Tuff Fitty’s Annual General Meeting Summary
Thank you to everyone who attended our recent Annual General Meeting. As well as having written constitution, your club is run by members for its members and it is therefore important to be accountable.
After a steady decline in the numbers of people on the committee, we are grateful to those of you who volunteered to serve; your new committee is set out below.
Chairman : Clive Harvey
Secretary : Adrian Oliver
Treasurer : Vicky Cooper
Events : Michael Barrett
Coaches Rep : Wendy Frost
Membership & Frosty entries : Jenny Oliver
Membership : Oliver Thomas
In addition to the above posts, there have been numerous offers of help from members on more specific tasks. Some have already been helping on our Awards Evening organisation, but there are others who we will be looking to utilise for other roles in the near future. A big thank you to everyone who has offered to help, it’s appreciated.
Many will notice two significant names missing from the above list. Firstly Anthony Towers who has been nothing short of superb having served on the committee continuously as Treasurer for an incredible 26 years – this is a tremendous record and his unstinting service, often unseen, has been so important in our club’s growth. Thank you Anthony, we are all so grateful.
Secondly Jon Roper. He had previously served on the committee way back in 2006 but answered the Chair’s call for help and so has now completed his second term with aplomb. Thank you Jon. Also thanks to Sue Neilson who stepped down from the committee earlier this year.
An address from Clive Harvey as Chair, who explained over the past year members had raced at 200 races including 92 different run events and 60 different multisport events. Plus add on 601 times individuals had popped up on parkrun results at home and abroad. These were just the races we discovered – Thanks to everyone who reported in, apart from recognising everyone’s efforts, the Round Up on our website is the gateway for the public to see the fantastic achievements of you all.
It is acknowledged that Tuff Fitty are in a very strong position financially. This situation has arisen from the fact that we were fortunate to lose only one year of staging our Frosty Aquathlon during the pandemic. (our 2020 race was completed just a couple of weeks before lockdown). Also equipment could not be brought or club events staged during lockdown which contributed to the reserves. Current cost of living difficulties will impact our club but we are well placed to weather this. Our key affiliation to British Triathlon has just risen by 6% and we know there are increases in hire charges coming down the line for our venues at The Wave & Worthing Leisure. Anthony and Clive recalled the difficulties 20 years ago when the club made regular losses. Clive spoke how this position is illustrated by Freedom Leisure shutting two centres whilst explaining their annual energy bill nationally has already risen from £8m to £20m – read HERE
We wish to support members directly by subsidising events and this extends to our annual membership fee. The cost of membership has not risen since 2018 and the AGM supported the motion to freeze this at £40 for the coming year. Furthermore, keen to recognise existing members who contributed to another successful year, if existing members renew before 31st December they are eligible to a £5 discount. Our Secretary has since started to notify members that membership subscription is now due; payable via Spond. To further support members your club will also not pass on the handling fee that is associated with a Spond transfer.
It is gratifying that we can use our club as a force for good. Tuff Fitty recently presented a defibrillator to The Beach Cafe, under a scheme run by British Triathlon. Following the Frosty and attending two Outrun Cancer runs, we were able to donate £342 to that charity. Nina kindly ran her Headshoz raffle which raised £100 for St Barnabas. Supporting Tania Pascoe the successful Bring and Buy sale raised £925 for charities that had so supported Joe; a big thanks to Nicole for being the key organiser for that. Whilst clearly Tom Goddard’s terrific ride for Joe was his own initiative; thanks to everyone for their support, either supporting Tom on the day riding &/or by donating – Tom raised a staggering £3,870.
Our total membership has risen to 182 from 169. This is testament to the hard work put in by our coaches and Clive thanked the coaches, committee, & Shelley Babbage for her work with kit. There is much work that is undertaken behind the scenes to ensure correct governance with personnel joining training seminars, undertaking safeguarding courses and attending meetings. Thanks to our Captains, Nicole Patterson-Lett and Adrian Oliver for their work, particularly around sea swims. Thanks to Claire Moyle who qualified as a Technical Official meaning Tuff Fitty now have two qualified, and Clive Patterson-Lett who has served on the BTF SE regional committee.
The meeting supported the motion to also freeze track and swim fees at £2 & £4 respectively, and also to continue with our affiliations to British Triathlon, UK Athletics, Sussex County Athletics and Cycle Time Trials (affiliation details are here )
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The meeting continued with a report that was read out on behalf of Andy Ward who explained how the coach team were developing, with thanks to Barry Davids who is a Level 2 coach and to Leah Simms & Nina Tully who are just completing their BTF level 1 course. Andy thanked all the coaches for their enthusiasm & dedication.
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Finally thank you to each and everyone of you, our members, for their support over the past year. We can look forward with confidence to the year ahead. If you have any questions, ideas or concerns, do not hesitate to contact one of committee above, or alternatively our safeguarding officer Charlotte Lattin-Rawstrone who is independent of both the committee and coaching team.
Thank you
