MINUTES of the 10Th GENERAL CONGRESS
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Minutes of the Scottish Swimming Annual General Meeting Saturday 27th February 2016, 10.30am Pathfoot Lecture Theatre, Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA 1. President’s Address: The President, Eddie Wilmott, extended a warm welcome to past presidents, life members, delegates and board members at the 117th AGM. The president thanked the Scottish Swimming staff for all of their preparations and organisation for the AGM and Stirling University for use of the facility. Before continuing, the President respectfully requested delegates to stand and observe a one minute silence to commemorate the following Scottish Swimming members and supporters who have sadly passed away over the past year: John McClatchey, Warrender BC Swimmer and dad to Caitlin McClatchey Noreen Brown, wife of past president Douglas Brown Sir Peter Heatly, SASA Life Member and Past President Bill Murdoch, SASA Life Member and Past President Sandra Scotland, Heart of Midlothian and Swimming Technical Official Jack McQueen, Grove ASC Lesley Turberville, SASA Life Member and Past President The President asked delegates to advise if there were further intimation of names from the AGM and there were none. The President moved on to outline the business of AGM and format for the remainder of the day including lunch and workshops. The President then introduced the colleagues alongside him: Maureen Campbell, Chair of the Board of Directors Forbes Dunlop, Chief Executive Officer Elaine Mackenzie, Director of Services Deborah McGinniss, Finance Manager Elizabeth Stewart, Vice President The President also took the opportunity to introduce the Council and Board members in the audience. The President referred to his report as previously circulated and expressed that it had been an honour, privilege and pleasure to represent Scottish Swimming as President. He advised that he has been warmly welcomed by all, which had resulted in a pleasant year, and it has been great to attend various events and see the Scottish Swimming staff blending in well. The President thanked the Scottish Swimming staff for their work throughout the year and further expressed his appreciation to all Scottish Swimming members for their contributions. Finally, the President introduced the annual report film, which was played for delegates and thereafter he paid tribute to those who contributed to the film, including Duncan McKinnell as narrator. 2. Minutes of the AGM of 28th February 2015: The minutes were accepted as a true record of the 116th AGM in 2015. Proposed by Margaret Somerville, Vice President (2) and seconded by Cath Fleming, Portobello ASC. 3. Business from Minutes: None. 4. Correspondence: None. 5. Address: 5.1 Address by Company Chair and Chief Executive The Company Chair, Maureen Campbell, was then invited to present to the membership. Maureen thanked the AGM for the opportunity to talk through the Annual Report. The Annual Report demonstrates the diversity of work in Scottish Swimming, none of which is possible without the contribution of all Page 1 of 7 AGM Minutes delegates, particularly staff and clubs. Maureen highlighted the following three items within her presentation: 1. Equality work – various news reports are now looking at equitable access for everyone to take part in sport and educational training – amongst others. Scottish Swimming is committed to ensuring that it is one of the first SGB in Scotland to achieve the advanced equality standard. This requires Scottish Swimming to be open and accessible to everyone. All clubs need to think about how to adapt to ensure access to all. 2. National swimming framework – Maureen advised that Sharon MacDonald will cover this in more detail but Maureen’s day job is in a culture and sport trust which has welcomed the framework. Maureen passed on her congratulations to Sharon and her team for responding to the need of clubs and leisure providers. 3. Successes in performance – Scottish Swimming continues to punch above its weight and Maureen hopes to continue this momentum for the Olympics in Rio, both at top end of the sport and with the young swimmers coming through. Maureen said this was a credit to the pathway. Development: The Director of Development, Sharon MacDonald, presented alongside the Director of Performance, Ally Whike. Sharon advised the AGM that in the new corporate plan the vision of Everyone Can Swim remained the same and three strategic objectives were identified one around – participation, development and performance. Sharon would cover the first two as part of the development team’s work and Ally would focus on performance. Participation – in relation to Every Child Can Swim. Last year started with the disappointing news that the top up programme funding would not be continued. Despite discussions with Government and sportscotland continued investment has not come to fruition. Scottish Swimming has been in discussions with SPORTA (the Scottish network of trusts) to consider how we can work together to address this. Discussions have also been held with the RNLI and RLSS, to support their national water safety programme – Swimsafe. A Parliamentary session is planned to ensure that Every Child Can Swim remains on the national agenda. Ensuring every child can swim remains a priority for Scottish Swimming, it is the beginning of the pathway and fundamentally important to the long term sustainability of our clubs and success at a performance level. Quality Swimming Teaching Environments – the work on the national framework is linked to ensuring every child can swim. Through the corporate plan consultation it was found that youngsters are leaving learn to swim programmes without the core swimming skills required for club level. The programme was reviewed at the end of 2014 to develop an all-inclusive pathway with links to school swimming and performance if that level was applicable. The two main challenges facing trusts are developing sustainable workforces and having a balanced pool programme which caters for participation, development and performance whilst making most economic impact. The long term aim is for all 32 trusts to deliver the framework by 2021 – current 4 are delivering the framework with a further 11 signed up for 2016. Sharon further presented to the AGM that the adult programme has had positive progress during 2015. Now under the heading of Swim Social the adult programme has a new sponsor in Scottish Water who came on board in September 2015. Sharon shared some of the participation figures with the AGM and the story of one swimmer, Linda Jordonson. Clubs – Scottish Swimming’s focus in 2015 was to continue to develop stronger more sustainable clubs. SwiMark and SwiMark plus were reviewed to make them more meaningful development tools for clubs. Scottish Swimming is also currently working on online tool to enhance development, ensuring progressive pathways. The RSDMs worked with Ally’s team to review several performance development environments. Membership – Scottish Swimming has seen a significant challenge in retaining members 12 years old and older. In 2015 two more clubs received sportscotland direct club investment, City of Glasgow Swim Team and Aberdeen ASC takin the total investment to over £300,000 in 11 clubs. The club development co-ordinator introduced in 2014 support 15 clubs to recruit and retain members. Still in its infancy this programme has yet to show its full potential and will be monitored closely during 2016. Sharon advised that in addition the RSDM team have continued to work alongside Scottish Student Sport and disability Sport to increase opportunities for students and youngsters with a disability. Quality teacher p and coach education programmes are fundamental to Scottish Swimming’s success. Regional training events were undertaken in 2015, UKCC courses, a variety CPD courses, and a disability event were held. Scottish Swimming supported the national diving committee for a conference in September 2015. 2015 has also been spent engaging with the tutor workforce and the tutor training pathway is being reviewed in 2016. Sharon finished her presentation by advising the AGM of the new online licensing scheme. Sharon introduced Ally by emphasising the link with performance for seamless pathway – it is key that core skills are taught at early age. Performance: Ally explained that the publication of the performance plan provides Scottish Swimming with a Page 2 of 7 2016 AGM Minutes_Final_4May2016 strong foundation to work from. The overall strategic object is to continue achieving results at the top end of the sport whilst ensuring a strong pathway is in place for these results to continue. The plan incorporates four central lanes which interlink. Quality coaching – fundamental across the pathway, continued working with the development and performance teams (including Alan Reid and Alan Lynn) working to improve the quality of coaches and coaching. Ally also highlighted the need for CPD, seminars, race analysis, and camps. Technical excellence – Ally advised that this is often seen at the top end of the sport as a blocker. However, it is important to influence technique at the lower end through the National Framework and continuing through the pathway – video and race analysis is key to helping development in this area. Scottish Swimming will spend the next 12 months pulling together technical modelling in each stroke with the aim of influencing how strokes are developed through the pathway. Performance/Performance Development Environments – aim in 2016/17