Venue: Time: Nottingham Room, Radisson Blu Hotel, East Midlands Airport 9.30am 12.30 Present: Ian Howard, Chair (IH), Andy Salmon, CEO of BTF (), Mike Battersby (MB), Dougie Cameron (DC), Nicky Dick (ND), Mary Hardwick (MH), Bill James (BJ), Jon Ridgeon (JR), Craig Stewart (CS), In Attendance: Kay Simnett (KS), Mhairi Billington (MhB) 4.6 only Beverly Lewis (BL), Jane Moncrieff (JM), Paul Tanner (PT). Items 1 Apologies for absence and declarations of interest Apologies were received from Clare Cunningham (CC) and Neill Craigie (NC) No new declarations of interest were made. 2 of last meeting and matters arising 21st October 2017 and Board call 27 th November minutes were approved as circulated The Action List was noted. 3 Opening remarks IH welcomed DC to the Board. The interviews for the Chair of Trustees for the Leeds centre took place on the 12 th January. IH offered his congratulations IH outlined the start of the race season and that Olympic points would start being gained in May. 4 Items for decision/regular business 4.1 CEO update confirmed the outcome of the PHAR discussion on commission on VIK. Commission on VIK would be kept to an absolute minimum. Action allocated to Date due
4.2 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.3 4.3.1 4.3.2 Accenture are concentrating on performance aspects at the moment but BTF are hoping to get more strategic support in the future e.g. for IT/Data projects. discussed, his main focus in his first months in the role as being on people, building relationships and strategy. This included conversations with the BBC and the opportunity for streaming of events this season. also updated on staff changes at BTF. Financial update December Financial Update KS updated that the Finance Manager has left and her role would be replaced by a Head of Finance with interviews in February. MB asked if KS was worried about the turnover of staff. KS believed that a turnover of circa 20% 22% was not a worry and lower than average. The organisation is doing some positive things to encourage staff retention and some turnover could be seen as helpful to bring in new ideas. There were no management accounts in October and November due to the Finance Manager leaving but December would be ready very shortly. Overview of 18/19 Budget Timetable The remcom call will be on the 23 rd of Jan and there will be an initial review on the 6 th Feb. On the 21 st Feb will be the key call date re the budget and then final revisions by the 7 th March. Governance Update Board Composition the submitted paper on the changed composition of the board was discussed. It was proposed to change the number of directors from 11 to 12. JR and NC were stepping down their roles (Events and Communications &Marketing respectively) and are due to be advertised imminently. Historically, NC has picked up Commercial activity alongside his MarCom s role, however, it is felt that we now need to review this and add a further role to the Board focusing on Commercial as a separate role to that of MarCom s (2 distinct capabilities). It was noted that broadcast should be referenced in both role descriptions. It KS KS/ On completion of forecast
was reiterated the importance of considering the board gender mix and encouraging BAME candidates to apply. BJ noted that the number of board individuals that members of the executive team were reporting to might increase and that this aspect needs to be carefully managed, so they are not put under too much pressure. This was noted. There was also discussion regarding the name and responsibilities of the role held by MH and it was agreed that Business & Strategy was appropriate. ND asked if the change would prevent co opting of people onto the board. It was agreed that this could still happen although they could not be directors. People doing this could be useful for succession planning. ACTION: Board agreed to propose to the members that the number of directors be increased to 12. KS would put the proposal to each of the Home Nations as a written resolution. No recruitment action will be taken until approval received. Next Steps The Governance report was part of the AGM papers and on the 19 th Dec UK, Sport confirmed that BTF are code compliant. The Board thanked KS for her work in achieving this. The TE working group on governance is to remain and will possibly bring a BTF representative into this. Further governance developments are expected from UK Sport. GDPR requires a lot of IT time but is the responsibility of all staff. The team are making progress, but external assistance must be sought. KS 4.4 Age Group update ND gave an update on the Age Group team which outlined number of competitors and their current positives as well as the concerns they have expressed through the recent team survey. The staff are currently working on the upskilling of the age group team managers, succession planning and regular meetings. Clean sport testing for age groupers will take place at Glasgow.
Current challenges include the cost of race entries (which ND is working with the ITU on) and that multisport champs had the schedule changed very late when athletes had already booked travel. The new membership package was outlined which would be of interest of age groupers although it was also expected to appeal to athletes travelling to other international events. The Board wanted to express thanks to the Age Group Coordinator, for her work on the age group team. 4.5 AGM/Awards Dinner The paper on the annual awards dinner and the AGM was discussed. It was agreed that the AGMs for TE and BTF could be held separately from an Awards Dinner. There was discussion as to the nature therefore of an Awards Dinner, what it should be, the message it should give and the cost of tickets etc. JR felt a high cost event would be a high risk for the Board to underwrite and MH wanted to ensure the event was engaging with the members. The Board agreed generally that it had to break even. agreed to circulate a paper which captured the discussion and putting forward some proposals for dinner going forward. End Jan 4.6 4.6.1 4.6.2 4.6.3 Commonwealth Games Update England Wales Scotland An update on the teams and selection processes was given by all three home nations. England and Scotland have announced their teams, but Wales has not. All teams were in preparation stage and the support staff allocated to the them. Northern Ireland had their team selected by Triathlon Ireland and it was possible there would also be athletes from the Isle of Man, Jersey and Gibraltar. CWGs in Birmingham were discussed.
An update on the Association of Commonwealth Triathlon (ACT) nations was given by IH. JM believed there was an issue with resources and commitment from some of the other nations. IH wanted to encourage Sarah Springman to stay on as Chair and aims to circulate proposals for British Home Nations to vote on at their next meeting in the Gold Coast. 5 Questions on circulated papers No questions were received 6 A.O.B There being no additional business the Chair closed the meeting. Meeting closed at 12.50