Following the growth in membership of the club, we have reviewed the number and nature of the sessions that the club currently runs. What follows is the plan for future sessions, beginning in the week commencing 2nd February 2015 (until then sessions will continue as before, weather permitting).
As background to the changes, most clubs run two midweek evening sessions, sometimes supplemented with a longer run at the weekend. Ponteland Runners has evolved a set of sessions throughout the week, which risks stretching our leadership resources and fragmenting the club. In response, a meeting attended by most of our qualified leaders has come up with a plan to concentrate more of our efforts on two midweek sessions – Monday and Wednesday – with less emphasis on some other sessions. The plan is as follows:
Monday – continue to meet at 8pm at the Leisure Centre but there will be at least two sessions operating. Both will be structured sessions and will, mostly, follow a similar pattern. The important difference will be that the new session will be intended for those who want a planned workout but perhaps find the current Monday session a bit of a stretch.
Wednesday – continue to meet at 7pm at the Leisure Centre but, here again, there will be at least two sessions operating at the same time. In addition to one or both of the Beginners and Improvers sessions currently operating on Wednesday evenings, there will also be a session broadly equal to the current Monday night, the intention being to offer two really testing sessions per week for those that want them.
The planning meeting acknowledged the popularity of the sessions currently operating on Tuesday evening, Thursday morning, Friday evening and Sunday morning. Mostly, these are steady runs, intended to get club members together and the idea is that these should continue. The club will try to ensure that a qualified leader is involved in these sessions but, where this is not possible, a notice to this effect will be posted on Facebook.
Whilst talking about Facebook, we have been trying to work out the best way of communicating with members, both for the ease of members but also for those doing the communicating. To ensure that all members see this letter, it has had to go out by email, Facebook post and website post. In future, important messages will still go out in all three ways but routine announcements about individual sessions will only appear on the Facebook page and, if time permits, on the website. In addition, the website will feature a timetable of upcoming sessions, showing what is planned for each one.
These changes are intended to meet the needs of our expanding club. Please support the sessions and don’t be afraid to try a new one, especially the new Monday and Wednesday sessions.
All of this depends upon the goodwill of the session leaders. Our approach – generously supported by the Tony Blair Sports Foundation – is to continue to train more leaders. So, if you fancy getting more involved, please contact Chris Heppell for more information.