THE AREAS STANDING COMMITTEE Meeting Is to Be
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Minute of THE AREA STANDING COMMITTEE meeting held on Tuesday 18th April 2017 at Ochil House, Springkerse Business Park, Stirling, 10am Position Name President Clive Thomson Present Vice President Jim Cullen Present Past President Billy Howat Present Chief Executive Officer Bruce Crawford Present Board Chairman Alastair MacNish Apologies Area Name Name Ayrshire Andrew Kerr Present Galloway Hugh Templeton Apologies South John Smith Present Border John Hodge Present Inverclyde Jim Jamieson Apologies John McCall Apologies Lanarkshire Gordon Gilchrist Apologies Vacant Greater Glasgow Robert Corbett Present Jim Inglis Present Edinburgh Neil Calvert Present Calder Benzies Present Forth Valley Joe Barry Present Joe Kincaid Present Fife & Kinross Boyd Houston Apologies Alan Stuart Present Perthshire Graham Lindsay Present Christine Cheape Present North East Brian McArtney Present Albert Middler Present Tom Kirk Present Highlands & Moray Ormond Smith Present Ian Mackay Present In attendance: (RCCC Minute Secretary) Laura Barr Present ACTION 1. Welcome The President welcomed everyone to the meeting, introducing two of the new incoming ASC representatives, Ian Young (North East) and John Fingland (Greater Glasgow). 2. Apologies As noted above. 3. President’s Update 16th February – Joint Meeting at Hamilton 21st and 24th February – attended Scottish Championships in Perth 24th February – Spoke at the Inverkeithing Dinner and Court 25th February – Scottish Championship Finals and presentation of medals 28th February – Welcomed back the Scottish Junior teams arriving back at Edinburgh Airport from Korea 1st March – Attended the Henderson Bishop Dinner at Kinross 3rd March – Spoke at the Fossoway Curling Club Dinner and Court 4th March – watched play in the Rink Championships at Forfar 5th March – Presented the Rink Championship Trophy at Forfar 6th March – membership Development Committee Meeting at Ochil House 10th March – Spoke at the East Kilbride and Haremyres Curling Club 1 Dinner and Court at Hamilton 11th March – watched some early matches in the Scottish Schools Championships at Braehead 12th March – Presented the medals to the winners of the Scottish Schools Championships. 17th March – Presented the Trophy and medals to the winners of the Scottish Pairs Championships at Stranraer. 25th March – Spoke at the Pitlessie Curling Club Dinner and Court 30th March – Left for the world Men’s Championships in Edmonton. Clive shared his experience at the World Men’s Curling Championships in Edmonton, Canada. Clive congratulated Ross Whyte and Sophie Jackson winning the first Scottish Curling Junior Mixed Doubles Championship at Braehead. Also to Team Muirhead for winning a bronze medal at the World Women’s Curling Championships and Team Neilson for winning a bronze medal at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships. 4. Minute of the meeting held on 12th January 2017. The only changed noted to make, John Smith was not present at the previous meeting. Laura will make the alternation. The minute was approved as a correct record of the meeting. 5. Matters Arising RCCC Website The ASC website, ‘Area’ page requires to be updated with links. The area names on the membership database need to be updated. Calder Benzies also pointed out that the links on the RCCC Website to the WCF World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Championships are not working. Laura will update the website after the meeting. 6. Board Report The last board meeting was Saturday 21st Janaury, at the Scottish Curling Junior Championships at Curl Aberdeen. Bruce gave the committee an update on recent developments as follows: Olympic and Paralympic Selection Process Bruce informed the committee that the selection process is available to read on the RCCC website. Registration is now open to teams. National Curling Academy The National Curling Academy is on track for completion at the end of June. Bruce confirmed that both elite athletes and club curlers will have access to the facility. However it does not have the capacity to host competitions as there is no provision for spectators. Summer training for the elite athletes is taking place at The Peak and Kinross throughout April and May, training in August will either be held at the new facility or Greenacres. This will be dependent on whether the NCA facility is ready with suitable ice. The job advert for an Ice Technician has not yet been advertised by Stirling Council, but should be out soon. 2 RCCC & British Curling A working group has been set up between the RCCC and British Curling, Rob Niven, Graeme Adam and Bruce Crawford are sitting on the group as RCCC representatives. Membership Subscription for Season 2018-19 Bruce reported to the ASC that the board would be meeting next week to discuss the potential increase of the annual membership subscription by £1.00. RCCC AGM The RCCC AGM is due to take place on Saturday 17th June 2017, 2pm at Braehead Curling Rink. Staff Barbara McFarlane is due to return from maternity leave on Monday 24th April, so David Ramsay finishes this week. Judith McCleary will return at the beginning of May. Giles Lomax is in the office this morning currently giving an official handover to our new Workforce Development Manager Fiona Harfield. World Junior Curling Championships 2017 Plans are progressing for the World Juniors, the WCF event contract has been sent to the RCCC office to be signed. Hotel bookings are currently in progress with the Local Organising Committee, the original cost of the rooms when first quoted has gone down which will help with the overall budget. RCCC Company Articles Jim Cullen and Bruce Crawford are at the early stages of the review of the Articles, Jim will send out an email inviting comments for updates and/or changes. 7. Committee Reports Member Development Committee – Clive Thomson The committee have now had three meetings, with the RCCC’s new Development Manager Ailidh Hood coming in for the third meeting. The committee’s purpose was drafted and agreed. The committee had a good discussion about problems Curling membership is facing and solutions to try and improve or resolve these issues. The committee had a lengthy discussion regarding some of the issues brought up. Affiliated clubs was a major point raised with many points and questions: How many clubs are not affiliated with the RCCC? How do we target these clubs and encourage them to join? How do we make the membership more attractive? Why don’t clubs want to affiliate with the RCCC? After some time is was agreed that these points would be passed onto the membership development committee. John Smith asked the RCCC to send an email to all affiliated Club Secretaries explaining the benefits of membership and explanation of how subs are spent. Bruce to action. 3 Coaching Committee – Brian McArtney Please see attached Brian’s report. Competitions – Neil Calvert The end of season’s competitions review meeting will take place this afternoon. The committee are examining the need to standardise the rules and format of U21 Slam competitions. Wheelchair competitions calendar is currently under review. Umpires – Graham Lindsay The behaviour of junior players on ice over the season had raised issues, umpires now have the right knowledge and tools to discipline players. Umpires thought the coaches should play a bigger part with the behaviours of players on ice. Performance – Billy Howat David Murdoch has been elected to be a member of WCF athlete commission. The Stirling University Scholarship is now available for curling athletes. The WCF are looking to introduce a World Cup Series to the calendar. They are also looking to changing the junior events. 8. Scottish Province Championships Clive collated all of the responses from the Area Reps and passed round a copy of the report. He will take this forward to the Competitions Committee meeting this afternoon. 9. Reports of Area Activities from representatives North East The AGM was held last week. Brian McArtney will be stepping down after the RCCC AGM and Ian Young will be coming on. Jackie Lockhart was presented with a gift to congratulate her on Team Scotland’s success at the 2016 World Senior Championships. Jackie has also been appointed by BBC to commentate at the Olympics next year. A few comments were made with regards to the National Virtual, some teams/players seemed to very experienced for their first two years of curling. They also tried their first bonspiel in which each team had to include a senior, junior, male and female player. This seemed to work very well. Greater Glasgow The province AGM’s have both gone well. The winner of their points cup was a virtual club member. Ayrshire Billy Howat has been appointed as the Ayrshire Province President. Edinburgh Murrayfield’s new investment plan, going well so far. Receiving donations from members of the ice rink. Morgan Nicol is coming on as the new ASC Rep. It was also noted at the AGM Bruce Mouat’s successful season: Scottish Curling Men’s Championship Final, Gold medal at the World University Games and third on the World Mixed Doubles Ranking with 4 partner Gina Aitken. Perthshire Turn out for the Area AGM was poor. However there had been a lot of local curling success. Graham and Christine organised a meeting with the facility, Live Active, Development Officer and Ladies Branch representatives to discuss the clubs and trying to lead them all in the same direction. South Area Robert Carruthers will be coming on as the new Area rep after the AGM. Borders Development committee is working well. Preparation for the Strathcona Cup is progressing. Their competitions bid was not successful, could they be given more information to help them progress. Forth Valley Area AGM is next week. Preparing for the incoming tour next year. Fife & Kinross Successful Virtual Clubs. Markinch Curling Club held their annual bonspiel where there oldest curler at aged 90 won – Alan will write up an article for Your Curler.