Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

11 The battle for BAF – the first steps The motion contained four separate proposals: 1. It is the wish of this Association that Athletics in the United Kingdom be administered by a single governing body. 2. That this Association establishes a Working Party to seek ways and means of achieving the objective stated in Motion No. 1. 3. That the Working Party be composed of seven members appointed at this AGM (four of whom should not presently be members of any Committee of the Association) which seven members shall elect a chairman. 4. That the Working Party report back with recommendations to an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Association to be held not later than 30 April 1983. The wording was amended by the AAA to: 1. That Athletics in the United Kingdom be administered by a single governing body. 2. That this Association establishes a Working Party to seek ways and means of achieving the objective stated in Motion No. 1. 3. That the Working Party report back with recommendations to a General Meeting of the Association. At a well attended meeting, the motions were passed by overwhelming majorities; on a show of hands, only 4 were raised against the motions compared with some 200 in favour. The depth of feeling was demonstrated by the supportive proxy votes that had been submitted by those unable to attend the meeting in person. More than 600 such votes had been registered with the AAA, representing some 40% of the theoretical total voting strength of all the member clubs. This represented a resounding victory for club power but was to be only the first step on a long and difficult journey. After the declaration of the vote, Arthur McAllister, the chairman of the General Committee, candidly acknowledged that the association (AAA), through its historical attitude to other associations, “ had a lot to answer for over the question of the Women‟s AAA. The association must be honest and admit that they had not given the women a fair crack of the whip and