Netball Scotland Annual General Meeting th September 2018 Emirates Arena, Glasgow. Minutes

Transcription

1 Netball Scotland Annual General Meeting th September 2018 Emirates Arena, Glasgow Minutes Attending: Board: Gareth McKenna, Director (Chair of the AGM) Jacqueline McCluskey, Director Lucy Faulkner, Director Janet Young, Director Claire Nelson, CEO and Director Staff: Geraldine Moore, Head of Development Karen Dunn, Operations Manager Caroline Walker Senior Grampian and H&I RDM Natalie Cassells, West North RDM Craig Smith, East and Central RDM Lynda Sim, Tayside and Fife RDM Gillian Taylor, Membership and Communications Manager Lauren Matthews, Education Coordinator Emma High, Competitions Administrator Katelyn Williamson, Community Impact Officer Gail Parata, Head of Development Members: Anna Beattie, All Star Junior Netballers Maria Fazzia, All Star Junior Netballers Olivia Parker, Caledonian Netball Club Eliza Mather, Dunedin Netball Club Kay Farquhar, Dunedin Netball Club Katy MacGregor, Herriot Watt University Netball Club Angela Kirkpatrick, Harmony Row Netball Club Eilidh McCallum, Harmony Row Netball Club Caroline Downie, East Kilbride Netball Club Katie Toner, East Kilbride Netball Club Gillian Rae, Netball Fever Netball Club Debbie Williamson, Netball Fever Netball Club Erin Thomson, Queen Margaret University Emma Axon, Queen Margaret University Jackie Gregory, St Mirren Netball Club Sarah O Connell, St Mirren Netball Club 1

2 Anne Marie McDougall, Stirling Netball Club Karin Figlioni, Stirling Netball Club Pamela Sandy, Central Netball Association Sheryl Braidwood, Sycamore Netball Club Gillian Stewart, Sycamores Netball Club Frances Cathcart, Glasgow Netball Association Apologies: Board: Caroline Mansley, Chair and Director Catriona Semple, Director Amy Walsh, Director Juliette Kerrigan, Director and Company Secretary Staff: Lesley MacDonald, Pathways Development Manager Gillian Crozier, Sirens Operations Manager Jessica Mawer, Marketing Manager Lee Wilson, West South RDM Elena Morris, Performance Coordinator Members: Kilmarnock Netball Club Claremont Netball Club St Matthews Netball Club Shortlees Netball Club Cumbernauld Netball club Dumfries and Galloway Netball Association St Andrews Netball Club 1. Welcome Gareth McKenna (Gareth) welcomed everyone to the Netball Scotland season AGM, stating he was standing in as Chair as Caroline Mansley was unable to attend, and introduced the members to his colleagues on the board: Jacqueline McCluskey Director (HR), Claire Nelson CEO and Director, Janet Young Director (Club and Competitions), Lucy Faulkner Director (without portfolio). Gareth referenced the apologies above. Garth checked all attendees had signed the register and obtained their AGM pack with voting cards. Minutes to be taken by Karen Dunn. 2

3 2. Roll Call and Appointment of Tellers Gareth gave the roll call and stated we had 29 votes present of which 0 were proxy vote and in addition we had 9 non-voting observers, a total of 38 people in the room. All voters confirmed they had voting cards and instructions for use provided. Emma High and Lauren Matthews were appointed tellers. 3. Minutes of 2017 AGM of the Association of Netball Scotland Gareth reviewed the minutes page by page; no amendments were notified by the members in the room. Minutes were accepted as follows: Proposed: Seconded: Frances Cathcart Jackie Gregory 4. Annual Report Gareth introduced CEO Claire Nelson (Claire) who presented the annual report. Claire welcomed everyone to the AGM, thanked them for their attendance stating it has been another strong year for Netball Scotland and presented the annual report booklet. Thanks to Gillian Taylor and team for pulling this information together, and their hard work and dedication over the last year. The annual report is a high level review of our performance as an organisation against our annual targets and long term investment outcomes. We are invested 568.5k per annum by sportscotland against achieving long term outcomes, all other income comes from our own revenue streams such as membership fees, supplementary funding streams and commercial investment. Despite our significant growth over the course of this strategic cycle, we have received no additional core funding from sportscotland. sportscotland agreed long term outcomes with green results have been achieved but Netball Scotland need to stretch targets in the next cycle. 3

4 Additional funding in Equality and Inclusion allowed a shift from performance focus to delivering sport for the community through the Community Impact team. Shetland Netball Association were now engaged as members thanks to increased engagement from Caroline Walker, RDM. We also had changes in the RDM team: West North, Natalie Cassells, West South, Lee Wilson East and Central, Craig Smith Lynda Sim, Tayside and Fife Caroline Walker promoted to Senior Regional Manager The membership increase in part came from active participants converting to full members and a positive increase in junior affiliation. Netball Scotland continues to be one of the fastest growing sports NGBs in Scotland, and by July 2018 membership was sitting at 8,400. The new website and member feedback survey in December 2017 engaged our audience and allowed us to improve our services. 4

5 With a change in personal through the year from Katy MacGregor to Emma High we have introduced a focus on competition solely, built a competition workforce and will begain a competition review. Part of that will be reviewing the District competition and scouting structure, which now has year olds across 19 Local Authorities, as well as continuing to share knowledge and expertise from our National Technical Team (NTT) through to District coaches. Education now has a less siloed approach with focus on collaboration to meet the needs of all the business areas and assist member leagues and clubs. Thistle mark has allowed us to capture more accurate data to analyse and identify any gaps, one of which being the umpire blockage, particularly the B Award. Having reviewed the process that Netball Europe manage, Rebecca Hope, Education Development Manager, joined their working group to offer solutions towards flexibility, for which her new approaches have received praise. We use a tool provided by sportscotland for NGBs to provide a plan and strategy for coaches in our sport. We have surpassed the long term target and currently sit at 64%. We currently have 8 coaches going through UKCC Level 3, and Gail Parata is studying for a degree which is an equivalent level 4 coaching qualification. We continue to use Sirens as a platform to enhance the education and training opportunities to ensure we deliver a number of workshops, CPD opportunities, NTT development and observational sessions. Education requires from the NGB: Collaborative Working A needs-based approach to recruitment, development and retention of coaches Review of coach education and CPD The deployment of quality coaches into pathway programmes Developing and enhancing educational opportunities Empowering coaches to continually improve and adapt Using technology to better engage, develop and communicate with all coaches Encouraging all coaches to promote positive environments for participants in sport 5

6 We currently have 118 athletes, 13 coaches and 6 team managers across 5 academies. The increase in the number of players is due to increased scouting and an increased calibre of talented young players through coach education linked to the NTT. Lesley MacDonald our Pathways Development Manager, as agreed and funded by our Membership income, was the start of our pathway review and is delivering results: Netball World Youth Cup th place. All but 1 of this squad came through development academies, with many now in Thistles and Sirens. This was a great year for us. We had a successful Samoa Test Series in December 2017 followed by Netball Europe where we have now consolidated our position as the number 2 team behind England with the impressive 2 from 2 wins against Northern Ireland and Wales, and qualification for next year s Netball World Cup (NWC). Achieving 9 th in the world, with just a small 0.2% off 8 th which we are working on. We have a young team, full of talent and a bright future, next year will be focussed on NWC prep and Sirens will be the platform to get our team ready to deliver their best performances to date. 6

7 It was a tough year for the Sirens, with a new coach in place due to Gail s focus being on the Commonwealth Games Gold Coast There was a heavy load for athletes and challenges in going between national duties and the Sirens season. We wanted to add depth to the Sirens through non- Scottish recruitment, but the focus next season will be on the Scots with strong imports watch this space for new exciting signings and 5 year partnership announcements. It s going to be a great season keep supporting us. Off court we continued to Change the Game and deliver big impact. A huge thanks to everyone for their continued support and belief. Netball Scotland continue to operate to high standards of governance. With the introduction of a new Chair, Caroline Mansley, the focus on increasing Board skills and expertise in line with the growing needs of the business and the new Strategic Plan continue to be high on the agenda. We had a specific focus on GDPR this year to ensure we were fully compliant, providing templates and guidelines, as well as creating a Child Protection and Wellbeing Panel. 7

8 We are finalising our first draft of the next strategic plan to go out to member consultation. We have a long term vision of success, a continuation of the work started, with focus on how to adequately support and sustain our achievements and ambitions. We have grown quickly on restricted public funding and with membership income only 10% of total income, we are heavily reliant on additional commercial funding. We have stretched our operational workforce at Head Office and need to strengthen the organisation to enhance the pathway, our club and comps structure to bring it up to date with our member s needs, and to allow it to grow in line with our member aspirations. There will be full consultation with our members on all these projects. We hope you connect to the plan and feel confident that we will be focussing on strengthening the right areas of the sport in the next investment cycle. Claire asked for any questions from the floor of which there were none. Gareth thanks Claire for her presentation. None 5. Amendments to the Articles of Association motions 6. Alterations to the Company Rules None 7. Motions Netball Scotland motion: none 8

9 Glasgow Netball Association motion: Players wishing to affiliate to Netball Scotland after the first of January each season can do so at a reduced rate. Claire agreed with the motion in principle and explained to Frances Cathcart (Frances) GNA Chair, that Netball Scotland plan to complete a full member category review as part of the new strategic plan and consultation process and requested that this motion be put on hold and incorporated into this process. Frances asked if GNA could submit their reasons to support this motion and for consideration during the review process. Gareth confirmed yes, they should submit this to Karen Dunn, and seconded Claire s request to put the motion on hold. Frances agreed. 8. Accounts and election of Company Accountants Claire Nelson presented the annual accounts for in lieu of Juliette Kerrigan. Netball Scotland reached income of over 1m for the first time, though 130k of that was from sponsorship and supplementary funding streams. The majority, sportscotland 568.5k, we must apply for annually. We find out our investment amount weeks before the start of the new financial year and there is no guarantee of any increase in line with business growth. This past year there were threats of cuts of up to 30% but fortunately we secured a small cut only due to evidenced good governance and strong performances. Funding for the Community Impact Team was secured through supplementary Equalities Investment Funding and Lynda Sim s post as Tayside & Fife RDM through Regional Sporting Partners funding. Both short term, annual contracts for which we need to find money to sustain. Income through courses, events and camps delivers 40k profit to support the organisations overheads with commercial investment supporting Sirens and our U21s to the NYWC in Botswana. More is needed to ensure future stability for these key layers in our performance pathway. 9

10 Membership Income accounts for 10% of total income. The membership increase from 2016 hasn t impacted the trend of 10k increase year on year and as agreed this contributes towards a percentage of the PDM salary. We are now servicing a more diverse membership. Our RDMS make up 25% of our full-time staffing resource to support our clubs, members, partners and local associations across 30 of 32 Local Authorities. We focus on what our members want from us our survey outlined: More opportunities to play festivals and competitions Club development Access to coaching expertise Courses and education More access to Thistles and Sirens athletes 10

11 You will see from the pie charts that majority of our budget is spent on staffing and overheads a growing membership leads to growing demands for support, resources, courses, education, development. The expenditure breakdown shows: Sirens has not required any cash investment this year We have a better understanding of costs We have created more camps and commercial activity We run an exceptionally lean budget with stretched resources but focus on the development needs of the sport first. We always try to make cost savings where possible: most recently the Annual Awards and streamlining/condensing programmes where possible. The unexpected surplus will go to reserves as agreed by the Board and sportscotland to achieve our long term outcome of 100k in reserves. The new strategic plan highlights that we need to increase this 100k as the business has grown and so have monthly operating costs. We need to safeguard our organisation and have security for the future. The balance will be invested into additional resource and expertise to increase income generation as, as already evidenced, public funding is restricted and volatile, and membership income has a small incremental growth. We need to be able to unlock additional funding opportunities in order to be able to appropriately resource the organisation and meet the needs of our members, future members, and our ambitions as a sport. Growth is wonderful but needs to be manageable and sustainable and that will be part of our focus in the next strategic plan and over the coming year. Inspired by you. Claire asked for any questions from the floor of which there were none. Gareth thanks Claire for her presentation. 11

12 Approval of accounts for supported by the board: YES 29 NO 0 Abstain 0 Approval of accountants Geoghegans for supported by the board: YES 29 NO 0 Abstain 0 9. Elections Gareth presented the directors: Lucy Faulkner (present) and Juliette Kerrigan (not present), who had been co-opted onto the board, giving a short biography on each. Gareth also confirmed existing board members: Jacqueline McCluskey, Janey Young, Catriona Semple and himself Gareth McKenna wished to continue their tenure. All directors co-opted onto the board must be confirmed at the AGM by its members. Netball Scotland follows a process to appoint board members and Gareth was delighted by the volume and quality of applicants. Gareth confirmed that Amy Walsh, Gordon Kaye and Rachel Clark had stepped down from the Board over the last year and thanked them for their contribution. Amy in particular had saw through her full 2 x 3 year terms as allowed by the Articles of Association. Acceptance of Lucy Faulkner Director YES 28 NO 0 ABSTAIN 1 Acceptance of Juliette Kerrigan as Finance Director and Company Secretary YES 29 NO 0 ABSTAIN 0 None 10. Any other competent business 12

13 11. Date of next year s AGM Sat 7 th or 14 th September 2019 dependant on calendar TBC. 12. Closing Remarks Gareth thanked everyone for attending the AGM and stressed how important our members are to Netball Scotland. It s important for our members to see how we work and see how we utilise our resources. Thank you to those Board members who have stepped down, Amy Walsh, Gordon Kaye and Rachel Clark. Gareth thanked Claire and her team of staff who go above and beyond their duty, and for whom Netball Scotland would not be in the position is was. Netball Scotland hopes to have a massive Thistles Army present in Liverpool 2019 and the Board extend their thanks to Gail and her team for their performances to date. The AGM was concluded with all staff and Board available to attendees for further discussion for the next hour. 13