Report of the EA Board Meeting Held on Wednesday 20 th May 2015 at 1.30pm at Sport and Recreation Alliance, London. Present: Peter King (PK) Chair; Chris Jones CEO (CJ); Wendy Sly (WS); Peter Crawshaw (PC); Mike Harris (MHa);Neil Costello (NC); Tim Soutar (TSo); Tony Shiret (TSH); Sally Hughes (SH) In Attendance: Guests: Michael Davis (MD) - Finance Controller Alison Potts (AP) Exec Assistant Martin Rush (MR) England Athletics, Head of Coaching & Athlete Development Agenda Items 3 & 4 Terry Colton (TC) UK Athletics, Board Member Agenda Item 4 Dave Herbert (DH) UK Athletics, Anti-Doping Manager Agenda Item 6 Welcome & Apologies: Steve Grainger, Karen Neale PK welcomed everyone to the meeting. Declarations of Interest. CJ has been accepted as a Trustee for the Great Run Foundation. SH is leaving her current job to take new position in July. 1. Minutes of the previous meeting held on 8 th April 2015. Board agreed that the minutes should continue in the current format. Minutes from the last meeting were agreed and signed as an accurate record. 2. Actions/Matters Arising from last meeting As per paperwork included at the back of the minutes. 3. Coaching and Athlete Development Programme Update - Martin Rush Martin Rush provided a presentation to the Board. Overview of the department Coaching and Athlete Development. 1
The focus of the department is athlete progression. Strategy to do this is through coach and competition development. Event development strategy with UKA, Martin Rush has provided his department strategy to UKA Schools EA need to progress the depth of resource in this area. Target set for Seniors achieving or exceeding the Power of 10 benchmark performance standards in 15-16 are higher than ever achieved before. Competition we need to find a balance to provide what the clubs need and what the athlete needs. CWG Gold Coast Planning has began to provide the best team to get the best results. Coach Education the target 5000 more coaches and leaders each year through to 2017 is being achieved but we have significant issues at Athletics Coach level. Structures are being put in place to change delivery and to support people working through the coach qualification. MR submitted a paper at the last board meeting which was approved, proposing further change to the coach qualification should the evaluation (on-going at time) prove conclusive that further change is needed. NC commended this paper and the PAG will work with MR to push these proposals forward should they be required. Waiting lists what can we do to reduce these lists before we lose those on the waiting lists? One answer would be target those clubs with large waiting lists, run coach education courses at these clubs to increase coach numbers. 4. Club Connect / Competition Review Terry Colton Terry Colton was introduced to the meeting and he apologised for Cherry Alexander s absence. Terry provided a presentation to the Board. Concerns were raised around the implications of the changes to the Officials structure and the new emerging UKA Officials Strategy which would have implications for HCAF delivery structures and volunteers. CJ informed the meeting that this needs further discussion at the CEO forum and Niels De Vos has agreed to this. Terry requested feedback from the Board regarding League competition and comments would be gratefully received. Martin Rush and WS are to arrange to meet with Cherry following the next Competition Strategy meeting to discuss Club Connect in further detail. ACTION WS CJ will meet with CA to discuss the officials strategy ACTION CJ 5. National and Local Championship Provision CJ had provided the Board with a paper and recommendations in the Board pack. CJ advised that the performance Advisory Group should take this paper forward and a meeting to follow with the Areas to resolve on-going issues. We need a long term sustainable solution to this partnership. Consideration to be given a competition stakeholder`s advisory/working group that is properly constituted, documented and engages Areas, Counties, ERRA, ECCA and ESAA to discuss strategy and delivery of England based championships. This 2
would bring us closer together and would aim to address the long standing long standing challenges and opportunities relating to competition encountered across the sport. Board discussed that the county chairs advisory group could form the basis of the above group and that it needs to be properly constituted. PAG to meet during June to discuss and devise an action plan to present back to the Board at its meeting on July 15 th - ACTION MHarris/PAG June. 6. Anti Doping Information, Education & Training Dave Herbert Dave Herbert was introduced to the meeting. Dave gave a presentation on UKA antidoping strategy and support work focused on established processes, procedures, education and training. Dave has prepared a paper that is going to the UKA Board this week and once ratified, he hopes this will be accepted by the EA Board. Can there be support offered to those clubs that take athletes abroad as a part of a team, perhaps a one page document of information and advise. ACTION Dave Herbert. Outreach work and awareness raising currently takes place at EA Champs, English Schools and UK Schools Games. It was requested that could it be possible to offer an education course to larger clubs where high numbers of talented athletes are. Dave said to flag these clubs to him and he would be happy to look into providing this education. EA to work with UKA to consider what education and training could be provided to member clubs on this matter aimed at managers, officials, coaches, parents and athletes ACTION Andy Day & Dave Herbert 7. CEO Report The CEO report was provided in the board pack. The Board requested circulation of the timeline and questions that were part of the consultation. ACTION CJ EA branding, it was noted that there was a lack of EA branding at the London Marathon and other road races that were also EA Champs ACTION CJ to raise with Andy Day There was a suggestion for further support on the Schools and Youth Development group such as a representative from English Schools. CJ will look into this. ACTION CJ The Board was informed that the other HC s will now receive a grant from UKA but EA will not receive any grant, due to EA s business development plan and commercial rights agreement. PK commented that Ed Warner had raised this with him at a recent event. 8. 16 22 Strategy Update 3
Document provided to the Board. Staff will feed back to their line managers their ideas and views by 19 th June. The Board were also asked to submit their suggestions by this date. TS will engage National Council to give their views on this work too ACTION ALL 9. Finance Report MD provided reports to the board and updated the Board that he has worked closely with PC on the reports. MD to meet SE with regards 2014/15 expenditure and planned expenditure in 2015-16. It was suggested that an update is made to our reserve policy and MD will look to work with SE and Auditors in the coming months. ACTION MD Budget approval required for items in the pack. Amendment to Car Lease PC (Chair of Audit & Assurance) & MD requested that the Board approved the 15-16 operational budget in line with papers and narrative provided Board approved accordingly. 10. National Council Update TSh provided the NC report to the Board. Taken as read. 11. Rule Book 2016 EA Response CJ provided the Board with a paper prior to the meeting National Council have prepared a recommendation and they will be opposing the suggested age group changes and foreign athlete changes. The overwhelming view from consultation has been in line with this view of the NC. MHe, TSh, TSo and CJ to prepare a response for UKA from the EA Board relating to the proposals. Mike Heath has agreed to work with small group to collate this. ACTION Mike Heath, CJ, TSh & Tso 12. Advisory Group and Committee Updates Audit & Assurance Committee PC Peter Crawshaw provided a paper to the Board. Governance Committee KN. TSo updated the meeting that work is going on with Allen Overy and will have something ready for the next governance meeting in June. NC have now agreed to 4
be part of this review and Tso/CJ need to consider how this is integrated into the A&O work. Participation Advisory Group SG Minutes provided in the board pack. Performance Advisory Group MH Minutes provided in the Board Pack. Working with Areas (and other competition providers) will provide the focus for the June PAG meeting given its importance strategically and financially to the sport in England. Commercial Advisory Group WS Group to meet next Tuesday in London 26 th chaired by WS. Membership/Consultation Advisory Group WS Last meeting held by Webex, which worked quite well but a good wifi connection is required. Minutes will be provided towards the end of next week. Length of Term on advisory groups was raised and those on the group should remain until next year but this will be covered off by the Governance group. 13. Health & Safety Report Report provided to the Board. UKA Driving Policy has not been received from UKA but is imminent and will be provided to the Board once received. Two external incidents recorded involving individuals at a road race and a club training evening. Matters are being managed through the correct channels. There were no internal staff related matters to report. 14. AOB 14.1 Athlete representation, input to Board working CJ will progress this idea. ACTION CJ Meeting Closed at 18:00. Next meeting 15 th July. Colson Meeting Room, Sport and Recreation Alliance, London. 5