Attendees: Liz Pelling (Chairman) (LP), Colin Barthorpe (CB), Dawn Bonner (DB), Simon Gillett (SG), Suzanne Howard (SH), Rob Jenkins (RJ), Tony Kelleher (TK), Gary Stent (GS), Martin Twist (MT) Meeting opened at 09:30 on 11th June, 2016 at Rivers Ibis Health Club, Scours Lane, Reading, RG30 6AY 1. Apologies for Absence Dawn Henning (DH), David Ellcock (Chair of EHUSSC) (DE) (DE phoned in to meeting in part from 1.15pm) 2. Minutes of 20 th February, 2016 Meeting Those present at meeting agreed content of the 20 th February with the following change. There were no matters arising that were not covered elsewhere in the meeting. 3. Umpire Performance Review: Panel Discussions: Women a) Premier LP Laura Geeson is taking a break from outdoor umpiring (but will continue with indoor) move to Reserve panel Richard Pearce has not been able to umpire all season due to injury and, post meeting, confirmed his retirement. LP thanked him for his long service to NPUA. Remove from panel b) A* Panel DH DH provided a full written report for her panels Martin Stott has reached the maximum term for A star panel move to A panel Annika Midwinter has not umpired for a year following maternity. Move to reserve panel and assess for panel reassignment on return. A Panel DH Emma Dodd Caroline Frye, Gill Lord promoted to A star panel. Margaret McLoughlin has retired from umpiring, remove from panels. DH has written to MM to thank her for her services, also acknowledged by EHUOPC. c) B Panel - SH Rebecca Woodcock and Gemma Jones, Promoted to A panel. Jan Tulloch, Peter Divall and Tony Sharp have not umpired all season due to injury. Move to reserve panel Candidates SH Ellen Schallig (NED) was successful as a transferring international candidate and was added to the women s B panel Aleesha Unka (NZ FIH) was successful as a transferring international candidate and places on the A star panel but has since returned to NZ. We wish her well. Page 1 of 5
Dominique Kleyn and Andy Brooks were successful in their assessments and added to the B panel. Reserve Panel Suzanne Howard, Terry Lees and David Lane removed from panel due to inactivity. Return to NPUA membership possible via Regional re-nomination Men a) Premier TK Rob Jenkins has stepped down from premier men s umpiring. Moved to A panel. b) A* Panel RJ David Monger, Nick Bennett, Frances Block and Andy Higgins promoted to Premier panel ACTION; LP to advise NPUA secretary for promotion to National badge A Panel RJ Mike Davidson promoted to A* panel Richard Kirk has retired from umpiring. Remove from panels. EHUOPC thanked Richard for his considerable commitments to umpiring in the National programme and look forward to working with him in his role as coach next season. c) B Panel - GS Matthew Simpson has not umpired all season due to injury. Move to reserve panel Candidates GS Neil McInness was unsuccessful in his candidate watching and was returned to region Richard Bishop Laggett was not assessed due to injury. Remove from candidate list. Region to re-nominate if appropriate Reserves GS Daran Cass will return to NPUA umpiring next season assessment for panel required Jack Harris, Darryl Hoffman, Keith Duffy, David Lane and David Merrell removed from panel due to inactivity. Return to NPUA membership possible via Regional re-nomination Regional Reserves: Criteria for these umpires would be suitability/availability for one-off games, holding an NPUA level fitness test, and who are not on the NPDP or candidate panels nor umpires who have been returned to region from these panels following assessment. ACTION: CB to write to regions to ask for one off names for the Regional reserve panels. ACTION: All Selectors to contact panel members and advise of changes to panels 4. Domestic Tournaments Feedback General feedback from all tournaments showed that there had been a much improved liaison with England Hockey. Tournaments at Lee Valley in particular, had gone very well Page 2 of 5
5. Appointments Co-ordinator Report - CB CB submitted a full report of the season which had gone well, with improvements to the NPDP process of particular note. The season now seems to be 12 months per year, especially with many international training games in the closed season. It was noted that feedback on Junior tournaments needs to come back quicker from NYUAG, accepting that there are the challenges of appointing youth umpires during busy study months. EHUOPC thanked Colin on behalf of the membership for his continued work for the association, and also Mark Everard for covering for Colin during holiday times. 6. Appointing changes for next season Following feedback from CB in the December meeting, it has been agreed that the appointing batches will change for next season. Tranch 1 (17 September to 23 October for 6 weeks). Draft in mid-august and publish by Conference. (Published appointments subject to fitness tests) Tranch 2 (5 November to 27 November for 4 weeks). Draft on 24 October and publish by 28 October. Tranch 3 (4 to 26 February for 4 weeks). Draft in mid December and publish by mid January. Tranch 4 (4 to 26 March for 4 weeks). Draft and publish on a weekly basis as now. 7. Coaching & Assessment Report - DB DB submitted a full report of the season. Richard Kirk and Howard Wilson were both successful as L3 coach candidates and were added to the panel. Chris Todd has retired from umpire coaching in the National Programme. EHUOPC noted its thanks to CT for his long service to the Association. Alistair Clark has moved abroad for the foreseeable future. Remove from coaching panel. NPUA will continue to run coaching and development opportunities providing there is interest from the umpire support group to attend. The Play-off weekend, for example, had a disappointing response from umpire support members, but those attending found it valuable. The process of continuity coaching has proved valuable, is working well, and is to be continued. Umpires are encouraged to speak to their panel leads so that this can be arranged. DB and John Litchfield will continue to manage the Coach candidate process. It was noted that, in line with the new direction for the Performance committee, a greater number of coaching appointments had been made during the season. This had resulted in noticeable performance improvements, many resulting in upgrades. It was also noted that assessment levels had been maintained to a constant level (down only 12 v 2014/15). Total umpire support for season 15/16: 528. Season 14/15: 444. An increase of 84 Total Coaching for Season15/16: 231. Season 14/15: 135 Total Assessments for Season 15/16: 297 Season 14/15: 309 Page 3 of 5
8. NPDP Report - SG SG submitted a full report of the season. Nine NPDP umpires had been successful during the season and will graduate formally at the NPUA conference in September. A coaching game in the National programme prior to assessment had been appreciated. Two umpires remain on NPDP from this intake for season 16/17. Other successes included an NPDP exchange between the East and South regions, and it was also noted that NPDP umpires had watched more National league games with their regional mentors for development. It was agreed that going forward, SG would manage the NPDP and candidate application processes. ACTION: SG to write to Regions for nominations of NPDP and Candidate umpires with a return date of 31 st July For season 16/17the NPDP process will change to have three tranches of ready for assessment v 4 this season, with regionals responsible for informing NPDP candidates of the tranche they are earmarked for. The possibility of a ready now candidate will be amended as follows. Regions may submit nominations for candidates twice during the season. First nomination by 31 st July and second by 1 st December, annually. Candidate umpires nominated must be deemed ready now by regions for performances in the National programme and capable of a mark of 5.5. The Candidate nomination in December should not be used for umpires who would otherwise quality via the NPDP process. Should a 5.5 candidate fail, they can only be re-nominated if the Region is able to persuade NPUA they have a reasonable chance of success, and NPUA can reject or accept the nomination. It was also noted that any previously qualified L3 umpires returning to umpiring should also be capable of achieving a mark of 5.5 in their re-assessment to NPUA panels. Umpires transferring from other countries would be marked starting at 5.0 Transfer of L3 NPUA members between gender panels will be considered on a case by case basis based on knowledge of the umpire within the national programme. 9. EHUSC report DE DE provided a verbal report to the committee of the strategy work currently underway. For clarity, EHUSC confirmed that past policies for selection are null and void with the exception of the A star policy. Performance committees are entrusted to make the right decisions relating to all aspects of performance-related matters pertaining to NPUA umpires. Strategy is responsible for all selection policy, and International umpire matters. Following some initial confusion as to roles and responsibilities, it was agreed that the primary contact for clubs regarding umpire performance needs to be via panel lead. It was also noted that some matters, for example discipline and fitness were the responsibility of the NPUA Executive and that where appropriate, the chair of performance and panel leads would be informed. Strategy to publish notes of meetings to maintain transparency for members of the association. International appointments it was agreed that Performance committees would report FIH upgrades. For season 2015/16, outdoor upgrades were: David Dowdall, Bruce Bale and Paul Walker had been promoted to Grade 1 Page 4 of 5
Tim Benford had been promoted to the Promising list Sean Edwards has been accepted onto the EHF UDP group 10 The International Development Group (IDG) has now changed to the International Performance Group (IPG) and will encompass all international umpires on the Outdoor and Indoor panels. A Promising group has also been established. Jake Charles, Gemma Jones and Rebecca Woodcock have been added to this list. ACTION IDG to be removed from the website. LP to contact Sean Edwards. 10. NPUA Exec Update MT provided an update to the committee on some of the association s plans a) IDG to meet in June around Champions Trophy at Lee Valley. Other Development groups update in Prague WL Round 1. Convergence for coaches and assessors being planned for next season. b) Umpire exchanges took place: Tim Bond from NZ & Spanish exchange (Matt Parry and Matt McMahon from NPUA). Thanks to Gary Stent for organising Spanish exchange programmes. c) Reminder note has been sent by Mike Davidson to all umpires re fitness test level for 2016/17. The fitness criteria also needs to be sent to all regions for candidate or NPDP process ACTION; SG to send to regions for NPDP and candidates d) Club scores / website updates. Sean Edwards is coordinating the revamp of the club scores criteria. ACTION: ALL asked to feedback to MT re any updates desired for website. e) Sponsors / shirts. New sponsor being worked on. f) NPUA conference. 11/12 September at Warwick University. g) Selectors/performance committee for 2016/17 Dawn Henning is standing down as an selector. EHOPC thanked her for work on the committee. All other committee members were willing to stand. MT thanked everyone for their support this year. 11. Dates of next meeting Saturday 3 rd December, 2016 venue tbc (with SG) Saturday 25 th February, 2016 venue tbc Saturday 13 th May, 2017, venue tbc (with SG) 12. AOB The meeting closed at 4.10 pm. With thanks to LP for taking the minutes and RJ for organising the venue and refreshments Page 5 of 5