December 12, 2016

Minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2016

Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ at 1700

Attendees

  • Janice Eaglesham MBE, Chair
  • Catherine Goodfellow, Vice Chair
  • Gavin Macleod, CEO
  • Oliver Barsby, Director
  • Jay Runga, Director
  • Iain Smith, Director
  • Caroline Lyon, Company Secretary

Apologies

  • Gerry Milne, Director
  • Dave Rhoney, Director
  • Claire Morrison, Director
  • Jennifer Griffin, sportscotland Partnership Manager

1.    Welcome and Apologies

2.    Conflicts of Interest and Legal Register

There were no conflicts of interest and no matters on the legal register of which SDS is aware.

3.    Minutes of Previous Meeting, 29 October 2016

P2 should be amended to indicate involvement in the strategic planning rather than participation.

4.    Matters Arising

  • It was confirmed that the Articles of Association had been sent to Companies House.
  • Work on the new database has been delayed but is progressing.
  • The skills audit form is being updated. Action: Chair/Vice Chair
  • The Finance Manager’s work on Policies and Procedures prior to the development audit was acknowledged.
  • Positive feedback has been received on the office refurbishment.
  • Feedback is awaited from Bowls Scotland regarding the IBD Championships.
  • The Opportunities & Equality Manager is investigating the workload involved in achieving the higher level of the Equality Standard. Action: JL
  • The AGM date has been agreed as 17 September 2017 and the event will be combined with the Branch Conference. The staff team was thanked for their work on the previous combined event.
  • The sportscotland Team Scotland dinner had been held and the event was successful for SDS in terms of recognition of athletes and the Legacy 2014 award for the UKDIT. The date for next year’s dinner will be 21 September.
  • The accounts had been presented and accepted by the finance sub group. Paperwork has been circulated and discussed and it was agreed all was in order. The next meeting will see the next quarter accounts presented.
  • All staff are now in post and the position with Lothian Disability Sport has been filled.
  • The Chairs’ forum has started.

5.    Sub Groups

Finance

  • The Chair had met the CEO to discuss how best to develop the position of the Finance Director.
  • Preparation was under way for the development audit which will be held from 30 January to 4 February 2017. An email had been sent to sportscotland to request a note of the information which will be required. The CEO would follow this up and circulate the information once received. Action: CEO

Governance: Policies

Policies had been circulated for agreement and two for information.

  • The Risk Management Policy and IT Strategy were outstanding at the last audit and were now produced. Kim Atkinson of Scottish Sports Association had been asked to conduct the review of the Chair.
  • The Risk Management Policy was agreed with suggested amendments. The Vice Chair will feed back to the CEO and the CEO will amend accordingly. Action: Vice Chair, CEO
  • The Risk Register had been updated by the CEO. Iain Smith offered to share this with the risk department at Standard Life for comments and the offer was accepted. The policy was agreed with amendments.
  • The Financial Procedures Policy had been written by the Finance Manager and CEO. The Chair will ask Gerry Milne for comments. The CEO and Finance Manager will review and Gerry Milne will be asked to notify any amendments before the next Board meeting. Action: Chair, CEO, GM
  • The IT Strategy may require to be updated, for example where social media is mentioned, and should be linked to the Social Media Guidelines. It was suggested that consideration be given to encryption, data protection, password strategy and the strategy should also cover tablets and mobile phones. Oliver Barsby and Jay Runga offered to pass suggestions to the CEO. Iain Smith offered to look at data protection issues. Action: OB, JR, IS
  • It was agreed to circulate the IT Strategy to Branches as part of the MOR once updated. Iain Smith will provide a summary on new legislation and the CEO will ask Harper MacLeod for copies of documents. Action: IS, CEO
  • The Health & Safety Toolkit had been reviewed by Iain Smith and feedback will be provided. Action: IS
  • It was suggested that the Volunteer Policy be developed in future.
  • sportscotland had circulated template documents regarding Child & Vulnerable Adult Protection and encouraged all governing bodies to be prepared for any allegations. Advice was to direct all enquiries to Safeguarding in Sport, who however only handle children and the question was raised about a support structure for vulnerable adults. It was agreed the Chair and CEO would shape a statement for the website and the Opportunities & Equality Manager would be asked for input. Action: Chair, CEO, JL

6.    Board Updates

  • The Opportunity & Equalities Manager had contacted Jay Runga regarding attendance at a South Lanarkshire Branch meeting. The scheduled meeting had been postponed until 7 January 2017.
  • GB Boccia has received a 13% increase in funding.
  • The Board dates had been circulated. All Board members were requested to notify availability prior to each meeting as it would be possible to alter dates to accommodate maximum Board attendance.
  • Staff had been notified of dates of presentations to Board. The Board were requested to indicate the information they would like to be presented and all were asked to consider what aspects of work were of most interest. It was requested that all staff presentations be circulated in advance. It was agreed that Claire Morrison would liaise on behalf of the Board with the CEO to agree content. For the Performance presentation it was agreed that topics should include the Academy and talent ID, key strategic challenges, successes, an overview of the job, a focus on what has worked well, and key learning from 2016 including Rio.
  • Feedback from the staff away days will be circulated. Action: CEO

7.    Partners Updates

  • SDS had sent apologies to the BPA AGM on 9 November. No elections had been held. Four members are up for re-election including the Chair. Tim Reddish will be standing down and two more members will not be standing again. Nominations open on 16 December and elections will be held on 28 February. The Board were asked to give consideration to nominations. Action: All
  • The UKSA is now running on a minimal budget. The remaining staff member has been made redundant and is currently working on a voluntary basis. A meeting had been held with the BPA regarding classification.
  • The Chair and CEO had attended the CPISRA AGM and General Assembly. There had been a good attendance with 23 nations represented. The new strategic plan is progressing and Peter Drysdale and Craig Carscadden had been elected as President and Coaching Manager respectively. The World Games will be held in 2018, probably in Spain. The General Assembly of the International Federation of CP Football had been held at the same time where a new strategic plan had been presented. There is the aim of football being back on the Paralympic programme. A new president has been elected and a member at large for America and Asia but no secretary general or member at large for Europe or Africa. A commitment was made to bringing the committee to full strength.
  • GBDFA membership was discussed. Football has been withdrawn from the Paralympic programme other than blind football and there was a question over membership in the meantime. The Board agreed to suspend membership until there is a visual impairment football programme in Scotland or cerebral palsy football is back on the programme.

8.    Sports/Events

  • Highlights from 2016 include:
    • Targets have been met for event attendance.
    • SDS is confident of meeting targets for 2017.
    • Events have been influenced by the international situation.
    • The Scottish Boccia Championships will be held at Inverclyde as an open event, a three day residential with singles, pairs and teams.
    • The curlers have qualified for the Winter Paralympics and World Championships.
    • The CEO had recently had a meeting with the CEO of RYAS. A bid had been submitted to host the World Para Sailing Championships next year at Inverclyde and Cumbrae.
    • GB Boccia are bidding to host the 2018 World Championships in the UK.

9.    Board Training Days

  • Legal input from Iain Smith was agreed to have been very helpful and a document had been prepared for Board members and circulated at the meeting.

10. Updates and Information

  • The CEO had had a meeting with Jay Runga regarding potential commercial partnerships. The CEO had provided JR with the presentation previously created.
  • The Vice Chair had attended a conference on behalf of SDS. The CEO had also attended and workshops including legal updates had been attended.
  • The Vice Chair had also attended equality and child protection workshops.
  • Several members had attended the Coaching and Volunteering Awards where Eddie McCluskey and Karen Ross had received recognition.
  • The Chair had met with Gerry Milne, and attended the National Learning Disability Swimming Championships as well as a meeting in London with UKSA and the CPISRA General Assembly in Barcelona.
  • SDS was represented at the Sunday Mail Awards where winners included Gordon Reid and Maria Lyle.
  • Notes from the Board training days had been circulated.

11. DONM

30 January 2017