This year we returned to Leos Rugby Club for our AGM, and were warmly welcomed by the new managers of the club. We also returned to our more traditional November date, which marks 10 years since Steph Gledhill took over as chair of the club.
The evening began with the Chair’s Welcome, or in this case the Chair’s Goodbye. Steph talked about how her tenure as chair came about: far from being a reluctant volunteer, the role was something Steph had wanted to do since first joining the club in 2013. Encouraged by Danny Murray and other team mates, whilst on a VS tour to Palma in 2016, Steph decided to put her name forward when Bob stood down.
During Steph’s time as chair, she has overseen the return to Leos after a brief period at an alternative base, the construction of the new website (not an insubstantial task by any means!), new training times and venues, and no more potholes on the approach to Leos!
Steph gave thanks to all who have supported her during her 10 years as chair. In Steph’s own words: “Valley Striders is a brilliant club with lovely people and I know the committee will continue putting the hard work into ensuring we all have a great group of running friends, events and races to go to.”
The Chair’s Goodbye was followed by apologies from:
Stuart St John, Tim Towler, and John and Jean Hussey
Attendees were:
Steph Gledhill, Mick Tinker, Bob Jackson, Graham Jones, Andy Parkinson, Rachel Davidson, Leila Kara, Nick Smith, Tom Thomas, Alan Hutchinson, Richard Irvine, Keith Brewster, Richard Irvine, Kathy Robbins, Patsy Charlton, Paul Fotherby, Pascale Fotherby, Theresa Jackson, Jon Jackson, James Slater, Simon Wilton (21)
This was followed by reports from the membership secretary, treasurer, junior coaches and team captains. These reports can be found below:
Membership Report (Bob Jackson)
Treasurer’s Report (Mick Tinker and Nick Smith)
Juniors’ Report (Bob Jackson and Richard Irvine)
Team Captains (Sam Harris, Rachel Davidson, Tom Thomas and Andy Parkinson)
In particular, it was agreed that membership subscription to Valley Striders would remain at £15 per year. The Northern Athletics affiliation remains at £2. However, with an increase in England Athletics affiliation fees from £23 to £24, the new total for first claim membership will be £41 per year. This was unanimously agreed by those in attendance.
This was followed vacancies update. A full list of committee and club roles, including vacancies can be found:
VSAC Committee and Club Roles 2026-27
Tom Thomas volunteered to be PECO coordinator and hopes to cooperate with Hyde Park Harriers to jointly host a PECO race next season.
The following vacancies remain open: social secretary, handicap coordinator and additional run leaders for all groups. We also request that club members contribute to keeping the website up-to-date by submitting news articles such as relay, team or Grand Prix event reports, or details of an interesting event that they have taken part in.
Before holding elections for the committee, Graham Jones, the only person to put their name forward to be chair, addressed the attendees to communicate his views as to the current position of the club, how he would like to approach the role of chair and what he would like to do to take the club forward. He asked that those in attendance only voted for him if they were in support of this approach.
Graham began by emphasising his personal commitment to the aims of Valley Striders, namely to encourage participation in the sport of running, to help runners to improve, and to encourage runners to compete.
He then set out what he would do if elected as Chair of the club. This included asking the Committee to take a lead in addressing some key challenges currently facing the adult section of the club: declining membership numbers; low levels of participation in club training and certain types of competition; lack of social interaction across the club; and a chronic overdependence on a few volunteers to prop up the club.
Graham said that the Chair also has to ensure that the club is run properly, and that this includes adhering to England Athletics Club Standards, which are now mandatory for all EA-affiliated clubs. He said that, if elected as Chair, he would take this as a mandate to move the club towards full compliance with the Club Standards.
He finished by saying that he would like to explore the possibility of greater cooperation with other local clubs.
Following on from Graham’s talk, elections to the committee were held. The following were unanimously elected:
Chair: Graham Jones
Treasurer: Nick Smith
Secretary: Samantha Harris
Lead Welfare Officer: James Slater
Ordinary Members: Andy Parkinson, Richard Irvine, Rachel Davidson, Leila Kara, Sean Fitzgerald, Tom Thomas
The evening was concluded by Sam Harris giving thanks, on behalf of the club, to our outgoing Chair and Treasurer, Steph Gledhill and Mick Tinker. Their dedication, commitment, time and energy spent over the years has been enormous. We hope that the very generous donations made by club members to their leaving gifts, and the many warm wishes sent, go some small way to showing how greatly appreciated their efforts are by all in Valley Striders. Thank you, Steph and Mick.