Another RC question - junior members?

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Theocat

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I'm looking for thoughts from riding club members on having junior members (under 16) as part of the riding club. I'm doing some research, so I'd really appreciate any thoughts! In particular, I'm interested in finding out:

Does your club have junior members? If not, why not?

How does your club manage the juniors? Different days, different lessons / classes at shows, different sections within a class, different scoring for championships, etc?

Does having juniors cause any problems?

What are the benefits to having junior members?

Any and all thoughts extremely welcome! :) I have some very cheap cava to offer, and some sausages, for anyone who responds :p
 
Yes ours does. We also have 2 junior members on the committee. They all join in most of the events. In fact the only thing which they are not allowed on, off the top of my head, is pub-rides. All under 18s must have a responsible adult sign their entry form for any event, in case of accident/injury. And tbh most of them are extremely well-behaved. It's the adults we have problems with!
 
My RC does not have junior members, although juniors can attend most activities, the reason as far as I can remember was that if the RC had them as members every event would need to have in attendance someone who was checked under the child protection laws, they put the membership age up from 17 to 18 at this time.
 
For official RC competitions (area qualifiers & national championships) a junior is a member who had not attained the age of 18 on the 1st of January.
Junior RC members are great. They are the seniors of tomorrow & can add an extra dimension to club activities.
Every affiliated riding club REGARDLESS of whether or not they have a junior section should have someone who has attended the Duty of Care (Safeguarding) Course which are run by the BHS. The lead person with this responsibility within the club should undertake a voluntary CRB disclosure which can be done through the BHS as well. They do not have to attend every event, but someone should be appointed & briefed by them to act in that capacity at each event, & the name of that person should be published along with the other event officials.

To answer the OPs question, the juniors generally just mix in with the seniors in all activities, though competitions may well benefit by being split in to junior & senior sections.
 
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We have junior members in our RC. They pay half the adult membership fee but other than that they just get treated the same as the senior members, no special shows/classes or lessons.
They compete on equal terms in our dressage league but we also add up their points separately for a junior league. We also have overall senior and junior trophies for the members with most points across all our events over the season.
I can't say we've ever had any issues - we always seem to have had lovely juniors.
 
Yes, ours does and I think all the clubs in our area do- ours has a separate league for SJ and overall, and a special trophy for highest placed in the dressage league.

The juniors have separate SJ classes, but are lumped in with the seniors for everything else.

No one really cares either way tbh. Ours do very well at the area comps, but aside from that there's always been junior members and they've always been treated the same as the adults!
 
sussexbythesea said:
We have a couple of Junior members but it's a bit of a problem tbh as there are so many more things you have to have if you take JR. Like having an appointed Child Welfare Officer. I think we may have to not have them next year as it is too much hassle.

http://www.bhs.org.uk/enjoy-riding/british-riding-clubs/club-welfare-officers
Click to expand...

You may as well keep your juniors !
The requirement for a CW officer applies to all clubs, not just those who have a junior section. This is because there may be vunerable adults who are members of your club, juniors may be permitted at your clubs open events or if your club is involved in organising area qualifiers there will be junior sections.
It's not difficult acting as the CW officer. It's really a case of being a known point of contact for anyone who is concerned, & the Safeguarding training course provides you with how to respond & take any concerns expressed to you forward in an appropriate manner. I often act in that capacity & have never had to do anything, nor seen anything that would raise any concerns:)
 
My daughter belongs to 2 RC. Neither currently runs seperate events or trainings for juniors, she belongs to Pony Club for that. Most of the tranings she is with adults, as there are not so many juniors/juniors at her level. I see particularly teenage juniors as an advantage as there has to be an accompanying parent to driver her to events = adult spare to help set up or take down equipment eg jumps (she is of an age quite capable to unload/get herself and pony ready by herself)
 
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