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Dear Club Officer
.
ARC is
Up and Running
The Association of Running Clubs
(ARC) was founded to provide running clubs in England with a choice
- an alternative to the costly, bureaucratic governing arrangements
which are being foisted on them in the shape of England Athletics.
Clubs should have already received a
mail shot from us but, in view of the debate that is taking place
around the country, we want to ensure that you have sufficient
information on which to come to the right decision for your club.
ARC was launched in mid February and
became active on 1st April. After just a few short weeks we have 55
clubs/associations affiliated to us, representing nearly 6500
runners. Also, many well-known events in the running calendar
already have applied for an ARC race permit.
Running clubs are affiliating to ARC
because they agree with its fundamental aim - that road running (and
other forms of non-stadia running) should be allowed to
democratically manage its own affairs and funding in a manner
compatible with its requirements as a simple, overwhelmingly
amateur, volunteer run sport. Full details of ARC including
application forms for affiliation and event permits are on
www.runningclubs.org.uk.
For many years, clubs have paid out
a lot of money in affiliation fees and in unaffiliated levies yet
received little in return other than liability insurance cover and,
increasingly of late, unnecessary regulation and large quantities of
expensive and generally irrelevant literature.
There is little
similarity between the road and country running we enjoy and most
track and field events. For far too long clubs and their events
(organised by runners for runners) have, in effect, been acting as
tax collectors for someone else's sport. Vital funds from voluntary
effort have been siphoned away from running clubs for little in
return. This has long been a disgrace yet, post Foster, under UKA/EA
it is getting worse with more money being taken from clubs by way of
a combination of affiliation and competing athlete registration
fees.
ARC now offers a practical and
sensible option for running clubs. The lower affiliation fees should
appeal to all clubs, as should the lack of any obligation to
register individual club members and get involved with the
burgeoning UKA/EA bureaucracy. For clubs who stage road races the
decision is a “no brainer” – ARC’s policy that organising clubs
retain 60% of unattached levies will allow them, in many cases, to
recoup more than the cost of affiliation and be able to reinvest
money in their clubs and events. Even track and field clubs with
large running sections can affiliate to ARC provided that 50% or
more of their activity is road, cross-country and fell.
The case for ARC is clear-cut but
some clubs are hesitating because of a fear factor. This centres
around three things. First, that their runners will have to pay the
unattached levy in EA permitted events – it is true that this will
be EA’s rule but there is considerable doubt whether it can be
effectively implemented in the year ahead. And, of course, the more
events that take up ARC permits the less that problem will become
over time. Secondly, there is the concern that their better runners
will not be allowed to compete in EA National and Regional
Championship – well, some clubs have thought their way round that by
affiliating to ARC but also to EA and only registering (with all the
data hassle that entails) a limited number of their “elite” runners
to EA. Also, bear in mind that ARC will be promoting its own
championships. Thirdly, the fear that ARC club runners could be
banned under one of the more arcane existing UKA rules is just a
scare story – the Chairman of EA has recently confirmed that there
is absolutely no possibility of that happening.
Then there is the London Marathon
factor. This is puzzling. We all love the London Marathon, a
wonderful and inspiring institution. But should it have such an
influence on your sport? Surely no club is going to let important
decisions about the democratic governance of road running be swayed
by a couple of guaranteed places in that event. Significantly, Nick
Bitel’s letter of 22 March does not just confirm LM’s stance on
guaranteed places but, also, particularly in the last five
paragraphs, seeks to influence your decision on how your sport is
run. It is up to you to assess the motivation behind this and
consider whether you think that one race, albeit the biggest, is
justified in trying to sway you in this fashion.
The big city events are the
glitterati of the road running world but ARC believes that,
collectively, the running clubs, their skilled and experienced
committees, and their events are the real people who organise and
sustain the success of running, both competitively and as one of the
best and most convenient forms of keeping fit. For non-stadia
running, the ivory towers of UKA/EA are increasingly inappropriate,
with expensive, non-elected managers who should be far better able
to administer the complexities of track and field without the burden
of non-stadia running, albeit without the income from our
sport. The more running clubs and events that recognise this and
join ARC, the more they will be able to control the destiny of their
own sport.
ARC was set up with a voluntary
Steering Committee of dedicated and experienced runners and
organisers. At its first AGM early next year, ARC will become a
fully democratic organisation with the various electoral posts and
responsibilities being allocated by way of proposal and election by
members.
We formed ARC because we recognised
that it was a critical time for the future of our increasingly
popular sport. Please help us to help your club and its events to
regain control of running by affiliating to ARC.
Yours sincerely
Dick Meredith
for the ARC Steering Committee
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