Subject to the decision of the membership, the Sports Journalists’ Association’s next Treasurer, possibly the toughest of all tasks on the committee, will be Sarah Juggins.
Randall Northam is standing down from the office he has held since 2009 at the SJA annual meeting, which is to be held at the Old Cock Tavern on Fleet Street from 1pm on Thursday, April 11.
In the absence of any other nomination – and nominations for officers’ positions and members of the committee can be submitted by March 14 – it seems very likely that Juggins’s offer to volunteer will be gladly accepted.
Subject to elections, it could mean that there will be more women on the Association’s general committee than at any time in its history, with former secretary Mary Fitzhenry who looks after our regular lunches, Midlands football writer Janine Self and Louise Poynton, the SJA’s point of contact for local and regional newspapers, already established.
The AGM will mark a significant changing of the guard in another way, as Barry Newcombe is standing down as chairman after six years. Subject to AGM agreement, he will be succeeded by David Walker, the Sunday Mirror‘s sports editor.
Also standing down is Ian Cole, who has served the Association since 1986, including two terms as chairman.
Juggins, who completed her journalism training at the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich, is now a magazine editor for a contract publisher – Cambridge Publishers Ltd – with Recreation and Sport and Physical Activity being among the publications for which she is responsible.
Last summer, she worked for the Olympic News Service, leading the team of journalists and volunteers who reported on the men and women’s hockey competitions – a career highlight for a woman who played the game to national league level with Ipswich and Cambridge.
Nominations, including proposer and seconder, for election to the committee and any proposals for the constitution to be considered at the AGM should be sent to the Honorary Secretary at stevenwdownes@btinternet.com.