UK Athletics affiliation

[Bladerunner]

Exactly Dominion, plus when you fill an entry form in it usually just asks whether you are a member of a club or not so unless race organisers have a full up to date list of which clubs are affiliated to UKA not ARC I don't see how they are going to be able to tell?

[XRunner]

Exactly Dominion, plus when you fill an entry form in it usually just asks whether you are a member of a club or not so unless race organisers have a full up to date list of which clubs are affiliated to UKA not ARC I don't see how they are going to be able to tell?

The onus may transfer to the permit authority who could go through the list of results and then bill the race organiser for all athletes who, in their opinion, do not have the correct affiliation.

Races under different authorities will require individuals to declare their affiliation (and quoting their reference number) in order to establish if a levy should be charged.

Some runners will run under assumed names or give fictional information in order to reduce their entry fee. This will create even more difficulties.

The overall effect may be that entry fees for many races will be raised in order to reimburse the authorities and every athlete will suffer.

[david]

Despite its title, it is in fact a closed organisation.

As I understand it the "open" in the BOFRA title dates from the days when there were both professional and amateur codes of fell running. All runners were able to take part in BOFRA races whereas only amateurs were allowed to enter FRA registered races. Any "amateur" running in a BOFRA race risked being banned from FRA races.

It is still the case that anyone can enter a BOFRA race but only BOFRA members qualify for the championship. This is similar to the FRA championship rules where an unattached (i.e. not a member of an athletic club affiliated to UKA) runner must be a member of the FRA to count.

[wkb21]

The onus may transfer to the permit authority who could go through the list of results and then bill the race organiser for all athletes who, in their opinion, do not have the correct affiliation.

The claim of “governing” bodies to have authority to “permit” an enthusiast to organise a fell race is breathtaking. They have no conceivable authority to deny such an enthusiast permission to organise his race! We should stop using the term "permit". A “governing body” only has authority to govern those who choose to be governed by them. I choose not to be! They bestow their "permits" to suit their own priorities, not those of the race organiser.


99% of us don’t need a governing body. We need a sympathetic supporting association like the FRA should be when it frees itself from UK Athletics interference. Those of us who value the lack of bureaucracy that is the traditional basis of British Fell Running should raise two fingers to any governing body that threatens our simple traditions.

[Wheeze]

Exactly!

[Mrs Bobbit]

Its just the roadrunners echoing the FRA's 'what does UKA do for us?' debate - but 6 months on. Its not an either / or situation either, you can still affiliate to both organisations. Anyway, the South of England have always been against a membership scheme, they've never had one, never wanted one and are now fighting against it. Of course, UKA to get their funding from UK Sport have to jump when asked....I'm sure if I work hard enough I'll be able to link the blame back to Blair or Brown.

You don't have to work hard to link blame to Brown and Blair for yet another fine mess.
They have created this Nanny State of control freaks who are happy to find ways to take our money and then abdicate from any responsible action.

Any way, I thought you said on the Feinsdale thread that you were not doing it because you were too busy doing something else...like posting on this thread while we were enjoying the sunshine, the curlews and flapjack .

[XRunner]

The claim of "governing" bodies to have authority to "permit" an enthusiast to organise a fell race is breathtaking. They have no conceivable authority to deny such an enthusiast permission to organise his race! We should stop using the term "permit". A "governing body" only has authority to govern those who choose to be governed by them. I choose not to be! They bestow their "permits" to suit their own priorities, not those of the race organiser.

99% of us don’t need a governing body. We need a sympathetic supporting association like the FRA should be when it frees itself from UK Athletics interference. Those of us who value the lack of bureaucracy that is the traditional basis of British Fell Running should raise two fingers to any governing body that threatens our simple traditions.

You are correct! There is no legislation that requires a race organiser to obtain a permit.

The governing bodies do have the authority to deny a permit to a race oganiser. However this does not prevent the organiser going ahead with his event.

Examples of this occur in fell running e.g if the FRA do not consider that the event is really a fell race or, more disturbingly, if they want to promote their own event without interference from any other events (and this has occurred a few years ago!).

However the recent plethora of small organisations who want to take your money and claim to represent their athletes does create some very disturbing trends. For example:

1. Who determines the Rules of Competition?
2. Who sets the standards for events?
3. Who determines the discipline required to prevent cheating?
4. Who organises the British of English championships?
5. Who selects athletes to represent their country?
6. Who should accept responsibilty for the development of the sport?

If your Club chooses to affiliate to another organisation, make sure you check that this new governing body has the capability and structure to manage your sport.

[shinny]

UKA are not generally known for backing down! No one is going to have a clue which clubs ar affiliated to who, let alone which athletes belong to which club. It's a mess.

Don't laugh,I know that some race organisers have tried the "show us your registration card " bit before,but with the new England Athletics set up this becomes more of a reality.The blurb that I've received is that EA will actually be sending out the membership cards DIRECT to each runner rather than via the Club Secretaries.Although this isn't going to happen until September,so there will be a hiatus.

I'll be sending off my affiliations fairly soon.Being a mixed road and fell club we need some sort of common home and at least for the next year (where the flat £50 plus £3 per head isn't much different than last year's NoEAA) England Athletics seems the least worse option.

[Bladerunner]

XRunner most of the members of clubs who affiliate to ARC won't be bothered about almost all of those points you raise, on average they will be 40+ who just simply want to run in the odd road race with the minimum of cost and fuss.

Infact similar to most fell runners, turn up , pay your entry fee, run, have a beer, go home!!

[Mud]

the disciple required

Jude springs to mind for most of these debates.