Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
I'm offended by something that we all acknowledge isn't happening.
But given this is just a talking shop...
If we did take the argument to its logical conclusion that the FRA are dipping their toe into the waters of making non-FRA members contribute in some way...
Don't road races have a similar thing today anyway? Where it's eg, £8 for affiliated runners and £10 for non-affiliated runners. I don't see a problem with this - other than I don't want to spend the extra £2.
Adding £7 for Welsh races seems mighty cheeky. They obviously think Welsh races are oversubscribed!!
Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting the FRA plan to add a (say) £2 levy to non FRA members.
But it is clear there is some pressure from the FRA Membership who see the FRA as the Governing Body for fell in England to ensure that FRA members get the full member benefits and are concerned that at the moment non-FRA members get the same benefits.
But to your specific point Noel, there is already a system in place that the FRA could link in to if it wanted to ensure only registered runners could compete - it's the EA system.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
At risk of digging up long buried discussions, back in the 80's and early 90's WFRA existed as a subcommittee of the FRA. Then devolution happened and with no notice to active participants, Welsh Athletics took over Mountain Running in Wales and demanded all runners to become WA members or have to pay a fee to enter Welsh Fell races.
This strengthened the resolve of the WFRA which continued to organise and insure races under the FRA banner (even though it was by now just the eFRA) whilst not charging non members an additional fee. Many races continued to be under £5 to enter.
That was now over 20 years ago and the old issue of fees etc is rearing its head again. Plus ca change!
Simon Blease
Monmouth
You want to call me? It might take a while and it might also be the case that some longer in the game than me might have a slightly different take on this or be able to add more.
Going back in the day we had 3 areas in England that were part of the AAA. North of England Athletics Association, Midlands and South.
Each club paid a registration to the North and £1 per member, which eventually became £2 in the mid OO's I think.
That was the members affiliation and it was before IT really got in to this in a big way.
After the failure of British Athletics and with the flow of money from Lottery, a reorg took place and we ended up around 2007 with UK Athletics, 4 National Associations of which England Athletics is relevant to us, and the old area changed to just competition providers and the affiliation system taken over by England Athletics and the other home nations.
It was then set at a club fee of approx. £50 per year + £3 per athlete for EA around 2008.
So in a few years the fees for a typical mid size club of 150 members went up from around £100 to £500. Hey but we got some nice emails trying to get us to attend track fixtures etc.
So back to the levy, the £1 that morphed to £3.
Road races used to apply for a permit. It was done through the area with County AA involvement. Registered athletes paid say £5 and unaffiliated the extra £2.
That extra £2 was passed to the area by the RO so if a 300 runner race had 50 unattached/unregistered athletes £100 would go to the North.
The North then used to redistribute some of that back to the Counties where the races were held.
This circulated additional money from "guest" runners back to help cover costs of officials, officials training, course measurers etc... you could say supporting the volunteer side of the sport that is essential.
But with the EA switch this circulation stopped. The revenue stream was centralised. And we have also see EA club registration rise - I think it's £100 as well as individual athlete registration which is I think at £17 now.
So that mid size club that saw it's fee rise from £100 to £500 would now be around £1900.
So the EA athlete registration system is a huge database and for competition purposes is used to ensure athletes are eligible.
Some events demand EA registration or you cannot take part such as Track, Cross Country and road championships.
Open road races allow "guests" ie non EA registered runners, but there is a £2 higher entry fee to pay (technically it's a discount for EA athletes)
So if the FRA did ever want an affiliation scheme to help manage the races, keep on top of eligibility etc it would be feasible to use the EA system, as the other disciplines do.
All clubs are EA affiliated anyway. The vast majority of clubs now automatically affiliate their members. It would require a rule proposal change to the UKA Rules committee and it would stop random guest runners coming along who'd maybe done a tough mudder and saw Three Shires as the next step in their adventure as that seem to be part of the problem they are concerned about.
I apologise to those of a delicate disposition who might find this a bit unsettling
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell