Minutes of the one hundred and thirty fourth meeting of the management committee of Scottish Disability Sport held on Monday 22nd April 2013 at sportscotland, Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ at 1600 hours.
Attendees:
Gordon McCormack, Chair
Dave Rhoney, Director
Janice Eaglesham, Director
Gavin Macleod, CEO
Claire Morrison, Pathways Manager
Caroline Lyon, Company Secretary
Apologies:
Catherine Goodfellow, Vice Chair
Sandra Proudfoot, Director
Eileen Ramsay, Director
Gerry Milne, Director
Anna Tizzard, Director
Jo Bell, sportscotland Partnership Manager
Welcome and Apologies
Conflicts of Interest
No conflicts of interest were given.
Minutes of meeting held on 11th March 2013
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.
Matters Arising
The HR sub committee was to meet as a matter of urgency. Terms of Reference had been updated and passed to the Performance Manager. Sub group members were to come back to the June meeting – as yet none had responded.
sportscotland update
The update was given by the CEO. An email had been sent regarding the proposed change of Partnership Manager covering the disappointing lack of consultation and the need for continuity, together with the fact that the current Partnership Manager was doing such a good job. The Chair had had a conversation with Jacqui Lynn and understood the change would not take place quickly, the current Partnership Manager remaining in place for 6-8 months. The Chair had indicated that SDS wanted stability and the professional support currently being given by the Partnership Manager was very professional.
The current High Performance Manager, Craig Faill, was also changing. The CEO had strongly protested about the change.
The investment agreement had been signed and returned to sportscotland. A paper was prepared for the trustees of the endowment fund but no response had yet been received.
Reports
Chairman’s Report
No report was given.
CEO Report/Operational Plan 2013-2013 Update
The red areas indicated the previous Participation Manager’s remit. SDS was aware that Branch MORs were not being pushed forward due to availability of staff. Heather Lowden was working with Dumfries & Galloway, Gavin Macleod working with Perth & Kinross. The new posts will have an impact on this.
The Professional Officers Group met last week but not with Active Schools.
Six international competitions would have taken place with the sixth being the bowls test match.
34 out of a proposed 38 athletes are on World Class Podium, Development and Talent programmes. Expected drop in the number of athletes on programmes and a number of sports have not yet announced who is on their programme.
Education & Training: most areas were green.
Governance & Infrastructure: the Participation Manager had started an action plan but this required to be finished. Some policies had been reviewed but not completed. The review needs timelines as an audit is coming up. Liz Turner had been approached to join the Board but had declined. There was a need to identify potential Board members.
Marketing & Communications: the plan was almost complete.
Website: the content is reliant on funds, which are not available at present.
Dave Rhoney mentioned that good work was being carried out by the staff and was well done under the circumstances. There were understandable reasons for some of the targets not to be reached.
The two new posts would be focusing on Branches and Child Protection.
Sub Groups
Governance
The agenda should be changed to match the sub groups.
Development Sports
Coaching & Education
The sub group had not met since the last Board meeting.
Communications
HR/Staffing
The two Opportunities posts were closing on the coming Wednesday.
The Regional Tayside & Fife post was ongoing. The Pathways Manager had again met with regional partners and all were happy to support the introduction of the post. She had also met today with Euan Lowe and it was agreed there was no need for an audit. A timeline is being pulled together and the post should be in place in late summer.
Agreement had been reached to advertise the full time East post internally. The CEO was meeting Lothian partners on 29th April regarding the existing post.
The situation in Grampian would change in 3-4 weeks. The Aberdeen post has been made redundant and interviews held due to restructuring in Sport Aberdeen. The posts being interviewed were Club and Community Development and Inclusion. After interviews the previous week Andrinne Craig had been appointed to the Inclusion post. The CEO and Pathways Manager had met with partners prior to the interviews and had received no indication as to intentions regarding the partnership, which finishes at the end of May. A meeting would be held on 15th May to look forward. The impact could include repercussions on Claire McDonald’s post which ends on 30th April. A decision could not be taken at the moment so the Aberdeenshire post was given a three month extension for the time being.
The Chair, CEO, Pathways Manager and Coaching & Education Manager were reviewing the staff structure and line management. There may be a need to look at another promoted post.
A meeting was being held on the coming Friday between the CEO and Matt Hammond of GB Boccia to negotiate re the Pathways Manager position. In the shorter term Claire Morrison will continue working in the SDS office, receiving admin support from SDS and keeping focus on some regional matters, e.g. Tayside & Fife, Grampian and handover. She will also continue supporting the Scottish Boccia programme.
Partners’ Update
No meetings had been held.
The BPA NPC meeting would be held on 1st May and the CEO would be attending. Alan Dickson (formerly of Capability Scotland) was standing for election against Philip Craven and had contacted SDS to ask for confirmation from the home country. This has been agreed as it was not an endorsement.
CPISRA were committed to timescales to move to the new international federation and this would be in place by January 2014. A steering group was overseeing the transition. The key issue was membership, with Scotland wanting to retain membership. There is a strong position re Boccia as Scotland currently competes internationally. No indication had been given by GB.
A Mission 2014 meeting had been held by Commonwealth Games Scotland before Easter which was uneventful. The selection policy had been circulated by the Performance Manager. The accessibility report on Kelvingrove had been forwarded to the Chair. The CEO had spoken about this to John Gheel and the government and would send the report on after consultation with the Glasgow Roads Department. The selection policies were to be ratified by the Board.
50th Anniversary History
Comments were invited from Board members and overall feedback was positive. The time and effort on Richard Brickley’s part were acknowledged. The question of ownership was raised as SDS had no licence to make any changes. It was suggested that factual errors be corrected and a paragraph included to indicate that Richard Brickley had been commissioned to write the work by the Board. Printing had been investigated and would cost a minimum of £3,500. The Marketing & Communications Manager had been asked for feedback regarding using the book as a sponsorship opportunity, but there was a danger of it becoming dated. Agreement was reached in principle to the book being commissioned.
Events
Domestic/Regional
The PD swimming gala had been held on the previous Saturday. There were good entry figures and some good swims with 30-40 attending. 8 Scottish Swimming officials had attended and this was a great appreciated.
The football 5-a-sides were held on the previous Wednesday with 48 teams attending.
The LD swimming gala was taking place on 26th May.
International
The GB squad for the European Boccia Championships had been announced, with 5 out of 11 players Scottish. The target had been 30%.
The Celtic Cup (Boccia) would be held on 1st and 2nd June in Dublin against Wales and Ireland, but with a possibility of Wales not attending. In this case it was intended to participate in training matches.
Cheshire International (Boccia) – Wigan.
The Czech Open was to be held on 1st/2nd June. GB Boccia were paying for Jamie McCowan to attending and Kieran Steer was representing Scotland but with GB Boccia paying.
Michael Kerr had attended the European Wheelchair Rugby Club Championships. GB are currently ranked 7th but finishing 4th. Europeans were to be held in August and Michael was hopeful of making the squad.
Sammi Kinghorn had been classified as T53 in Dubai. Sami and Meggan Dawson Farrell had done well, gaining bronze medals.
Owen Miller and Robert Ferroll were attending the INAS Championships in June.
Janice Eaglesham proposed that a small update on the 13 key sports be given every second meeting. The Performance Manager should be invited to the June meeting.
The Under 19s LD football squad had won the Home Nations for the first time. All players but 2 had come through the schools programme.
Table tennis players had attended the Hungarian Open and also the DSEs in Crewe.
2 swimmers had qualified for the Deaflympics, Danielle Joyce and Lucy Walkup.
Gordon Reid had won the Tennis Player of the Year.
Sammi Kinghorn had been voted Young Scot Award for Sport. This has been won by a Scot for the last three years.
Drumchapel Table Tennis Club had posted video clips on line of Martin Perry with members of the Royal Family. The CEO had also attended a conference in Dundee with Martin where he delivered an excellent speech.
AOC
Dave Rhoney suggested that the Board should try to retain Claire Morrison’s expertise by asking her to become a member. Future Board representation would go on the agenda and the CEO would discuss with Matt Hammond to see if he was comfortable with this. Claire indicated she would be keen to continue her involvement.
Early warnings for the AGM had been sent out and local authority funding letters. The CEO suggested David McCrae as speaker.
Date of Next Meeting
10th June 2013