Achilles Sydney 2022 AGM Minutes 

Achilles Running Club.  Minutes of 2022 Annual General Meeting. 0930 11/12/22Agenda1.President’s Address
2.Financial Report
3.Election of Officers for 2023
4.Andrew Bristow Memorial Awards for 2023.
5.Other Business
 
1.      President’s AddressAfter welcoming the Club Patron and Members, Club President Ellis Janks reported on the activities of the Club in 2022. The key points:
 
a.       Membership and Attendance

• Owing to the COVID disruptions in the last three years, payment of membership fees has been voluntary. In 2022, there were 97 financial members out of 185 members. Membership fees are again be payable for 2023 and I urge everyone to renew their membership asap.
• At the 25th Anniversary celebration, Brian O’Dea, Martin Ruane and Majella Knobel were awarded Honorary Life Membership of Achilles Sydney. This in recognition of the tremendous contribution that they have made over many years.
• ATTENDANCE:
  • 167 volunteers, a total of 1318 attendances.
  • Total of 41 people with a disability, 675 attendances in total.
  • Sunday 11th will be the 46th Sunday training session for 2022.  
  • After the dismal COVID years of 2020 and 2021, the 2022 attendances for people with a disability have equalled the record year of 2019.
  • In 2022 we actually picked up an additional 47 guides more than attended in that record year of 2019.

 
b.      Finances

• Although the Club Treasurer would be presenting the Financial Report, Ellis acknowledged that the Club’s finances remained sound. Individual and corporate donations had boosted the collections made from bank interest, membership fees and clothing sales.
• Funds had been boosted by donations via Everyday Hero, Grassroots and Benevity.
• Individual donations had been received from Andrew Fox, Michael Levy, Anthony Barbara, Ben Gibb, Lynette Geary, Wilson Asset Management, the Ravine Foundation, the Commonwealth Staff and a number of anonymous donors.
• Ongoing expenses include insurance, website and association fees. With the progressive reintroduction of events through the year, event entry fees were once again being paid, this traditionally being Achilles’ biggest expense.
• Ellis thanked the Club Treasurer, Ian Cohen, for his excellent work in keeping the books accurate and up-to-date.

 
c.       Events

• The 25th Anniversary celebration was finally held one year late on 27th February 2022. Her Excellency the Governor of NSW, Margaret Beazley AC KC hosted the celebrations.
• Community running and walking events are again being held.
• Events in which our members participated included: Run2Cure; The Mothers’ Day Classic; SMH Half Marathon; City2Surf; parkrun (multiple occasions and locations); Orange Running Festival; SMH Half Marathon; Sydney Harbour 10km; Homebush Half; Blackmores Running Festival.

 
d.      Training

• The Sunday training sessions were the mainstay of the Club and we thank all those who have attended.

• Ellis thanked the Botanic Gardens Trust for allowing the Club to use the Botanic Gardens throughout the year and for providing parking permits for our members.
• Ellis also thanked, the volunteer dog-handlers, the lift-givers and all those who had made the training sessions successful and enjoyable.

 
e.      Guiding

• New attendees are given an introductory instruction session, which gives good insight into guiding and Achilles in general. Anne Powell, Charlie McConnell, Ben Gibb, Phil Hartshorne and Stephen Green have been wonderful in assisting with this introduction session each week. So, special thanks them and to other members who assisted from time to time. 

 
f.        Website and Social Media

• The website has been and will continue to be an integral part of Achilles. The national website has individual sections for the local chapters of Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, Brisbane and Hunter Central Coast and incorporates their individual Facebook sites. 
• Thanks to Julia Wenner, Garnie Fuller and Anthony Arena for coordinating the Achilles content on the social media platforms and to all the members for posting interesting photos and comments.
• A Club registration system enables members’ information to be entered directly into the Club database, generates a message of acknowledgement and issues a receipt for payments. Thanks to Martin Ruane for updating and maintaining it and for maintaining the Achilles central data base.
• Also, thanks to Martin for the ongoing weekly training reminders and news updates which are emailed to members. Martin also maintains the site, ensuring all changes to procedures are captured accurately.

 
g.       Achilles Australia

• The very pleasing collaboration with the other Australian chapters continued this year. The Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Hunter Central Coast chapters kept in constant contact and helped each other with various areas of mutual interest, including fundraising and merchandising initiatives.
• An inter-chapter event is being planned for next year and Run Melbourne in June has been chosen. Members from all chapters will run or walk in one of the multi-distance events and connect and socialise. Sponsorship has been sought to cover costs for travel, accommodation, event entry and a social function.

 
h.      “Thank you”

• In addition to the acknowledgements included above, Ellis thanked:

• The Committee: Anne, Ben, Brian, Charlie, Cindy, Ian, Julia, Majella and Martin.

• Anne, our Minutes Secretary who for many years has made such a big and valuable contribution to the committee, will unfortunately but understandably be standing down due to family commitments.

 
2.      Financial Report

• Treasurer Ian Cohen presented the Annual Report for 2021/22.
• A copy is available from the Achilles Running Club.

 
3.      Election of Officers for 2023

• In calling for nominations for the 2022 Committee, Ellis thanked the 2021 Committee for their support and contribution to the Club’s success.
• The Committee and positions were filled without the need for a ballot. The complete Committee is shown below.

• President – Ellis Janks
• Vice President – Martin Ruane
• Treasurer – Ian Cohen
• Re-elected Committee Members: Ben Gibb, Brian O’Dea, Charlie McConnell, Cindy Skacel, Majella Knobel, Martin Ruane, Phillip Hartshorne.

 
4.      The Andrew Bristow Memorial Awards 2022

• These awards are decided by the Committee.
• The Award for a member with a disability was awarded to Zhila Hasanloo.
• The Award for a volunteer was awarded to Kimberley Bobrige

 
5.      Other BusinessAfter a general discussion, the meeting was declared closed at 1130.