MINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE BOARD, ASC AND LSC HELD ON: WEDNESDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2019 AT: HAMPDEN PARK,

Present: Graham Lindsay (President), Jim Cullen (Past President), Morag Wellman (Ladies Branch Vice President), Corrie Lawrence (Ladies Branch Junior Vice President), Bruce Crawford (CEO), Rob Niven (Chairman), Marion Murdoch, Judith Dixon, Carolyn Tough, John Ferguson, Gordon Gilchrist, Jim Inglis, John Fingland, Trevor Dodds, Harry Brodie, Joe Kincaid, Tom Kirk, Ian Young, Rod Mickel, John McCall, Bob Carruthers, David McIntyre, Alan Stuart, Albert Middler, Kevin Troup, Anne Shaw, Shirley Jeans, Anna Burnside, Debbie Weir, Jacqueline Orr, Jesme Brown, Mary Anderson, Liz Jamieson

Apologies: Nancy Gallacher, Nigel Forest, Hugh Templeton, Lynn Brown, Margaret Nicol, Brian McArtney, Calder Benzies, Kate Caithness, Sandra McIver

1. Minutes of Previous Meeting: 23rd October 2018 No alterations or corrections were noted, minutes approved by J Kincaid and seconded by J Ferguson.

2. Matters Arising: No items were noted.

3. Report from Board: CEO Bruce Crawford reported Bruce summarised the recent discussions with British regarding selection policy for Teams to represent Scotland at World competitions and the decision by the Board to request further information from British Curling on their proposal. Therefore, further discussion will take place before any decision is reached. Bruce then updated the meeting on the events at the recent Scottish Women’s Championship and on the outcome of various meetings between Scottish Curling and British Curling; also with Team Jackson and the Board meeting which followed these meetings. He then confirmed that the Board had rules of the competition had to be followed which meant that Team Jackson would go to the World Women’s Championship and not Team Muirfield as had been previously stated. Questions were asked from the floor as to why this situation had arisen, why the time between the WUG’s and WWCC was a problem; these were satisfactorily answered. It was noted from the floor that the correct decision had been reached. Rob stated that he thought that the situation had been handled well by Bruce and that SC and BC were keen to move forward together. Bruce then reported on the recent Board meeting on 13th February as follows; Audit committee of Rob Niven, Jim Cullen, Kevin Troup and Louise Burke sitting on it. As agreed at past years AGM an open recruitment for an Independent Chair would take place this year with the selected person being appointed by an appointment committee of Board members. Committee Terms of Reference have been slightly amended and have been approved as working documents going forward. Scottish Curling Staff Survey now complete including Development Officers and report submitted to the Board. An update was given on the Organisational Structural Review Group and the meeting was informed that a questionnaire would be issued shortly to obtain feedback from members. Bruce advised the meeting that there would be changes to the Board at this year’s AGM as Rob is standing down, Helen Hally is not seeking re-election and Jim Cullen’s year as a co-opted Director will be complete.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571

Applications have been sought and received and will be released shortly. The 2019 Wheelchair World Curling Championships are due to commence on 3rd March and tickets are still available. Olympic qualification points are there to be won this year. The World Men’s 2020 in Glasgow is moving forward with tickets due to go on sale in March, for a full week’s pass. Recruitment of volunteers is also due to begin shortly. An update on Scottish Curling Trust was given and an opportunity to visit the exhibition of curling memorabilia within Hampden Museum which is being officially opened today and all attendees are invited to visit it following today’s meeting. Bruce reported on proposal by Margaret Nicol for the formation in memory of Anne Malcolm of the Anne Malcolm Foundation which the Board have agreed to support through Scottish Curling Trust. It was noted that 2½ hours of Safeguarding Training is now required by various personnel within Scottish Curling.

4. Presidents Report: Issued prior to meeting. What follows is a brief resume of my life in Scottish Curling since we last met in October 2018.

I have attended several Curling Club Dinners over the past 4 months including Kinross Curling Club’s 350th Annual Dinner, Aberdour Curling Club’s 200th Anniversary Dinner, Markinch Curling Club’s Annual Supper and Nairn Curling Club’s Annual Dinner. Due to other commitments I had to forego the pleasure of attending Strathkinness Curling Club’s 150th Anniversary Dinner, Orwell Curling Club’s Dinner and due to being Invited to Inverkeithing Curling Clubs Dinner this Friday I am unable to attend Pitlessie Curling Club’s Dinner on the same night. I have also had to give my apologies to Fossoway Curling Club as I cannot attend their Dinner as I will be in Canada on the evening of their event. I was also a Guest of Ladies Branch at the closing Dinner for Swedish Ladies Tour in November. I have attended various Board, ASC, Umpire, Competition, Rules, Coaching and Member Development Committee meetings since last October. Minutes of all these meetings are available on the website. The annual Priestfield Cup, Royal Archers and Tamnavulin Trophy games were all played this year with the ASC being successful in all of them. I had the pleasure of not only attending the European Championships in Tallinn in November but also the honour of presenting gold medals to our victorious men’s team, Team Mouat, on winning the men’s competition. Well done and congratulations to Hammy, Bobby, Grant and Bruce.

I have also attended the National Masters Finals, The Scottish Seniors Finals and just last week the Scottish Championships where I shared medal presentation to the winning teams with Margaret and Morag. I attended the Annual Four Nations competition which was organised this year by the English Curling Association and was held at the recently opened Flower Bowl Leisure Centre at Preston. I am pleased to report that Scotland men won back the Tom Ballatyne Trophy from England but unfortunately gave up the Big Bertha trophy to Wales whilst Scotland’s women narrowly lost the Connie Miller trophy to England. A most enjoyable experience of playing on cobbles, grass and flowers. Early last summer I along with past Presidents, Vice Presidents and Junior Vice President informally formed a group to discuss possible alteration to the current structure of Scottish Curling. This group was officially formed and given Board approval last September. Since then it has met on several occasions and further information on this will be provided during the meeting.

I will be attending the Thanksgiving Service in memory of Anne Malcolm this Thursday.

I head off to Canada for the Men’s Worlds in Lethbridge at the end of March and am hopeful that Scotland’s Men will return with medals. The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571

This concludes my report and if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them on Wednesday.

5. Ladies Branch Presidents Report: Issued prior to meeting - Report from Margaret Nicol (23rd October to 4th February) 26th Oct - 4th Nov Swedish Women’s Tour - This was a successful event. The tourist played in eight ice rinks against all the ladies centres in the LSC. Sweden won overall. 9th Nov Scottish Women in Sport Awards - Judith McCleary and Pam Graham from Scottish Curling and I attended this. Curling had two nominations. Anne Malcolm in official of the year. We were all delighted that Anne won this award and Judith went up and received it on Anne’s behalf. Bruce Crawford has now presented this to Anne and she was delighted to receive it. The other nomination was Angie Malone in the Inspiration in Sport category. This was won by Rebecca Sellar. This event was extremely well attended and useful contacts were established including spending time with the Minister for Sport Joe Fitzpatrick. Subsequent to this he will visit Scottish Curling to talk about the links between curling and health initiatives. 16th Nov - 26th Nov European Championship, Tallinn - Morag, Corrie and I were part of the Scottish Supporters Group. We went to many of the games and roared Scotland on. The Scottish Women’s team narrowly missed out on a place in the Semi- finals. The Scottish Men’s team kept us all on the edge of our seats in a great final coming out as the worthy winners. The whole competition had a great atmosphere and it was good to catch up with two of the Swedish Women who had recently visited Scotland on tour. 30th Nov RCCC Board Meeting - This was a busy meeting so I will highlight some of the things which might be on interest. The two new independent directors attended their first board meeting. A prize draw shirt sponsorship has been initiated for companies to buy tickets and win the chance to be on the national team shirts at various world championship and world cup events. This is being advertised on the web-site. If you have any contact with companies you might like to draw their attention to this. The Draft Strategic Plan was presented to sportsscotland and subsequent meeting was held where the executive team gave a presentation. The outcome of sportscotland funding will be known Feb 2019. Scottish Curling Clothing range has been launched and the first orders will be delivered soon. 2019 World Wheelchair Curling Championships. Organisation for this is progressing well. The full line of nations is now confirmed as Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Korea, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and USA. Sponsorship has been received from Allied Mobility. 2020 World Mens’ Curling Championships Glasgow Life will underwrite this competition and they are taking an active part in the organisation. They will chair the steering group and the local organising committee. Billy Howat is the representative from the curling community on the LOC. Jillian Elborn is the event manager. An independent review of ticketing has been carried out and discounts will be offered to Scottish Curing members. A curling team ticket where if you buy four tickets you get a discount. Tickets will go on sale in March 2019. Supporters Membership was discussed and it is hoped this will be implemented soon. Audit committee it was decided that we should set up and Audit committee. The terms of reference and composition will be drawn up for approval at the board. Staff consultation Development Officers A consultation exercise has been done with some of the development officers. Once it has been seen by the development officers it will be given to Iain Stewart the new development manager as it will inform his work. British Curling a curling performance policy advisory group between Scottish Curling and British Curing has been set up and the board approved the terms of reference of this group. The main

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571 focus of this group is “ to provide a collaborative group across Scottish and British Curling to ensure there is a fully integrated Performance Pathway for Curling and Wheelchair Curling, working towards future Olympic and Paralympic success.” Scotland’s Mental Health Charter for Physical Activity and Sport The board agreed that Scottish Curling would sign up to this charter. Organisation Structure Review Group. Positions on this group were advertised and 7 applicants were received. Four will be invited for further discussion before a final decision is made. 10th Dec Competitions Committee - I attended this meeting in place of Gail as she has a conflict of interest as the main business of the meeting was to look at bids for competitions and select where they should be played. This was an interesting process with decisions about which competitions were awarded to which ice rinks based on a range of criteria. The competitions committee endorsed the decision of the LSC of where the Henderson Bishop and Morton Finals should be played. 23rd Dec Scottish Mixed Doubles Championships - This was held at Braehead and I attended and presented the medals to the finalists. It was a good final. The winners were Gina Aitken and Duncan Menzies with coach Scott Andrews the runners-up were Jayne Stirling and Fraser Kingan. The winners will present Scotland at the World Mixed Doubles in Stavanger Norway 20-27th April 2019 10th Jan Competitions Committee - I attended this as Gail had other commitments. One of the main items of business was the format of the Scottish Senior Women’s Competition. When this was decided there had been 9 entries and a round robin format was agreed. However, when the draw was sent it out some competitors were to be playing three games over along day. Several teams voiced their concerns about this especially as there had been a late entry making 10 teams so there could be a two sections format. The committee reviewed their earlier decision and based on the concerns of the players decided to change to a two section format. This required the draw to be redone. This decision has been conveyed to all the competitors. It was also decided that the rule book will be updated to include rules about format of competitions depending upon numbers of entries. 10th Jan International Women’s Day meeting - A small group from Scottish Curling, sportscotland and Stirling Council are organising this event which is planned for International Women’s day on the 8th March. The group drew up the list of well know women who would be invited to the try curling event on Friday 8th March. The draft timetable for event was agreed. It will be held in the Performance Centre. Some refreshments will be provided and some well-known curlers will act as coaches. 12 - 13th Jan Junior Challenge Divisions One and Two - This was held at Murrayfield and it is a busy full competition. Great to see so many young curlers participating. Division One was won by Stranraer and Division Two was won by Forfar. 20th Jan Scottish Masters Championships - This was held at Greenacres. The women’s final was very close and the winners were Kay Gibb , Catherine Dodds third, Dot Morran second and Marion Malcolm lead. The runners-up were Gwen Prentice skip. Marion Craig third, Helen Drummond second and Rhona Fleming lead. The men’s final was won Peter Wilson skip, David Whyte third, Jim Stirling second and David Hume lead. Coaching Committee 21st Jan - Fiona Harfield reported that the revalidation of coaches is now complete and there are 554 accredited coaches in Scotland. Scottish Curling has announced a partnership with Girl Guiding, who are to introduce the concept of curling (no ice, no stones) to Guides of all ages! 26th Jan Scottish Juniors Championships - This was held in Aberdeen. It is good that there was qualifiers for both the young men and women. There was a high standard of curling at these finals.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571

The youngest team who qualified were only 11 years old and they held their own against much older teams. The semi-finals of the women’s match and the finals of the men’s match was streamed on Facebook. This was as a test run for the Scottish Championships. The women’s final was won by Lisa Davie skip, Kirsty Barr third, Anna Skuse third and Emma Barr lead the runners-up were Amy Bryce skip, Layla Al-Saffar third, Molly Keen second and Jane Barr lead. The men’s final was won by Ross Whyte skip, Duncan Mc Fadzean third, James Craik second and Euan Kyle lead the runners-up were Callum Kinnear skip, Luke Carson third, Ryan Mc Cormack second and Matthew McKenzie lead. The winners will represent Scotland at the 2019 World Juniors Championships in Liverpool Canada on 16th – 23rd Feb 2019. 25 - 28th Jan Four Nations - This was held at held at the Flower Bowl, Preston. This venue is like no other curling rink you have seen. You step onto grass, slide out over pebbles, then over grass and more pebbles and into the flower bed! It is slightly disconcerting to begin and the visibility of lines and placement of stones is difficult, but you get used to it quite quickly. The lighting is much more subdued than normal rinks. 12 Scottish women played in 7 matches, 3 women’s matches against England, Wales and Ireland and 2 mixed matches againts Wales and Ireland. Unfortunately Scotland lost the Connie Miller trophy against England for the first time in 7 years by 2 shots. The Scottish women were also in the losing side for the Marshall Millenium Trophy against Ireland and the Big Bertha Trophy against Wales. The only trophy we successfully brought home was the Tom Ballantyne trophy for men against England. The men had a significant victory of 60 to 26 shots. There was a dinner on the Saturday night, it was a great evening and there is apparently. We want to encourage more women to apply to play in this competition, it is great fun, both curling and socially. The venue for next year’s competition has not yet been confirmed but it is likely that it will be at the Flower Bowl again. 31st Jan - 3rd Feb Scottish Senior Championships - This was held in Perth. There were 10 Women’s teams and 12 Men’s teams competing. As always with this competition many of the games produced great curling and were good to watch. The women’s final was between Team Kesley (Susan Kesley Skip, Fran Stretton third, Vicky Gumley second and Morna Aitken lead) and Team Lockhart (Jackie Lockhart skip, third, second and Margaret Richardson lead). Team Lockhart in the early stages had the upper hand but Team Kesley fought back and went into the final end peels but not with the hammer. Team Lockhart were lying and Susan Kesley with her final stone drew and it looked close to the lying stone but difficult to call which was lying. Jackie Lockhart, with her final stone then went for a tap up which was too heavy and went out. A measure was then done and Team Kesley was declared the winner a very dramatic end to the final. The men’s final was between Team Hay (David Smith Skip, Mike Hay third, Peter smith second and Sandy Hay lead) and Team Muirhead (Skip Gordon Muirhead, Third Norman Brown, David Hay second and Hugh Aitken lead). Team Hay winning. Both teams will now represent Scotland in the World senior Championships in Stavanger Norway 20th-27th April.

6. Strategic Plan: Bruce advised that they were currently attempting to obtain feedback from sportscotland re draft plan for funding and that it is likely that funding will not be cut and that current funding will continue. Rob mentioned requirement for culture, ambition, equality and inclusivity for funding.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571

7. Supporters Membership: Bruce advised that new Data Base should be available on line today and that Scottish Curling would be looking to sell Supporters Membership through the database. Alan Stuart asked if there was a target number for Supporters Members and was advised that no target had been set. Gordon Gilchrist commented on lack of email addresses for members and GDPR restrictions on sharing this information with members. Positive consent is required from members and it was felt by all that this requires to be worked at by all parties, staff, ASC Reps, LSC Reps, to Provinces and Clubs.

8. Structure Review Group: Jim Cullen Jim Cullen updated the meeting on progress of the group and the need for change to perceived barriers and to ensure equality, equal opportunity and inclusion. A questionnaire should be going out to members shortly and it was stressed that this needed to be spread as widely as possible throughout the curling fraternity.

9. Scottish Curling Trust: Bruce Crawford Bruce gave an oversight of the Trust including the background and history / heritage and that it was partially set up to obtain the various grants that are available to Trusts. He explained that any profit that RCCC make can be moved to the Trust which has a tax benefit and that these funds are ring fenced. John Ferguson asked about a possible move from Ochil House to other premises which would allow for offices and museum to be a one central location. Bruce advised that discussions with Stirling Council are ongoing for premises which would be suitable to house both requirements.

10. AOCB: G Lindsay advised that Scottish Curling requires more volunteers to be umpires and timekeepers at competitions. B Carruthers suggested that both Ladies Branch President and RCCC President should be used to better effect at Scottish Championships. Comment was made regarding bad language on ice from players and effect this has on TV. Umpires do give warnings to players regarding bad language and that fines could be imposed. It could cause loss of TV coverage. It was noted by many that the coverage and commentary at Juniors and Scottish was very good. Liz Burton-King agreed to pass on notes re camera work. There was a restriction on streaming to Facebook and website from Dewar’s due to lack of bandwidth. J Inglis asked about Fred Olsen Cruises, did costs include curling, transport etc. J Kincaid and G Gilchrist both noted the use, or otherwise, of the Gaelic language during TV coverage.

11. Future meeting dates: ASC - 11th April at sportscotland, Edinburgh th Ladies Branch AGM – 7 May at Inverleith St Serfs Church th RCCC AGM - 15 June at Dewar’s, Perth

Meeting was closed at 12.30 to allow attendance of SCT exhibition if wished.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club trading as Scottish Curling is a company Limited by Guarantee without a share capital. Registered in Scotland under company Number SC232571