FRA Subcommittee

[Swoop]

A great deal of work has gone into this, and I'm sure you will appreciate that this has all been done by volunteers who have other jobs and commitments. On your behalf I would like to thank all those involved.

Alan Brentnall

Many thanks Alan and the committee.

[XRunner]

I have not yet seen any timescale associated with this vote, although I acknowledge that the FRA Committee may have already decided when they will ballot their members.

It may be best to send out the voting papers with the next issue of the FRA magazine. This magazine could include a special section outlining the pros and cons of the situation as well as allowing the FRA Committee to communicate their collective views to all FRA members. Some of these ideas have already been included in previous issues of The FellRunner.

The FRA forum will provide a great place for people to air their views and debate the issues raised by others. No doubt there will also be a FRA forum vote and it will be interesting to see how it compares with the postal vote.

There will be much rhetoric and misinformation about this important issue but there will also be some very useful debate which may influence how people perceive fell running within England and the UK.

[Wheeze]

Thanks to the sub committee who have worked hard on our behalf.
Lets read what is said and take the vote in the proper manner. I think this issue has been thrashed to death on the forum (which is a chattering class for a tiny subsection of the fell running fraternity, including many who are not members). So, although its a great place to let off steam, the postal vote will be the real deal.

[Fellhound]

......This magazine could include a special section outlining the pros and cons of the situation......

That'll be novel.

[macc ladd]

Blimey. Can't believe the lack of discussion on this topic.... is everyone burnt out on it?.... will the membership follow the recommendations of the committee and vote in favour of staying affiliated?...

[Routemaster]

I,ve just read the sub-committee report and I am probably a bit more confused than I was ten minutes ago.

There are some good things, the main thing being that lines of communication seem to be in place and that Insurance issues and qualifications of officials can be sorted out. Nevertheless UKA seems to be an organisation that cares little for anything other than the Elite athletes (mainly on track) or the London Olympics (I'm a Londoner and paying for it through my Council Tax and on the whole I think it a good thing).

Most of us middle of the pack runners just enjoy the training and the racing and all we ask is that there is a simple structure to enable the organisers (thanks to you all) the opportunity to put on events in a hassle free manner. That is true for road as well as fell.

Yesterday I was for staying in. Today I am not so sure.

[daz h]

yes thanks to the sub commitee for there work, outlining some good points.
mainly i think we have to think long and hard before we vote about the insurance issue

[XRunner]

The Future Options Subcommittee reported back to the main FRA Committee at the mid-April meeting - a full copy of the report should be available on this website soon.

If you are unable to easily find the full report on the FRA website it is now available here.

[Baldy]

With reference to the ballot Summary Note a number of questions spring to mind :-

Background

-why is there no mention of the four options that the sub-committee listed in their interim report ?

-why does the summary consist entirely of reasons why the FRA should stay with UKA ? Wouldnt a list of pros and cons be more helpful ?

Costs

-wouldnt it be worth a modest increase in FRA subscriptions to be free of interference from the UKA quango in its attempts to force all sports in its domain into the same management structure ?

Communications

-does the UKA see the FRA ( with approx 6000 members and approx 500 events ) as worth holding onto as a good source of future revenue ?

-why is it not made clear that the UKA CMG ( PST replacement ) is made up of two FRA committee members and headed by Alan Barlow who attends FRA committee meetings as a representative of UKA ?

-what evidence is there that the liaison/communication problems are a thing of the past ?

-why has UKA suddenly become so generous as to provide £17K for the 2007 English International Team ? Can we rely on this continuing ?

Unknowns

-what attempts were made to get answers or formulate positions on at least some of these questions ?

Extra FRA Committee Workload

-Would this really be so onerous ?