The club continues to be highly dependent on the willingness of members to contribute their time to support the running of the club and events.
It is easy to volunteer!
If you are interested in giving back to the club on an ad-hoc basis, we often need a group of willing volunteers on short notice to assist with various recurring activities. Volunteering announcements are published on our social platforms with details of what is needed. These often relate to:
- Marshalling and timekeepers at club hosted races, local events and organised league races
- Assisting and officiating at home track and field fixtures (some roles require formal training)
- Run leaders to facilitate the social group runs on Thursday evenings at the clubhouse
- Perform various roles to host the monthly club handicap on the last Thursday of each month
- Cooks to prepare food and bar staff to serve drinks at the clubhouse kitchen (open and close the kitchen) after the Thursday evening social group runs and training sessions
- Helping club captains and team managers to organise on the day race registrations and runner administration
- Contribute content and event reports for use on the club website and newsletters
If you are interested in volunteering your time and getting involved, please review the volunteers code of conduct.
Active Club Roles
Other club roles require slightly more time commitment. Below is a list of active club roles, fulfilled by existing members supporting the Board of Directors in the day-to-day operations of the club. We hope this showcases how the responsibilities are shared to deliver the training sessions and organisation of club events throughout the year:
* Star denotes replacement required for the outgoing volunteer currently in the role
| Club Roles | Current volunteers |
|---|---|
| Bar / social team | Susan Leese, Sophie Critchlow, Paul Turley |
| Boswall League administrators | Vicky Fabbri*, Valerie Wong |
| Chingford league team managers | Joyce Berry |
| Club 5000m Track Championship Committee | Andre Dahlkamp |
| Club info@ mailbox administrator | * |
| Club handicap race directors | Anna Fedlerova, Andre Dahlkamp |
| Clubhouse Building Manager | David Wilkey |
| Fixture Secretaries | * |
| Membership admin | Neil Cook, Mike Sheppard, Mick Cairns, Aminah Hafezi, Major Carr |
| Metropolitan XC league team managers | Lydia Briggs, David Jones |
| Mike Penman Open 5 Team | Race Director – Joe Feltham* Committee – Kat Gunderson*, Vicky Fabri*, Annie Gammon |
| “Run for You” coordinator | Joe Dale, Mara Hafezi, Annie Gammon |
| Spond events & Club XC admin | Lily Zechmann, James Hirst, Jade dos Santos, Nat Rowland |
| Three Bridges team manager | Helen Goddard |
| Thursday Group run organiser | Lily Zechmann, James Hurst, Jade dos Santos |
| Timekeepers & results admin. | Major Tom Carr, Richard Hale, Len Williams |
| Trophy Secretary | Simeon Bennett |
Current Vacancies
As the membership has expanded quickly in recent years, we plan to keep this as an iterative process and grow the list of roles for volunteers based on upcoming club requirements and also informal feedback from the membership. Please see below for a list of current club role vacancies that are open to applicants. Handover and support is available to help with the smooth transition of knowledge.
If you are interested in applying for one of these roles, please send an email to the chairperson, Dave Robinson or the club Secretary Vendy Dohnalova with a brief explanation to support your application: Reason for interest / outline potential suitability for the role / prior experience that may be practical and transferable for the role.
Volunteering at Junior club activities
To help expand our activities for this age group we would happily welcome more parents to come forward to get involved. If you do express an interest, you will be asked to complete our volunteer declaration form as part of our child safeguarding policy.
Please contact Alf Vickers or Cornelia Abe-Minale if you are interested in volunteering to support the junior training or event activities.
Track & Field officiating
Our great sport requires more volunteers than most. At the core, there are the technical officials – field judges, track judges, timekeepers, photo finish judges and endurance officials. Whether it is the Met XC league, Chingford league, Southerns Athletics league, any championship or open event you compete in, they all need qualified people to organise them.
UK athletics organises ongoing courses, many nowadays online. At the start you become a Level 1, doing local events. At Level 4 you are at the Olympics or World championships. The UK produces more world class officials than any other country and the chiefs last year in Belgrade, Oregon, Birmingham and Munich were all British.
The attached flyer explains how to make a start on the officials pathway. If you are interested, please take a look. There is a fee, usually £20 per course. But as long as in return you help at club events, the club VPH&THAC would look to reimburse this cost.