At the recent Athletics Ireland congress, a motion to increase the membership fee by €3 was passed with the intention that the new funds would be ring fenced for coaching. With just over 60,000 members (approx 36k juvenile & 24k adults), this should raise in the region of €180,000.
How exactly this funding is used remains to be seen but it is likely to be targeted towards specialist and high end coaching where it is likely to have the greatest impact.
The current Athletics Ireland membership fee of €12 for juveniles and €17 for adults has been in place since 2010. In 2019, this will increase by €3 to €15 and €20 respectively.
In his report to the congress, the financial officer noted that the membership fee may need to increase again to fund Athletic Ireland activities.
If you are a member of an Athletics Ireland affiliated club then this may well impact on you. It's very unlikely that most clubs will just increase their membership fees by €3 so the choice will probably be for the clubs to absorb the €3 increase per member or raise their membership fee by something like €5.
From a running perspective. With such availability recently of personal coaches (qualified and unqualified) offering paid marathon training plans, couch to 5k etc., which are aimed at the vast amount of casual and club runners, it is getting harder and harder for athletic clubs to provide value for money for the membership fee as it is.
ReplyDeleteFor what the insurance covers it is virtually non existent. This leaves clubs picking up the bill for venue hire and then looking for coaches to give their time for free to train people knowing that same coach can go external to the club and easily charge €50 to provide a 10 week training plan and pocket the money.
It's fine to say that we need money ring fenced for higher quality coaching but if clubs don't have the funds to put structures in place to feed this higher level all we will end up with is a nation of average marathon runners. Can't help but feel this increase and any subsequent ones will just result in a drop in membership and clubs left with even less income to compete with the casual run industry which has become so popular.