BAC Clubhouse - For everything connected to Boards AC

Woddle

An idea came to me, you can all let me know whether its a runner or not.
I have been thinking of joining a club but to be honest I like running on my own. What about boards starting there own running club, we train seperately but organise outr sessions here. For example tunney can tell us what speed sessions to do, hunnymonster and amadeus can help out with endurance and we have a wealth of knowlege racing flat, abhainn, peckam, Krusty, cfitz and well theres more of yee I know, and picture this at races your asked what running club you with and you answer boards harriers and now we can be included in the team events and see how we rank against Raheny and others. And Im talking about a format of Tue, Thurs and Sundays like other clubs and other days our of your own making, what you think:)

cfitz

If this is going to work you're going to need Nike sponsorship and fluorescent yellow singlets to lure people away from their current clubs.

Peckham

How bizarre. I had this very thought when I was out running yesterday evening! Seriously! :eek: Was thinking of how I could keep motivation up during the winter, how joining a club hasn't worked out for me (have been in two, but commute, work commitments etc. got in the way).

Figured the geographical differences would make a proper running club unfeasible, however a virtual one might work and would provide a banner to race under, as well as encouragement to enter more races.

I'm on for it....guess we'd need about 10 people to make it work?

uglyjohn

can there be punch and pie?

cfitz

uglyjohn wrote: »

can there be punch and pie?

Well if you make Tunney head coach I reckon there's a good chance someone would punch him for telling it like it is

Biff02008

I would definitiely be on for this....although is there room for newbies like me??

Like the guys have said, it would be great for keeping the motivation going as with commutes and all the rest it's impossible to join a "normal" club!!

MarieC

Yip Id definitely be on for this also!!!! Brilliant idea! I think its justified because for me, this forum is more than just a forum, the support and help and information goes way beyond..

Woddle

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Cfitz?
Ugljohn?

DAVE_K

even some running based fitness logs as a sticky up would be good

Somewhere you could put your current time, goals, training logs, schedules, times etc

I'd lash it into the fitness logs section but it seems kinda out of place

and yep you could add me to that list too!

cfitz

Woddle wrote: »

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Cfitz?
Ugljohn?

I can't, already with a club. All the best with it though.

Woddle

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Dave K
Uglyjohn

uglyjohn

id be up for anything that would help me stay motivated and not slip too much over the winter, but to be honest im not built for speed (not built for distance either but thats a different matter).

i dont think i would do well in proper races but as i say i would like to stay in shape and get a bit of guidance.

what about including the odd meet up in relatively neutral venues? maybe once a month somewher people wouldnt normally go running. eg a bit of the wicklow way, poolbeg, howth, dun laoghaire.
I'd love to do a few group cross country runs to mix it up.

cfitz

tunney wrote: »

I doubt it will be an AAI affilated club

No reason why it couldn't be though, is there?

tunney

cfitz wrote: »

No reason why it couldn't be though, is there?

Assuming there would be paperwork, structures, policies etc etc required. Don't know what its like for AAI. Not too bad for TI.

Krusty_Clown

I'd love to be a boards harrier. Where do we sign up?

(however, I don't have lots of experience, just lots of opinions )

TheRoadRunner

I'm with an AAI affiliated club myself, but this would suit me perfectly for BHAA races, I never have a team !

Woddle

I have just rang Bernie Dunne from AAI and she told me the following a club must have a minimum of 10 members, the club pays 150 euro for affiliation with AAI anually, each senior member pays 15 euro which includes your insurance, this will get you a card to say your a member and it allows you to race for your new running club, she gave me the number for a Pat Ryan so I'll let you know how that goes but apparently he is in meetings for the day.
Bernie did say something about needing permission from your local authority but is unsure how this effects a virtual running club.

Woddle

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Dave K
Uglyjohn
Krusty Clown
Theroadrunner

cfitz

You have a chance to pick a new name don't go with something boring like Harriers!!!

A good name is much more important than members or coaches or any of that stuff. How about something like the Boards Barracudas?

MarieC

Boards Bullets?
Boards to Run? (A minor tweaking on the Bruce Springstein song)
Boards cheetahs.......

just thinking out loud now really

TheRoadRunner

cfitz wrote: »

You have a chance to pick a new name don't go with something boring like Harriers!!!

A good name is much more important than members or coaches or any of that stuff. How about something like the Boards Barracudas?

Yeah I was trying to come up with a name myself. I like the use of Harriers in club names just a personal thing. However Boards Barracudas has a ring to it.

I'm off to put my thinking cap on.

TheRoadRunner

MarieC wrote: »

Boards Bullets?
Boards to Run? (A minor tweaking on the Bruce Springstein song)

Classic

thirtyfoot

Sounds like a good idea, anything that get bums on AAI membership seats is good news. Say its based in Dublin for the sake of the paperwork or even wherever you are based Woddle and get authorisation from whereever you are based. No need to say you are a "virtual" club. Most clubs are "virtual" these days anyway with only probably only a quarter of members training together at anyone time.

Go down the AAI route if you can, it will help the sport (even in a very small way) all along down to grassroots juvenile level as the more members in the association the better. Future county road or cross-country novice races could be a good debut for the club:cool:

Seres

im in too , just one more to form a club, is this the first internet sports club ? i wonder can you patent your idea and then gets lots of money and give up yor day job and follow you passion permenantly , cool

Woddle

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Dave K
Uglyjohn
Krusty Clown
Theroadrunner
Seres
I wouldn't stop at 10, the more the merrier

donothoponpop

Great idea, count me in too.

Eamonn Coughlan for chairman (of the Boards...)

belcarra

Woddle, You can include me in also...

I likes Seres' idea about diversifying into different sports, building up a large franchise organisation and eventually having a store in every village in Ireland. We can even buy up bank branches on the cheap as they inevitably begin to close...
It can be done - but maybe we'll see how the initial few months go first though...

Roddy23

Sign me up too.

I'll be most probably down the back of the field, but no worries. :pac:

robinph

Count me in too, anthing for a bit of extra motivation.

ike

Count me in Woddle, have to keep the Dublin/Country balance in check!

Peckham

Wow, this thing has really developed! The way things are going we'll probably have more active members than some of the larger clubs.

Would support the idea of registering as an AAI club. We should start to think of forming something more concrete - i.e. if we're going to have to start putting money into it, we should have a committee, constitution etc.

Conscious it's Woddle's idea, so he's(?), if interested, automatically a top brass in the club! I'm also happy to put some time into developing this.

ike

I 2nd Woddle for President! (we can always vote him out next year )

Racing Flat

As cfitz pointed out, it will be difficult to get people to transfer from their own clubs. But maybe you will have enough currently non-affiliated club members to set up an AAI club.

Roadrunners idea of doing it for the BHAA was the first thing that came into my head. A problem with being an AAI club, is how would you pick the team for say National Inter-Clubs (you can only name 8 on the team and first 4 across the line count as 'scorers')? I suppose you could do it based on times and enter as many teams as you like...but with BHAA the first 3 across the line from the 'company' count, plus they have different standards, so it might be more suitable. I would suggest contacting BHAA, see if they would welcome a 'non-company' team (they welcome unemployed runners, so I can't see too much of a problem) and this would mean that poeple in other athletics clubs could run for Boards in the BHAA. Could enter Dublin and Cork leagues, I'm not sure if there's BHAA anywhere else. If this went well for a year or two and you had enough interest, maybe at that stage you could go down the route of AAI affiliation.

robinph

Didn't the cycling forum create themselves a team, or was it just they got some kit printed with boards.ie logos on it? Anyway, may be worth checking with someone over there as to how they went about it.

cfitz

Racing Flat wrote: »

A problem with being an AAI club, is how would you pick the team for say National Inter-Clubs (you can only name 8 on the team and first 4 across the line count as 'scorers')?

I'd say getting a full team out for any one race might be a struggle rather than having too many. If it did happen though you could have a poll on here to see who should be on the team

Racing Flat

Woddle wrote: »

I have just rang Bernie Dunne from AAI and she told me the following a club must have a minimum of 10 members, the club pays 150 euro for affiliation with AAI anually, each senior member pays 15 euro which includes your insurance, this will get you a card to say your a member and it allows you to race for your new running club, she gave me the number for a Pat Ryan so I'll let you know how that goes but apparently he is in meetings for the day.
Bernie did say something about needing permission from your local authority but is unsure how this effects a virtual running club.

Maybe a potsal address (of the Chairperson) would suffice?

Without being a party pooper, there may be a bit more to it.

Do clubs have to have an AGM?

Are clubs obliged (or is it optional) to send a representative to County Board meetings (which are monthly I think) and query to AAI Congress/AGM.

I think all clubs have to send 2 officials to officiate at the National League (of which there are 2 rounds and a final).

There could be more requirements but I'm not too sure.

Racing Flat

robinph wrote: »

Didn't the cycling forum create themselves a team, or was it just they got some kit printed with boards.ie logos on it? Anyway, may be worth checking with someone over there as to how they went about it.

The soccer forum have a team that's in the astroleague I think.

Racing Flat

cfitz wrote: »

I'd say getting a full team out for any one race might be a struggle rather than having too many. If it did happen though you could have a poll on here to see who should be on the team

I might suggest the online poll option to my Club Captain :eek:. My best hope of making the Senior team.

Burial

Count me in too. Though I'm not an active participant in triatholon/marathons. I do 1/2 triatholon a year. Thats it. Anyway, I'd be part of this. Though I want a kick-ass name for us.

Racing Flat

Going from Party Pooper to thread hogger...

This thread (Thanks Woddle) has shown a fair bit of interest. So there's probably a fair bit of interest in sharing training and racing experiences, as also evidenced by the current activity on the Dublin Marathon thread. Other than the DM thread, some people on here have training logs in the Fitness Logs sub-forum of the Fitness Forum over in Rec.

I wonder would there be enough interest to create a sub-forum for Athletics logs? I'd certainly love to see and learn from some 1500m training logs etc. (most are long distance) and maybe even sprinters logs. There could be stickies on training plans etc. also, might help people who aren't in clubs, but want to get a bit more structured to their training and racing. PLUS - why is Marathon in with Triathlon and not in with Athletics??? I've never understood that one.

People/Mods, would a training logs sub-forum of athletics/marathon forum be of interest? Thsi might be useful if a plan to register as an AAI club was to go forward - training and racing plans could be part of this.

Woddle

So far then
MarieC
Biffo2008
Peckham
Woddle
Dave K
Uglyjohn
Krusty Clown
Theroadrunner
Seres
Donothoponpop
Belcara
Roddy23
Robinph
Ike
Burial
And the good thing is we have alot of time to do this right and explore everything, the bhaa is a great idea. I think there are a few of us doing Dublin marathon, so this will be an incentive to carry that fitness on and be apart of a team as corny as it sounds.

MarieC

I have to say it............. GOOOOO TEAM!!!!
This is a brilliant idea :pac:

Peckham

Racing Flat wrote: »

Roadrunners idea of doing it for the BHAA was the first thing that came into my head. ....

...this would mean that poeple in other athletics clubs could run for Boards in the BHAA. Could enter Dublin and Cork leagues, I'm not sure if there's BHAA anywhere else. If this went well for a year or two and you had enough interest, maybe at that stage you could go down the route of AAI affiliation.

This sounds like a sensible plan to me. I'd be keen to do some BHAA races in Dublin.

S.I.R

id be big into this but i fear i wouldnt finish in the said time ( 40-50 pints a week drink and smoker... only 13 stone tho )

Woddle

More the merrier SIR

MCOS

Hi Woddle, good thinking! Something like this crossed my mind as I was gathering goals on the DM thread, I had an image of a boards team logo on t shirts at the marathon I'm relatively new to running and brand new to Triathlon so I'm reading with interest what the more experienced club runners are contributing here. I was just wondering when you had this idea for a virtual club, was it purely running you had in mind?

I am joining a Triathlon Club this evening, however I would of course be 'on board ' with this as long as memberships dont conflict etc...

Good point RF why are Marathons with Triathlons and not with Athletics

It would be excellent to have an online 'club' atmosphere. I've mostly enjoyed reading this Forum and the folk seem like a supportive bunch...

Racing Flat

S.I.R wrote: »

40-50 pints a week

When I read that first I thought it was miles a week!

A potential problem with a 'virtual' club, is that everyone in the virtual world is also in the real world and so has a 'local' athletics club. So once they get into things, they might get drawn / poached from the virtual club to the local club.

thirtyfoot

Racing Flat wrote: »

Maybe a potsal address (of the Chairperson) would suffice?

.

Yes, I'd say it will, there are many county/transfer/boundary issues around the country as is

Racing Flat wrote: »

Do clubs have to have an AGM?

.

Boards Athletic Club (nice and clean and simple:)) would have an AGM I presume.

Racing Flat wrote: »

Are clubs obliged (or is it optional) to send a representative to County Board meetings (which are monthly I think) and query to AAI Congress/AGM.

I.

Again, wouldn't be a bad thing and the Boards AC could get involved in the governance at local level of the sport if they wished, or not go to the meetings as many clubs choose to do!!!

Racing Flat wrote: »

I think all clubs have to send 2 officials to officiate at the National League (of which there are 2 rounds and a final).

.

Only if they are competing in the National League which is a track and field league and I doubt Boards AC would be heading there (just yet and not to be ruled out in the future!)


Again, I'd love to see something like this get affiliated with the AAI. Selection headaches (if any) could be solved the same way as a standard club by appointing a Team Captain, plain and simple.

I don't see how this will be any different to a regular club apart from the residence in a county issue etc but there are ways around this;) BHAA is great but it gives nothing to the sport as a whole outside of the competing athletes. Your reg fee with AAI (even if a small %) goes back into the sport (where it is really needed - Tommy Gorman moment "think of the children Roy"). Could there by an offical AAI Boards AC and the a team who could enter BHAA also that other athletes with AAI clubs could compete with? I'd just hate to see a great idea and opportunity like this slip through the net. Woddle - let us know what you hear from AAI.

hunnymonster

Racing Flat wrote: »

People/Mods, would a training logs sub-forum of athletics/marathon forum be of interest? Thsi might be useful if a plan to register as an AAI club was to go forward - training and racing plans could be part of this.

Got a couple of things that I HAVE to get out of the way in work today. Will investigate this further tomorrow if that's ok?

Woddle

I just rang Bhaa and one of the criteria is that we all have to work in the same industry, now I don't know about you guys but I work in computers (I don't really) , she gave me the number for Charlie Cronin but he's off today and I also pm Rdunne.

thirtyfoot

Racing Flat wrote: »

A potential problem with a 'virtual' club, is that everyone in the virtual world is also in the real world and so has a 'local' athletics club. So once they get into things, they might get drawn / poached from the virtual club to the local club.

How bad if that happens? For me if athletes are running with a club its all good. Once the Boards AC management (see its already becoming real) take the view that getting people running and hey if you lose a few along the way to another club it will still be good for the sport. From a non-Boards AC perspective for a moment it would be a great way for getting people involved in competitive running. Anyway, if Boards AC is run well and the idea works it could go the other way with people saying I'm not going to keep fooling around with these jokers in my local club who haven't a clue, I'll join Boards AC. You could have Eastern Boards Ac, Western Boards AC, Southern Boards AC and so on if it grew with numbers down through the years.