But the great news is that XC is nearly upon us and we’re coming into party season!!
So in this Newsletter there are a few important notices about the AGM next week, the change of session sign ups for Spond and a save the date for the end of season awards dinner and awards nominations!!
We are fast approaching the Cross Country season and the Club will again be competing in the Oxfordshire Cross Country League. As in previous seasons the League holds races on the first Sunday of every month from November to March. Cross Country is a great opportunity to meet club members and race as competitively as you want to during the winter months.
The Cross Country League organisers encourage all clubs to car share to the race venues as much as possible so don’t worry if you don’t have transport as lifts should be available to the race venues. Races for men and women are between 7km and 8km and the conditions can be dry, wet, muddy, cold or mild! Afterwards there is the possibility of homemade cakes, or sometimes a pub lunch. The first race of the year is on Sunday 2nd November at the Cornbury Estate in Charlbury.
In order to join in with the muddy fun you have to sign up for an England Athletics Membership for 2025/26 (if you don’t currently have one) and pay the Cross Country League entry fee.
England Athletics membership for 2025/26 is £20. Here is the link (yes to our website not Spond for this one yet)
The Cross Country League entry fee is £20 for all five races which is fantastic value for money. The link for this is here
Once you’ve paid your dues, you’ll hear from Clive, Stuart or James and in the mean time, If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact them, by sending an email to ea@oxfordtri.co.uk
SPOND IS LIVE
All our session sign ups are now live on Spond, if you haven’t received the invite to Spond here is the link below, please download the app or log onto the website in order to sign up for sessions and for communications, which going forward will all be through Spond, so we can stop using WhatsApp groups, Facebook, email etc You’ll have a one stop shop for all club stuff.
Note for now we’re only going live with the session sign ups, letting you get used to the App if you haven’t used it before. Lee our Web officer has done an amazing job of sorting all the background bits out for us so we’re good to go, if you see him please say thankyou, we finally have waiting lists back!!!
On that point of waiting lists, IF you are on the waiting list for a session, you will still get a notification from the app, even if you have selected to stop push notifications, what’s important here is that IF you are going to decline the invite to attend a session, for whatever reason, can you please do so as quickly as you can. We’re not worried about how long you take to accept the invite, the space is yours, but if you can’t go the next person on the waitlist won’t get an invite until you decline, so please decline as quickly as possible if you’re not going to accept the invite.
Usual guidelines apply, please cancel your place in a session as soon as possible, if you know you can no longer make it, atleast 24hours before please. On the day cancellations should only be for emergency situations. If you’re ill 24hours before the session, you club mates don’t want you there spreading your germs, so please cancel rather than wait until the last minute.
You should have received an email from ‘Web Officer’ check your spam if not, with a really useful user guide and IF you’re still struggling send me a note and we’ll try and help you out!
https://spond.com/invite/BMEZB
END OF SEASON DINNER – Friday 14th November
We will do sign up for this event via Spond, so please look out for the invite in the app (once we’ve got the menu options for the evening) and have set up the form for you. The cost will be £39 per head for a two course meal and include a welcome drink from the club. I’m going full in on the Hawaii theme in my choice of outfit, but please feel free to wear whatever makes you happy!!
Award Nominations!
Nomination season is officially open! From Athlete of the Year and Most Improved to Member of the Year. it’s time to celebrate the teammates and helpers who make our club special. Submit your nominations at
https://forms.gle/T97AYUgXCHoaC7YP6
by Friday 14th October with a short reason and any standout moments. Shortlists will be announced at as soon as possible so voting can then take place, with winners revealed on Awards Night—so get nominating and let’s celebrate everyone who swam, biked, ran, and pitched in this year!
AGM – link 7pm til 8pm Tuesday 7th October.
I’ll do a more thorough message outlining the running order of the meeting, the roles we need filling and any other bits, if anyone has specific questions they want to ask about the running or direction of the club, please get these to me in advance of the meeting at chair@oxfordtri.co.uk this is not to say we won’t accept questions on the night, we will, it just helps us prepare the best answer for you incase the detail required to answer is in our website or elsewhere.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84814490816?pwd=rUSlBmk5nCeTog480Ijb71NX9AVbov.1