Back to News Headlines
17.May.11 Women’s Running Network – club not renewing affiliation
England Athletics has been informed by the Women’s Running Network that they are not renewing their affiliation as a club for the 2011-2012 affiliation year.
Over recent weeks England Athletics and Athletics Services have had a number of queries from members of the Women’s Running Network club about what the current situation has been regarding the club and its status. On 9 May they sent notification to Athletics Services that they would not be re-affiliating. After this Athletics Services worked on plans to ensure people who had previously been registered members of the club (i.e. holding England Athletics competition licences) would be able to continue their involvement in the sport with minimum disruption. The situation is now as follows.
The competition licences of registered members will continue to be valid until 30 June. The options available and suggested to people who were previously registered Women’s Running Network club members are:
1 Join another local club
As you are no longer a member of an affiliated club you are free to join another club of your choosing. As the Women’s Running Network is no longer an affiliated club there would be no need for this transfer to go through the membership transfer processes involved when a member moves from one club to another. Your new club should just register you as a new member with Athletics Services.
(If you are a qualified group leader you may wish to look to continue operating your running group as a part of the activities of a local club. This would allow you to gain benefits of being part of an affiliated club including the associated insurance, support and opportunities for coaches, and support with any welfare matters.)
This option enables you to continue to receive a competition licence and to enjoy the benefits of being part of an affiliated club. For more about the details on benefits of affiliation, including the £2 discount on licensed road races for competition licence holders, please see www.englandathletics.org/affiliation. Many clubs are part of McCain Athletics Networks and this can bring additional benefits for both group leaders and runners. See www.englandathletics.org/man for more details.
Your club membership registration can only be changed by Athletics Services; the membership secretary of your new club will enable this process or contact Athletics Services for advice.
2 Create a new club
You can choose to create a new club. This could be done by a single group or by a number of groups joining together to form a new club. All new clubs have to meet affiliation criteria and the process can take eight weeks or more. For more information on creating a club please see www.englandathletics.org/affiliation or contact athletics services at affiliation@athleticsservices.org.uk. Again, note that your club membership registration can only be changed by Athletics Services; the membership secretary of your new club will enable this process or contact Athletics Services for advice.
3 Cease to hold a competition licence but be part of Run England
If you do not wish to compete you can register as an individual as a member of Run England at www.runengland.org and get the benefits of Run England membership. Membership of Run England does not include a competition licence, you would therefore lose some of the benefits of being part of an affiliated club (including £2 discount on licensed road race entry). Please see www.runengland.org/join for details of the benefits of Run England membership.
If you currently lead a running group you can also register your group and obtain the benefits of being an Official Registered Run England Group. For details please see www.runengland.org/leader.
Please note:
a) If you were a member of the Women’s Running Network club registered with England Athletics your competition licences of members will continue to be valid until 30 June.
b) The Run in England project that ended in March and was delivered by the Women’s Running Network was a separate entity to the Women’s Running Network club. The above only relates to people who were members of the Women’s Running Network affiliated club.
