December Newsletter, Christmas Roundup!
Dear All,
Im still struggling to accept that its nearly Christmas! and that yet another year is about to pass by.
We have had another great year, here’s a recap for you;
Orange Running Festival
2017 saw yet another successful year!
The Festival was the first cab off the ranks for the NSW Regional Distance Running Championship, which provided us with a increased no of participants in the Half Marathon.
A big thanks to the Committee and best of luck for 2018!
Now team I’m sure you know the date and have entered… However, just in case date and link below 😊
24 & 25 February 2018
https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=27574
If you would like to put your name down to help out over this weekend please send your availability to Stewart via orangerunningfestival@outlook.com
Relay For Life
We re-initiated ORC’s participation in RFL and took an extra request, when Cancer Council asked us to time the event for them. We accepted the challenge! Unfortunately the uptake of the bib sales were not as great as we would have liked, the day/event went well and there was a lot of positive feedback from participants after they saw/understood the purpose and benefit of the bib.
We have been asked back to time the event in 2018, majority of the committee are in favour of supporting again, we are just working out a couple of key items with Cancer Council and ensuring we can maintain the standard ORC run before we commit. This will mean support from our members either at Relay or the standard Sunday run. If your willing and able to help out for either please let me know.
Date for 2018 – 5 May 2018
Location for 2018 – TBA, this is changing
Membership Fees
Fee’s were increased for 2017/18 period. Members were offered an “Early Bird” (which were previous years fee prices) if they paid within the time period allotted.
Planning Meeting
Items were discussed at this meeting were;
- Information Technology
Website, Storage & Email - Publicity / Media
Facebook, Website, Promotional Material, Newsletters, Calendar Invites - Master Plan
Constitution, ORF Date, Seasonal Calendar - Uniforms
ORC Redesign and items available, ORF Shirts - Social Activities
BBQ’s, JSRC, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Easter, Christmas - Budget
Fees, Scholarships, Social Activities, Rewards (Medals), Grants - Timing
Training, Roster - General
NSW Athletics, Certificates vs Medals, Sponsors, Mats, etc
A you will see from this newsletter, we have made great progress.
Constitution
Its been a little time coming, however we have a final draft, which will be sent out in the new year for members to review prior to voting on at the AGM.
Junior Spring Racing Carnival
Another successful year, thank you to all the mums, dads, aunties and uncles who brought our juniors down to participate. We had great attendance and many smiling faces when the all important ribbons are handed out.
Superstar effort to everyone who participated and Congrats to the age category winners.
CWD Articles
We were all very sad to see Daryl and Kinisha hand the “pen” over, however Daryl and Kinisha had given many years to this job for the club, to which we are forever grateful.
Richard Eggleston and Sally Kitto were generous enough to put their hand up to take this over. Richard has written the articles for Autumn, Winter and Spring and now Sally is taking over for the Summer. Thank you for your support to promote Orange Runners Club.
Calendar Invites
You have received these all year, we would love some feedback!
Do you just delete them or are they of use and help motivate you to come to the run each week (Sunday)? Let us know.
Trail Runs
We all know we had many members who love the trail! and Kinross, Pinnacle and Bulgas weren’t cutting it, so Trail Hustlers was formed !!! A dedicated monthly true local trail run for our members.
We currently have four courses; Fourth Crossing, Federal Falls, Mitchel’s Way & Kinross (trust me its not the same as our standard one!)
Thank you to Adam Reeves, Mitch Essex, Iain McLean and Alison and Ian Spurway who have coordinated our trail runs since June.
My thanks to Adam for working with NPWS to gain formal approval for us to hold these events at the respective courses.
New Uniforms
We now have redesigned our uniforms and have dedicated local supplier (Orange Clothing Co) and well you can’t miss us now! Fluro orange certainly stands out, but there’s always the charcoal option if fluro isn’t your thing.
The range now consists of;
Orange – T-Shirt or Singlet
Charcoal – T-Shirt or Singlet
Hoodie
The committee offered a discounted price to members for all three items, with members purchasing a total of 157 items at the discounted price.
The uniforms are now available, full price, direct via Orange Clothing Co.
Achievement Medals
How fantastic are these! Everyone loves a bit of bling but more importantly to be recognised for their efforts.
The Achievement medals replaced the certificates that were previously handed out for every 100 runs, however we recognised that 100 runs takes a long time to achieve, therefore we introduced a couple of extra levels to provide both recognition and encouragement 25, 50, 75, 100, 200, 300, 400 …. you get the picture
Website
It’s nearly ready. Some may recall this being spoken about a couple of months ago now. Rest assured its still happening, we have some great features for you in the new site, it will be worth the wait. Stay tuned.
Storage (IT)
There are many members with files everywhere! as part of the planning day we resolved to investigate the best platform to utilise to consolidate all of our files. We have resolved to use Dropbox and will continue to gather files. If you have been a former committee member and have files – please get in contact with us so we can arrange to retrieve these from you.
Mats – Thank you!
I know you’ve heard me say it before, and I will continue to say it – THANK YOU! We sincerely thank everyone that is willing and able to take the mats for us each month.
“Many hands make light work”
If everyone can help out just a little each week / month it certainly goes a long way and doesn’t go unrecognized, as advised at the last AGM the committee introduced in recognition of members providing this valuable assistance that their membership fees would be waived for the following year.
Jan – Richard Eggleston
Feb – John Moss
March – David Craig
April – Kim Jarvis
May – Greg Shapter
June – Tony and Julie Fitzpatrick
July – Richard Eggleston
Aug – John Betts
Sept – Graham & Sharon Fahy
Oct – Richard Eggleston
Nov – Tiffany and Paul
Dec – Jane and Bill Fairgreive
(I really hope I have this right, Ive gone off memory as the full list is in the shed)
Now onto 2018 … we currently only have January covered (thank you Anthony), if you are willing and able to help out for one of the months please let me know asap, and remember if there is one weekend out the month you cant do, either ask one of your fellow members if they can help out or let us know in advance and we will assist in finding a fill in for you.
Annual Award Winners
If you missed the Presentation Lunch / Christmas Party, head over to the website to see all of our award winners.
https://www.orangerunners.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Annual-Awards-2017-1.pdf
AGM 2018
Its really not that far away. The AGM will be held at a date yet to be determined in April 2018. Remember all positions are declared vacant for both the Club and Festival and we strongly encourage any member to put their nomination forward for one of the roles.
If you have any questions or would just like to chat about whats involved come and talk to myself or one of the committee members.
As announced last Wednesday, I will not be re-standing for President next year, I need to turn my attention to study (plus Im sure you’ve heard my voice more than enough over the last 2 years).
Adam has also confirmed he will also not be re-standing next year as Treasurer.
Feedback, dont forget to email or chat to us if you have any suggestions or general feedback. We would love to hear from you.
Now finally, Christmas and the New Year
As per the 2017 AGM motion as Christmas or New Year does not fall on a Sunday and therefore not a public holiday, we dont have a break, so we running every Wednesday and every Sunday !!
Love to see you there & dont forget Christmas Eve is dress up – I might see if I can arrange a prize for the best dressed.
I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the committee to wish all members and their families a very Merry and Safe Christmas. Here’s to 2018 may it be great for you.
See you on track
Renai
President
Orange Runners Club
December 2017