• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Updated following amends agreed 29/11/2014 THE COUNCIL OF BRITISH ROWING - MINUTES OF AN ORDINARY MEETING OF COUNCIL held on Saturday 20th September, 2014, at British Rowing HQ, 6 Lower Mall, Hammersmith, London W6 9DJ at 12.30pm. PRESENT AND APOLOGIES BOARD Mrs A Phelps, Chairman * Officer Present G. Harris, Deputy Chairman * Officer Present N. Chugani* Chief Executive Officer - interim Apologies M. Morrice* President, Scottish Rowing Apologies Ms C. Spanton* Chairman, Welsh Rowing Present M.D. Williams* Chairman, Finance Committee Apologies M. Stallard* Chairman, Sport Committee Present A. Crawford* Deputy Chairman, Sport Committee Present P. Hill* Athlete Representative Apologies Ms F. McAnena* Independent Director Present Mrs N. Palios* Independent Director Present NON-VOTING MEMBERS Dame Di Ellis, DBE Honorary President Present C.G.V. Davidge OBE Hon. Life Vice President Apologies M. Brandon-Bravo OBE Hon. Life Vice President Present S. Worley Hon. Rowing Safety Adviser Present REGIONAL CHAIRMEN AND REPRESENTATIVES B. Hawden East Chairman Present A. Blit East Regional Representative Present A. Johnson* East Regional Representative Present G. Nicholls East Midlands Chairman Apologies M. Laing North Chairman Present B. Millns North Regional Representative Apologies C. Edwards North West Chairman Present J.C. Davies North West Regional Representative Present M. Humphrys Thames Chairman Present M. Blandford-Baker* Thames Regional Representative TU-1 Apologies P. Knowles Thames Regional Representative TU-2 Present Mrs. L. Lion Thames Regional Representative TU-3 Present R. West Thames Regional Representative TU-4 Present F. Ljubicic Thames Regional Representative TL-5 Present L. Dillon Thames Regional Representative TL-6 Apologies C. Harrison Thames Regional Representative TL-7 Apologies M. Teale Thames Regional Representative TSE-8 Present P. Clements WAGS Chairman Present C. Eales Wessex & South East Coast Chairman Present R. Mallett West Chairman Apologies R. Bayliss West Midlands Chairman Present C. Anton West Midlands Representative Present A. Cawood Yorkshire Chairman Present 1 BRITISH ROWING STAFF Mrs H. Mosienko Finance Director Present S. Dickie Youth & Community Manager Present Sir David Tanner, CBE Performance Director Apologies Ms W. Kewley Rowing & Regatta Apologies Mrs P. Randolph Minute Secretary Present SUBSTITUTES Ms K. Adams For L. Dillon Present O. Kimberley For C. Harrison Present J. Lee For M. Blandford-Baker Present Ms J. Perry For R. Mallett Present ALSO ATTENDED J. Gill For Scottish Rowing * Denotes member of the Board. 1. CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS The Chairman welcomed members as recorded in the minutes of the AGM. Council stood to remember those members of the rowing community who had died during the year from September 2013; Terry Flinn of Globe Rowing Club, Bob Potter of Bewdley & London Rowing Club, Jim Gould of Burton Leander Rowing Club, Duncan Thomas of Henley Rowing Club, Jeffery Lever of Llandaff Rowing Club, Heather Foster of Star Club, Allen Griffiths of Castle Dore, John Brockway of Leander and Lea Rowing Club, Nick Bevan of Shiplake School then St Edwards School, Pete Proudley of Southampton University, GB Coach, Westminster School Boat Club, Brian Gowman of Westover and Bournemouth Rowing Club, Life Vice President of Hants and Dorset, Mike Wall of Christchurch Rowing Club, Dr Martin Gaylard of London Rowing Club and Westminster School Boat Club, Peter Jenning of Maidstone and Leander, Sheila Hill, John Mclaughlin of Upper Thames Rowing Club, Wendy Pearce of Weymouth Rowing Club, Les Foad of Itchen Imperial Rowing Club, Vice President of Hants & Dorset, Anna Roots, formerly Townsend of Mortlake, Anglian & Alpha Boat Club. The AGM minutes also record the citations for the 2014 Medals of Honour and Medals of Merit which were awarded as follows: Medal of Merit – awarded for exceptional service to the sport of rowing Geoffrey Adams Wendy Pearce (posthumously) Brian Snelson Medal of Honour - awarded for outstanding service to the sport of rowing John Layng Alan Meegan 2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Noted and recorded above. The Chairman welcomed a number of substitutes to the meeting whose attendance is also recorded above. 2 3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Non pecuniary G. Harris : Coupe de la Jeunesse President Mrs A. Phelps : BPA Vice Chairman Pecuniary A. Crawford : Assessor G. Harris : Coach Educator 4. MINUTES The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 18th June 2014 were agreed to be an accurate record and signed, subject to the following amendments: Item 5.3 – correct name of club: Bacup and Rawtenstall. 4.1 MATTERS ARISING 4.1.1 Competition Review: P. Clements said there would be a further report to the November Council meeting following very useful feedback from the Regions. There had also been a recent meeting at Hammersmith about the online entry system (BROE) and he was hopeful that there would be sufficient budget available to make the necessary adjustments to the system. 4.1.2 Legacy Launches: The deployment of the launches was under review with a view to reducing current expenditure. 4.1.3 Landscape of Sport: Mrs Napp had agreed to provide some draft wording for Council members in connection with letters to MPs. Following her retirement the Insight team had been asked to follow this up. 4.1.4 NatWest Community Regattas: It was noted that Richard Truett, formerly Director of Strategy for Commercial Banking at National Westminster Bank, had changed roles within the organisation. However, he was keen to build on the initiative started at Weybridge RC and continued to be in touch with the CEO. B. Hawden said that he would be interested in developing this sort of initiative forward in the Eastern Region. 4.1.5 Holme Pierrepont: M. Brandon-Bravo advised that the NWSC was keen to increase income but he felt it was important for there to be investment in the development of the country park in order to attract visitors to the site. He hoped that G. Nicholls would feed this back to the user group. 5 MATTERS FOR DECISION 5.1 GOVERNANCE WORKING GROUP PROPOSALS The Governance Working Group had been established to review current governance arrangements and to suggest the changes that were necessary to meet funder requirements and best practice. The group comprised; Mrs N. Palios, G. Harris, A. Johnson, M. Blandford-Baker and N. Chugani. Mrs N. Palios highlighted the key steps that had been taken in arriving at the amended proposals circulated to Council, which included feedback from consultation with the Regional Chairmen. UK Sport had published a series of ‘Funding Release Triggers’ which would ensure that the planning and governance of all governing bodies was carefully monitored. NGBs not able to meet the criteria over a range of key issues would have performance funding withheld. Ms N. Palios gave a presentation on the current proposal. With regard to the composition of the Board a reduction in numbers to twelve was an absolute requirement of the funding bodies and the following membership was proposed: the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Chairman of the Sport Committee, two further members elected by Council, four Independent Directors, the CEO (ex-officio), one director appointed by Scotland and Wales and a current or recent former GBRT Athlete (elected by the GBRT). 3 Should British Rowing wish to argue the case for 13 directors it had been made clear that five of these would have to be independent directors. ‘Independent’ was defined as someone appointed in an open recruiting process, who had no political influence within the sport. Theoretically the Chairman and Deputy Chairman could be recruited from outside the sport and included in these numbers but Council had indicated that they did not wish this to happen. It was proposed that the Finance Committee should become an Audit & Risk Committee, the aim being to emphasize its scrutiny function and to have an additional specific focus on risk. The Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee would be one of the independent directors, recruited on a skills basis for that purpose and following the proposal to reduce the Home Nations representation on the Board, this committee would include Home Nations representation. The roles of Treasurer, Chairman of Finance Committee and a second Deputy Chairman would all cease to exist. One area of debate, the outcome of which was reflected in the amended proposals was to remove the proposal to include the Finance Director on the Board. Mrs N. Palios had looked at the composition of a number of other Boards and there was almost exactly a 50 / 50 split in this area. Another area of lengthy discussion had been the inclusion of a GBRT Athlete. This was valued highly by the team and on balance it had been decided that it was important to include. Reducing the Home Nations directors to one position reflected that a Board director’s role was not to represent a constituency, however steps would be taken to ensure that whilst one director had a Board position the other would be able to nominate a member to the Audit & Risk Committee. Both nations could attend Council and this would need to be picked up in the re-drafting as currently they were members of Council in their roles as members of the Board. It was proposed that there would no longer be a Finance Committee and the Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee would be one of the independent directors. As part of a transitional arrangement it was proposed that the Deputy Chairman of the Sport Committee should remain on the Board until the end of the current Chairman’s term. Limitation of terms of office was an area that had been challenged with funding partners. UK Sport had indicated that they would accept additional terms where they applied to the ‘promotion’ of Deputy Chairman or Chairman, in which case a 12 year maximum would apply (or up to 2 years longer in the case of the Chairman only where necessary to complete the full term).

Load more

  10

Copy Link