How does your club deal with commercial entities?

Condo131

We're due to discuss this at a club committee meeting, but I'd like to hear how other clubs deal with this. I'm not talking about sponsors, but others who want to "peddle their wares", at either your event, or club sessions.

Over the past few weeks, we've had:
a) A commercial business, unconnected with us, or any of our event sponsors, hand out material at our race.
b) Another commercial business, unconnected with us, ask for permission to meet with our members, demonstrate products and invite our members to visit their premises.
c) A commercial event rep wants to come to our club sessions, hand out flyers and t-shirts, etc. [imho, club sessions are short enough and hard enough to organise, without this]

My reason for posting: Looking for opinions and to alert others to these practices. We'll have a policy in place in the next week or so, but it really isn't something we should need to deal with.

PS: Another oddball request - before our recent race, we were asked, by a coach in a (non-athletic) club, if his team could come to our event and run it as a fundraiser for them, and asked if we "would waive the entry fee". In return, they would waive any prizes they might win! We gave then a polite no.

RayCun

Condo131 wrote: »

a) A commercial business, unconnected with us, or any of our event sponsors, hand out material at our race.
b) Another commercial business, unconnected with us, ask for permission to meet with our members, demonstrate products and invite our members to visit their premises.
c) A commercial event rep wants to come to our club sessions, hand out flyers and t-shirts, etc. [imho, club sessions are short enough and hard enough to organise, without this]

PS: Another oddball request - before our recent race, we were asked, by a coach in a (non-athletic) club, if his team could come to our event and run it as a fundraiser for them, and asked if we "would waive the entry fee". In return, they would waive any prizes they might win! We gave then a polite no.

a) If it's an open race on public roads, and they're giving out flyers at the end, I don't think they need permission.
b) ... maybe. Are they offering anything to the members, discounts, freebies, stuff like that? If it was something I thought people would be interested in, and it wasn't disrupting training, then yeah, maybe. But if it was just some random business who wanted a captive audience, no.
c) only if they came at the end of the session.

d) you've got to admire their neck

ger664

a) I don't think there is very much you can do about this if it is occurring outside on a public highway. In a clubhouse or private area at the prize giving immediate evacuation.

b) & c) I would agree and then in the same sentence tap them immediately for sponsorship of whatever club event is coming next.