A big thank you to everyone who provided us with feedback on our survey on regional cross-country. There were plenty of useful comments that we can use to improve athlete’s experience and hopefully encourage more to sign up in the future.
In response, we’ve got a few things we’ve already done:
First up, a brief explainer of regional cross-country including who organises what, how to enter, and how athletes can get involved: How Does Regional Cross Country Work?
Next, the regional selection policy is now available on our website, and will be used by all team managers at future events. We have an overarching policy with the principles of selecting athletes, and a more specific cross-country policy on our Selection and Eligibility page.
There is also an events listing page on our website, which contains regional championships and inter-regional events, including links to competition information and results when possible.
Finally, the most important point to address is how do people know what the region is and what is available to athletes and coaches? We’ll regularly post details about results and events to our facebook page, and we also have a website where users can find all the relevant event information. You can subscribe via the website to receive an email straight to your inbox for every new post.
We also email and whatsapp representatives from every club in the region, hold online meetings, and actively encourage participation from committees to be involved and help spread the word. There are thousands of registered athletes in the region and the support of clubs to communicate messages is absolutely key to our success.
Of course, it’s vitally important that communication comes from our athletes and coaches themselves too, and we greatly appreciate those that take on the role of spreading the word and promoting opportunities to their clubmates. Word-of-mouth and personal endorsements remain the best ways of encouraging people to sign up to championships and put themselves forward for selection.
The regional committee is made up of volunteers from a wide range of local clubs, and everything we do is done between family, work, and club responsibilities. Constructive feedback is really important as a steer to stay on the right course, and combined with your support and enthusiasm we can all help the region work together and give our athletes great opportunities.
If you’d like to help out, please contact endurance.swrac@gmail.com.