Presidents Report – 2014/2015
AE has continued with the positive trend of increased membership for the 3rd successive year in a row. Our membership has now eclipsed the 100 mark, this strongly indicates that our collective efforts have influenced new members to join and is the preferred choice for existing members.
We will continue to maintain our ethics and standards and always strive to improve as do our athletes. Many people have contributed to our success and without them our situation would be very different today.
Welcome back to Jackie Wright who has now returned from UK and resumed the club secretary role. Thanks to Rona Macniven who competently took on the role during Jackie’s absence.
Ed Piazza is leaving the committee and I thank him for his club treasury work over the last two years.
The committee has worked strongly throughout the year, the website is updated more frequently and general club news is available through various social media communication modes. It is our job as committee members to make sure the messages are getting through to the very small minority of members that do not have any access to electronic media.
The AE anniversary dinner last year was testament to how well your committee functioned and worked together. The result was special, bringing together old and new members with an entertaining night including awards and video presentations.
Performance:
The women’s premiership was always going to be a battle against the Sydney Uni team for the title. Very pleased to report that the female section rose to the challenge and ended with a more than honorable 2nd place. The fighting spirit was evidenced by the fact that AE were contenders right up to the last race. It is a pity that some say winning is all that counts, if only they could have seen the effort and application of “Team AE” in a sport where to do your best is the only thing that really counts. We had 10 individual members making the A team listing. The A team were more than ably supported and assisted by the B team who finished an incredible 5th place The B team members assisted A team results by knocking back athletes from other clubs.
The over 45 female team were again victorious in their second premiership year.
The AE mens open team was outstanding this year by finishing a competitive 3rd place. Similar to the female teams we had many members contributing and it was inspiring to see the result.
The ANSW track relays produced some great races with 7 out of 9 entries securing a medal. This is an event that caters for all ages and is simply about just having 4 members per team to start and finish. Maybe this year we can encourage more late age groupers to be part of this event – 40, 50, 60 years (events from 100m to 1500m)
There were some great improvements from fun runners although fun run participation was down this year as evidenced by the club point score listing. Encouragingly new members are showing great early improvement and some have taken the opportunity to move from road running to track.
The junior section has again performed with distinction with coach Mal Baker at the helm. The dual membership directive from ANSW is being instrumental in helping the cross over from Eastern Suburbs Little A’s into the senior Athletics East.
Coaching is continuing to grow with great results the proof:
- Wayne Morgan Level 3 – working with the fun runners
- Ken Cross in progress Level 2 Advanced Event Specific – Sprints (after excellent 400m success)
- Iris Good in progress at Level 2 Advanced Event Specific – Middle Distance
- Anna Smith completed and awarded Level 1 Athletics Coach.
The clubs aim is to have the capacity to develop and nurture all athletes that join and require coaching.
Looking forward to the new season with team AE spirit.
Peter Good