At the end of January 2013 Peter King chaired the second of his monthly staff meetings at British Fencing Head Quarters.  The purpose of these meetings is for all members of staff and key contractors to share what work they have been doing to ensure that we work productively together as a team, supporting each other and the Board and serving the sport and our members as effectively as we can.  A brief update of what was discussed follows.

Performance

Alex Newton – Performance Director

–  Funding announcements from UK Sport and Sport England

• Preparing implementation plans (Working through the award conditions including the announcement that Peter King would be staying in post until April 2014)
• Reviewed the current staffing structure for the new WCP including putting together job descriptions for a Head Technical Coach and Performance Pathway Manager
• As there will be no Podium funded athletes Alex has been working with UK Sport to ensure that the right athletes are nominated for the 12 athletes on Podium Potential funding (TBC)
• Working with UK Sport on a new elite training centre which needs to be agreed by 1^st April 2013

–  Reviewed how the talent pathway comes into the WCP including a review with current coaches and support staff

–  Drafted budget for elite programmes

–  Selections made for the first set of international tournaments with the remainder due to be selected by the end of January

–  Athlete work:-

• Set performance targets
• Set up testing parameters for talent pathway.  Tested on sample group and intend to roll them out in April 2013

Maxine McCombie – International Operations & Logistics Coordinator

–  Continued much of the same work from the last meeting

–  Ongoing support for Alex Newton and the Rio cycle

–  Reviewing operations at Lee Valley

Development

Charlie Miller – Workforce & Business Development Coordinator

–  Ongoing support for Margaret Nolan in working on Sport England targets

–  Identified the need for improved relationships with the County Sport Partnerships

• Organising a monthly newsletter for CSPs
• CSPs to assist in supporting club regarding attaining Clubmark status

–  Ongoing review of Clubmark

–  Plans in place to train 82 Bourne Leisure Group staff (e.g. Haven Holidays) in 6 days to deliver fencing

–  Working with the Rugby Football Union to form a potential facilities partnership whereby fencing clubs can run a range of activities at rugby clubs

Jack Boteler – Go/Fence Coordinator  (Absent from meeting due to obligations at the Beazley Trophy)

–  Assisted Katie Dolan with the recruitment, training and deployment of volunteers for the Beazley Trophy/Corble Cup

–  Ongoing support for Margaret Nolan in working on Sport England targets

–  Started to develop a club/coach toolkit for working in schools; target for release is the end of February

–  Change4Life Schools programme – all schools have been mapped to their local club and now working to help reinvigorate the clubs that have ceased to function and offer further support to those that need it.  Also working with the Youth Sport Trust on resource development.

–  Continuing work on GO/FENCE programme.

Katie Dolan – Events Coordinator  (Absent from meeting due to obligations at the Beazley Trophy)

Katie will provide a two month update at the next meeting.

Alan Rapley – National Academy Manager

–  Organisation of cadet/junior European Championships team including pre-Championship training days

• Liaising with IYC and Parents Group

–  Ran AASE camps in January and put in place the same for February and March

–  Organised for a German coach to visit the UK in Marc 2013 to deliver a coaching master class

Neil Brown – Projects Officer

–  Organisation of cadet/junior European Championships team

• 34 fencers – full men’s epee & foil Junior team

–  Worked on foreign training camps plus foreign teams training in the UK

–  Ongoing development of the ranking and selection scheme

–  Organised for a German coach to visit the UK in March 2013 to deliver a coaching master class

Margaret Nolan – Head of Grow and Development

To create a development programme that will support and increase participation across fencing disciplines and support sustainable growth in the sport.

Key areas of work include:-

–  Support for the Regional Hubs

–  Create programmes for clubs, schools, colleges & universities

–  Increase the number of informal activity sessions in the community

–  Establish and support an active workforce that includes assessors, coaches, officials, tutors and volunteers

–  Work with national partners who can support our networks and programmes

Liz Behnke – Equality & Safeguarding Manager (delivered by Margaret Nolan)

–  Ongoing work on Safeguarding and Equality especially in relation to the standards

–  Met with the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit

–  All staff to be trained on Safeguarding to ensure a consistently delivered message

–  Presenting her papers to the Board in March

Communications

Karim Bashir – Media Officer  (Absent from meeting due to obligations at the Beazley Trophy)

–  Liaison with Beazley’s marketing agency, WSM.  This month included working on pop-up events in London and the US

–  Ongoing work to deliver an online membership communications survey.  This is due to be issued to the membership in mid-late February

–  Various web/press releases have been prepared, posted and/distributed as well as management of British Fencing’s social media (including live results service on Twitter for all of the senior international events and some Junior events)

–  Finalising the details and budget for the delivery of FIE Centenary celebrations at the Beazley Trophy and Corble cup.

Finance

David Moseley – Finance Manager

–  Management Accounts and Forecast for Jan-Mar 2013 and budgets for 2014

–  Planning to start new procedure for control of budget and VAT

–  Staff will be able to control own budget in order that they will know how much they have left at any given moment

Head Office

Kim Robinson – Head Office Manager

–  Dealing with Elections and a busy month with regards to renewing memberships

–  Introduced fibre optic broadband so that upload and download speeds at the office have improved

–  Informed staff of a new digital telephone system which will be rolled out in February.  This will allow for more flexibility as well as cost savings

–  Assisted as ever by Jennifer Bathurst

CEO

Peter King (supported by Penny Moseley) also provided everyone with an update of his work this month as follows:-

–  Reiterated that he is staying with the organization until April 2014 along with David, Margaret and Penny

–  Vision and delivery

• The Board have set ambitious and exciting long term goals
• Current ambitions of senior management and staff are much more short term and must be delivered with the funding we have

–  Met with Peter Jacobs and UK Sport about international relations and budgets

–  Met with Excalibur to discuss switching mobile phones over to O2 and website related issues

–  Met with Leon Paul to discuss the Hire to Buy scheme

–  Met with Beazley and their marketing agency, WSM, about the plans for 2013 and beyond

–  Ongoing discussions regarding the future of the Beazley Trophy  

He also gave the apologies of those not in attendance.

The next meeting is scheduled for 27^th February 2013.