AGM: David assumes Chair role as we say thanks to Ian and John

Saturday 18th September 2021

Ian Beattie and David Ovens

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021

The scottishathletics Annual General Meeting was held as on online meeting for the second successive year – so the ‘baton change’ at the top had to be virtual by nature!

Ian Beattie led delegates through the meeting for the last time as his nine-year tenure as Chair concluded after taking over in 2012.

David Ovens, already on our Board, steps up to the role with the AGM having rubberstamped that appointment on Saturday.

Ian leaves as Chair with memories lingering of strong leadership and warm thanks from our membership on a successful spell.

David for his part is looking forward to starting now after being lined up a number of months ago in order to ensure a smooth hand-over for the sake of the sport.

In another significant change in personnel in our Commissions, John Rodger has stepped down from his role at Convenor of the Road Running and Cross Country Commission after playing a stalwart role for the past seven years.

The AGM approved a nomination for John to be succeeded as Convenor by Mike Johnston of Cambuslang Harriers – and former Endurance Lead for scottishathletics for many years.

With 42 people in attendance (nine of those staff), around 30 clubs were represented and 22 of those were mandated to give us the required quorum.

Join us for our Club Conference on Saturday 9 October in Glasgow

Chaired my last @scotathletics board meeting last night; will chair Saturday’s AGM then step down. It’s been a brilliant 9 and a half years and a real privilege to lead the sport in Scotland during that time.

— Ian Beattie (@ianbeattie1) September 14, 2021

The office-bearers for the Commissions were approved as follows:

Track and Field:

Convenor – Leslie Roy; Secretary – Lesley Thirkell

Road Running and Cross County:

Convenor – Mike Johnston; Secretary – Julia McAfee

Hill Running:

Convenor – Hugh Buchanan; Secretary – Helen Fallas; Finance Officer – Andy Douglas

Officials Commission:

Convenor – Margaret Brown; Secretary – Margaret McInally

Honoria to our Commissions was agreed to be distributed as follows:

Track and Field Commission £800; Road Running and Cross Country Commission £800; Hill Running Commission £400; Officials Commission £600.

Our sport simply would not function without the input of so many sterling volunteers and our Honorary Life Membership list is one way to recognise key individuals.

Three HLMs were bestowed in 2020 and the 2021 meeting followed that pattern with the following three well-known folk given formal status as thank-you for their huge contributions:

Alistair Aitchison

Bob Masson

Janice Hendrie

Presentations will be made to these three new HLMs at our 4J Annual Awards on Saturday 9 October.

T ickets for 4J Annual Awards

John Rodger (on right, presenting an Award to Ron Morrison) has served our Road Running and Cross Country Commission with great distinction (photo by Bobby Gavin)

The period covered by the AGM was from April 2020 through to the end of March 2021.

Clearly, that takes in a huge area of Covid-19 impact but with sterling input from so many people across the athletics community in Scotland, activity continued at our clubs and via events (many of those as ‘virtual’ events).

‘We know what can be achieved as a sport because of what was built up over ten years or so prior to Covid,’ said Colin Hutchison, chief executive.

‘I think and believe we now know how to do things even better.

‘People and clubs are at the centre of everything and never more so than now as the rebuilding takes place and momentum is generated for athletics in Scotland.

‘Clubs have adapted quite remarkably to the challenges of the year in question. We are grateful for the way members were kept engaged.’

In further business, Jack McConnell was re-elected as our Honorary Chair and Jill O’Neil‘s appointment to our Board as a non-executive director was approved.

Many thanks to all who attended the AGM online this year and indeed to all our clubs and members for your continued support. It is much appreciated.