| Untitled document CANBERRA ROAD RUNNING FESTIVAL - OPEN LETTER Dear Members Canberra Marathon Dispute In our last open letter we asked for members to comment on the offer made to the Club by Cundy Sports Marketing (CSM) in early December to settle the dispute and we also advised that CSM had claimed ownership of the Canberra Half Marathon. Thank you to the many people who responded with thoughtful comments and your offers of support. As a result of your overwhelming rejection of the CSM offer we rejected that offer. However, because we wanted to settle this matter out of Court we made a counter offer to CSM with a response required by 14 January. The very generous offer would have enabled CSM to manage the 2010 event and take most of the estimated $100,000 profit. That date passed without any response from CSM. That was our last offer to CSM, which means that the dispute will be heard at some time by the Federal Court of Australia. The date for that hearing has not been set. In fact we understand that CSM has not as yet sought a hearing date. We have been advised by our legal team that this may mean that the hearing won’t be until mid 2011 at the earliest. In the meantime there is some work to be done to meet the timetable for submission of evidence prior to the next Directions Hearing in July 2010. Canberra Road Running Festival Many of you have suggested that we conduct an alternative event if the Canberra Marathon dispute cannot be resolved in a way that meets the conditions set by the Chief Minister for providing approval for the event. As the Chief Minister’s conditions (advised to CSM and to this Club last year and announced publicly on 4 February) have not been met it is apparent that the 2010 Canberra Marathon will not be held. Taking into account your strongly expressed views we have decided to conduct a new weekend of running that incorporates a number of our previously separate events into the one festival. A Canberra Road Running Festival will be held on 1st and 2nd May 2010 and will incorporate: a 2km Mini Jog for children under 10 years of age; a 5km Fun Run; a Half Marathon (41st Rex Foulkes Half Marathon) a Marathon (to be known as the National Capital Marathon); an Ultra 50k event; and a Runners Expo. We are fortunate to have secured world champion marathon runner Rob de Castella as patron and a key support for the planning and execution of the weekend. We also have a number of sponsors and support groups for the weekend. Many of you have offered support in response to the previous open letters. We will clearly need your assistance leading up to the May weekend and of course on that weekend. If you would like to volunteer please let us know as soon as possible (secretary@canberrarunner.com.au). A list of specific tasks will be put on the website but you may want to move quickly to show your support. Further details about the Road Running Festival can be found on the Club website (www.canberrarunner.com.au/festival). ACTCCC Committee | 
