Valley Striders AC Annual General Meeting 27th January 2026 7.30pm – Minutes
Introduction
For the second year running, we hosted the Valley Striders’ AGM at the Beck and Call on Stainbeck Road. This time we use the Orangery, which again provided excellent facilities (projector and screen) and good food, although the background music from next-door was a little distracting.
There were 15 people in attendance with apologies sent from: Andy Parkinson, Rachel Davidson, Pascale Fotherby, Paul Fotherby and Helena Last.
As is traditional, the evening started with the Chairperson’s welcome. Steph thanked some of the many club members that have contributed over the year, announced the awarding of Life Membership to Tim Towler (VS member for 40 years!) and gave heartfelt recognition of the superb fundraising and endurance endeavours of Hannah Corne, who completed the Leeds Ironman triathlon, raising £20000 for Ocular Melanoma UK, despite a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
Reports
The Chairperson’s welcome was followed by comprehensive updates from the membership secretary and treasurer. Full reports from Bob and Mick can be found here:
We then discussed and voted on the proposal to change the split of costs for the use of Leos Rugby Club. At present the seniors pay £2000 and the juniors pay £2000 a year. However, due to the much greater use by the junior section of the club, and very infrequent use by the seniors, it was agreed that this split would be changed to £2500 by the juniors and £1500 by the seniors. The seniors payment includes £1000 from subscriptions and £500 by MVT race entries.
We then agreed upon the membership subscription proposal. The VS proportion for membership was reduced from £16 to £15. However, the EA affiliation costs have gone up from £20 to £23, so with the additional Northern Athletics affiliation fee of £2 per person, the first claim membership rate has been set at £40 for 2026.
Our new vice-treasurer, Nick Smith, provided an interesting and helpful slide comparing the membership rates of different clubs across Leeds. There was some discussion as to how some clubs were able to offer such low rates eg. £30 including EA affiliation. However, most clubs were not too dissimilar to Valley Striders (although VS was towards the upper end).
Bob Jackson then presented the juniors report. Full details of which can be found below.
A discussion was had regarding what other clubs offer in terms of provision for juniors and how VS fare competitively against other clubs. It was noted that Valley Striders were one of the few clubs in North Leeds with a junior section and also, whilst Valley Striders do offer many different athletics events over the summer, they also allow children to just run, if that is what they want to do. VS offer competitive opportunities ranging from fun runs all the way up to National Championships.
Sam Harris then gave a short summary of the team competitions that Valley Striders have competed in over the year. In particular, noting the popularity of PECO XC and the Leeds Country Way, but also noting how varied some of our off-road teams are with male and female, old and young, fast and not so fast, all competing together and representing Valley Striders.
Due to membership numbers, Valley Striders were only eligible for one London marathon place this year. This has been awarded to Steph Gledhill using the Valley Strider criteria for the awarding of club places.
Mick Tinker gave an update for this year’s Meanwood Valley Trail Race. The usual last minute flurry of entries meant that this year was another success and the race seems to have regained its place on the local running calendar.
Discussion
- Sam Harris proposed a Special Temporary Membership Category for Beyond C25K runners. The C25K course is 9 week long and is free to take part. It was proposed that participants would be offered another 9 weeks of Beyond C25K where they take part in club Tuesday session and Thursday Beyond C25K sessions, whilst paying the social rate of £5. After the full 18 weeks, they would then be asked to join the club and pay the remaining membership fee for the year. This proposal was agreed.
- Sam Harris then proposed a fixed rotation of training venues that could be easily advertised to new members. Both the improvers and advanced groups vary their training locations. However, in general, both groups have about 5-7 venues which they use and rotate. It was suggested that both groups write out a set rotation of venues following the 1st Tuesday, 2nd Tuesday, … of the month pattern, so that these can be easily and clearly advertised outside of the club. This would mean that when trying to recruit new members, we are able to tell them where we train (they need to know that the locations are convenient for them) and when (if they are thinking of trying a session next week, it should be easy for anyone in the club to be able to tell them where that will be) . It was agreed that the two groups would get together to discuss this and come up with a plan – this is already in full progress.
Vacancies
Whilst there are many club members taking on important roles, there are still some vacancies that need to be filled. We are very grateful to Sean Fitzgerald, who has agreed to take on the role of social secretary and to help Steph Gledhill with new membership enquiries; to Andy Wicks who has offered to help with website content and C25K/beginners’ groups; and to Sue Sunderland who has offered her continuing support with the club handicap. We are still looking for the following roles to be filled: PECO representative, junior welfare officer, volunteer coordinator and handicap coordinator. We are always keen to recruit more run leaders and we ask all members to help with contributing news articles for the website. These only require a short paragraph, telling us about the event you have attended and a minimum of one photograph. There is a submissions page on the club website.
Electing the 2026 Committee
In addition to the re-election of existing committee, Nick Smith, Graham Jones and Sean Fitzgerald were also added to the committee. With news that Steph Gledhill will be stepping down as chair at the end of the year and Mick Tinker will be stepping down as treasurer the following year, the following people were added as vice-chair (Andy Parkinson) and vice-treasurer (Nick Smith) with a view to shadowing Steph and Mick in their roles.