President’s Report 2017

At the club’s AGM on 16 November 2017 Glenn Edmonds tabled the 2016/2017 President’s Report:

I would firstly like to thank each and every one of the Sapphire Coast Runners Committee who has served the club over the last twelve months. It has certainly been a pleasure to work alongside you as we continue to grow our club.

2017 saw the membership base of Sapphire Coast Runners grow to 93 members. I believe the biggest benefit and reward for membership is the camaraderie that being in a team brings. It was a personal highlight to attend a number of different events around the country and view team members wearing their SCR shirts with pride! The livery certainly stands out and always draws many comments from competitors and spectators.

The year saw SCR members attend events all over the country.  One of the largest representations attended the Australian Running Festival (Canberra) in April and provided a boost to both membership and merchandise sales.

Sapphire Coast Runners again staged both the Merimbula Fun Run in May and the Bega Fun Run in October. Both events were staged successfully and all who participated expressed thanks on the day for fun and professionally run events. A massive thank you must go to Donella Roberts and Lisa Lukassen and their committee along with all the volunteers and sponsors for the Merimbula Fun Run. A special thank you goes out to Donella and Brett Roberts who have stood down from their roles with the Merimbula Fun Run committee. Thanks also go to Debbie McGufficke and her committee, volunteers and sponsors pfor staging of the 2nd annual Bega Fun Run. Unfortunately both events did see a decline in entries and the incoming Committee will have the task of a full review of these events to ensure their viability moving forward.

We also conducted a number of smaller club member only events throughout the year. These were well received and attended and we will conduct more of these events in 2018. The next event will be the Kosciuszko walk on December 28th which looks like being well supported.

SCR continued to support local charities in our communities. In March, 48 runners participated in Run For A Reason which saw $480 donated to OzHarvest Sapphire Coast (equating to 960 meals for those less fortunate than us). A further $155 was donated to OzHarvest on our behalf by Run Down Under, a result of our team having 31 active members on the RDU journey in 2017. $305 was donated to the Merimbula RFS from the Merimbula Fun Run and a further $470 was donated to the Community Carers Accommodation South East from Bega Fun Run.

SCR members participated in the RDU virtual run around Australia and numbers look like increasing in 2018 as interest has grown. A massive thank you must go to Clare Gilbert who has kept members informed with her regular humorous posts each week on Facebook. RDU is certainly a fun way to keep track of your running and walking and $5 for each person who joins the SCR team as their primary club will be donated each year to a charity on our behalf by the organisers.

It has been an honour and privilege to serve the club as your President in 2017. I have again nominated as President in 2018 and hope to continue to serve you.

Glenn Edmonds
President
president@nullsapphirecoastrunners.com.au