Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 11th November 2014

Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh  EH12 9DQ at 1600 hours

Attendees:

Janice Eaglesham, Chair
Catherine Goodfellow, Vice Chair
Dave Rhoney, Director
Claire Morrison, Director
Iain Smith, Director
Gavin Macleod, CEO
Ailien Pallot, Finance Manager
Caroline Lyon, Company Secretary

Apologies:

Anna Tizzard, Director
Sandra Proudfoot, Director
Gerry Milne, Director
John Reid OBE, Director

Welcome

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Reference was made to the recent Board away days which would impact on the mechanics of the meeting, e.g. format, information, sub-committees and agenda structure.

Conflicts of Interest

No conflicts of interest.

Minutes of previous meeting – 18th August 2014

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Matters Arising

The CEO indicated the AGM had gone well but following a recent staff meeting it was suggested the 2015 AGM be held at Stirling Court Hotel, and to amalgamate the AGM and Branch Conference in 2016.  This was agreed in principle.

Documents had been received for the forthcoming Fit for Purpose Audit.  The CEO, Chair, Finance Manager, Education & Development Manager and the Opportunities & Events Manager were working on the submission for 5 December, with the auditors’ visit due to commence on 15 December.

Finance papers had previously been circulated (attached).  In the half-yearly review the Association was broadly on target for anticipated income and expenditure had been allocated.

Considerations for the potential hosting of the SDS server by Glasgow Caledonian  University were the cost of the line and bandwith but these could be offset against savings on support.  Confirmation of the terms would be needed in writing.

Potential savings on hardware with the University’s discount would need to be compared against current savings made on software due to charitable status.

The Finance Manager should contact Gerry Milne to arrange a meeting before the end of November, requesting Glasgow Caledonian University to draft the requirements and Gerry Milne to sign off.

The stakeholder pension scheme has ceased and auto-enrolment would be phased in by 2017.  Communications have been made to the staff affected but the staff required to make their own interim arrangements.  A cut-off date was required and should be put in writing to the relevant staff.  It was proposed to write to all affected staff giving them until the end of March 2015 to make a decision.  The Finance Manager would draft a letter for the staff and Iain Smith would check this prior to sending.

Reports

CEO Report: Operational Plan

The operational plan (attached) had been circulated by the CEO and key points were highlighted.  The Board noted that many positive aspects were included.

Sub Groups

Discussion of sub groups had taken place at the Board away days and would be covered later.

Governance

The audit and the memorandum and articles of association had been covered earlier.

The risk register (attached) had been circulated by the CEO and was presented annually to the Board.  A risk policy may be needed.  It was agreed this should be reviewed quarterly by the Board.

IT/Hardware:  The sub group can consider reports or discuss as a Board.  It was suggested this should be pursued with Gerry Milne for advice and guidance then brought to the Board.

It was agreed this should remain an agenda item under Governance, HR and Finance.

Coaching & Education

This had been updated under the operational plan.

Communications

At present the sub group comprises the CEO, Pathways Manager, Performance Manager and Chair.  Policies were given to the Board and an action plan was in place during the Commonwealth Games.  Burt Greener had begun the media campaign.  The action plan would now be reviewed for a longer term view with a meeting scheduled for 16 November, and would then be submitted to the Board.

HR/Staffing

The sub-committee had not met.  The Performance Manager would be taking maternity leave from March 2015 with a planned duration of six months.  A timeline was presented by the CEO for maternity cover beginning on 28 November.  The aim would be to overlap with the Performance Manager and if filled internally then to backfill the vacant post.

Sub-committee Discussion

The Board had reviewed the criteria at the away days: sub-committees should have strategic input, be useful to staff and allow input from non-Board members with expertise.  The existing sub-committees had been reviewed:

• Performance Sport
• HR, Finance and Governance
• Safguarding and Equality
• Coaching and Education
• Branches and MOR
• Communication
• Athlete Panel (linking to young persons’ sports panel and the Blaze cultural exchange group)

Discussions were held around each sub-committee and the following was agreed:

• HR, Finance and Governance would be retained, with the current group size adequate but Iain Smith to either join or function as an advisor. Meetings would be scheduled around finance reports and as required.  Members to be Chair/Vice Chair, Iain Smith, Finance Manager, CEO, Gerry Milne (Finance Director).
• Safeguarding would become a working group rather than sub-committee.
• Coaching and Education would become an operational group with a Board member attending the larger group meetings.
• Communication would retain the existing staff and meet six monthly. A skilled Board member or external adviser would be useful.  A communication plan would come to the Board for ratification and skills needed in the future should be considered.  The existing staff working group would identify external representation to advise.
• An Athlete Panel would meet six monthly and report through the Board or Anna Tizzard. A Young Persons’ Sports Panel was suggested which the Opportunities & Equality Manager could lead after March 2015.  The Chair would discuss with Anna Tizzard.
• The MOR group would meet as required to ratify portfolios and Board members would attend Branch meetings. A list of meetings was circulated (attached) by the Opportunities & Events Manager and Board members were asked to indicate which they could attend and feed back to CL.
• The Boccia sub-committee contains a Board member, Claire Morrison. Reporting would be a standard agenda item.

Partners’ Update

Key partners where SDS has representation were identified as UKSA, National Paralympic Committee of the British Paralympic Association, GB Boccia, GB Disability Football Association and CPISRA.  The mapping previously circulated would be revised.

The next BPA meeting would be the following week with an amendment previously proposed to the voting structure meaning home nations would be non-voting.  Correspondence had been received in October indicating this would not go ahead.

The Chair and CEO are on the Board of UKSA and the AGM would be held the following week.

The CEO had held a meeting with Peter Drysdale regarding CPISRA where he indicated he would be happy to feed back on behalf of SDS.

Events

Domestic/Regional

These were covered in the operational plan.

The learning disability junior swimming championships would be held the following week and were the last event of the year.  The Opportunities & Events Manager was commended for the reports submitted to the Board.

International

The next international event would be the curlers attending the World Championships.

The CP World Games were to be held in 2015 with around 16 athletes in the team.  The Pathways Manager had agreed to be team manager and a job description would be formulated for assistant team managers.  Volunteers for sport specific posts would be selected by the sports.

The team manager advert for the IBD World Championships would be closing on Friday with five applications received to date.

Proposed Changes to Board Agendas

• Time to be allocated to discussion and decision.
• Reports would be discussed as and when arising and a heading should be on the agenda for reports.
• All papers for meetings should be issues together as far as possible and a list of attachments to be detailed in the body of the covering email.
• The date, time, venue and length of meetings would be considered under the next agenda.

AOB

The Opportunities & Events Manager will circulate a database of events for Board attendance.

The Commonwealth Games Scotland half yearly meeting would be held on 27 November.  As the CEO was unable to attend interest was invited from Board members.

Date of Next Meeting

19 January 2015.