Introduction

These notes have been prepared by the NAL to help its member clubs in organising a home match for the NAL. In preparing them, we recognise that they may not all be relevant to all clubs.  What a meeting will be judged on is outcomes and not how those outcomes are achieved. So, if your club has a different way of organising the match, NAL will not insist that you follow these notes; however, you will be expected to achieve the standard of meeting that the NAL will require.

With that in mind, these notes use three types of expression.  Must means that it is an absolute requirement and if it cannot be met, NAL will have to consider not allowing the meeting to go ahead.  Should means that it is a requirement that we would expect to be met and a failure to meet it may mean that the meeting cannot go ahead. If the club cannot meet a requirement that it should meet, it is expected to produce a suitable alternative.  May means that it is something that would be helpful, useful or beneficial but is not essential.

The tasks that the hosting club(s) must address are:

• Who is to be in overall control of the meeting
• Who is managing relations with the NAL in particular with the Operations Officer, the Officials Secretary and the Divisional Co-ordinator

The club must ensure the stadium has the following:

• A full UKA Track and field certificate that is valid at the date of the match. If it is due for renewal between the date of the booking and the date of the match the club must ensure that it is renewed in good time.
• The certificate should not be subject to any restrictions or conditions that require work to be undertaken. Any scheduled work for certification should be discussed with NAL Operations Officer.
• Checked by physical inspection in January before the meeting and must be checked again by physical inspection not less than four weeks before the match. If any item of equipment are missing or unusable the club must agree with the stadium management how it is to be replaced and must advise the Operations Officer and the Divisional Co-ordinator of the problem and the solution proposed at the outset, and again when the work has been done.
• Adequate working public address system for announcements and facilities for an announcer (and if appropriate his support team) and for the recorders and that the recorders have adequate power for their laptops etc. The announcer and the recorders should be together.
• Photo-finish equipment, sufficient EDM’s.

The club must discuss with stadium management the following:

• Car and coach parking arrangements available for visiting teams and officials
• Starters parking which complies with their requirements for the use of starting pistols
• Fixture timetable (including details of technical equipment that will be required) by the start of the season together with any alterations no later than two weeks before the match
• Equipment required
• Arrangements to accommodate physio/massage therapists visiting clubs
• First aid provision/facilities
• Arrangements for hot and cold food and drinks provision for athletes and spectators

Officials

The host club must ensure that there are enough officials and helpers to make the match run smoothly and on time. 

A full list of officials who have responded to the NAL Officials Secretary notification to be emailed to the Meeting Manager of the promoting club as appropriate.  The list may be sent before all the responses are in to enable the host club to start confirming with the officials their attendance and also to start completing the list of officials needed locally. 

Further officials may be forthcoming through County AA Official’s Secretary.

If a serious problem is developing the host club must notify the Officials Secretary and the Operations Officer immediately and, in any case two months before the event.

The host club must ensure that the following officials are appointed whether from the list from the NAL Officials Secretary or locally

• Starter
• Marksman x2
• Field Referee
• Track Referee
• Chief Timekeeper

Please note that under the new UKA Level II Licensing criteria, all Chief Officials must be at least level 3 or above. Chief Officials cannot double up as track and field officials. For event licensing with UKA the names and grades of the Chiefs are required along with confirmation of attendance.

Promoting Club and Meeting Manager must appoint other roles as necessary to include:

• Results coordinator x2
• Announcer
• Photo Finish team
• Additional track and field officials as required

All Chief officials must be contacted at least three weeks before the match with:

• Details of the venue
• A list of the officials in their team and their contact details
• The timetable
• Car parking, including Starter Team
• Entry passes (if needed)
• Copy of the NAL rules (or a link to the NAL website)
• The mobile phone number of the meeting manager   
• Inform Chiefs that the results system to produce field cards

Officials accommodation

Host Club must:

• Arrange a room or designated space which is dry and (if necessary) warm for officials to relax between duties. This should be separate from the accommodation for athletes and spectators
• Provide hot and cold drinks available in that area
• Provide each official with a packed lunch or provide a buffet for officials to help themselves
• Arrange for hot or cold drinks as appropriate to be supplied to officials in the field who are not able to get to the rest area for a drink

Material the promoting club will receive

The club will receive from the NAL Divisional Co-ordinator about three weeks before the match the following:

• Numbers for each team
• Pins for each team
• Lane draw for each team
• Timetable for each team

If a club has not received these three weeks before the match they must contact the NAL Promotions Officer immediately.

Material the club should email to Clubs

Not less than two weeks before the match the club must send to each of the visiting clubs:

• Details of the lane draw
• Timetable for the match
• Stadium address and postcode for use in SATNAV’s
• Name of the Meeting Manager
• Contact email address for club
• Contact mobile phone number for use on the day of the match in the event that a team is delayed
• Details of any known local/regional problems that may delay travel such as road works, carnivals and other major sporting or civic events

Non Scoring events

Non-scoring events within the timetable comprise of 100, 200 & 400 metre for Men and Women.

These non-scoring events are for members of the NAL teams at the meeting only.   

Each Club has the following entitlement:

• 100m: four places for male athletes and four for female athletes
• 200m: one place for male athletes and one place for female athletes
• 400m: one place for male athletes and one place for female athletes

Each club must put down names of athletes for the Non-Scoring Events, 45 minutes before the commencement of the track programme, clubs must enter all athletes for 100, 200 & 400m events, total of 6 male and 6 female athletes.

If, any spaces are not filled 40 minutes before the non-scoring race, the Meeting Manager should allot the vacant spaces fairly between those on the reserve list who wanting to take part. This did not necessarily mean that such places would be allocated on a first come first served basis.

The hosting club should have spare numbers available for these races, but where possible athletes should utilise allocated Club number/letter.

Guests

Only guest athletes who have been approved by NAL Operations Officer may be compete. A list of approved guest athletes will be posted on the NAL website in the week before the match with copy forwarded to the Meeting Managers.

No other athlete who is not on the list may compete as a guest.

The host club must have numbers available for guests which are not within the sequence being used for the match.

The club must advise the track and field referee of any authorised guests who should be taking part at the start of the match.

Results

NAL has adopted Simon Fennel’s results programme which has been integrated with the Managers Portal software to enable declarations and eligibility checks against registrations, including foreign athletes, HCAs or under 17s.  The system will print off start lists so officials will not have to write up cards.  It will also provide a running match score and will put results on the results page in the order in which they are loaded.  This will enable the operator to print off complete pages and get them photocopied in advance of the end of the meeting.  Finally, it prepares copies for emailing to all those who need to receive them as soon as the system has access to emails.

For training, advice or problems please contact the Results Co-ordinator at results@nationalathleticsleague.org.uk.

The club must have a results team capable of producing a full set of results at the end of the match. All result cards and paperwork for the should be posted to the Results Co-ordinator. A copy of the results must be emailed to:

• Jacky Brett – jacky.brett@athleticsdata.com
• Power of 10 – admin@thepowerof10.info
• NUTS, Peter Matthews – p.matthews121@btinternet.com
• NAL – webmaster@nationalathleticsleague.org.uk
• NAL – results@nationalathleticsleague.org.uk
• NAL – statistician@nationalathleticsleague.org.uk
• Tops in Athletics – tops@topsinathletics.info