As part of our project Achieving Gender Equality in High Performance Athletics Coaching in the U.K, FCN founder and project lead Vicky was asked by Scottish Athletics to present at their annual Club Conference.
Vicky’s presentation was aimed at raising awareness of the current research project the FCN are undertaking alongside Leeds Beckett University and Professor Leanne Norman, which takes a look into the current landscape of women who coach athletics across the U.K.
Whilst the research project has not been finalised as of yet, Vicky highlighted two main areas of themes which were repeatedly highlighted during the research process.
The full research paper will be published early in the New Year and the FCN will be supporting the governing bodies of athletics to ensure change is made.
About the Conference
The National Club Conference is always the highlight of the year in club development, with the buzz of club leaders from across Scotland getting together to talk about athletics whilst learning from one another and hearing from inspiring speakers.
Like many other things in 2020, Plan A was never an option with no prospect of having a large number of people in close proximity in an indoor environment.
However, not to be deterred, with the help of PSA Audio’s virtual conference platform, we brought over 70 club leaders together across the day onSaturday 14 November to continue delivering club education and provide an opportunity to network, albeit in a very different way.
As well as hearing from the scottishathletics CEO Mark Munro, President Ron Morrison, Head of Performance and Coaching Stephen Maguire, and pur Development team, delegates were treated to informative and inspiring presentations from a number of others.
We were delighted to hear from guests from Sparta Atletik from Denmark; Pitreavie AAC; West End Road Runners; and the Female Coaching Network.
scottishathletics would like to once again thank all of those who presented for their time and for sharing their work with the delegates. All presentations are now available on the National Club Conference section of our website.
Delegates always feedback that networking is the most important part of the National Club Conference.
To provide this opportunity to delegates virtually we teamed up with PSA Audio to use their seating plan to allow delegates to ‘meet’ online and move around the room to catch up with other leaders.
While of course nothing can replicate the networking opportunities that being in a room together creates, we would like to thank all the delegates for participating in this way and helping to make the day interactive.
In a difficult year, the use of online technology has definitely proved to be a positive adaptation to our way of working.
The level of engagement of clubs, leaders and coaches across Scotland in club and coach development webinars, COVID updates, and one-ton-one club meetings has been tremendous and we would like to thank you all for being so adaptable and creative in the way you have worked to keep the sport alive through 2020.