June 16, 2014

Minutes of the 142nd management meeting held on Monday 16th June 2014 at sportscotland, Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh  EH12 9DQ at 1600 hours.

Attendees:

Gordon McCormack OBE, Chair
Catherine Goodfellow, Vice Chair
Janice Eaglesham, Director
John Reid OBE, Director
Claire Morrison, Director
Dave Rhoney, Director
Gavin Macleod, CEO
Caroline Lyon, Company Secretary

Apologies:

Gerry Milne, Director
Anna Tizzard, Director
Sandra Proudfoot, Director
Iain Smith, Director
Jo Bell, sportscotland Partnership Manager

Welcome

Conflicts of Interest

Vice Chair – Commonwealth Games Scotland

Minutes of previous meeting: 29th April 2014

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Matters Arising

  • The Finance sub group is still awaiting pensions advice therefore no paper has yet been circulated by the Finance Manager.
  • The CEO group met last week.
  • National Working Groups: the coaching and volunteering regional managers had been recruiting and were now all in place. The Pathways Manager was re-establishing contact.
  • A Governance and Infrastructure paper had been circulated by the Chair and replies were awaited.
  • There was no further new on potential sportscotland funding. A sportscotland Board meeting will be held next week and a Board member, George Walker, had been allocated to Scottish Disability Sport.
  • 13 hospitality places were available at the event on 24th July sponsored by A G Barr.
  • Guidelines for communication required to be circulated.
  • An initial meeting regarding the Cerebral Palsy World Games had taken place and Scottish Disability Sport had submitted an initial payment.
  • The Finance sub group had met with Mike Crerar, who indicated that the auditors were satisfied with the accounts. The accounts are being printed ready for signing and a draft copy was duly signed by the Board.
  • It was requested that the limit for payments signed off on the sole authority of the CEO be raised from £500 to £1,000 on the recommendation of the auditors. This was agreed by the Board.
  • The notes from the Finance sub group meeting will be circulated.

CEO Report

  • Good work had taken place within the Branches and four were expected to be awarded MOR certificates at the AGM in September.
  • The date for the Branch conference was set as 16th November and all Branches had been notified. The venue is to be confirmed but is likely to be Perth.
  • A good response had been received for the summer sports camp and a waiting list had been started. Funding has been received from Celtic FC Foundation, Wheelpower and Better Breaks.
  • The Regional Managers had met with the Scottish Athletics Regional team and were working on joint plans. An initial meeting had also been held with the Scottish Cycling Regional team and meeting were ongoing with Scottish Swimming.
  • The Regional Performance Gala had taken place the previous day. 28 swimmers were in attendance and performances had been good.
  • The next Regional Boccia competition will take place in August with the venue still to be confirmed.
  • The UK DIT had been delivered to all final year PE students at Glasgow University. Appreciation was expressed for the efforts of Theresa Campbell and Sharon MacKechnie for organising this.
  • Team Scotland has been selected for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. There are 22 athletes, pilots, directors and guides in the team of whom 21 are Scots.  This was successful in terms of the goal for number of athletes selected.  Scottish para athletes are represented across all five sports and have medal prospects in arguably four or five sports.
  • Bowls Squad training is ongoing and two more sessions will be held before the squad is integrated with the mainstream bowlers.
  • Numbers attending events are increasing although numbers for the Senior Learning Disability Gala were down due to Lothian Branch not attending this year.
  • The sub group had met to discuss Athlete Academy applications, selecting 21 athletes of whom 11 were new to the Academy.
  • The GB Boccia and Cheshire International Boccia Competitions had been held in Wigan and the young players in particular performed well. A team of coaches was in place who did a good job.
  • Education and Training opportunities were decreasing towards the summer. 23 courses had been held with 271 candidates, most of whom (228) were on the 19 UK DIT mainly education courses.  Numbers overall attending courses were dropping therefore a review should be carried out for the next two years’ funding received.  Very good feedback continued to be received.
  • The e-learning resource had been piloted and results were awaited.
  • The Boccia Level 2 course had been endorsed, the pilot course completed and the next course is to be held in November. The majority of candidates attending the pilot had been from Scotland.
  • A meeting had been held with SGB Professional Officers with a development or coaching remit, sharing good practice and learning. This had been well received and will be held annually or bi-annually.
  • Work continued with sport specific governing bodies and this reflected the increasingly inclusive nature of how governing bodies are working.
  • Best & Randak have produced case studies relating to the UK DIT and the Education and Development Manager will circulate these.
  • A draft anti-corruption policy had been received from sportscotland with reference to betting. Prior to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games all associated governing bodies must have such a policy in place.  This has been modified and circulated to the Board and the CEO will distribute to staff, sports and branches and arrange to have it added to the website.  There was discussion on the detail of the policy and it was highlighted that it could be amended in the future.  It was agreed that the responsible person should be the CEO.
  • The recruitment and selection policy required to be updated in line with the revised Equality Policy. Advice had been taken from Lucy Faulkner and a draft policy produced.
  • The equal opportunities monitoring form required amendment. Previously monitoring had not taken place in recruitment but in future this will be done on an optional basis.  This was agreed by the Board.
  • The Classification paper previously distributed had been amended and highlighted as discussed.
  • Interviews were held for the Tayside & Fife Regional Manager post on 22nd May, initially with two candidates scheduled to attend, of whom one withdrew for personal reasons prior to the interview and one was not considered suitable. A meeting was held with sportscotland and the regional partnership, with the result that a part time consultancy would be offered for the Tayside area and a partnership agreement would be put in place for Fife, both for an initial period of one year.  Having invited tenders for the consultancy, two replies had been received and both parties would be interviewed.  It was agreed that Disability Sport Fife would deliver the agreed outcomes in the Fife area.
  • The Battle Back position recruitment was ongoing and it was hoped that following interviews 12 weeks ago a candidate would be in place by the end of July.
  • SDS is working with sportscotland as the recognition period as lead body for boccia was finishing and it was intended to extend this to 2020. Terms of Reference had been circulated and agreed.
  • Lyndon Williams is working on sport specific information sheets and these will be used as a source of information post-Games.
  • The CEO and Pathways Manager had met sportscotland regarding a potential marketing campaign, with the result that £4,500 would be available following the Commonwealth Games around the filming of athletes, local press and targeting around disability and corporates.
  • The Malaysia project is ongoing and a meeting via Skype would be held on the following Friday.
  • A presentation would be made to US military veterans on 26th June to tie in with the recovery unit exchange.

Sub Groups

Governance and Infrastructure: Memorandum and Articles

Iain Smith was unable to attend the meeting.  The sub group had met regarding the revisions and held discussions taking into account feedback received.  Iain Smith will have the definitive statement but the proposals agreed were primarily:

  • Board members would serve a term of three years;
  • Board members would serve a maximum of two terms and thereafter could be invited onto the Board but a gap of one year should be left;
  • Consideration should be given to continuity. The preferred number of Board members is 10 but others could be co-opted;
  • A quorum for Board meetings should be four Board members;
  • For the next three years a rolling programme should be in place whereby one third of the Board resign each year after the first year.

Iain Smith is writing up the agreed statement and checking that it could be presented at this year’s AGM.  If agreed it will be circulated to Branches to submit nominations.  Consideration required to be given to the nomination process, but it was proposed that nominations should be given to the CEO, who would request a resume from each nominee.  Following this all names received would be circulated to Branches and the voting member from each Branch would record their vote on or before the evening of the AGM, allowing the CEO to announce the result.

Board assessments should be carried out and all Board members asked whether they are willing to stand again for election.

Communications

The sub group had met and work was ongoing.  Preparations were being made for the Commonwealth Games and the implications for SDS.

Partners’ Update

British Paralympic Association

Minutes and a letter from Tim Reddish had been circulated regarding changes to the memorandum and articles and voting rights.  The CEO and Chair had been unable to attend the Home Nations meeting due to delayed flights, but the case for membership were put on Scotland’s behalf.  A letter had been received in reply and a vote would take place in November.

CPISRA

The general assembly will be held in Barcelona in October at a cost of €860 per person plus flights.  SDS has not previously attended and it was not considered necessary to attend this year.

Events

  • SDS/SFA 5 a side Football – 28th May at Ravenscraig
  • Senior Championships for Swimmers with a Learning Disability – 17th May at Scotstoun
  • National Performance Gala – 15th June in Aberdeen
  • National Junior Track & FIeld Championships – 4th June at Grangemouth

International

Six Scots are competing in Boccia in Portugal: Joshua Rowe, Scott McCowan and Patrick Wilson (BC3) and Kieran Steer and Stephen McGuire (BC4).

Reports are on the website about Portugal and Barcelona.

Commonwealth Games

SDS has verbally been advised that tickets will be allocated and require to be collected from Stirling.  Allocation should be considered and it was suggested that the CEO, Chair and Performance Manager meet to discuss.

AOCB

  • An invitation had been received from Bowls Scotland.
  • Nomination forms have been sent to Branches for the annual awards. Board members can nominate through Branches or individually.
  • The Czech BC4s have been invited to the Peak in Stirling in July for training matches.
  • The Cerebral Palsy European Championships will be held this summer in Barcelona.
  • The Blind Bowls Championships will take place next week at Kelvingrove in Glasgow.
  • Michael Kerr is leaving today with the GB Wheelchair Rugby team for the Canada Cup in British Columbia.
  • Josh Manson, Scotland Under 15 and now Under 19 wheelchair basketball player, is participating tomorrow in the City to City relay, which sees high school students taking a message to Glasgow by running, canoeing and cycling.
  • Jo Butterfield is in Berlin for international classification.
  • Replies to requests for AGM funding are being received and Aileen Neilson has agreed to be guest speaker. The photographer is booked, diaries ordered, hotel booked and work has begun on the annual report.  Eliza Watson has confirmed availability.  Recommendations for subscriptions should be submitted at the next Board meeting.

Date of Next Meeting

18th August 2014