We will be holding a special meeting on Wednesday 19th February at 7:30 pm at CBK Ferrymead (23 Humphreys Drive) to discuss the future of our Club.

This will be to discuss the options as detailed below, any new ideas, and to answer any questions that people may have, ahead of our AGM in April.

It is important to the future of the club that our members attend. We also welcome our past members to join the discussion

Sumner Running Club has been a successful running club for many years now. Members and the club have been successful across a number of races and events over the years including both long form and short form events in road, trail, mountain running, multisport and orienteering. In recent years Children’s Summer Athletics has increased in popularity and now forms 75% of the club’s membership.

Over the last few years adult & children’s membership for winter cross (XC) country and road has been declining to levels that make it impossible to form teams in relay competitions and XC events. The club is not unique in this as a number of clubs are facing this challenge.    While running remains a popular activity for many, the traditional format of running clubs and events is not attracting the participation it used to.

The majority of the current committee has been running the club for the past 5+ years and David has president for 10 years. With little or no interest from other members in joining the committee and or taking over the president role, we now feel it is time to step down. This means that some decisions will need to be made by existing members to determine the future of the club.

The committee needs to comprise of a President, Treasurer and Secretary plus 3-4 other members with more general responsibilities such as uniform, race entries, communication and social media

The committee has identified the following possible options:

1.      A new committee is formed and elected and the club continues in it’s current format with both an adults’ and children’s summer and winter section.

2.      A new committee is formed and elected and the club continues in a reduced format of Children’s Summer Athletics only, with the option to re-open winter membership at a later date if there is sufficient demand.

3.      A merger with another club is explored, ideally one with large Adult membership and small or no Junior Section.

4.      Club is disbanded and wound down  

There may be other options you can suggest which we haven’t yet considered.

Please consider what you would like the future of the club to look like and what you can contribute to the running of the club and we look forward to hearing your views on 19th February

If you can’t attend and wish to give feedback please do so in an email to sumnerrunningclub@gmail.com