Minutes – Welsh AGM 21st November 2018 7pm Sport National Centre

In attendance Caroline Williams* Carmarthen Boat Club *- nominated representative Alun Stedman Carmarthen Boat Club Nic Thomas Welsh Sea Rowing Association Richard Gloster Welsh Sea Rowing Association Laura Starrs* Rowing Club Harry Smallman* University Rowing Club James Boyle Rowing Club John Griffiths* School Sue Griffiths Andy Finlay Cardiff City Rowing Club David George* Cardiff University Alumni RC Michael Hnatiw* Cardiff and Vale Schools Rowing Academy Rosie Warwick-Brown Cardiff Metropolitan University Boat Club Richard Summers /Old Monmothians Alex Butler* /Old Monmothians Owain Jones* Cardiff Metropolitan University Boat Club Joseph Killick Cardiff Metropolitan University Boat Club Ollie Banks* University of South Wales Rowing Club Beth Powley University of South Wales Rowing Club Gwenllian Jones* Cardiff City Rowing Club Adam Tucker Cardiff City Rowing Club Andrew Richards* Welsh Sea Rowing Association Ewan Mortlock* Swansea University Rowing Club Steven House Swansea University Rowing Club Huw Morgan Chair, Dawn Brace Vice Chair, Welsh Rowing Anthony Thomas Board Member, Welsh Rowing Allison Pinney-Collis Board Member, Welsh Rowing Andrew Kilsby Board Member, Welsh Rowing Theodore Huckle (via Skype) Board Member, Welsh Rowing Daniel Clements Board Member, Welsh Rowing Zoe Davies Standing Candidate James Wood Standing Candidate Huw Carrick Standing Candidate Gareth Storey Team Manager Helen Tan Chief Executive Officer, Welsh Rowing

Apologies- Dan John, Cardiff and Vale Schools Rowing Academy

1. Welcome (Huw Morgan- HM) • Thanked all for attending and opened the 2018 AGM. HM led a minute’s silence in memory of Imogen Evans, who passed away earlier in 2018. HM welcomed Carmarthen Boat Club as Wales’s newest club, and present at the AGM for the first time.

2. Minutes of previous meeting (HM) • Minutes agreed

3. Chairs report (HM) Our report for 2017/18- Development- led by Laura Hood, supported by Sam English A focus for the year has been on supporting grant applications, with over £50,000 of external funding coming into community rowing. We would continue to encourage eligible clubs to apply for community chest grants, which have had an annual underspend for the past 3 years. 2017/18 saw the development of Carmarthen Boat Club Rowing Section, who now own their own fleet of sliding seat boats, and are keen to develop and compete over the coming year. In addition, new sea rowing clubs in Gower and Cardiff Bay- with the support of Mike and Dan, have formed. Discussions continue on long term facility development in both Llanberis and Swansea. The Cardiff School Games indoor rowing competition was larger than ever, and we are looking to develop this into others, with our Coastal Development Officer Sam English leading an indoor rowing competition in Ceredigion and a Newport Indoor Rowing competition launching in 2019. Coach Education activities have mainly been concentrated on the fixed seat community, due to demand, which has seen a club coach course and 3 new fixed seat tutors added to the workforce. We are pleased that a full Session sliding seat coach course will run in December, and would be grateful to hear from clubs when they have requests for courses. The Umpires committee continues to serve the rowing community of Wales tirelessly, and will be running another training course in 2019, again we’d love to hear if you have individuals who would like to attend the course. Over the last four years there has been a 9 percent increase in the number of affiliated members, which is mainly driven through the universities.

Performance- supported by Liz Harries, Tom Mapp and Julia Cowton Our aim was to embed the newly formed Start centre and increase athlete numbers to around 20 athletes to work with two full time coaches, and this was supported by the introduction of the assistant start coach position. Growing the group has been a longer-term project and as part of this we reviewed recruitment strategies for 2018/19, resulting in an increase to the current group size of 19. Recruitment has been carried out during freshers’ fayres, school events and transfers from other Start centres. A good training period over Winter set us up well for success over the summer with wins at BUCS regatta, Henley Women’s Regatta, and qualification for Henley Royal Regatta. Looking forwards, the squad now includes GB development para rower, Ben Pritchard, aiming for the 2024 Paralympic Games, and several athletes aiming for GB representation over the next two years. Liz’s squad are the more experienced athletes, with Tom taking the novice rowers on. The squad is supported with physiotherapy, nutrition, psychology and increased strength and conditioning provision for this season, and benefit from this multi-disciplinary support team which has been consistent for a couple of years, and is noticeably improving performance. Several athletes were picked for HIR, which will be covered by Gareth Storey in detail later in the agenda. The Commonwealth Regatta, saw an new format tried, with Beach Sprint rowing taking place at Sandbanks. FISA attended the event, and seem keen to encourage the adoption of the new format,

as do the Commonwealth Games Council. The Welsh team, made up of rowers from a variety of clubs, both sea and river, delivered a bronze relay medal, and a number of 4th places. We continue to support clubs with the development coach roles. One of the main drivers for the development coaches are to increase the opportunities for potentially talented junior rowers to come together within Wales. This is being delivered through development days, the first two of which have recently taken place. More are scheduled for early 2019, as we look to build towards HIR 2019. We hope to develop this into an annual programme of events for talented rowers looking towards Wales and GB representation.

We’d like to record a public thank you to Liz Lewis for her 8 years’ service to Welsh Rowing, and wish her the best of luck in her new role in Employability with Cardiff and Vale college.

Finally, at Board level we’d like to say thank you to Katie Thirlaway who leaves the Board this AGM after her 3-year term ends.

HM opened for questions, none asked.

4. Treasurers report (Andrew Kilsby-AK) • AK outlined the current £7,000 surplus in the 2017/18 accounts, and the provisions made for the hosting of HIR in 2020. Welsh Rowing’s reserves are at an appropriate level to serve their purpose if necessary, and funding from Sport Wales is steady with small cuts. The organisation is in a healthy financial position, and stable.

5. Team Managers’ Report (Gareth Storey- GS) 115 athletes registered for the team in 2018, over 50 less than 2017. A team of 60 athletes from 24 clubs were selected to represent Wales at HIR.

Results: • Wins for the Women’s 4+ (Kate Silverthorne, Maddie Archer, Ella Tepper, Charlotte Gill and Richard Summers (Cox)) and Women’s Lightweight 2x (Rebekah Edgar & Lucy Iball). Para Men’s 1x – Whilst Ben Pritchard had no competition he set a new personal best and GB qualifying time in testing conditions. The Senior Women’s squad put themselves in a position to compete for the team trophy with 2 events to go but unfortunately these boats did not perform as hoped – leaving the team in 3rd place. Senior Men’s squad struggled with a number of late dropouts to the squad. Reasons such as personal commitments, Power Sprints, visa issues and cost were cited. Sam Bannister (Men’s 1x) was unlucky not to win his event, being beaten on the line. Significant improvements in results from the Junior Men’s squad, with three 2nd places. Illness in the lead up to the event blighted the chances of the sculling boats and an improved team score. A small junior women’s team finished 4th in all 6 categories entered but put in some competitive performances with all boats in the pack going into the last 500m.

Event Organisation: • The event experience was positive, with the event well marshalled, well umpired and running to time. Lake Inniscara faces a number of challenges due to its location. The low level of the lake, the area for trailer parking and accessibility for para-athletes were all reported back to the management committee as negatives to the event experience. The spectator experience was positive with the addition of a grandstand and entertaining commentary on all races, however the view of the finish area is limited. The absence of a junior social event/ formal presentation was a negative and the management committee have been asked to review this for future events.

Trials & Training Camp: • Despite the planning of an early identification trial, there were very few registered athletes and this was cancelled. A series of training days will be organised by Welsh Rowing through the 2018/19 season to try to identify juniors early. The final trials day at Monmouth in July was a challenge due to the extreme heat and volume of weed in the river, which was at a low level. A sincere thankyou to Monmouth RC and the associated schools for helping these trials run. Junior trials format had to be adjusted on the morning of the trials for athlete welfare reasons. Senior trials for both men’s and women’s squads ran successfully. Junior training camp at Monmouth and senior training weekend worked well to gel combinations and coaches reported positively on the attitude of athletes to get the most out of limited training time. I would like to thank the generosity of parents and others to host athletes during this period as it is crucial to the development of crews.

Logistics: • Senior athletes were given a list of flights to book from their local airport – ensuring they would all be at the National Rowing Centre by early afternoon on the Friday. Whilst this created more administration work, it gave the athletes greater flexibility around work commitments. • Junior athletes were booked on a Friday AM flight from Cardiff and flew back on the Saturday evening as there was no formal banquet for the juniors this year. Flying created a number of challenges with most travel companies needing the names of travellers over a month in advance – this limited options. Fishguard/ Pembroke to Rosslare ferry was considered but this would have meant travelling through the night on the Thursday and Saturday. This was deemed less favourable than the early start on Friday. England and Scotland both did this and found it difficult and their costs were still more than ours.

Accommodation & Food: • The accommodation was at the University College Cork (UCC) campus in various student halls. Whilst basic, it was acceptable for the team’s needs. Communication from UCC was limited in the build up to the event and this meant it was unknown that the team were spread out across two campuses until we arrived. This meant communication was difficult between teams and support staff on the Friday evening. The dinner and breakfast produced by UCC was adequate but the canteen was a 10-minute walk from most accommodation blocks – This limited time available on the Saturday morning. The outbound flight delay meant junior athletes were limited on good food options on the Friday.

Equipment & Kit: • A huge thankyou to The Kit Crew and Stitch who once again provided exceptionally high quality kit for all athletes and support staff. A huge thankyou to the clubs, schools and universities who lent equipment to the squad for training and the event. Without this support, the athlete costs would increase significantly due to the cost of hiring boats of a suitable quality.

Support Staff: • A big thankyou to our team umpires for 2018 – Chris Anton and Zoe Davies. A big thankyou to all the volunteers and Welsh Rowing staff who supported the team in the build up to HIR and during the event. The team relies heavily on volunteers who give up a significant number of hours each July to ensure the team are as well prepared as they can be. More help is always gratefully received, whether this is through administration, coaching, transport, equipment, sponsorship or contacts – Please let Helen Tan or myself know ASAP if you are able to support the team in any way in 2019.

Proposed changes for 2019: • A new structure for volunteer roles to help distribute the workload and encourage a wider range of skills to be present amongst the support staff. Adverts for these roles will be circulated in January. The junior team roles will consist of: Team Manager, Equipment Manager, Junior Men’s Lead Coach, Junior Women’s Lead Coach, Assistant coaches. The senior team roles will consist of: Team Manager, Equipment Manager, Lead coach. A clear procedure for how athlete illness is dealt with and the responsibilities amongst staff. Review how the junior team is managed during the training camp period – we are very reliant on parents to host athletes who are not based in South Wales. Potential of the junior team travelling to Scotland on the Thursday to ensure better preparation on the Friday before the event. Training days ran by Welsh Rowing rather than an Early Identification Trial. Ensure administration staff understand GDPR regulations and signatures from parents/ athletes are obtained if necessary, to allow contact information to be shared. A levy on athletes who drop out after the team has been formally announced. Provisional final trials date for 2019 - Sunday 14th July, venue TBC. The date for HIR 2019 is Saturday 27th July at Strathclyde. Registrations will open in January.

Questions/comments were raised around • Encouraging/requesting payments early to deter dropouts • What the Welsh Rowing Board is doing about sponsorship for the team? HM stated that he was using his contacts to seek out potential sponsorship but hadn’t been successful. It was an item for the next Board agenda in December, and an area that HM led. • Kit Crew sponsored the team with tech tops in 2017, but this was done proactively rather than as a result of an approach from Welsh Rowing. • Whether winners from previous years could be incentivized with a price reduction to row in following years, to generate consistency in the level of the team. • Zoe Davies, who represents Wales on the Home International Regatta Management Committee stated that the GMC were looking at ways to make the whole event more marketable, which should help the individual NGBs. • Strathclyde and Ireland are always the most expensive events, and therefore team standard falls for these.

6. Nominations and Election of Board Members (HT) • James Wood (JW), Zoe Davies (ZD),Huw Carrick (HC) and Allison Pinney (AP) outlined their experience and skills that they wished to utilise on the Board of Welsh Rowing. Their precis CV were distributed. • The meeting paused while votes were made and counted. • All candidates elected and AP re-elected. • HM welcomed JW, ZD and HC to the Board, and AP for a further term.

AOB (HM) • CPD events were requested in wider areas, and a move away from solely Cardiff based events. • HM highlighted the strategy consultation currently active.

Annual General Meeting Ends 19.57.