Racewalking Australia Merit Award Holders

Life Membership of Racewalking Australia is an honour for which few qualify and as such it was decided there was a need for some other form of recognition for the contribution of our many competitors, volunteers and officials who have given freely and consistently to Racewalking Australia.  To this end, Racewalking Australia delegates voted at the 2008 Annual General Meeting to institute Merit Awards to recognise the contributions of members to Racewalking Australia in one or more of the following categories:

• Officiating
• Administration and/or
• Competing.

Examples of the sorts of activities that could lead to RWA Merit Awards include years of service in one or more of

• Administration : Federation management (RWA Secretary, Treasurer, President, Vice President, Trophy Officer, Sub-Committee membership, etc)
• Administration : A regular club delegate at the RWA AGM
• Administration : A director of AFORWC by way of being a club President
• Officiating : A long standing and key organiser in the Canberra Carnival organizing committee
  
• Officiating : A regular official at Federation events (eg regular timekeeper at the Canberra carnival every year)
• Officiating : Regular judging at RWA events
  
• Competitor : Regularly competing at Federation Carnivals over an extended period of time.
  

There are 3 Merit Awards, each with its own coloured bar:

• 15 years     green bar
• 25 years     red bar
• 40 years     blue bar

The following additional points pertain to Merit Awards:

• Any person nominated for a Merit Award must be a current financial member of an affiliated racewalking club.
• Nominations can only be made by the Club Executive. Individuals cannot submit nominations.
• A Merit Award is seen as a necessary preliminary step before a Life Membership of Racewalking Australia can be considered. However, Life Members are still eligible for Merit Awards.

The Executive of each Member Club was formally invited to submit the names of suitably qualified club members to be considered for the inaugural conferring of Merit Awards at the 2009 Annual General Meeting of Racewalking Australia. At that meeting, 28 Merit Awards were announced and in 2010 a further 8 were announced. This is now an ongoing process and nominations will be considered on an annual basis.

The details of current Merit Award holders are to be found in the following documents

We look forward to further Federation members being honoured with Merit Awards in future years.

Tim Erickson
Last updated: 22 June 2011