Annual General Meeting March 2026

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Thames Valley Harriers
Annual General Meeting
16 March 2026: 18.30pm
Linford Christie Stadium Clubhouse

Minutes

Andrea Broughton chaired the meeting.


1 Apologies
Apologies were received from Sarah Garrett, Marion Brydson, Tim Dye and Jacques Corby Tuech
from the Committee.


2 Minutes of previous AGM
The March 2025 minutes were approved.


3 Chairman’s Remarks: Andrea Broughton
Andrea noted she was coming to the end of her three-year mandate and wanted to reflect a little
on the club’s achievements in the three years that she had had the privilege to be chair.
There had been many highlights over the past three years, with a real sense of club spirit
throughout this time. It was really great to see our combined National Athletics League team
achieving such massive success, winning the national title in 2023 and 2024 and gaining second
place in 2025.This is a tremendous achievement and a credit to the club. TVH were also Southern
Athletics League champions in 2024 and 2025. We can be really proud of our athletes. Andrea
also thanked those who have supported the team in terms of organization, officiating and general
support and particularly Manuel and Phil, who work tirelessly to ensure that the NAL team runs
smoothly.


The vets team, under the fantastic direction of Tamas over 3 years, had won our London division
and were able to participate in the finals last September. To anyone who is thinking of getting
involved, please do – it’s great fun. There have also been many exceptional individual masters
performances across the track and field season over the past 3 years. Well done to all the athletes
who competed in the European masters championships in Madeira last year. One particular
highlight for Andrea was to be able to watch Kevin McAleer finish the half marathon in Madeira
last October.


Another highlight for Andrea was the awards evening which we hosted in July 2025. We had a
great evening and it was fantastic to be able to recognise so many individuals for their
achievements and contributions to the club.


Going forward, it was great to see that 4 TVH athletes have been selected for the 2026 world
athletics indoor championships in Poland – congratulations to all!


We’ve also been able to recognise the contribution of volunteers – Andrea was pleased to have
been able to nominate Barrie in 2023 and Dave and Marion Huffer in 2025, all of whom won
awards from England Athletics for their services to athletics and running. Dave Wilkinson was also
recognised in 2023 as coach of the year by England Athletics.


The past three years have seen strong cooperation between TVH and the Czech Centre. We’ve
organised the Emil Zatopek run to raise money to support young athletes in our community to get
into and stay in our sport. In 2025 we changed the format a little, focusing on a family fun day in
the stadium rather than races on the Scrubs. It was a great day and everyone had fun – thanks
especially to Alex Mundell for taking the lead in organising this.


Andrea thanked everyone who makes all this possible: the many coaches, team managers,
officials, volunteers and supporters, parents, helpers, Lumar, who is our gym supervisor, our
committee, the communicators, event organisers, and caterers. She also mentioned the great
work on social media, including our regular Instagram updates and the regular newsletter, carried
out by Alex Mundell and her team. It’s really made a difference in how we communicate to our
members and the wider world.


Andrea thanked TVH’s donors, many of whom have given very substantial sums to the club, and
who generally like to remain anonymous. We’re very grateful to them as their support is vital to
the continuing running of the club. She also thanked the committee for all their hard work and
dedication over the past year and the whole three years of her mandate. She also extended good
wishes to John Smith, who is still unwell, who has been an extremely loyal and committed
supporter of TVH for many years.


The past two years have been difficult in terms of our negotiations with the Council over the track
renewal. We specifically regret the delays over the resituating of the pole vault, which have
hindered our pole vault coaching activities and we very much regret the frustration and pain that
this has caused. The pole vault is now fully operational.


On the track, at our latest meeting with the council last Thursday, the situation is that the funding
is in place and secured and that the procurement process for the contractors is underway. Work
is expected to start in May at the earliest but will definitely take place this summer. It is expected
that the works will take around 6 weeks, during which time the stadium will be closed, although
there should be access to the clubhouse. We’ll make the precise timetable known when we have
those details.


As people know, we are switching our membership portal at the end of this month from
Sport:80 to England Athletics. This is going to cause some initial pain for people – these sorts of
things always do – but thank you for bearing with us as we do think this is going to save us time
going forward compared to Sport:80.


Andrea closed by saying thank you to everyone for playing their part in maintaining TVH at such a
high standard. It’s a fantastic club and it had been an honour to have been Chair for the past
three years. Andrea said she left the club in the capable hands of Andrew and the rest of the
committee.


4 Safeguarding: Sam Brewer and Kevin Mcaleer
Sam and Kevin reminded the meeting they were now both on the website and could be contacted
very easily on welfare@thamesvalleyharriers.com. People had approached, and should continue,
to approach them about welfare concerns or poor behaviour. This included issues relating to trips
abroad or other clubs. If they could not deal with it themselves, they would know who could.


5 2025 Competition Review: Manuel Da Silva
Manuel thanked Andrea for being very supportive over the last 3 years. In summing up the year,
our teams had all grown as teams, the atmosphere we had was second to none and we were the
best supported team. We had just missed out on a Vets medal but still generated a great
atmosphere.


We had also had some amazing individual results: 3 indoor medalists at the indoor champs in
2024 became 8 in 2025 showing our strength and depth. 4 members were off to the world indoors
champs, the most we have ever had. We had won the most medals at the outdoor champs last
year. We had won lots and lots of titles throughout club at all levels: university, schools, masters,
cross relays etc and it was great to see the appreciation these winners had for what the club had
done for them.


Although we had not won NAL it had been one of our best years. We should celebrate and plan to
beat Harrow this year.


Manuel finished by thanking the many people who had supported him.


6 Looking ahead: Gary Telfer
Gary began by noting it had been wonderful to work alongside Andrea.

Gary noted the correlation between full training evenings and success at NAL, SAL and
elsewhere. Our coaches were second to none and he was very lucky. We had a really solid team
and he was looking forward to future, which would only improve with a new track.


7 Financial statements: Alice Broughton
Alice introduced our results for 2025 which had now been reviewed and highlighted the following:

  • Income was broadly in line with the previous year at £74k
  • Donations in year were similar at £6k (the accounts showed £23k as that included
    donations brought forward from previous years which were now exhausted)
  • Expenditure of £99k included the purchase of new kit which should not repeat in 2026
  • The NAL expenses were large but comparable to 2024
  • The accounts showed a deficit of £22k but the true deficit was £33k and with less than
    £60k in the bank we would need to raise more money by the middle of 2027 at the latest
    In response to questions:
  • We had about 550 members
  • We were unlikely to get any New Balance money back.
  • The adidas deal was not as favourable as the New Balance deal but we would get a credit
    note in April

8 Andrew Mitchell: Chair election
Andrew introduced himself to the meeting and thanked Andrea and the Committee for putting him
up for election as chair.

He had been closely involved with TVH for the past 15 years and had competed many times for
the club, and set out his five priorities for the next three years:

  • Performance – building on the excellent standards TVH has achieved across all events and age groups
  • Facilities – revitalising the Linford Christie Stadium so TVH’s athletes have every chance tothrive
  • Funding – generating new sources of income to put the club on a stable financial footingand enable new investment
  • Culture – harnessing the club’s team spirit and sense of shared purpose to encourage new members and volunteers
  • Reputation – ensuring recognition of the club’s contribution to its community as a force for good


Andrew finished by saying he was here to support everyone as it was all of you who had achieved so much.


9 Elections
The meeting approved the election or re-election of:


Andrew Mitchell as Chair
Alice Broughton as Treasurer
Sarah Garrett as Membership Manager
Manuel Da Silva as Head of Competition
Gary Telfer as Head of Coaching
Jacques Corby Tuech as Communications Manager
William Buckley as Secretary and Club Administrator
Marion Brydson, Tim Dye, Niki Faulkner and Lara Sterritt as general members of the Committee

The Committee was empowered to appoint an auditor for the 2026 accounts.

Robert Datnow and Richard Charney were elected as life members.

10 AOB
Niki Faulkner finished by thanking Andrea for her time as Chair. She had shown great patience in
dealing with a number of things not all of us ever saw. This included the track which we could all
hope would be her legacy. Andrea had also shown extreme commitment by getting other
members of her family involved and by running her marathon majors and continuing her musical
commitments at the same time as being Chair. The meeting thanked Andrea and wished her well
for the future.