both years. Engraving of cups for 3 years in 2022/23 | 300 | |
| Sports day trophies/medals | 272 | 36 | Medals for all participants in Sep2022 | 250 | Sports day held Sep2024 |
| T&F Equipment | 66 | 0 | 50 | ||
| Website | 57 | 18 | New website 2022/23 | 30 | |
| Shirts and vests expenses | 29 | 125 | Building up stock | 0 | |
| Coach/Leader/First Aid courses | 1440 | 9 Courses for leaders to ensure cover for all locations and timeslots | |||
| Insurance | 0 | 0 | 135 | New; additional to EA | |
| Miscellaneous | 9 | -19 | Donation | 0 | |
| TOTAL COSTS | 3668 | 3121 | 4955 | ||
| PROFIT | 259 | 1615 | -455 |
The above doesn’t include anything where we collect money from the member and hand on the same money to the supplier e.g. England Athletics affiliation for individual members, race entry fees that are paid by members to us because we have to enter the teams as a club and payment for vests and T-shirts where we pay the supplier the same value
Membership Fees 2025
Membership fees for the year 1 January to 31 December 2025 are proposed as follows
- Junior full membership (weekly training) £40 (no change).
- Junior limited training (10 sessions or fewer) £20 (no change).
- This category also applies to Juniors school year 1, but for them there will be no limit on sessions. There are no races accepting this age group and we offer training sessions to them when spaces permit and when ground conditions are suitable 5
- Junior social membership (no training, no competition other than parkrun) £5 (no change),
- This category also applies to juniors younger than year 1 for whom we don’t promise any sessions.
- Those juniors competing in West Yorkshire League and higher competition for which England Athletics affiliation is needed will pay us an additional £22 to cover the EA and Northern Athletics affiliation fees. This money will be paid on to EA/NA. (Was £21 in 2024)
In addition, for those who were full or limited training members for all or part of 2024, we will refund their race fees for the last two Peco races of the 2023/24 season, for the Peco XC in 2024, for the Eccup race in 2024, for the first three Peco races of the 2024/25 season and a contribution of £3 towards the Wetherby and Abbey Dash races. This will be in the form of a discount when paying their membership fee in 2025. This was part of the arrangement for 2024 – assuming there were sufficient funds – which there were.
This page on the website explains in more detail and says how much each person’s discount will be. https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/junior-membership-renewals-rates-and-discounts-january-2025/
For 2025 renewals, of the 183 current members, 100 will (if they renew) get a discount that averages £6.47. One person, who ran all the 10 nominated races, will have get a discount of £18 and also had their Golden Acre Relay paid for.
We propose to continue this arrangement for 2026 membership fees, again, subject to there being sufficient funds.
Membership Fees 2025 for “C” group
We are in the process of reviewing membership rates and/or discounts for the 28 members who are in the “competitive” group. As they rarely use Leos this allows us to recruit more members to run there. Leos is our most expensive resource which is effectively part of their membership fee and they are paying weekly admission fees to Beckett Park and Bodington/Brownlee Centre.
Our current view is that we should pay all entry fees for county, regional and national competition and 50% of entry fees for local events (West Yorks XC, Peco XC, Leeds 5k etc) up to a maximum payout of 60% of their membership renewal fee. This would mean that someone renewing at the full rate of £40 who had achieved the full discount would pay £16 …which coincidentally is the current annual rate for adults.
Our current view also is that all members of the “C” group should pay the EA and NA affiliation fees of £22, whether or not they intend to enter races. This would then mean they are not put off just entering 1 race which they might be if they had to pay the £22 before the race. And, coincidentally, it is adult club policy that all adult running members pay the EA and NA fees.
The page on the website mentioned above includes the calculations for the “C” group fees based on these views.
Social
A disadvantage of the 3 timeslots is that sometimes I feel we are three separate clubs in that those at any one timeslot have only met those in the other two at the Sports Day, the Mile Races and at events.
I’ll just copy what I wrote last year … and the year before … unfortunately nothing has changed.
I hope we can reintroduce hot food at Leos after training. We would have to have 3 timeslots for this too, but actually this would make it more manageable for the catering staff – when we used to have just one session it used to take a long time to serve a queue of 40.
The Xmas runs in Roundhay Park are well-attended whatever the weather.
Communication and Feedback
We use Surveymonkey for parents to book sessions for their children a month at a time.
Each week, we use the website to list the juniors invited to attend each session.
We have a Facebook Group for parents to confirm attendance at training sessions, to announce and allow discussion of arrangements for events (e.g. Peco, WYXC), for photos of events and presentations, and for advertising lost property which we’re attempting to return.
We also have a Facebook Group set up for parents who have volunteered to lead groups. I will revive this soon as part of the Insurance and Safety Review.
The website is also used to publicise events and record results. The juniors section of the website has been reviewed in the last 3 months and updated as needed.
I would welcome any other feedback for improvements – please email the [email protected] email address.
More Thank Yous
Thank you to
Head junior coach Richard – we don’t meet very often as his 6pm group is rarely at Leos but we frequently have chats in the evenings to plan what we’re going to do next. I look after the spreadsheets and Facebook while he looks after the coaching.
To Alex Gostling for developing training plans for the older juniors who train with us (each week she sends out a suggested session for Thursday evening).
To Nicola Hartley for leading the year 7-11 girls group – retaining numbers and recruiting new members too.
To Paul Furness – who has again travelled from Boroughbridge to support more than 10 sessions at GSAL this summer. Paul has also been a field events judge in the West Yorkshire T&F League for the last 6 years, enabling us to satisfy the condition of entry to the league that every club must provide 2 volunteers.
To Hannah Corne, our outgoing Junior Welfare Officer – we have discussed several safety issues over the last 2 years.
To the families Rollings, Deverill, Venning and others who have brought the club gazebo to the Peco Races (every time I put the posts in the car to go to GSAL or to an event my wife tells me I should have bought a van, I don’t know what she’d say if the gazebo was in the back!)
And, finally, a huge thank you (again) to ALL the parents who have helped at the sessions on Tuesdays – it wouldn’t work without you
Bob