Awards Evening

PINETOWN & DISTRICTS ATHLETICS CLUB

This site was last updated Monday, 07 April 2008

Awards Evening Report 2007

Our Special Guest, Committee Members, Club Members, Ladies and Gentlemen, and to our special guests George and Lynda Palmer

A very warm welcome to you all to this our PDAC awards evening function. For me it’s a great pleasure and honour to be here once again to start up as it were this evenings proceeding. Before we get into the actual awards themselves I would like to make mention of a few important things beforehand. If this is your first awards evening with us, unfortunately protocol suggests that we have to have a serious bit before all the excitement. So please bear with me.

I feel that we are here tonight for two reasons 1) obviously to enjoy ourselves and 2) most importantly we are here to recognise the achievements and fortunes of our members during the athletic year of 2006.

This ladies and gentlemen, is the prime forum by which we as a club can acknowledge the successes, reward progress and consistency and pat our achieving athletes on the back. We also dish out the nice shiny silverware you see here on the table.

Notwithstanding this, I would like to make mention of all our club members who regularly represent us in all the disciplines, road running, track and field, cross country, race walking, masters association competition and the time trial leagues. These members have ensured that PDAC has presented in numbers in all these disciplines. Each in his or her own right have achieved and improved against the biggest and toughest competitor that they can possibly meet each time they compete, and that is themselves. Position is irrelevant when you’re fighting your own goals. These athletes our members wear our colours with pride in their club. They are the sport and typify the spirit and camaraderie under which our members compete and they are to be commended for it.

To briefly explain how the awards selection process works, whereby an individual is nominated and receives an award.

Through the course of the year our members take part in many athletic events, as previously mentioned in either road, cross country or track and field. Each discipline challenging our people and they rise to these challenges and perform very well. The race results bear testimony to the successes. But it’s not just about being top dog; it’s about flying the flag for the club through team participation and consistent appearance at events that is significant. Your club captains and coaches are aware of the athletes who are performing and keep a watching brief over the year, taking note of the highlights and the goals achieved. The obvious measures of, “stands out, is head and shoulders above the rest, is consistently performing”, are utilised by the captains and coaches over the year to determine who qualifies as an award type candidate.

Thus the captains and coaches deliberate over those whom they perceive to have stood out within their particular discipline and cross disciplines and make their nominations known to the committee for ratification. After committee deliberations, endorsements or changes are made to the nomination list, but the process results in candidates who have merited trophies, plaques and certificates in various categories, receiving them this evening.

I have made mention of the fact on many occasions that PDAC is a multi disciplined club, that is we take part in just about everything. Few clubs can boast our participation over the years. Consequently, our list of awards is extensive and needs to be reviewed by committee to ensure that we are not forgetting or missing pockets of the membership or athletic disciplines.

Further extensions to our various awards are the Incentive Schemes which pick up athletic performance throughout the year. These schemes have been extended to accommodate Race Walking and for Track and Field. There are three schemes as such, the first recognises the top three placings of athletes who have merited points over the year based on time criteria, the second recognises the top three placings of athletes who have merited points over the year based on position in age group and the third recognises race position and is awarded as cash, paid out as it happens on club nights each month. The first scheme awards club fees for the following year; the second provides cash payout on a sliding scale.

I would like to mention an award that is not possible to award which I do so each year. However, if you consider for a moment the events we hosted as a club last year, the general organisation within the club and the effort that is required each time something needs to be done. This is not carried out by the 200 odd members of the club, but by a handful of people who regularly put shoulder to the wheel. The unsung heroes of the club, this core of members who make a difference, and we all know who they are! If ever the club owed an award it is to this group of people, and we know who they are. So let’s show them our appreciation in the normal manner!!

This year the job of selection has not been an easy one with so many of our athletes really performing well in some disciplines and to keep things in perspective, perhaps not so well in others. It is a healthy position for the club to be in one respect but it does create some serious thought for the disciplines of under performance and under attendance. However, the choices have to be made and I am happy with the results and I sincerely believe that our membership will relate favourably to the selections.

This evening’s format will be as follows:-we will start directly with the presentations (Gordon itching to go). We will award certificates first and then the various Paques and Trophies. We will follow this with dinner and then the music takes centre stage with any one who would like to do their thing on the dance floor.

A mention of the general condition of our trophies, which is not so good, and the fact, that on a year on year basis, we are still losing trophies. PDAC has been in existence for getting close to forty years. In this time an organisation such as ours develops traditions which it retains. Our Trophies are an important feature of our tradition and should not be allowed to deteriorate. The committee considered this and has decided that trophies will be handed to a recipient but not retained. The recipient therefore to receive a small replica trophy and the Trophies to be retained for display in some form of trophy cabinet in the club house. In order to provide a physical reminder of these proceedings and the awards allocated a Plaque will be provided to each Trophy recipient as a personal memento of their achievement. In saying that regrettably we have a production delay because we decided to go with a different design for the Trophy plaques. These will be available very soon and will be provided to our recipients on club night which we will announce.

Once again I would like to thank you on behalf of the committee for attending here tonight and making this evening the special occasion it deserves to be. To Gordon for producing the tremendous certificates and the work he has put in. To Lyn who has once again come to our rescue, worked like a Trojan, has run around and done such a fantastic job. To the Captains and Coach who have had the unforgiving task of making the selections and putting the motivations together. To those who have worked behind the scenes to make this evening happen a big thank you! Lastly I would like to thank your committee, captains, coaches and trustee for the support they provided me through 2006, an eventful and successful year.

We can now look forward to the presentations, some wonderful dinner and some outstanding music. Thus without further ado I think we should end my serious bit, to thank you all for being here this evening once again and to enjoy the evening with us.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you