MINUTES OF THE LADIES STANDING COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 5 MARCH 2019 AT: OCHIL HOUSE, , FK7 7XE AT: 1.15PM.

Present Margaret Nicol (President), Morag Wellman (Vice-President), Corrie Lawrence (Junior Vice-President, Ayr), Honorary President Kate Caithness, Honorary Vice-President Gail Munro.

Judith Dixon (Borders), Liz Paul (Braehead), Anne Shaw (Forfar), Sandra MacIver (Inverness), Irene Baillie (Kinross), Jesmé Brown (Lanarkshire), Marion Murdoch (Lockerbie), Carolyn Tough (Murrayfield), Helen Pirnie (Perth), Anna Burnside (Stirling), Jackie Orr (Waterfront), Ruth Addinall (Minutes).

1. Welcome Action

President Margaret welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. Apologies received from Kay Gibb (Treasurer, Aberdeen), Nancy Gallacher (Dumfries), Trisha Petrie (Kirkcaldy), Lyn Brown (Stranraer), Clare McCormick (Greenacres).

3. Minutes of previous meeting on 5th February 2019 The minutes were then proposed as an accurate record of the meeting by Liz Paul (Braehead), seconded by Jesmé Brown (Lanarkshire), and signed off by President Margaret.

4. Matters Arising The National Masters had been discussed at the Competitions Committee meeting and it had been agreed to move it to March, a date yet to be agreed with the ice rink.

5. President & Vice President’s Report 5th Feb to 4th March 2019

This had been circulated by email prior to the meeting:

13th March Board Meeting Perth

1) Supporters membership is being launched at Scottish Championships and a social media campaign will follow. 2) The terms of reference for an audit committee was approved and committee membership

agreed. Other committees’ terms of reference were looked at and changes will go to the relevant committees for consultation.

3) Organisational Structure Review group gave an update on their work. 4) Competitions - Fred Olsen and HP Rutherford have been signed up as sponsors. Live

streaming of one Juniors Semi-final and Junior Final took place as a test run for the Scottish Championships Finals. A contract with the BBC has been agreed for the footage of the two finals which gives Scottish more control over the content. The last two days of the Worlds

Wheelchair Curling Championships will also be live streamed. Lighting at the Peak Curling Rink has been upgraded to produce better results for the live streaming. This has been funded by

Stirling Council and will be a legacy of the event. Touch pads have also been installed. 5) Men’s Worlds Glasgow 2020 LGT bank is a sponsor. Tickets will go on sale soon and a team

from Glasgow Life who are organising the event will be at the Men’s Worlds 2019 Lethbridge Canada to advertise the event and sell tickets.

6) The partnership agreement with British Curling has been signed. The board received a presentation from the performance staff of British Curling regarding the selection of teams to represent Scotland at the European and World Championships for Men, Women and

Mixed Doubles. The board were of the view that there would be merit in using a number of factors when selecting a representative team, rather than just one event. They were committed to maintaining the Scottish Championships as a key measure of performance and so the board reached an agreement in principle but recognised further detail needed to be fleshed out before any commitment could be made.

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7) Scottish Curling Trust are organising Curling Exhibition at the Football Museum Hampden. The opening of this will on 20th Feb. 8) Board - for next year three new directors will be required. These are being advertised with a closing date of 15th Feb. recruitment for a chair has been agreed and the process for the post to be advertised was agreed. 9) Welfare PVG system volunteers will have their certification redone every three years in line with good practice. 10) Anne Malcolm Foundation the board agreed to support this. 11) Next board meeting will be 2nd May and will include a site visit to the Emirates Stadium venue for the Men’s World 2020. 13th Feb Safeguarding Seminar This was lead by Lindsay Booth and specifically looked at the board’s responsibilities in relation to safeguarding. This was a valuable session which highlighted areas of good practice within Scottish Curling and areas for development. 20th Feb Opening of Curling Exhibition This event was well attended and initial responses indicate that it is a well presented and informative exhibition. 16-23rd Feb Junior World Championships Liverpool Nova Scotia. This was a great competition. Liverpool is a small community with a big heart. Everyone was committed to the championships and everywhere you went it was advertised with large posters and wooden curling stones painted by locals on all the trees and lampposts. The 200 plus volunteers were excellent always on hand to help or advise on local amenities. The standard of competition was good and I am sure many of these young curlers will be world stars in the future. The Scottish Women’s team started well and had many close games but did just not manage the win which was so frustrating for them. They learnt from the whole experience which will be good for their future championships. They still have few more years in Juniors. The Scottish Men went through the round robin undefeated and they were a joy to watch. Unfortunately in the semi-final Switzerland scored a four in the first end. The men fought back going into the last end peels but without the hammer the Swiss skip just drew to Ross Whyte’s stone. This was an upset to the team but they picked themselves up and came back fighting and claimed the bronze medal. The 22 Scottish supporters were in fine voice and the chair of the organising committee told me we greatly added to the atmosphere in the stadium. No-one was in any doubt who we were supporting. Overall this was a wonderful experience despite the -8 temp and the snow. 16th March Scottish Championship Finals VP Morag attended and presented the trophy to the winning rink of Sophie Jackson, Naomi Brown, Milli Smith and Sophie Sinclair. The Men’s final was won by Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan. Both teams will represent Scotland at the World Championships. 21st March Memorial service for Anne Malcolm Vice President Morag attended the thanksgiving service for Anne Malcolm on Thursday 21 February in Elie Parish Church. It was a lovely service with 2 generous and interesting tributes to her life. Many of us there were unaware of how much Anne had packed into her life in her quiet unassuming and incredibly competent way. It was wonderful to see so many of her Canadian Tour, and so many past Presidents swelling the numbers in blue blazers. What a show of camaraderie. 27th -28th Feb Henderson Bishop Championships Stranraer 20 teams representing their ice rink competed in this competition with the top team from each of the four sections progressing to the high road and the second top team progressing to the low road. Forfar, Murrayfield 2, Ayr 2 and Lanarkshire1 progressed to the high road semi-finals and Braehead, Stranraer, Borders and Dumfries progressed to the low road semi-finals. There were

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many close games with the lead changing. Murrayfield 2 and Ayr 2 won through to play the high road final and Borders and Stranraer competed for the low road final. Both finals were closely fought and keep the spectators wondering who would eventually win. In the end Murrayfield 2 (skip Susan Kesley, third Fran Stretton, second Jenny Barr and lead Morna Aitken) won the Henderson Bishop trophy with Ayr 2 (skip Margaret Agnew, third Gail Thomson, second Alison Cunningham and lead Anne Anderson) as runners-up. Stranraer (skip Kate Adams, third Kate Wright, second Emma Vance, and lead Louise Kerr) won the Cherrystone with Borders (skip Margaret Robertson, third Wendy Henderson, second Marion Pate and lead Anne McAuley) were runners-up. The McMIllan Hotels were hosts and provided generous prizes to all the winners and runners-up. The social side of the Henderson Bishop was as always great fun with a civic reception, fashion show and the dinner. Entertainment by the local curlers added to the fun. It was good to see this was well supported.

6. Treasurer’s Report Kay Gibb had been unable to attend, so President Margaret gave her verbal report: There is very little to report since our last meeting a month ago.

We still have to pay the bill for the Scottish Ladies medals £288.76 but will not receive an invoice until April. We are still receiving money from centres for our International Fund which now totals £625

If anyone wishes merchandise, please can it all be processed before 30th March 19 so that the annual accounts can be closed off Tea towel, hessian bag £2.50 4 Coasters, Brush Cover, Notelets £2.00

Funds as of 28th February 2019 £ 9.659.87

7. Correspondence

1) President Margaret had emailed Robin Bishop thanking him for attending the Henderson Bishop finals in Stranraer. She had received a letter in reply which she read out; he thanked everyone for their hospitality and praised the organisation – he was looking forward to next year in Aberdeen. 2) President Margaret had also sent a card to Mary Anne McWilliam thanking her and her committee for their hard work in organising the Henderson Bishop finals. 3) President Margaret was sending cards to Robyn Munro, Hamish Gallacher, Inca Maguire and Angus Bryce for winning gold medals at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Sarajevo.

8. Competitions

Unders & Overs, 17 March 2019 At the last meeting it had been decided that if there weren’t enough entries, then the event would

be cancelled. At the cut off date, only 6 team entries and 2 individual entries had been received, so it was cancelled. There was some discussion about why there had been no support and

whether the format needed to be changed again. Jesmé Brown (Lanarkshire) said that they had decided to go ahead anyway as there was great enthusiasm for it at Hamilton – but there had been a difficulty filling in the forms with all the necessary detail; it hadn’t been realised that you need

only put in the name of the skip. HVP Gail said that she had seen no advertising for it, and she felt that better publicity was required, with help from the Development Officers. HVP Gail also said

that it had not been in the bidding process for next year. Vice-President Morag said that she would check on this. President Margaret would get details from Eoin McCrossan of the official entries to see if they were still interested in taking part. Sandra MacIver (Inverness) wondered about holding

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local competitions to feed this; this sounded like a good idea but it would be up to each individual ice rink to arrange. Morton Final 12 March Borders would be playing Forfar, and Ayr against Braehead. Harry McPherson would be the umpire, and the meeting with him would be at 10am and the semi-final games would start at 10:15am. All the medals and trophies were prepared. HVP Gail would again be at Kirkcaldy to help with the ice preparation and she would also assist with line scores if Vice-President Morag was unavailable. Henderson Bishop Finals This had been a very successful event in Stranraer. Next year the Finals would be in Aberdeen and that dates have been confirmed as Thursday 27 February – Sunday 1 March. It was a trial holding it over a weekend but the recent survey had shown it was equally as popular as mid-week. President Margaret said that they would take a close look at the number of entries to see if this affected numbers. This survey would now be sent out to the wider membership and not just people who had previously participated. 9. Ladies Branch Business

Canadian Tour November 2020 An invitation had been sent but as no reply had been received President Margaret did a follow up only to find that the reply had gone to the wrong address. The original reply and a subsequent one had now been received. The Tour Captain would be Cathy Hughes and the dates were confirmed as Thursday 6 November – Friday 27 November. JVP Corrie had been in touch with Cathy, who had been born in Paisley but emigrated to Canada in 1951. She had also provided a list of ice rinks and places that they would like to visit. JVP Corrie would soon be meeting with Margaret Richardson and Fiona Hardie, as captain and vice-captain on the recent Scottish Tour to Canada, to start the ball rolling. She said that the first question would be to ask the ice rinks if they would be happy to host the Canadian Tourists; there would probably not be as much home-hosting required. US Outgoing Tour President Margaret had received more communication from Donna K Pearson, the US Coordinator; it was requested that the Scottish tourists should fly into Minneapolis for the Opening Banquet and first game but wondered if they wanted to go west to the Denver area, or just head east afterwards. Donna had also asked if there was any particular sightseeing that should be in the programme and should Washington DC be included. President Margaret felt it wasn’t for the LSC decide but would leave it the US selection committee and potentially the Tourists once selected. President Margaret will organise a poster for circulation but applications wouldn’t be opened until August. Swedish Tour The final statement for the Swedish Tour would be available at the next meeting. Gifts for Gold medallists President Margaret said that based on the decision at the last meeting, she asked for the meetings endorsement that she buy a small gift for Robyn Munro and Inca Maquire which she hoped to be able to present at the Ladies Branch AGM. Following discussion it was decided to also buy small gifts for Hamish Gallacher and Angus Bryce.

10. Scottish Curling Business President Margaret said that everyone should have received an email from Scottish Curling about a survey for “Time to change” and in the first 24 hours, there had been 469 responses. President Margaret, Vice-President Morag and JVP Corrie were all on the Structural Review Group; they had all been party to the design and had made suggestions but hadn’t seen the final version. Ideally they would have wished it to be piloted on the ASC and LSC before it went out to the general membership. However it had been tested on a small group of people. A lot of discussion followed and dissatisfaction was expressed about the way that the survey had been distributed without the

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structural Review Group being informed it was being sent out and concern for those members without email addresses. More discussion followed on the reasons behind the survey. HVP Gail said that she felt that the letter sounded as if it was all a fait accompli and not a consultation process. Vice-President Morag felt that it was important that that if there was change, then it had to be right and not rushed. Honorary President Kate felt that we were ready for change; curling is the fastest growing winter sport and Scotland is getting left behind. Out of 40 Olympic Sports there were only 2 female presidents and there needed to be more women involved at the top level of sport. There was a lot of change around the world for equal representation and at the Tokyo Olympics there would be 47% female participation. President Margaret said that she was behind this review because she wanted women to have a stronger say and not because she had anything against Ladies Branch. The Board currently had 3 female members (out of 10), Susan Kesley, Helen Halley and Louise Burke. Both Honorary President Kate and President Margaret said that change was required but they needed to take time to get it right and consult the membership. President Margaret was interested to see if people felt we were moving in the right direction and if so, that we then took time to make sure that we did move in the right direction. In light of the discussion Bruce Crawford was invited to join the meeting and he explained that it was going to be a long process, and the survey was just the first stage of it. This closes on 17 March and 3 days later the Structural Review Group will analyse the results to see what the members thought. It had been felt that with a short return date, people would tend to deal with it straight away and not leave it on one side; it was meant for individual opinion. After the results had been analysed a working document would be produced and presented as the next stage; it would be ready for the next LSC and ASC meetings in April. There would also be an open meeting which anybody could attend. After that, the working document, with any revisions would go to the Board meeting on 2 May. It is hoped that there will be a set of questions which the membership can vote on at the AGM. Still more discussion followed. Bruce said that there was no reason why the current organisation of Ladies Centres, Provinces and Areas needed to change. Bruce said that we needed a structure that allowed anyone from anywhere to be able to get involved and to change from being seen as a paternalistic organisation wearing blue blazers. President Margaret hoped that the results of the survey would be available on the website. A date for the open meeting could be discussed on 20 March to give people warning. Helen Pirnie (Perth) suggested that it be held even if the results were not favourable. Bruce said that anyone could contact him if they needed to know more information.

11. Dates of Interest Dumfries Lady President’s Day, Sunday 10 March 2019 Perth Ladies, Thursday14 March 2019 Stirling Ladies Open, Tuesday 19 March

Morton Final, Kirkcaldy, 12 March 2019

Helen Pirnie (Perth) stressed that they were still needing entries for the Perth Open on 14 March.

12. AOCB International Women’s Day The event at the Peak is on Friday 15 March and had been oversubscribed. , and Vicki Chalmers and a couple of coaches would be there as the on-ice experts. President Margaret had posted some photos on Facebook from curling events including women and also some pictures with pledges relating to improving women’s place in society. Scottish Championship Sandra MacIver (Inverness) asked if there was an explanation about what happened at the Scottish Women’s Championship. President Margaret said that the Board will be discussing this and that there will be more information that comes out, but everyone should be patient as it needed to be dealt with sensitively.

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World Men’s Championship 2020 Honorary President Kate said it was last in Scotland was 2000 and it a great success for all involved. There is a usually a huge fan base that travel to the World Men’s Championship and there is a Pond Hopper competition where they play against local curlers. She would like the 2020 Men World to be a similar success. She suggested that trips need to be organised to ice rinks so visitors could curl against local curlers. President Margaret said that it would be put on the agenda for the next meeting. HVP Gail asked who this should be organised through, but as yet there was no organising committee but Glasgow Life are the organisers. Date of next meeting Tuesday 2 April at RCCC, Ochil House, Stirling, FK7 7XE at 1:15pm Tuesday 7 May pre-AGM , at 10:00am Tuesday 7 May Ladies Branch AGM, Edinburgh, 2pm Saturday 15 June, RCCC AGM, Dewars Ice Rink, Perth, 2pm

Vote of Thanks The meeting closed at 15:35pm. Vice-President Morag gave a vote of thanks to the chair, President Margaret.

Signature: …………………………………………….. Date: ………………………

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