Aba of England Limited Joint Board and Council Meeting

ABA OF ENGLAND LIMITED JOINT BOARD AND COUNCIL MEETING

SATURDAY 9 MAY 2009

THE ICE SHEFFIELD

11.00am

Item 1 / Present
K. Walters –President (KW), P. King -CEO (PK),
D. Mapp (DM), E. Goreham (EG), D. Cockell (DC),
R. Scott (RS), B..Jones (BJ), R. Morley (RM), C. Perkins (CP), P. Garnish (PG), R. Black (RB),
S. Matthewson (SM), S. Brooks (SB), R. Harvey (RH) M. Gannon (MG), P. Angus (PA), E. Hoyland (EH),
J. McCarthy (JM). / I = Information
D= Decision
A= Action
Item 2 / Apologies
A.D. Lynch, J. Hallam, C. Andrews, S. Rush,
J. Danbury.
Item 3 / Declaration of Interests
D. Mapp– BABA Chair and various companies
P. King (CEO) – BABA
K. Walters (ABA Chair) – BABA
B. Jones – 1st Ace and Police Community
Clubs of Great Britain. / I
Item 4 / England International Coaching Information
MG informed the meeting of the successful tournaments that have taken place England vs Ireland one in Basingstoke and one in London and a junior team was taken to Poland and just recently had a very successful schoolboys Three Nations where 36 boxers represented England taking 18 Gold medals, 9 Silver medals and 9 Bronze medals. The mostoutstanding of these boxers will go through the selection process to box for England in the Junior Schoolboy European Championships in October. Future Tournaments:
Senior Three Nations (end of May) – Liverpool
Youth Three Nations – England
European Youth Championships in August
150 entries were received for the Womens Championships which is 50% more than last year’s entry levels.
A Womens Box Camp in BradfordCollege for upto 100 females is now being organised for August 2009
There is a team of six female boxers going to Bulgaria to enter the European Union Championships in June 2009.
Training Camps are planned prior to future tournaments.
Three Senior Coaching Courses have been set up with the first one having already successfully taken place with two more throughout the year.
A Regional Coaches Seminar was organisedrecently in Sheffieldwhere all regional coaches and association coaches were refreshed in terms of contemporary coaching issues and initiatives.
An advanced Coaches Seminar is due to take place in September 2009 atBradfordCollege.
Two new regional coach appointments wereagreed by the ABAE Council Dave Alloway (Home Counties) successfully went through an interview process and became GB Coach and will be replaced by Ken Reynolds. Tony Challinor (Merseyside & Cheshire) has resigned from boxing totally and will be replaced by Chris Cain. These appointments were supported unanimously.
MG expressed his concern about coaches doing what they refer to as recommended ABAE courses when they are not. PK has suggested that this is investigated. MG to report back with any further information. / I
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4.1 / Terms of Reference Report
PK read out the Terms of Reference Report and it was agreed that the Council should have overall control of all boxing matters, while the Board has control of all business / finances of the company.
Questions were raised about the appointment of Chair and Secretary to both Board and Council and whether the same people should take up these appointments on both Board and Council. It was proposed RH, Seconded JMc that the Chairman and Secretary of the ABAE Board would consequentially be the Chairman and Secretary of the Council to gain continuity and linkage.
The Chairman and Secretary of the Board will therefore be the Chairman and Secretary of the Council and will be responsible to the Council as they are to the Board a vote was taken 9 Council Members for and none against.
Discussion took place regarding attendance of Board Members at Council Meetings and it was decided BoardMembers should attend Council Meetings, to inform the Council of financial issues and answer any other questions. It was made clear that Board Members can attend Council Meetings but cannot propose or vote, as the newly adopted Terms of Reference indicate. A vote was taken adopting the new Terms of Reference for ABAE Board and Council nine votes for the Proposal, none against. / D
4.2 / LDL/BT Financial Services & ICT
DM informed the meeting that as Chair of the Audit Committee he was disappointed at the non-availability of accounts from our providers LDL/BT. He further informed the meeting that since the formation of the new BABA established 1st October 2008 £80,000 had been paid out against previous expenditure from within the ABAE lead status period, this had been incurred by ABAE and the cost borne by BABA.
DM informed the meeting that LDL have refused to supply the ABAE end of year set of accounts, nominal ledger and trail balance therefore a whole new set of accounts are being rebuilt. Although LDL has ceased providing a financial service they are still receiving payment.
PK informed the meeting that with regards to the ICT contract this could remain in force until September 2011, but we will still seek to meet with LDL/BT to resolve the end of year accounts. Also it was unanimously agreed that ABAE contact LDL/BT through our solicitors concerning their refusal to deliver the end of year accounts for 2008/09 as per the ABAE – LDL/BT Service Level Agreement which breaches the contract in part / or in a whole.
A vote for the legal option being taken was 9 for the Proposal and 0 against.
PK informed the meeting that he had recently met with a company that services RFL, Badminton and Swimming which will cost £25,000 per year for state of the art package to the same standards and requirements we already have through LDL/BT, in terms of database and / A
website, which is a far more beneficial package and cost. PK will continue to seek other opportunities and test the
market in terms of ICT and Database for future potential suppliers to tender for contracts as the Service Provider.
PK informed the meeting that if the ABAE server suffered any problems DM has offered access to the BABA servers.
The Ball Inn – PK informed the meeting that there has been a valuer approached to assess the potential of selling the property. PK will provide a report for Board and Council next month.
PK has developed an outline ICT/Financial statement of requirements with external specialist support and will seek to potentially access further Sport England funding out of their modernisation “Pot” to further develop our current ABAE systems and capability, for the future whilst refreshing and improving our current provision. / I
4.3 / ABAE Investments/ABAE International Events and ABAE Reserves
ABAE Investments £399.46
ABAE International Events £386.68
ABAE (Reserves) £137,322.53
(These are the current balances of the ABAE /Capita managed accounts as of 8th May 2009)
PK informed the meeting that he had received correspondence from Capita who hold our ABAE Investments/ International Events and ABAE Reserves informing him that a letter had been sent to Capita by D. McElhinney nominating A.D. Lynch as D. McElhinney’s replacement following his resignation from the ABAE Investments and ABAE International Events (only).
Capita had responded suggesting he personally could not legally make a replacement.
The removal and appointment of persons attached to these three ABAE Investment Accounts can only be carried out legally by ABAE as the owner of these investments, which is now supported also by these minutes herewith.
It was suggested and unanimously agreed that a Board or Council Member fulfil the vacanciesleft by D. McElhinney on all three ABAE accounts and also to add a second person to the larger ABAE Reserves Account.
It was proposed and unanimously supported that Ted Goreham (ABAE Board Member) take over these three positions from D. McElhinney forthwith.
PK, ABAE Company Secretary should also be added as a an appointed person on behalf of ABAE as a signatory and named individual for the larger ABAE Reserves Account (which currently for some reason only has one named signatory which is that of D. McElhinney, the former ABAE Director who has now resigned and been removed from the relevant ABAE Investment Accounts as detailed above and replaced by T. Goreham).
PKwas instructed to immediately commence the change of mandates for the three ABAE Accounts with Capita and to complete the required paperwork, whilst also forwarding Copy of Transfer of Sharesto the new signatories appointed by ABAE.
D. McElhinney will also receive a copy of Share Transfer paperwork concerning the ABAE Reserves Investment Account for signatory.
It was also agreed that if required to defend the ABAE’s position and its investments then legal procedures may also be actioned. / D
4.4 / UK Sport Reconciliation
PK referred to the recent letter received from UK Sport, which indicated it required the reconciliation and repayment of under spent funds of £156Kwhich accrued from the previous two years GB Elite Boxing income.
This reconciliation was carried out by PK and representatives of UK Sport as the former Financial Director of ABAE failed to engage with the process.
ABAE Board received a report by the former Financial Director in June 2008, indicating, that according to his accounts UK Sport had under paid ABAE by £64K. This clearly was not the case and the reporting did not fit with the GB Boxing income and expenditure profiles which has now been proofed following the December 2008. PK is now in contact with UK Sport and BABA seeking to structure the repayment of the identified under spendswhich will be resolved in the very near future.
It was unanimously agreed that if investments were required to be cashed in and the Ball Inn sold to meet this and any other shortfalls found after rebuilding our accounts for audit due to LDL/BT refusing to forward these reports and information (as per SLA), 9 votes for 0 against then, this was to be actioned.
DM informed the meeting that when he was appointed to the ABAE Board he attended a meeting with UK Sport having been invited, at which UK Sport threatened to take away funding from ABAE as they felt it was not being run efficiently in terms of climate and financially. UK Sport had set up a plan called a Special Project Vehicle (SPV). DM now feels the relationship between BABA and the Home Nations is much improved.
DM informed the meeting that with regards to BABA boxers and Home Nation boxers there are 6 monthly assessments and there will be downward movements as well as upwards in terms of attrition and pressure for places.
PK informed the meeting that the way in which a boxer will get onto the GB Programme is through national championships and coming out of the regional coaching sessions, tested against Talent ID and GB Protocols which were to be permutated down to the Home Nations. / I
4.5 / ABAE Board and Council Minutes/Schedule/Recipients
a) In future Minutes will be sent to both Board and Council within 10 days of the previous meeting.
b) All Board and Council Agendas will be sent out 7 days in advance of the meeting.
c) All agreed items to be included on the Agendas by members to be lodged 10 days before the meeting in question. / A
4.6 / ABAE Commissions Review Working Party
At the last meeting there was full support to review the structure of all ABAE Commissions. PK informed the meeting that he would like to have Board and Council Members (where skill sets are relevant) become Chair of the Commissions and then draft in people from ABAE by CV in very small units to start delivering, positively and consistently through the management process, this was occurring sporadically at the moment.
PK informed the meeting he is looking for sixindividuals to form the Review Panel and suggested people from current Technical and Rules, R & J’s and Board Members to review the Commissions of the ABA, Terms of Reference, Numbers etc. a full rationale for the review to be developed.
This group will be EG/DC//EH/RB/RH/KW/PK and internal officers of ABAE. / A
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4.7 / Pro-Am Working Party and Survey Paper
This group is due to meet in the next month potentially at the British ABAE Championships in Liverpool. / I
4.8 / ABAE Championships Review Working Party and Survey
This should be the same group as ABAE Commissions Review Working Party identified in 4.6 / D
4.9 / ABAE Premier League Cities Event
This is a way of putting a senior event on and would be described as an Inter-City Challenge Match or an alternative title.
This event is about offering further senior boxing opportunities under a league format of knockout tournaments in the beginning through to the last four home and away thenwith a national final looking for television coverage. Further dialogue concerning structure and timetabling to be developed and produced for the next Council Meeting. / I
4.10 / PK informed the meeting that he will be attending a meeting with GatesheadCollege who will be taking on a Boxing Development Officer in the college as an Academy site. This type of very pro active engagement is a clear barometer that the ABAE and its benefits are resonating across the country.
This is on top of the potential 6 new placements being developed with ABAE through the Pro-Active Police and Community Clubs of Great Britain. / I
4.11 / Financial and Legal Reports
None, as LDL/BT have not provided the end of year accounts 2008/09 closing balances of 31/3/09, nominal ledger or trail balance. However ABE have started its own in-house financial services, statements and balances will be available in a month’s time for the next Board and Council meetings, commencing from April 1st (accounts 2009/10), which are now being developed and managed in house at Sheffield. / I
4.12 / Correspondence – J. Hallam
Q1 Council to run boxing and not finances – Discussed earlier in these minutes and Terms of Reference adopted.
Q2 Feeder Organisation – Talent ID comes out of the regions through the clubs and squads, through the Home Nation championships identified to representEngland then a recommendation is made by ABAE every 6 months for athletes to be assessed for potential inclusion against regional testing and protocols. The Board and Council were now clear how the process works to benefit the boxers and expose them to top flight international competition.
It was also fully explained again by PK that Sport England support and fund ABAE against a commitment to excellence at all levels and in terms of Olympic achievements
Q3 Passage of information – A caveat has been made that draft minutes will be out within 10 days.
Q4 Making official statements – It is hoped we will be in a position to be far more proactive and responsive in the future using one channel of communication to deliver ABAE responses or statements with an agency appointed to develop our public relations profile and press responses under ABAE media direction.
Q5 Amendments All Rules / New Rules - Go beforeABAE Council. K. Hickey and Home Nation coaches will liaise regarding an annual programme taking into account clashes of championship dates and BABA dates.
Q6 Computer Scoring – PK felt that this was a Technical and Rules issue and would be passed on for discussion to the relevant Commission.
Q7 Boxing decisions–discussed earlier
Q8 ABAE Stance on Professional Coaches working within ABAE and BABA – By 1st July 2009 there will be a surveydeveloped on the track of a report for the grass roots of the sport to decide its position.
Q9 World Series Boxing – GB Boxing to look at this before it is discussed with Home Nations.
Q10 Insurance–PK informed the meeting that consideration is needed regarding public liability insurance for every club. The sport and the clubs are in a weak position regarding public liability insurance. PK to invite an independent insurance broker to fully explain what we are covered for and what the weaknesses are to ABAE and its members at the moment. PK has asked Stephen Murphy from Hendersons to put together a presentation for ABAE Board and Council and a brief pamphlet giving a synopsis of the current cover .
It was a unanimous decision 9 votes for and none against that David McElhinney will not be invited to any Council Meetings. / D
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4.13 / Commission Reports – R/J Meeting Minutes/Technical & Rules Meeting
RB informed the meeting that the 10 candidates who took the AIBA Exam all passed and there are now 21 ABAE Referees and Judges on the AIBA Major Panel. There is now an AIBA grading system which is as follows: 1 star can officiate at home internationals, 2 stars can officiate at national and intercontinental championships and 3 stars can officiate at world and European championships.
RB further informed the meeting that new Rules have been adopted by AIBA whereby a deaf person is able to box and also a boxer who is missing fingers or toes can box provided they have thumbs anda big toe. These decisions will be put forward to the ABAE AGM
RB confirmed that clickers may be used at events and also re-confirmed that earrings are not to be worn during bouts. / I
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4.14 / Child Protection – Child Protection Update/Equity Update/Discipline & Appeals
Discipline & Appeals
a) Joe Baker a junior boxer was the subject of a discipline hearing where a lady was assaulted at the Junior ABA’s in Liverpool 2007 he was subsequently arrested by police and given a caution.