by Paul » Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:43 pm
In answer to Ben's question, the club has benefitted financially from having Clubmark, as it has received funds from Bradford Athletics Network (BAN). A lot of funding available to clubs comes via the 'Networks' set up by England Athletics and Clubmark is a requirement for membership of a 'Network'. BAN has funded 50% of all the costs of coach education courses the last few years, amounting to many hundreds of pounds for the senior part of the club alone. Similarly the junior club has received very generous funding from BAN for coach education and other development projects.
(I think that has been fairly well discussed in Committee meetings and should be in some of the minutes, for reference.)
If you want to develop a club in any way at all you need access to this sort of funding.
(But of course we didn't go after Clubmark for financial reasons alone. Clubmark is the mark of a quality club across all sports and Ilkley Harriers deserves it. Clubmark indicates that we are working to best practices and in a way endorsed by the authorities, as the case studies pointed to by Jane indicate. Successive Ilkley Harriers committees have agreed on the importance for Clubmark for many years (and there would be something quite amiss if they thought otherwise). But as I say, I don't think that's the question ...)