ABA OF ENGLAND LIMITED BOARD MEETING

22nd JUNE 2011

ABAE offices, GB Conference Room, EIS, Sheffield

11.00am

Item 1 / Present
Voting Attendees - K. Walters (Chairman), Abberley (CEO), C. Andrews (CA), T. Goreham (TG), R. Scott (RS), S. McHugh (SM), D. Cockell (DCo), D. Mapp (DM), G. Masterman (GM)
Non-voting attendees - R Caborn (RC), D Barnard (DB - note taker)
Apologies
A. Lynch (AL), F. McKelvie (FM) / I = Information
D= Decision
A= Action
Item 2 / Declaration of Interests
C Andrews - Ormerod Rutter (Family relationship)
D Mapp – BABA Board Member
KW – BABA Chairman
RC – FIA (Fitness Industry Association) / I
Item 3 / Company Secretary
MA now registered as Company Secretary/Director.
Annual Company Filing completed this month
Draft Accounts with OR, auditor onsite visit 30th June for 3 days. Telcon following this meeting with Auditors re sign off schedule – estimated sign off date end July 2011 / I
Item 4 / Previous Meeting - Board Minutes - Wednesday, 6th April 2011
Action Points Review/Update
6.3 Bonus payment
Due to the confidential nature of the discussion the content will remain in the back papers.
The CEO was given discretion to agree the final sum payable and report back to the Board.
Unanimously agreed
AP – MA to meet with individual and determine sum payable
Matters arising
Whistleblower Update
DM provided an update to all summarising outcomes and decisions made by Board and Council at the previous joint meeting (14th May 2011). Additional information discussed is to remain confidential to the back papers due to the sensitive nature of the content.
TG asked if any of the costs for the investigation could be recovered from SE, based on the actions taken. DM confirmed that none could be recovered.
Moore Stephens Issue – re 1st Ace
TG asked if, following an email regarding the closure of the Police Community Clubs office (PCC) due to holidays, whether BJ following his retirement was still involved in our CRB process, via the PCC. This was due to the fact that the email stated that CRB issues were “not being dealt with during the office closure”. MA explained that the CRB process is being reviewed by Gordon Valentine (GV), interim CPP Manager and that he is expecting to receive a report in August.
A confidential discussion took place regarding additional corporately sensitive information, which shall remain in the back papers for the record.
CA raised the issue of PK leaving the ABAE and commended him in the work he had done for ABAE. He asked the Board to consider some recognition for this.
CA also thanked DB for the additional work undertaken in supporting the Independent investigation and asked the Board to look at the additional work/hours undertaken and reward accordingly. DB thanks CA for his comments
Unanimously agreed
AP – MA - PK be invited to the AGM to receive an award in recognition for Services to Boxing. DB additional work to be reviewed / I
D
A
I
I
I
D
A
Item 5 / Chief Executive Reports
5.1 & 5.2 - Team Manager reports/England Summary of results
MA referred to the reports provided in the back papers regarding events attended and results gained.
MA recommended to the Board that he review the Performance Unit structure and report back to the Board at the August meeting.
Unanimously agreed
AP – MA to review Performance Unit structure and report back in August.
TG raised the issue that only Coaches were accompanying team and that this should be Team Managers
TG raised the issue of Adidas kit and that the benefit of this should be disseminated down to grass roots level in some way
MA confirmed that he was currently looking at kit order from Adidas and would report back to the Board when his review was completed
5.3 Operational Overview
MA informed the Board that, as per previous board discussion, an HR Consultant from Smith Cooper had done some work on reviewing HR related areas, with PK. Whilst the work undertaken had been completed, there was little output from the meetings to date other than suggestions on what could/should be included in the handbooks referred for review along with some notes made regarding job descriptions, pending another meeting being agreed.
MA recommended that he and DB review the Operational structure and the Staff handbook (by end of July) and the re-review/revamp the
Members handbook (by end of August in readiness for ratification at the AGM in September)
Unanimously agreed
MA confirmed that he had contacted the majority of stakeholders and met with AIBA/EUBC contacts at the European Championships.
TG commented that ABA needs to have members on AIBA commissions in order to fully partake in amateur Boxing at the higher levels.
MA informed the Board that he was working with Matt Holt (BABA) in aiming to clarify with AIBA representatives what roles RMcC (BABA) could undertake in the lead up to 2012 and would report back any information/progress in this area at the next meeting
CA asked if any other Principal Coach had been banned. MA said he wasn’t aware of any but there was potentially a similar problem in the USA with the Freddie Roache partnership/relationship
Commercial Overview
MA confirmed that he had reviewed ABAE agreements & sponsorship contracts
RC asked re plans post 2012 and MA informed the Board that his plan of action was as follows;-
·  Confirm current sponsors
·  Produce a strategic plan
·  Look at TV proposals
·  Meet with Boxing News
RC asked about “Club to Commercial” suggestions and Sportsmatching ( ie local businesses adopting clubs)
DM commented that the biggest issue for ABA is in relation to its membership data and the commercial use of it, to generate funding, which was currently being looked at. SmcH confirmed that it had been determined that the members data input to the database did belong to ABA entirely.
A discussion on funding for clubs led to the issue of the Charitable Sport and Recreational Trust (CSRT) being discussed and KW/RC confirmed that they were on the panel which selected applicants to receive funding from the trust for sports related grants. It transpired from the conversation that the CSRT had received a lump sum from ABAE many years ago (in addition to funds from other bodies/donators) to spend on charitable causes and that the fund was now able to grant awards from a sum in excess of £1m. KW confirmed that he had recently requested funds to purchase computer scoring equipment for all regions, but this had been turned down due to the fact that one region had a balance of more than £60k in their accounts and therefore the application fell outside of the financial needs parameters
The majority of Directors joining ABAE in the past 2/3 years were surprised to hear of this trust’s link to past funding from the ABAE and requested that MA research into the CSRT, with regards to this and funding opportunities and report back to the Board on his findings. In the meantime clubs were to be encouraged to apply for funds for various equipment and projects that they would like to purchase or undertake
AP – MA to research re ABAE/CSRT connection and report back re this and funding opportunities
CRM Database/website update
Having reviewed the first seasons data input, following season end on 31.05.11 it was evident that the quality of data, in some areas, was poor. DB is to work with the Registrars commission to improve this, potentially linking data quality to quantity for future Honorary Payments
With regards to the website progress there are 2 areas of work for the Board to consider;-
Matchmaker tool
Coaching Module
MA explained the impact of poor data on the viability of Matchmaker and suggested that this tool be postponed until later in the year, potentially launching at year end.
RS commented that without complete data the tool would not be viable and useless as far as a matching tool was concerned. He suggested that key data be input before testing, with an extended testing period before launch.
After a discussion it was agreed that matchmaker launch should be postponed until at least next season, with an exercise to populate data in all fields carried out, in addition to a review of the requirement of such a tool before any financial investment made
MA explained the requirement of the Coaching Module tool in relation to the success of the eventual role out of the initiative with the FIA. It was foreseen that the module would support the administration of the coaching courses being offered and some of the income generated would repay the cost of this.
MA/DB were due to attend a meeting with Sportfocus to cover these two areas and MA would report back to the Board following the meeting
AP – MA to report back to board with recommendations, following the meeting with Sportfocus
MA informed the Board of the feedback from Council/Regions in connection with the increased affiliation fees, borne out of the forecasted budget for 2011-12 and due to be ratified at the AGM. It had been requested that increased fees not be applied until ratified, despite this having a detrimental impact to the approved budget. In addition, questions had been raised regarding the validity of the discrepancy in relation to the date of the final ABAE Championship/ competition season end date and the ABAE insurance start date A paper, produced by DB following the last Council meeting (in response to the feedback), was circulated to Directors for review, in which these issues had been addressed with a resulting recommendation to change the end date of this season/start date of next season and the insurance policy dates.. The report also recommended that the applied affiliation increase remain in place, for ratification at the AGM, based on the suggestions alluded to in the paper. It was requested that the Directors review the paper and return their comments to MA/DB in order for a proposal to be put forward at the AGM
AP – all Directors to review the report and provide feedback, by 30th July latest, on the recommendations suggested
Sport England/WSP
The latest Active People Survey has now been released and MA was pleased to note that ABAE are back on track after the previous dip in figures.
SE had asked several Sports to provide Growth Plans for part 2 of the WSP. A key area (on SE Agenda) is 16+ age group. MA informed the Board that the ABA Box product is directed at the Leisure Industry and the growth of recreational/non contact participants. In addition ABA Box is seen to be a revenue maker, potentially to bring income to boxing. RS asked for assurance that ABA box was aimed at non-contact boxing and MA confirmed that it was directed to those individuals who currently took part or were interested in exercise related boxing activities such as Boxercise, who currently were not counted as being ABA participants, but as dance related participants. ABA Box was NOT intended for any type of contact boxers/boxing but to make inroads into those participants whose boxing related activities fell into other categories of sport/recreation.
Ma referred the Board to the Contract for Services in the back papers, in relation to the ABA box product and the financial projections/requirements to launch the product and support its initial stages
DM informed the meeting that he had not seen any background/business model for this product previously and was therefore unable to comment on the Contract for Services or the financial content given that he had no context in which to analyse the information and make a judgement on it’s viability. MA agreed to put together a paper containing the business model that ABA Box is part of.
AP – MA to provide additional information re ABA Box, including Business model and start up
CA asked about Boxing Development coverage and noted a concern that the BDO network does not cover West Midlands. This was a concern given the launch of such a product and that West Midlands was such a large area. ABA are potentially missing out on developing boxing/boxing related activities in this area. MA confirmed that the Leicester & Rutland position had been vacated recently but that recruitment would take place to fill that area.
MA informed the meeting that he had been looking at the issue of ABAE Boxing Academies and found that there were no guidelines for those setting up academies, relating to what an academy should do or how it should function. In addition he felt there were other issues to address in connection to these academies requiring ABAE endorsement, what form that endorsement would take, any endorsement fees, standard/facilities required before endorsement could be given etc. The Board agreed that these issues should be addressed and MA was requested to bring his suggested model to a future meeting of both the Board and Council for review.
Action point – MA to define an Academy business model/profile and report back to Board and Council for review/ratification.
ABAE Governance
MA reminded the Board that the new Commissions structure had been ratified at last year’s AGM but that little progress had been made with some commissions. He confirmed that it was the intention to meet with all commissions and provide working guidance and governance information. Moving on the Commissions should document and provide their minutes to the Board & Council for each meeting. Key ABAE staff would assist each commission in providing secretariat services and circulating information/providing recommendations to the relevant parties.