ENGLAND HANDBALL ASSOCIATION

Transcription

1 ENGLAND HANDBALL ASSOCIATION National Executive Committee meeting 15 July , Netball/Badminton Centre, Loughborough University Agenda Item Minute and Action Responsible Action 1. Attendanc e and welcome Board members: Chair Clare Henderson (CH); Chris J Smith (CJS); Ed Simpson (ES); Marc Fayemi (MF); Geoff Woodall (GW), Bill Baillie (BB), Sue Whitehead (SW) via teleconference. Staff: David Meli (DM) 2. Minutes of Previous Meeting a) CH welcomed everyone to the board meeting. b) Apologies: none required; c) Declarations of interest there were none although CH noted that all Board members had a self-interest as the Board structure was being discussed. d) Confirmation of quorum. a) Review and Approval of Minutes: The Minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and accepted as a true record. All action points had been addressed. DM to ensure that minutes are posted online by Chris Pearce on the Monday following the board meeting. b) Matters Arising not otherwise on the Agenda and Identification of any items of AOB: IHF Membership Fit for Purpose Criteria Radu Miclaus s proposal re set up of a new league Proposed article changes and AGM Awards Proposal and format Premier League logo sign off Formal letter to MB from the board Recruitment review update send minutes to CP for publishing on website.

2 3. Main strategic discussion topic 1 4. Main strategic discussion topic 2 Board communication and working practices. CH gave a presentation outlining current issues and concerns raised by various members of the board over the last few months related to communication between directors and working practices across the organisation. A discussion then followed on how communication could be improved and to look at ways to improve how issues are dealt with and decisions made in a timely fashion to help enhance respect and trust across the board. A number of key points were agreed; Better agenda planning to ensure that decisions are made in a timely fashion before things need to be operational. This would follow an annual cycle so that items are raised well in advance of them needing to take effect. Introduction of a standard proforma, using the six hats approach, to enable responses to queries/documents from individual directors to be captured more clearly. Clear timeline for responses to be stated when items are circulated and all directors expected to respond, even if they have nothing to add, to ensure that everyone at least acknowledges receipt of the query/document. Updated documents to be provided in a tracked change format so that revisions can be clearly identified. Opportunity for a standing item on board calls and meetings for directors to raise issues that they are facing that can be discussed and addressed. Additional standing item on board meeting agendas for board training and development. Board structure and plans for recruitment of new directors: All directors had completed the skills audit questionnaire as part of the governance action plan. These had been consolidated into a single spreadsheet which captured the detail of the current skills and experience across the board. This was set alongside the list of skills that was generated following the session at the last meeting which looked at what might be needed to help the board further develop its knowledge base to be able to support the delivery of the new strategy. This enabled the board to have a discussion about its future structure and how the recruitment of directors would be undertaken when positions became available. A number of key points were agreed; CH to ensure all action points and addressed.

3 5. CEO Report The board agreed unanimously to move from a portfolio based structure to one focused on skills, knowledge and experience. All future appointments would list the required skills rather than a specific portfolio, although directors would be responsible for overseeing one of the boards main advisory groups based on their particular skill set. The skills list and audit responses would be consolidated in to one list that captures all the required elements for future board structure. Directors would be expected to self-report any changes in skills and/or conflicts of interest that arose during their terms in office. A new, generic role descriptor is to be created to support the upcoming recruitment of an elected non-exec director and all positions would be available to candidates from inside and outside the sport. In future all candidates putting themselves forward for elected or appointed roles on the board will be required to submit a CV, a covering letter outlining their suitability for the role and a completed skills questionnaire. The recruitment of the Chair, and the elected director position that will become vacant at the AGM, will be completed prior to the recruitment of two new appointed directors. BB confirmed that he would be seeking reelection at the AGM for a second term in office, although he would be unable to attend due to a clash with his current job. GW confirmed that this would be his last board meeting and he would be stepping down at the AGM. An amendment would be made to the Articles to provide for the Audit Committee and Nominations Committee to be the only two standing committees of the EHA. All other committees to be renamed as Advisory Groups which can be established to meet a specific need but not listed by name within the Articles. DM presented his report and asked for any question. There were no specific questions on the content of the report although MF asked for clarity about the meeting with the kit partners for 2017/18. DM explained that this related to a meeting held with Kempa and Premier Sports about the provision of matchballs and referees kit for next season the second year of a three year deal. SW raised a query about the size of the matchballs being provided by Kempa last season and whether they were of the regulation size. BB said this might have been as a result of the either too much or too little air by DM said he would check with Kempa for any issues. Action: CJS to produce consolidated skills framework. develop generic role descriptor. Action: ES to update the Articles and send to DM for inclusion in AGM info. discuss issues with matchball sizes with Kempa.

4 6. Business Directors Reports a) Finance & Governance: No comments were made. The annual accounts were agreed and signed off by the board subject to a couple of queries that ES had with the depreciation rates. DM will ensure that these form part of the pack of information for members for the AGM. The updated Equal Opportunities Policy was approved by the board to include a statement regarding the intention to meet the Code of Sports Governance requirement for a minimum of 30% gender representation on the board. The updated Social Media Policy for Employees was approved by the board. b) Marketing & Commercial: BB asked if it was possible to get a list of who has access to the various EHA Twitter accounts and how access was managed. DM will Chris Pearce and feedback. SW reported on feedback that she had received from a new club about issues with navigating the website. DM asked if those issues could be passed on to Chris Pearce so that they could be looked at as necessary. DM also confirmed that planned updates of the website to include ensuring scoresheets were more easily accessible alongside match scores were currently being tested and would be in place for the start of the new season. BB asked how items on the website were archived for future reference. DM would CP and report back. Action: ES to send queries on annual accounts to DM. CP. Action: SW to ask for website issues to be sent to CP. CP. The logo for the Premier Handball League was approved by the board. 7. Portfolio Directors Reports c) Discipline & Appeals: No comments were made, although GW updated that interviews had been held to appoint the new Chair of the CDC. He and DM would discuss the final decision and report back once the appointment had been made. a) Workforce Development: Both SW and BB made comments that they had been receiving enquiries from schools about the need for a short course linked to the GCSE curriculum content for handball. DM confirmed that the office had also received similar calls and that Miriam was looking at options. SW felt that this needed to be done sooner rather than later in order to make the most of the opportunity that existed given a number of other sports were being removed from the list of approved options. MB.

5 BB also raised a query regarding the Master Coach requirements for national teams after DM said that he would look to get more detail on the exact implications from the EHF and Miriam and the board to identify possible issues. MB. 8. Risk Managemen t b) Performance & National Teams: No comments were made. c) Delivery Partners: No comments were made. d) Competitions & Events: No comments were made as the discussions on the rules document and Fit for Purpose criteria would be dealt with under AOB. a) Review of Risk Matrix Following a discussion about the existing risk matrix, the board agreed that all directors would check through their respective risks by the end of July and feedback to DM with any amends including the removal of current risks and the addition of any new ones. Time will be allocated on the agenda for the Sept meeting to look at in more detail. b) Actions to mitigate identified risks None required at this time. Action: Directors to check Risk Register and feedback to DM with any updates by end of July. 9. Any Other Business IHF Membership this was approved by the board and DM would follow up with the IHF n the next steps. Fit for Purpose Criteria first item was the proposed inclusion of new requirements for Premier League teams to have a male and female section and also at least two junior teams in EHA competitions by season 2020/21. After a discussion including whether this was fair to impose on teams, and the need to set out the benefits to clubs of having both these elements, the board voted by a majority of 5-2 in favour of removing both items from the list for now. However, the board are committed to looking at how these might be linked to the delivery of the new strategy and to work on a plan for seeing how these can be added to the list of criteria in the future. The second item was related to the minimum court length that would be allowed within the competition formats. After a discussion including availability of courts and health & safety issues regarding run offs it was agreed that the minimum length of courts on which clubs can play without seeking dispensation would remain at 36m. However, clubs could seek dispensation for courts of a shorter length if there speak with JP about amendments

6 were no viable alternatives with reasonable travelling distance. In addition, where run offs behind the goal were less than 2m, safety matting (floor matting rather than crash mats would suffice) would need to be in place either side of the goal to the 6m line to protect players from impact with the wall. DM would discuss this with John Pearce to assess which venues this might affect and to amend the FfP criteria accordingly. to the FfP criteria. Action: GW to send through minor amends to rules doc. GW was also asked to take one last run through the rules and regulations and provide any minor amends to MF and John Pearce to enable the document to be released. Radu Miclaus s proposal re set up of a new league it was felt that there were still too many unknowns within the information provided at the moment. There were some concerns that by offering a forum for Mr Miclaus to speak with members, it might be seen as the board endorsing the proposal which it currently did not. However, the board did not want to dismiss the opportunity out of hand but rather would invite Mr Miclaus to make a firmer proposal for consideration. DM also outlined that Mr Miclaus and his business partner would be attending the BHA Board meeting on 21 st July to outline a secondary proposal about delivering an event for British teams. contact Radu Miclaus with regards to next steps for his proposal. The board asked DM to contact Mr Miclaus to let them know of their thoughts and offer. DM also stated that consideration should be given to the inhouse proposals being put together by John Pearce and which were originally due to be presented at today s meeting. The board are keen to see this as part of the discussions with members on 2 nd Sept prior to the AGM. Proposed article changes and AGM these were outlined by ES and will form part of the agenda for the AGM. ES has produced an updated, track changed version of the Articles which contain all of the proposed amendments to ensure they fall in line with the code of governance. The intention would be for the whole document to be adopted in one resolution rather than several individual resolutions and ES would produce a paper to help outline this to members. The board accepted this proposal and was happy for the approach outlined to be adopted. Awards Proposal and format it was agreed that for this year, awards would be given for S8 and S7 Player of the Year along with Male & Female Coach Action: BB to put forward format for Coach of the Year, MF to circulate details of Player of the Year. bring proposal

7 of the Year. BB said that he would pull together a format for the Coach of the Year process and MF would circulate the details he had on the Player of the Year that just needed a decision on how those players with a joint number of votes were separated. DM suggested that in line with previous discussions with CS there needed to be a broader approach to recognition awards in place for future years together with a clear process for decisions to be reached. DM stated that he intended to work with senior managers to come up with a proposal that would then be presented to the board for sign off at the Nov board meeting. Premier League logo sign off this was approved and signed off by the board under the Marketing & Commercial report section. Formal letter to MB from the board CJS is happy to produce a letter on behalf of the board and has asked for any comments or information to be sent to him by Friday 21 st July. DM said that he would forward his notes from the club conference presentation to MB. for future award programme to Nov board meeting. send notes to CJS, other directors to forward information by 21/7. Action: GW, BB and SW to send note to ES for review and comment. 9. Date of next meeting Recruitment review update ES gave an update on the review carried out by Peninsula of the recent internal review process. This had been shared with GW, BB and SW who stated that they had put together a response to ES providing their final thoughts and hoped that would draw a line under the subject. ES said that he would read and respond as appropriate. In addition both CH and ES gave an apology to GW, BB and SW with regards to the way their original complaint had been handled. 16 Sept 2017 in Loughborough.