Running Club Affiliation

If you enter races you probably need to read this

dummies

Topline Summary: If you get asked for a UK Athletics Registration number to enter a race Royston Runners registration is 2658508

The committee gets questions about the club’s affiliation to a running authority. Here in simple language is more than you ever wanted or needed to know.

Why are running clubs affiliated?
We need to affiliate to a body mainly to get race permits but also for help and support.

Who can we affiliate to?
Traditionally there has been a national sporting authority and currently this is called England Athletics (EA). It looks after all track and field events as well as non-track running – road, cross country and trail.

A few years ago a group of running club committee members runners got dissatisfied with the national authority which was viewed as taking fees from runners and not giving much back, concentrating on track and field. So, The Association of Running Clubs (ARC) was formed.

With whom is Royston Runners affiliated?
Royston Runners (the club and its’ members) is affiliated to ARC. We pay a single fee covering both the club and the members.

England Athletics require that the club and each individual member register and pay a fee.

If you have entered a race you will have seen that unaffiliated runners have to pay a £2 premium (this gets them insurance during the race). EA keep this whereas ARC returns 75% to the organising club.

The complicated bit
If you want to run in a county championship you cannot run unless you are affiliated to EA. Royston Runners are affiliated as a club to EA and if any member wants to run in a Southern England Athletics Association (SEAA) or a Herts County Athletics Association (HCAA) race then they must register (the club will do it for them) and pay £5 for the year.

The complicated grey bit
When Royston Runners organise a race we charge the unaffiliated fee to runners not affiliated to any club. If they are affiliated to a club we don’t care if it is ARC or EA – we don’t charge them. Some EA affiliated clubs are starting to ask for an EA membership number. We advise runners either to ignore this or put the club registration number 2658508.

The official bit from ARC is found in their Q&A on their website.

Are members of ARC affiliated clubs required to pay unattached levies in races organised under UK Athletics permits ?
In theory yes because only runners registered with England Athletics are exempt from the levy – so even if you belong to an EA affiliated club you are liable to pay the levy if you are not an EA registered runner. However, in practice, the whole thing depends on individual race organisers and many of them will be unwilling to perform the administrative chore of administering by registration numbers. And of course, the efficiency of the registration scheme so far poses questions about the whole arrangement. As more races take out ARC permits the importance of the question will recede.

If you have any queries contact me.

Richard Dajda
Club Secretary

Secretary@roystonrunners.org