BRITISH VOLLEYBALL FEDERATION (company number 06651480)
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting and Board Meeting held at 123 Buckingham Palace Rd, Victoria, London SW1W 9SS on Monday 11 February 2019
In attendance Richard Callicott [NED, President and Chair] (RC) Margaret Ann Fleming [Scottish Volleyball Association and BVF Finance Director] (MAF) Adam Walker [Volleyball England] (AW) Sandra Stall [Volleyball Wales] (SS) Paddy Murphy [Northern Ireland Volleyball Association] (PM) Nick Meachem (NM) Sarah Baldwin (SB) Dev Kumar Parmer (DKP)
Janet Inman [Observer, Volleyball England] (JI) Kevin Carpenter [Legal & Governance Advisor] (KC)
Apologies Yvonne Perkins [Volleyball Wales] (YP) Irena Mihneva [Northern Ireland Volleyball Association] (IM) Ben Pipes [Performance Advisor] (BP)
MEETING STARTED: 13:00
1. Introductions
SS informed the board that she was attending as a proxy for Volleyball Wales.
PM inform the board he was attending as a proxy for the Northern Ireland Volleyball Association. He also mentioned IM was hoping to return to the board in the future.
MAF passed on apologies for BP who was currently on holiday.
2. Conflicts of interest
Before the meeting began substantively, KC ensured that all board members declared any conflicts of interest the following conflicts were declared by each of the board members: RC – Honorary President, Volleyball England; President, Commonwealth beach volleyball; President, FIVB Ethics Commission; Chair, World ParaVolley Judicial Commission MAF – CEV Vice President; President, European Small Countries; Commonwealth Games director for Scotland; FIH Disciplinary Commission; FIVB Disciplinary Commission PM – Secretary General, Small Countries Europe KC – CEV Legal Chamber SB – FIVB referee
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Subsequent to the declarations, the board agreed that none of these precluded any of the board members from the matters that were to arise during the meeting.
JI kindly agreed to send a conflict-of-interest form to all of the board members for them to complete and then for the company secretary to keep on file for future meetings.
3. Approval of the minutes from the last AGM
KC apologised to the board for the delay in the finalisation of the minutes from the 2018 annual general meeting.
Having read the second and what KC be considered the final draft, JI wished for AW to be added in as an apology for that meeting and for there to be an amendment to reflect the fact that the changes to the position of Volleyball England in respect of the school games was due to changes by the Youth Sport Trust.
PM and MAF voted in favour of the minutes.
4. Board appointments
NM, SB and DKP were formally appointed to the board in the following positions: NM - Commercial Advisor, Independent Director, voting SB - Company Secretary & Treasurer, Independent Director, voting DKP - Legal & Governance Advisor, Co-opted Director, non-voting
AW and MAF voted in favour of the appointments.
5. Aspiration funding
RC provided the new members of the board with a brief explanation of the background to the Aspiration Funding. This included the Every Sport Matters group which is formed by under-funded sports recently. He informed the board that BP was working as the Performance Advisor, with the Scottish Volleyball Association, in particular MAF, having been kind enough to let him work on our funding bid.
RC also stressed to the new directors and they should raise any questions they have about how we got to this point in the funding process and that generally their job is to challenge the board.
KC then went on to explain the issues surrounding the governance action plan and in particular how the BVF are expected by UK Sport to achieve Tier 2 code compliance by the end of August, and that in order to achieve that they had asked for a governance action plan to be put in place and agreed with UK Sport by the end of this month. To achieve this the DKP was to work closely with KC to meet the necessary deadlines and to advise the board.
RC informed the board that SB and himself would make sure the money would be spent correctly pursuant to the Service Level Agreements the BVF are entering into with both the Scottish Volleyball Association and Volleyball England.
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When it came to governance matters, thankfully UK Sport had accepted the governance audit by KPMG for the sportscotland governance requirements, however MAF did inform the board that there are some issued still to be resolved with UK Sport.
The budget submitted as part of the funding bid to be circulated to the board by RC.
There was then a discussion between the board as to how the selection process should take place by the BVF should more than one pair qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. MAF told the board that the players were very well aware that they were playing for a ‘British’ slot.
Once they are awarded any money by the Scottish Volleyball Association or Volleyball England the players are accountable in that they have to meet various milestones.
MAF and RC then explained the board why around £20,000 of the funding we had received was earmarked for “social impact”. The board agreed that it was necessary that the BVF were vocal about what they were doing in respect of social impact and that this was a good way to engage with stakeholders.
MEETING ADJORNED: 14:05
MEETING RECONVENED: 14:15
6. Governance and finance
In respect of the general composition of the board, in line with UK Sport Code of Sports Governance requirements (and beyond) both gender and BAME representation were discussed and KC said that by having a more diverse board, although the BVF is already good in respect of female representation, would be positive for the credibility and strength of the decision-making.
However, KC did point out to the board that due to the situation whereby Home Nations nominate their own representatives to sit on the board, it was not good governance practice to dictate to them who they should nominate, even if it was for diversity reasons. It was decided that SB would add a column to the board representation document that KC had put together in respect of diversity.
The representation discussion then moved on to how to properly represent volleyball, beach and sitting disciplines. PM also mentioned the possibility of snow volleyball going forward. KC warned the board that if we were to appoint further people to the board in respect of each of the sports then the board will get too big and unwieldy. A better solution would be for the Performance Advisor BP to garner opinions from athletes and other participants involved in each of the disciplines, which he could then pass on to the board. JI also pointed out that if the board wanted to invite someone from one of the disciplines to speak at a meeting then the board could do so, or alternatively, the board could create a specific committee if required.
When it came to future meetings of the board, for which it was agreed (and pursuant to the new articles that it was required) for there to be at least three other meetings in addition to the AGM, that these should be themed, done remotely and should last no more than one hour.
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AW offered to attend meetings in London for the bodies to which we are members when he was in London and not to charge any expenses.
The next discussion was about how to calculate the budget going forward given we had not previously worked to a strict budget. After a discussion, there was a broad agreement of the board, pending further discussion between RC, SB, KC and MAF, that for the time being it will be calculated on the base of historic spending, plus the fact there is now a larger board meaning more expenses, plus an acknowledgement of inflation.
NM agreed to go away and be responsible for finding web designers who would be willing to help the BVF to set up a separate but very simple website with say five pages.
DKP said he would be happy to offer one of the associates of his law firm to assist with the social media aspect of the BVF and to help with any compliance/governance matters going forward.
JI said she would speak to Mike Hallam at Volleyball England about the existing page the BVF has on the Volleyball England website.
KC also agreed to go through all of the archive documents he had to find any administrative information required for things such as the website, social media etc.
7. Future representation at meetings on behalf of the BVF
RC was of the opinion that we should have younger and more dynamic representatives to attend meetings at the British Paralympic Association, Sport and Recreation Alliance etc on behalf of the BVF. Suggestions were made to speak to the following people:
Matt Roger Martine Wright Richard Campbell Kelly Claire Harvey
SB kindly offered to attend meetings, however it was felt that it should be a Paralympian, especially for the British Paralympic Association meetings. There are at least 24 athletes from London 2012 and therefore there should be someone who can attend on the BVF’s behalf. Furthermore, it would be positive if it were a female representative.
There was also the issue under Part 8 of the new articles about the requirements in respect of anti- doping. RC said he would approach the previous advisor who assisted the BVF up until London 2012.
NM agreed to be the Senior Independent Director for the BVF, which is a requirement of the Code of Sports Governance.
8. Dates of next meeting
RC and SB were to consult on this matter and send them out so they were in the diary for a year in advance.
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9. Any other business
There was a question from NM in respect of the objectives and strategy of the BVF? It was suggested by MAF that the BVF look into the possibility of having a strategy “away day”.
The Commonwealth Games coming up in Birmingham were discussed in respect of beach volleyball being included as a sport. There was a meeting on 21 January 2019 in which the BVF, Volleyball England and others and put forward the case to the organising committee and the next stage will be communicated to the BVF in March.
DKP said that the new independent directors were keen to understand the volleyball environment better and RC was keen for them to attend things on behalf of the BVF and represent them. In that case, MAF said the Home Nations are an open door if any of the new directors wished to spend some time with them to understand the ecosystem. JI reiterated this point. MAF said it will be good to have some form of induction process, and this will be looked into in respect of particularly the Sport and Recreation Alliance.
For the purposes of succession, when it comes to BVF documents, JI said Volleyball England would look into offering to hold the documents centrally in a secure and data protection compliant manner.
MEETING CLOSED: 16:15
Signed ………………………………………….
Kevin Carpenter [14] May 2019
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