News Update: Membership Renewal, Track Judging & Fundraising

With updates on fixtures and results becoming more regular there are a couple of other items for you to be aware of:

2021 Annual Membership Renewals:

Annual membership renewals are now due please. These are usually collected by each 1st April, this delay was due to the club being nominated as a trial club for a new online membership system that has now been postponed. It had been planned to utilise the same online system that all the England Athletics affiliated clubs can benefit from, we are advised that this will become available to us in the very near future. Please bear with us whilst we continue with the paper system for a few more weeks yet. Note that at the last AGM annual membership fees were reduced by £10pp due to all the restrictions we have and are currently under due to Covid 19. The new fees are shown on the renewal form here 2021-2022 Membership Application for New Members & Renewals Cash or cheques are no longer accepted, payment is preferably made by contactless on club training nights, if you are unable to attend a training night due to living away from Swansea please email [email protected] for alternative payment methods. We look forward to this online membership club modernisation project becoming a reality.

UK Athletics Level 1 Track Judge Official Qualification (Virtual)

We are always looking for more volunteers to attend officials courses, the more we can find the merrier, as this means we can host more fixtures at home, and ensure that we provide plenty of officials for away matches too, so that competitions can go ahead without any of the event disciplines having to be cancelled.

Become part of Christina Jones Swansea Harriers officials team. This course is £FREE to attend with a minimum age of 14 to book on. There are three choices of dates to pick one from to attend: Monday 7th June 6pm to 8.30pm or Saturday 19th June 10am to 12.30pm or Monday 21st June 6pm to 8.30pm. If you attend, not only do you get to ring the bell for endurance races, but you get to watch all the races close up!

With plenty of track & field fixtures now scheduled for 2021, we will need plenty of qualified officials to make them happen. This is also the perfect opportunity to support our clubs officiating obligations for home and away league matches in the Seniors National & Welsh Leagues and the juniors Welsh & Youth Development Leagues, by ensuring that we have a team of appropriately qualified officials when participating in these fixtures.
Who should go on this course? Anyone who is interested in officiating the track events, including sprints, relays and distance events.
What will I learn? To work as part of a team of track officials at an athletics meeting and carry out the basic duties of a track judge/umpire.
To know the equipment you need to have with you at an athletics meeting to enable you to carry out your duties throughout the meeting.
To understand that a track judge/umpire should record what is seen without being influenced by anyone else.
To have a basic knowledge of track markings particularly the finishing line (how to judge the finish) and lane lines.
To carry out the basic duties such as; judging, lap board and bell, break line, take over judge, hurdle observation, umpiring for observing running out of lane or impeding other athletes and what these involve.
Is there an assessment?
There isn’t an assessment but after the course candidates need to complete at least 4 competition experiences to become licensed. Candidates must have completed the Health & Safety course for Officials as well.
What do I do after the course?
It is essential you complete a DBS.
Complete a minimum of 4 experiences for Level 1.
Complete the Level 1 Application for Accreditation.
To book onto any of the three courses click here
Health & Safety Online This FREE online course should be completed for anyone training to become a Track and Field Athletics Official. The course will need to be completed before a licence can be issued at Level 1. The course will need to be undertaken by officials every three years.

Fundraising:

Swansea Harriers depends entirely on the fundraising efforts of our members to exist. We rely on a steady stream of smaller donations primarily via our membership fees and club cafe sales. These donations alone give us the assured income to help meet our operational costs. Additionally to keep participation costs to our members as affordable as possible, from all groups of the community, from grassroots introductory level through to international level, Swansea Harriers are registered online with three fundraising initiatives below, that we hope you will consider utilising to help raise further much needed income for the club. These funds can help ensure the club continues to grow its income to enable the sport on the ground to thrive and survive.

1. Localgiving is a social enterprise providing online fundraising services to charities and community groups across the UK. The club registered with them in 2020 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that has had a huge hit on the club not only in terms of fundraising but also in terms of the number of volunteers that have been unable to support the club. You can donate directly to the club on this link.

2. AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Swansea Harriers charity of your choice every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.co.uk, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as amazon.co.uk, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your selected charity of Swansea Harriers.

3. Before you buy anything online please consider login in here https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/shac/ and register for Swansea Harriers. At no extra cost to you a percentage of your item will go to the club and there are thousands of retailers to choose from, 100% of the income raised goes back into the club.