Welcome to Knox Little Athletics

Well, it was cold, wet and muddy under foot at Koomba Park on Saturday with most mums and dads decked out in raincoats, gumboots and umbrellas – traditional cross country weather and fantastic to see! The wintery weather did not seem to deter anybody from getting out of bed with strong fields competing in each event around the freshly mown Koomba course (thanks Stephen H). A new feature at Knox XC is Cross Lotto, our new fun game and, with number #9 being the first Supp Number drawn out on Saturday night, our first weekly winner in Cross Lotto is the Harvey family – congratulations! Make sure you go and see David M next week to collect your prize. Norton’s Park is the venue for next week’s competition – see you there!

Do yourself a favour and check out the photos from last Saturday’s Cross Country competition at JPN. Our 2nd Annual Pink Day was a huge success with athletes and spectators dressed up in their favourite pink outfit, all for a bit of fun and in aid of breast cancer research. Some great competition was had and we raised $165 which (don’t tell Russell) the Centre Exec will match dollar for dollar, bringing the total to $330. Well done to all! On Saturday afternoon, we also had 3 teams participate in the State Road Relays which saw some fantastic efforts from our U10 and U11 girls and our U11 boys. This week, our Saturday competition returns to Koomba Park – see you thereJ.

Athletes and spectators were again blessed with another beautiful, autumn morning for our cross country competition held at Tirhatuan Park last Saturday. We managed to get through the morning without Mike Kerr (who was on a romantic weekend in Cairns) but we were compensated somewhat by the welcome return of Shawn the coffee guy! It was also rewarding to have many families willingly offer to help out with duty which certainly makes running the events much easier. Next Saturday, we are back at Jells Park North for our Pink Day – whether you are competing or spectating, make sure you come along wearing your favourite pink outfit or item of clothing to help raise funds towards breast cancer research (athletes must also wear their LAVic patch). See you there!

With clear blue skies and sunshine, Norton’s Park provided the perfect setting for Knox XC last Saturday. The only thing missing was Shawn the coffee guy who was arranging his new coffee van! The fine weather obviously got everybody motivated as participation numbers were huge and we saw some great competition. There are plenty of photos already uploaded onto the  website and they are well worth a look. Next week we head of to Tirhatuan Park in Rowville and Shawn promises to be there with his brand new van – and some great coffee. And, don’t forget on Saturday 11 May we are again holding our special Pink Day – come along wearing your favourite pink outfit and make a gold coin donation towards breast cancer research.

All,

We have been asking for new people to put themselves forward and to step up to be the next group of parents on the Knox Centre Executive for some time now. Many of the existing committee will finish in the next 2 years. We need to transition new people on to the Knox Centre Executive to replace them, and we need to provide them with support whilst the experience is still around.

No one new has stepped forward so, as a last resort, Russell proposed what may become the only option open to us - the merging of clubs.

These are the challenges we must meet:

• The Knox LA Centre has 25% fewer athletes than it did 10 years ago, a state wide trend;
• We have too many committees for the number of parents who are prepared to volunteer their time for their children. We have 14 Committees to fill and too few people prepared to fill them;
• The Knox LAC Executive Committee needs new faces, it's the same faces, year after year. What happens when the significant number of people who have children in their final 2 years leave? Several people with substantial roles have NO children competing at our centre. We cannot expect them to volunteer their time for the benefit of others' children indefinitely;
• The Knox Cross Country Committee needs new faces, it's the same faces. Two of the committee have NO children, the other 3 member's youngest are in U14 next season;
• We need people to be involved with the Knox Track Board of Management, to fix up grounds related issues, presently there's one person from Little Aths - that's Russell Speight;
• Over recent years we have introduced two photo finish systems, barcoding and an automated events scheduling system to reduce parental involvement significantly on comp days, freeing up people who could volunteer elsewhere;
• FOUR of our 11 clubs are not represented on Executive; (Please see HERE for 2013/14 nominations) Boronia, Scoresby, Rangeview and Wantirna. Several other clubs are represented disproportionally, based on their membership.

Do we want to watch the Centre decline, or do we want to secure the future?

So please look within your club for members to step up onto the Executive. If you have been in your club role for a few years, please consider bringing your experience onto the Executive and make way for new up and coming families to learn the ropes at the club level while you are still around to lend them advice. This follow on through the ranks will benefit both your club and the Executive.

Let's hope passionate people come to the AGM, with ideas and are prepared to step up to the Executive Committee and learn the ropes before all the experience leaves, and it will leave in the next 2 years.

Russell is prepared to continue on as President in an advisory capacity if there is a VP who will work to learn the ropes and then take over, if not, we will have no President or Vice President.

There are a number of experienced people who will help this person as Russell will be travelling for work and be unavailable for significant portions of time. After 11 years of Club and Centre work (both summer and winter seasons) the current President needs a rest.

Please come to the AGM on Monday 22nd April at 7:30pm in the Pavillion and be prepared to suggest ways to go forward and volunteer to be on the Knox Centre Exectutive. The AGM is open to all registered members.

NOMINATION FORM HERE (to be taken from the floor at the AGM).

Those of us leaving soon wish to leave the Centre in a viable and sustainable condition.

Knox LAC Management Committee
Russell Speight
Keith Gay
Debbie Martine
Stephen Hough
Stephen Egan