Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Membership at Camberwell Malvern Little Athletics (CMLAC)
The club would appreciate if all Little Athletes register online using the Clubs Online credit card system. If you do not have a credit card please bring a cheque made out to CMLAC on Saturday mornings at Kooyong Park and fill in a registration form.
The club handbook will be available on October 3 but race kit including free competition T–shirt will not be handed out until Saturday October 10.
Click here to register online.
We are a small, friendly grass-track club run by parents.
Competition takes place on Saturday mornings at Kooyong Park’s Righetti and McAlpine Ovals, which are opposite Kooyong Tennis Centre and next door to Vision Australia. We start with a warm-up before 9am and finish around 11am. The children break up into boy and girl groups in age groups to do between 5-7 events each week with a varying program of runs, jumps and throws. We are geared to 'personal bests' and every child is encouraged to 'have a go'.
Athletes must be five by September 30 of the current year, for example to start for the 2011/12 year, Sept 30, 2011.
If you are not sure if Little Aths is for you, then come down and have a 'free try out' for one session or just watch what we do. You must sign the visitor’s booklet before joining your respective age group.
The visitors booklet is located in the main pavilion at Kooyong Park. If you cannot locate it, ask for Kelli Gorman or just identify your child to the age group coordinator, who will be carrying the group clipboard, so your child can be recorded as a visitor.
Registration fees vary year on year, depending on costs levied on the club, and to a lesser extent based on major equipment purchases. For example, a portion of each registration is levied by Little Athletics Victoria to cover their running costs; there is ground rental due to the Council; and regular line marking to name but a few. We also need to replace equipment - such as high jump mats, hurdles and timing gantries. We are all parents ourselves and try to keep a cap on the fees. Fees also include the weekly competition T-Shirt, but not the formal inter-club uniform.
It is our policy not to refund registration fees if an athlete decides to withdraw from the Centre.
The following registration fees have been set for this year [2011/2012].
Track And Field
Not currently available.
Cross Country
Not currently available.
First and foremost - be involved - the kids REALLY love it. The operation of an event like Little Athletics must have parent involvement to be successful. Each event needs someone to record the result, to control the activity, to start, to measure, etc. Additionally the equipment needs setting up and putting away each week. To this end, we have arranged that a different age group is responsible for setup and packup each week and are responsible for manning the running track recording tent; this means that usually you are only required for this twice a season.
In addition, an age group manager is needed to see the athletes from one event to the next and keep things running smoothly. Ideally this should be a rotation type role filled by mutial agreement amongst the parent group for that gender-age group. This person must have assistance from other parents on each event.
If possible, parents can undertake Coaching courses - our target is to have two coaches per age group. This is in addition to the age group manager as their role is to help with the improvement of the athlete's skills, not monitoring behaviour - co-ordinate movement.
Victorian Little Athletics Association guidelines require that a parent or guardian of each child remain at the ground for the morning's events. WE ARE NOT A CHILD-MINDING CENTRE.
If you would like to be placed on a specific activity each week, please advise the Competition Manager via the enquiry form on this website.
For more detail, refer to the Parents page
Each age group for girls and boys is under the control of an Age Group Manager who coordinates Saturday morning activities. No child is to leave the age group without the permission of the manager. Gardiners Creek, that runs alongside the athletics centre, and the playground beside the main pavilion. Little Athletes must have appropriate footwear. Running shoes are compulsory. Spikes are only permitted for U12s to U15s. Little Athletes are also expected to behave in a proper manner with their friends and parents and uphold the centre’s motto of “family, fun and fitness”.
For centre competition on Saturday, athletes will be given a club T-shirt to wear and can wear shorts of any colour. Footwear must be worn at all times.
When athletes in the Under 9-15 age groups compete in official competition against other centres, then they must wear club uniform which consists of red shorts and a light blue top with the Centre logo. This uniform can be purchased on Saturdays between 10am and 11am.
The cost for these: