MINUTES OF COUNCIL MEETING 27/11/2010 THE COUNCIL OF BRITISH ROWING - MINUTES OF AN ORDINARY MEETING OF COUNCIL held on Saturday 27th November, 2010 at the Royal Over-seas League, Over-seas House, Park Place, St. James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR at 1.30 pm. PRESENT AND APOLOGIES EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Mrs D.M. Ellis CBE, Chairman Present G. Harris, Deputy Chairman Present Mrs A. Phelps, Deputy Chairman Present R.M. Paterson, Hon. Treasurer Present APPOINTED MEMBERS R. Phelps, CUCBC (Div 8) Present M. Blandford-Baker, COUR (Div 10) Present D. Saoul, Leander Club Present M.D. Williams, London Rowing Club Present C. George, Thames Rowing Club (Substitute – Christiana Sykes) Apologies ELECTED MEMBERS B. Millns (1) Northern Apologies T. Edwards (2) Yorkshire Apologies S. Darnbrough (3A) Lancashire & Greater Manchester Apologies J.C. Davies (3B) Cheshire, Merseyside & N.Staffs Present P. Fenoulhet (4) East Midlands Present C. Anton (5) West Midlands Present S. Brown (7) West Anglia Present A. Johnson (9) East Anglia Present A. Weekes (11) Upper Thames Present P. Moore (12) Reading Present A.J. Evans (13) Middle Thames Present A. Crawford (14) Staines & Molesey Apologies R. West (15) Kingston & Twickenham Present J. Davey (16) Chiswick & Mortlake Not present Mrs S Cassidy (17) University of London Apologies Dr N. Jackson (18) Barnes & Hammersmith Present J. Howell (19) Putney Not present M. Stallard (20) South Anglia Apologies J. Clayton (21A) Lower Thames & Medway (& Chairman SERRC) Present R. Noakes (21B) Kent & Sussex Coast Apologies M.E. Green (22) Hampshire & Dorset Present Mrs P Sondheimer WAGS Present Ms V. J. Perry (24) Devon & Cornwall Present C. Jenkins WARA (+1 representative) Apologies M. Morrice Scottish Rowing (+2 representatives) Apologies MEMBERS APPOINTED BY COUNCIL Miss K. O’Sullivan Chairman National Coaching Committee Present F. Dennis Chairman British Rowing Championships Apologies P. Ibbotson Chairman National Competition Committee Present C. Killick Chairman Water Safety Sub Committee Present R. Mallett Chairman National Development Committee Present MEMBERS CO-OPTED BY COUNCIL Miss A. Faiers Present B. Hawden Present W.C. Thomson Apologies J. Turnbull Present Mrs F. Dennis Apologies NON-VOTING MEMBERS Hon. Life Vice-Presidents - C.G.V. Davidge OBE Apologies J.A. Veats Apologies M. Brandon-Bravo OBE Apologies BRITISH ROWING STAFF J.R. Allsop Financial Controller Present Mrs R.E. Napp National Manager Present D.W. Tanner CBE International Manager Present Mrs P. Randolph Minute Secretary Present Miss W. Kewley Rowing & Regatta Apologies REGIONAL CHAIRMEN C. Eales Wessex Present M. Humphrys Thames Region Present J. Purkess Hants & Dorset ALSO ATTENDED Ms F. Rennie BUCS P. Simpson Div 19 (Divisional Representative Elect) 1. CHAIRMAN’S OPENING REMARKS Mrs Ellis welcomed Miss Christiana Sykes, substitute for Thames Rowing Club , Mr Peter Simpson (Division 19), and Mr Martin Humphrys, Chairman Thames Regional Rowing Council, to the meeting. Council remembered in silence members of the rowing community who had recently died, Andy Holmes MBE, Olympic Gold medallist in 1984 and 1988, Dr Mike Budd of Ross Rowing Club, Alan Hawes of Thames and Vesta Rowing Clubs, John Davis of Thames and Bewl Bridge Rowing Clubs, Katrina Jacks, GB J16 Junior and WARA Commonwealth Regatta team, and Karen Hough of Grosvenor Rowing Club. Mrs Ellis opened the meeting by congratulating all our athletes and their support staff for their incredible results at the World Rowing Championships in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand. All agreed that this was an outstanding performance and joined with the Chairman in asking the International Manager to relay their congratulations to the rowers and support staff. There had been further successes for GB Rowers; Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins had won the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Team Award and Edward Nainby-Luxmoore had been named overall winner of the OCS Young Sports Person Awards 2010, winning a prize of £10,000 to support his rowing over three years. David Hosking, ex-international sculler, would be making another record-breaking attempt to cross the Atlantic with his team in December. British Rowing would follow his progress on the website. Chris Anton (Div 5) would be appearing on Mastermind on Friday 3rd December, his specialist subject was Henley Royal Regatta. 2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Noted and recorded as above. The Chairman advised members that M. Brandon-Bravo and his wife were enjoying improved health and Council joined her in wishing them both well. 3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Non pecuniary Mrs. D. M. Ellis : CCPR Director; BOA Board Mrs A. Phelps : BPA Trustee Pecuniary S. Brown : UKCC Tutor and Assessor M. Green: UKCC Tutor and Assessor 2 G. Harris : UKCC Tutor, Assessor and Verifier K. O’Sullivan : UKCC Tutor and Assessor 4. MINUTES The minutes of the meeting held on Saturday 25th September, 2010, subject to the following amendments, were agreed to be an accurate record and signed. Attendance: Add P. Clements. Financial Matters 8c Subscription Proposals: For clarification under Club payments it was noted that the charges proposed for 2011 were; Minimum payment of £76 for up to 10 members, £5.60 for each additional member. 8c: Second paragraph. Delete ‘T. Edwards queried the £10 increase for event subscriptions’, replace with: T. Evans queried the 25% increase in club subscription. 5. MATTERS ARISING a) Selection Appeals Procedure/Selection Policy (5b): Following consultation a meeting was being arranged to pull together comments and make the final amendments to the policy and the appeals procedure. These would be circulated to Council before the February meeting. It was noted that the majority of the changes were to the appeals procedure rather than the policy. Action: DME b) Event Bids (6a): British Rowing was keen to register its interest in a bid for the 2015 World Championships. If 2015 could not be achieved we would look at 2017. British Rowing had also registered its interest in bidding for 2014, 2016 and 2018 World Cup Regattas at Dorney Lake. FISA’s new sponsor, Samsung, might wish to see a global World Cup in March/April which could be held in Australia. c) Junior Sculling (7c): Council was given time to read a paper from M. Martin, tabled as a response to questions raised at September’s meeting about ongoing concerns around the standard of junior sculling. C. Anton asked if the suggestion made to Henley Royal Regatta that the Fawley rules be changed to admit entries only from single clubs or schools would be debated by Henley Stewards at their forthcoming management meeting. M.D. Williams said he was not sure where the proposal had originated from but that it had come to the attention of the Stewards’ Management Committee and was an item for discussion on 8th December. Council members said that a recommendation should not be made to the Stewards by the Junior Rowing Commission as this implied it came with the approval of Council. Divisional Representatives were unable to put forward an informed view as they had not had the opportunity to seek the views of their constituent clubs, although the general feeling was that clubs would be opposed to such an alteration of the Fawley rules. D.W. Tanner said he understood that the Chief Coach Juniors believed that composite crews encouraged club hopping and this worked against clubs investing in the development of their own programmes and crews. B. Hawden said that in his region rowers aligned themselves to coaches rather than to clubs. Council however did not have jurisdiction over Henley Royal Regatta and its rules of competition and this proposal did not address the question of improvement in standards of sculling. The debate should not centre around Henley Royal Regatta as there were a number of other events that could seek to influence standards. There was consensus that the Henley Stewards should be asked to refrain from making any decision based on this paper. Mrs Ellis said that she had informed the Chairman of Henley Royal Regatta that this was an individual opinion and not the view of Council and she agreed to make their views on the matter known to him. Action: DME Chief Executive Officer: See discussion under Item 10.5. 6. FISA The challenging conditions facing athletes at the World Championships had given rise to discussion about the effectiveness of the Fairness Commission. This would be continued. The International Manager had also asked FISA to reconsider the decision to hold the Junior and U23 Championship finals over two days. The Chairmen of the Junior and Events Commissions would take this forward. Mrs Ellis said that Ann-Louise Morgan had been present at the FISA Congress and would take up the issue of ear-pieces with LOCOG. FISA and LOCOG would meet in January 2011 when a number of issues such as big screens would be discussed in greater detail. British Rowing was trying to obtain two screens but there were a limited number available. With regard to membership of FISA Commissions names were put forward with the approval of Council. 3 7. INTERNATIONAL REPORT Council received the Report of the International Manager. D.W. Tanner thanked Council members for their congratulations and said he would pass them on to the rowers and support staff. Arising from the report; Fairness Commission: The International Manager said that the Commission had been heavily criticised for its decision to allow racing to go ahead on both the first day and the Friday of the World Championships. However, despite his strong concern that neither the M4- or the WLwt2x had received a fair crack of the whip, it had been an excellent Championships. M.D. Williams said the current structure of the Commission should be reviewed. This was an item on the FISA Agenda for January and there would be further discussion in March.