Questionnaire of 7th Nov 2013 – Report & Notes
Questionnaire Results Report (PDF) – Summary & Charts
Some notes to common topics mentioned in the questionnaire:
Spending of club funds
The top three things questionnaire respondents wished club funds to be spent on were: subsidised kit, paid courses for leaders/coaches, and more paid-for races.
We are now paying for courses for leaders and coaches, and the first batches of members who had their LIRF courses paid for by the club have qualified. We will be continuing with this scheme to keep a continued supply of LIRFs and CIRFs for our club.
In past years the club have paid for one race entry (the Duckponds 7k). We are now paying for more race entries (cross-country, Tavistock relays) and we have just paid for the Mad March Hare 10k as well.
We have discussed subsidising club kit at previous committee meetings, but unfortunately we have been unable to find a way forward with this that would work logistically and be appropriate for both new members as well as members who have already bought their club kit.
Coaching style (“not explained”/”talked down to”/”shouted at”)
Our leaders and coaches have to address a wide audience, and as our club gets bigger, there will be more and more people at varying levels of experience. Therefore it is difficult for coaches to tailor their explanations to the whole group (some people will never have heard the term “fartlek” before, others will have had it explained to them 15 times already). Also, a coaching style that works for one person, may not work for another person (for example, some people like a “military-bootcamp-style” approach to training, whereas others do not).
All our leaders and coaches are volunteers, and are trying their very best to provide information and encourage you in your running. We hope that all our leaders and coaches are approachable and will listen and act on any feedback you give them.
If you have any questions or concerns about any coaching or training topics, please talk to any coach or leader, or indeed any of our members will be happy to help you.
If you questions or concerns about a coach’s/leader’s approach or coaching style please talk to them directly in the first instance. If you do not feel able to talk to them, please talk to the coaching coordinator or any of the other coaches, so they can have a word with the coach/leader on your behalf.
If you have a serious concern please speak to the coaching coordinator, a committee member, or a welfare officer.
Individualised training
A number of you mentioned a wish for more individualised training. As mentioned above our coaches have to cater for a wide audience at varying levels of experience, therefore it is tricky to provide individualised training within the club night setting. However, all our coaches will be very happy to work out a training plan for you – just speak to any of the coaches.
Club night announcements & warm-up (“too long to get going”/”warm-up too long”/”announcements too long”)
We are aware that as the club has grown bigger, the announcements and the warm-up have grown longer.
We feel that announcements are important for keeping everyone in the loop with what’s going on in the club. And we like to keep a personal touch with announcing race results to celebrate our members running achievements.
We also believe that we have an important duty-of-care to you, the club members, to ensure you are suitably warmed-up before you go out running, so as to avoid injury. Some other running clubs may not do a warm-up before they go out running, but we believe a warm-up is just too important to miss – and it is one thing that sets us apart from other running clubs.
But we are aware that that everyone wants to get out running as quickly as possible, and we will always try our best to keep the announcements and warm-up as brief as possible.
Discussions/disagreements (“inappropriate time/place”)
All our members are always invited to attend committee and coaches meetings should they wish to do so.
If you have a question or concern you wish discussed at the committee meeting please contact any of the committee members (or the coaching-coordinator, or any of the coaches or leaders for the coaches meeting), and ask for your topic to be added to the agenda, or raised on your behalf by your chosen committee member. You can attend the committee meeting to observe or participate in the discussion of your raised topic.
Committee meeting dates are published on the website, and reminders will be announced during club night announcements in the preceding weeks.