Every year the SAAA issued the Handbook – a compendium of the current state of the Association, of its Constitution, Rules and Regulations, of its history and of its members. No look at the sport during the reign of the SAAA would be complete without looking at this production. It is however a fairly big book – the 1979 edition runs to 128 pages plus cover – and will take some time for the scanning to be complete.
It will be done in sections as above with the part dealing with the Rules for Competition being further divided simply because of its length. Links to these sections are below and will be linked as the relevant pages are complete.
- Committee Members and Office Holders, District Representatives, Honorary Members and Past Presidents.
- Constitution.
- Rules for Competitions and Promotions under SAAA: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
- Trophies, Championship Standards, Records at the start of 1979 and Results of Championships in 1978.
- Officials by District.
- Fixture List for 1979 and Coaches plus affiliated clubs and their Secretaries, SWAAA Officials.
Finally, it will be noted that such a booklet could not or would not be published today – mainly because it has the addresses and phone numbers of all committee members, all coaches and all club secretaries. This is a pity because it makes the job of course organisers who want to invite appropriate coaches, race promoting bodies who are looking for officials, and club secretaries who want to contact others. This was part of athletics life however in 1979.