ENGLAND HANDBALL ASSOCIATION

“Delivering the Olympic Legacy”

National Executive Committee meeting

10th May 2014: 10.30am – 2.15pm

SportPark, Loughborough

Agenda Item / Minute and Action / Responsible
Action
1.  Attendance and welcome
/ Board members: Mike Briers (Chair) (MB); Ed Simpson (ES); Sue Whitehead (SW); Clare Henderson (CH).
Staff: David Meli (DM)
Apologies: Chris Smith (CS); Cesar Castillo(CC), Bill Baillie (BB), Geoff Woodall (GW).
DM declared an interest as an employee. SW declared an interest in her role as part of the AASE programme and as a member of an affiliated club. No other changes to personal circumstances for any Director since last meeting. DM reminded all directors of the need to complete the annual Declaration of Interest update.
Meeting confirmed as being quorate.
MB welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided an update on a couple of the key areas contained within his report. This included highlighting the first meeting of the Women & girls Development Group and the plan to hold another meeting at the Club Conference in June. DM stated that there was potential to access significant support from the EHF for this area of our work especially around coach development. There was also an update on the meeting held with the EHF and IHF attended by representatives of the EHA, SHA and BHA. A proposal was being prepared for submission at the end of May with a specific focus on national teams (senior and age group), grass roots development activities and media support. It was hoped that possible financial investment would be provided by the IHF. MB also outlined a couple of issues that he would like to see addressed in the near future – improvement in the quality of coaches/coaching as well as referees/officials and the need for Participation Managers to support a wider range of local deliverers. DM outlined the plans being in put in place to invest in new areas of the country. MB also mentioned about the need to try and engage with former England and GB players who may be prepared to help in a developmental capacity. CH asked if there was the potential to establish an Ambassadors Programme. DM thought this might be feasible with some extra investment. / Action: All directors to return completed DoI form to DM by the end of May.
2.  Minutes of previous meeting / Accepted as a true record.
Action points checked, all completed apart from MB was still awaiting a job specification from Liz Mayne for the NW Regional League Co-ordinator role so that he could approach potential candidates. DM agreed to chase this again with LM.
No items of AOB were requested. / Action: DM to speak to LM regarding the provision of a job specification of the Regional League Co-ordinator role.
3.  CEO’s Report / DM took the Board through his report which covered the main agenda items and asked for any questions.
DM confirmed that the majority of KPIs set out in the agreement with Sport England had been achieved or exceeded for the first year of the award. The only one missed was related to the number of affiliated wheelchair members and DM explained the plan to move towards targeting UK Deaf Sport via BB as the wheelchair sport market was dominated by basketball and rugby and could take time to provide numbers. The benefit of identifying players with hearing impairments was that they could be more easily integrated into the mainstream sport.
DM took the opportunity to refer to the operational Plan which had been updated since the previous meeting to include a numbering system for each activity and now a RAG rating on progress. This would allow DM to report on additional measures outside of the SE contract. All were currently on track apart from the achievement of BUCS recognition for handball that was now unlikely to be achieved before Oct 2015 due to the rationalisation of sports currently being undertaken by BUCS. This was out of our control but we will continue to work with BUCS and the ABUHC to further the development of the sport in the HE sector. On the point of clubs achieving the Clubmark standard, it was suggested by the board that some form of incentive be offered to clubs who can achieved the criteria. DM felt that this was possible by linking to the establishment of the EHA shop. This would be discussed further with CH and Louise Jukes (LJ).
Since the production of his report, DM was able to update that the funding for the governance and Upshot projects from SE was due to arrive in the EHA bank account this coming week. All invoices would be paid at this point. The implementation of Upshot was progressing and further discussions would be held with SE and potential pilot projects over the coming weeks.
As an update on the additional funding opportunity with SE, DM outlined that following discussions with SE Directors it was planned for this process to be completed by June. The EHA was very much in the mix for this investment following achievement of its annual targets for 2013-14. The plan was still linked to providing a full time marketing/commercial function and a budget for promotional activities.
DM thanked the board members for their attendance at the various club meetings. / Action: DM, CH and LJ to discuss incentive process for clubs to achieve the Clubmark standard.
4. Annual Report and Financial Statements / DM took the board through the draft annual accounts which he had received in the last couple of days. The audit was progressing well with the last remaining issues being dealt with by DM and the office in terms of paperwork related to grants. The overall situation was obviously a vast improvement on the previous year although DM was keen to point out that this did not mean that the EHA was awash with cash but rather was now operating on a prudent and clear financial footing. He was keen to ensure that this was made clear in any discussions with members who may feel that they might be entitled to some of this perceived ‘profit’. CH suggested that it would be useful to have some bullet points about plans for this year to highlight the additional work to be carried out so that we can present a unified response when questioned.
MB asked whether it was possible to provide a greater level of investment into local delivery as a result of the increased profit. DM stated that this was being done within the format of the agreed budget for 2014/15 which had a greater amount of funding set aside for supporting local development opportunities. There was also the extra investment in commercial development and the increased costs of the Cup Finals that had also been made possible by the profit rise. He felt it was important to stick to the budget as close as possible as this had been helpful in achieving the improved figure for last year.
DM outlined the process for completing the annual report and asked for each director to ensure that their relevant portfolio section was provided to DM by 23rd May to allow for production of the final report. The plan was to send this out to members in early June ahead of the AGM on 21st June.
CS was already reviewing the financial statements for the year and would include them in his section of the annual report. This would allow for one complete document to be produced this year rather than a separate set of accounts as was the case last year.
In terms of the process for signing of the annual report and financial statements, DM asked if the board were happy to delegate this to MB and CS in their roles as Chair and Finance Director. The Board confirmed that this was acceptable and that DM would oversee the process. / Action: DM to produce bullet point list of activities for 2014-15 for all directors.
Action: Directors to forward sections for Annual Report to DM by 23rd May.
Action: MB and CS to sign off the Annual Report and Financial Statements in time for the AGM.
5. EHA Annual General Meeting / DM confirmed that the AGM was due to take place on 21st June at Crown Hills Academy, Leicester following the club conference. At this moment in time there were five main agenda items including the election of two directors to the board.
SW queried the process for elections in the event of there only being a single candidate. DM stated that this was being worked on by Simon Le Fevre and asked that the board allow DM and ES to work with Simon on this along with the finalising of the revised Mem & Arts. The Board were happy for this to be done.
With regards to the Mem & Arts, these were pretty much complete now and would be tidied up by DM, ES and SLF so that they could be sent out to members to be adopted at the AGM. ES asked if there were any questions related to the document. As none were forthcoming, DM and ES would work with SLF on the final draft.
There was a general discussion about the approach to be taken at the AGM with the aim of keeping it to a tight agenda and also to a manageable time. MB outlined his intention to do a brief introduction and then to open up to the floor for any questions on the Annual report which could then be discussed by the relevant director. This was agreed by the board.
After this point all nominees for elected positions would be asked to give their brief statements which would be followed by the vote. The main aim for this year was to avoid any wide ranging general discussions that were unrelated to the main agenda of the AGM. It was hoped that the two sets of club meetings and the club conference would have provided suitable forums for this to have taken place prior to the AGM. / Action: DM and ES to liaise with Simon Le Fevre regarding voting process at the AGM.
Action: DM and ES to liaise with Simon Le Fevre on the final draft of the Mem & Arts.
6.  Business Directors’ Reports / Finance
In the absence of CS, DM took the Board through his report and asked for any questions.
Much of the discussion had been covered earlier in the meeting as the figures related to the full end of year accounts. DM highlighted that by moving the dates of the Board meetings back a week then he would be able to provide directors with the most recent management accounts i.e. for the month end preceeding the month of the board meeting. This would be taken into account when setting the dates at the end of the meeting.
No further questions were raised.
Marketing & Commercial
CH highlighted a couple of key areas from her report including the fact that she had attended the planning meeting for the implementation of Upshot in order to understand what it might offer in terms of customer info to support any marketing/commercial activity.
Good meetings had been held with Bishop Sports and other suppliers as part of the development of the online shop. Unfortunately, LJ had been unable to generate any interest from sponsors in the Cup Finals. It was felt that this was too late in the day for this year and also we had no product to sell. That will hopefully be rectified following this year’s event which should then provide collateral for us to be able target potential partners for next year’s event.
CH outlined that the change in our way of working had already started to prove beneficial in that some sales that would previously have gone direct to the supplier were being handled through the EHA. The result was an increased profit margin and greater control over the process.
No feedback had been received regarding the Ethical Sponsorship proposal put forward at the last meeting. CH felt that we had an opportunity to set out our preferences for the types of company that we would be prepared to approach as well as those that we would like to avoid. This second group potentially included tobacco firms, online gaming/betting, alcohol and some food companies. There was a general discussion on the subject where it was agreed that tobacco was definitely not an area to explore and this included e-cigarette manufacturers. In the areas of alcohol and food it was felt that this might be dealt with on a case-by-case basis depending on the company and target audience. DM suggested that he work with CH and LJ to put a bit more detail into the policy that might aid discussions by other directors.
Governance & Legal
ES updated on his recent attendance at a couple of seminars with a particular focus on disciplinaries and social media. Content not exactly what he was hoping for but made some useful contacts with counterpart directors from other sports.
ES then outlined the Voluntary Code of Good Governance that has been developed by the SRA. This outlines best practice in relation to governance and board operations and has been signed by more than 80 organisations. ES felt that we were well on the way to delivering and achieving many of the standards set out in the document and would have no hesitation in recommending that the EHA also sign up to it. The key would be to ensure that this was embedded in the process and structure of the EHA. DM supported this approach and confirmed that it was closely linked to the board assessment and self assurance processes that the EHA follows on an annual basis. It will also form part of the Governance Action Plan in the future. The Board was happy for ES and DM to move forward with signing the Code.
DM also confirmed that he wished to provide access for ES to the EHA’s suite of policies and procedures so that he could sense check the documents and ensure they were fit-for-purpose.
There was a general discussion about the revised Terms of Reference for the Competitions Disciplinary Committee (CDC) that had been developed by GW and Simon Le Fevre. CH raised a query about the highlighting of expenses that could be paid for committee attendance but DM felt that whilst this was available it did not need to be included in the ToR. SW questioned how this committee and its procedures linked in with the Appeals process that might follow any action, especially with regards to establishing a panel. DM stated that he would discuss this with SLF, GW and ES.