Midland athletes have once more been very active at local, national and international level.  Honours at the Home International Cross Country went once more to England helped in no small part by the efforts of Midland Masters who brought home a veritable hoard of gold, both individual and team medals.  Many thanks to all who travelled to Dublin to take part and to those who put forward their names for team consideration.  Mick Smedley was our Selector, he will be seeking candidates for this most enjoyable contest which will be taking place in Scotland in November so please keep your detailed records.

The Inter Area Track & Field at Solihull was a nail biting triumph.  We managed to lift all the Trophies by the skin of our teeth from the jaws of Southern Counties Vets AC.  Shall we be as successful this year when we meet once more at Solihull in August?

Congratulations to everyone who has been successful this year and many thanks to those organising Clubs, Officials and helpers who have enabled us to field a full programme of events.  We could not operate without your support.  I know from the comments and e-mails that we receive that the athletes are very appreciative of your hard work.

MMAC once more stepped into the breach to rescue the BMAF Cross Country Championships and we are particularly indebted to Birchfield Harriers and our secretary Tom Morris who worked so hard to make these races so accessible and enjoyable for our members.

Thanks this year go once again to the General Committee who have given unstintingly of their time to make sure that we present a full and varied programme and to the Officers who have made my job so much easier.  We have had a shared Presidency with Margaret Simpson extending her term and Rita Brownlie stepping in early o assist when Margaret was undergoing her knee operation – what a great team, many thanks to you both for your friendship and support.

This year we are seeking a new Road & Cross Country Secretary.  Bill Aston has worked through a difficult time to ensure that our events went ahead, thank you for your support over the years Bill and best wishes for the future.

Collin Green has agreed to supplement the team organising the Track & Field Championships, taking entries and publishing the programme.  If you could spare some time and would like to help plan our future events either as a Discipline Secretary or as part of a team please contact one of the Committee who can explain what is involved, we shall be delighted to hear from you.

Wishing you all a successful and injury free 2011.

Irene Nicholls

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I’m afraid I have to once again start off my yearly report with an apology for not writing it in time for the February Newsletter. There is such a lot to do during the month of January, what with membership renewals etc. that I simply forgot! I will put a reminder on my PC calendar and ‘phone and try harder next year.

The year always starts busily with subscriptions due from the 1^st January and dealing with these is a daily task for a number of weeks. We ended the year with a total of 828 members with 80 new members joining us. This was the first increase in new membership since 2005 and we hope this trend continues. Having said this a fair number of members do not renew until after the cut-off point at the 31^st March, some we claw back during the year but inevitably not all!

Our 1^st Claim Membership remains fairly constant at around 90 but the turn out to represent MMAC in the Midlands Veterans T&F League was extremely disappointing considering the hard work carried out in the background in getting the team off the ground in the first place. We can but hope that this will improve for 2011.

Towards the end of 2010, I introduced a membership card scheme and to date has proved to be a popular innovation. To the members on email I have sent them a personalised membership ‘card’ that they can print off; cover in transparent plastic or get laminated and keep in their possession for proof of membership but more importantly as a reminder of their membership number and year paid. Any members who are not on email can send me a sae and I will mail one to them through the post.

Some of my time in 2010 was spent on sorting out members’ club status. It’s surprising how many athletes who have been competing for years who do not know the rules on 1^st and 2^nd claim status and on changing clubs. I will always help when necessary but please remember that you cannot let your subs lapse with your UKA Club then expect MMAC to automatically become your 1^st Claim Club, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.

In May we again undertook the task of organising the National Masters Open Road Relays at Sutton Park. Mike Wrenn shoulders the majority of the work leaving the rest of us with very little to worry about and I must thank him for his tremendous contribution. I took over the role of entries secretary and although it was a steep learning curve, I enjoyed the job. An innovation this year was to introduce an online entry system; this saved an awful lot of work and proved very successful.

I reported last year that our Yahoo e-Group had 120 members, this year we have reached 170. This still represents only a small amount of those who opted out of receiving their Newsletter through the post and as this is my way of contacting the membership by email it’s a disappointing figure. However, virtually all new members are joining, so I remain hopeful of its long term success and usefulness. Encouragingly, members did start to post topics onto the e-Group and a healthy discussion ensued on the subject of payment of the club’s subscriptions.

The Blog continues to grow from strength to strength and I have now been able to theme it more like a website and easy to navigate. The Blog is not intended to replace the official website but to compliment it. I see it as an online Newsletter and diary and the chances are you will be reading this on it. The Blog had a total of 9375 views during 2010, which is an average of 781 per month.

I have introduced a Midland Masters AC Group on my Facebook page and this was an instant success with many of you sharing messages. This will be used more during 2011.

Our promotion of events has remained the same but unfortunately we did have to drop our 10 mile road championships because of a clash of fixtures. This was sad because the Nuneaton 10 has always been our preferred choice and it was at this event when we were founded in 1972. This 10 mile had over a number of years lost its popularity and our numbers participating had also suffered. Together with the fact that the distance of 10 miles seems less popular with the runners of today also was a contributory factor. We are however hopeful that a suitable 10 mile can be found for 2011.

Finally I would like to thank all our officers, Irene Nicholls; Colin & Margaret Simpson; Rita Brownlie and all of the committee for their wonderful support. Also to all of you, our membership, for your continued support thus making MMAC arguably the best regional masters/veterans club in the UK.

Tom Morris

February 2011