Waterski & Wakeboard Scotland

Chief Operating Officers Report for the AGM 23rd October 2016:

Highlights of 2015 Season(period 01/04/2015 – 31/03/2016)

Weather:

I’ll leave that for others to report on……………….

Youth:

The BWS Cutting Edge programme has now been embraced by most of the Scottish clubsand ski schools operating in Scotland and with the addition of Glasgow Wake Park the Urban Cable School in June 2015 saw a continuing partnership with the 4 Accredited Ski Schools and Active Schools in 4 designated areas. This partnership has proven to be a winner for the ski schools. In excess of 600 cutting edge members participated in the scheme and if you take an average of 4 sessions per member then approx. 2400 sessions were delivered over the summer season. This programme will be rolled out again for the 2016 season and any lessons learnt from the experience will be integrated from the start. sportscotland our main investment partner has set us a delivery target for the season ahead.

More work is needed to encourage greater participation within our sport and we believe thatby continuing this type of initiative incorporating a cheaper school club /youth membership is the way forward to encourage and retain the younger skiers.

Memberships:

Memberships including the cutting edge participants and off season winter student skiers at the NTS for the region wereupon 2014,and I am pleased to report again that we bucked the UK trend which was substantially down on target. Our traditionalclubs are finding life very similar to some English clubs where it is provingmore & more difficult to join up the punters this has no doubt been affected by the economy and the inevitable increase in tow charges due to big hikes in fuel charges.Once again we are fortunate this year to include a percentage of the 4ski school’s membership within our own figures and it is anticipatedthat this new source of members will be fully integrated into the general membership through the new and cheaper youth membership category via the cutting edge programme. With the collection of membership data from the 4 ski schools we should maintain our year on year increase. One thing is for sure, we will need to remain active and more aggressive on this front if we are to survive in these challenging times. It is safe to say that sportscotland our funding partners have ‘membership growth within clubs’and ‘increased participation’ high on the list of investment indicators along with youth development.We can easily illustrate the increase in participation but it will be much more difficult to achieve the membership growth without a radical change in how we harvest these numbers. It is absolutely imperative that we meet these targets if we are to enjoy our funders continuingand substantial investment in our sport. This was especially important when we presented our 2016 – 2020 Strategic Plan in October 2015. This was a bold move for a relatively small SGB but we were confident that we could deliver on our 4-year plan. As part of our development programme within the plan we pitched for funding towards a development post, this role was pivotal to delivering the rest of the plan and crucial if we were to meet the targets set by sportscotland.

Education:

The new re-vamped SBD course numbers were similar to previous years and thanks to the coaching/driving team we met our target set by sportscotland, The UKCC Level 2 Instructor courses were delivered again with a total of around 35 candidates both cable and boat towed coaches attending this 4 day course and to date they have all completed their final assessment. I am pleased to say that we have secured funding from sportscotland for our 2016season education programme and that Sam Haslam and his BWSW team will again deliver these throughout the season. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the way forward for coach education and we will continue along this path into 2016 and beyond. Anyone interested in becoming a waterski or wakeboard coach boat or cable should contact the NTS for further information. Dates and course details will be available through Sam Haslam Coaching and Training Programme Coordinator@ BWSW.

With the increase in Ski Schools and in particular as new Cable sites develop we anticipate a large take up for these courses going forward. This also forms part of our agreed investment target with our funders sportscotland.

Child Protection:

The Scottish Water Ski Association Ltd are fully registered with the Central Registered Body in Scotland (CRBS) in order that we can continue to process Criminal Record Checks on existing and new coaching applicants and all others who require this check to be confirmed in the course of working closely with children. It is a prerequisite to becoming a coach and advisable for anyone who is in regular contact with children. All instructor renewals will have to go through the processand BWSWare redirecting all Scottish domiciles requiring this disclosure to WSS HQ. All Coach/Drivers operating at the NTS have been disclosure checked and I would highly recommend our clubs / ski schools to follow suit. It is also a requirement to have a Child Welfare Officer (CWO) in post at your Ski Club / School please ask for advice on this. All BWSW Accredited Ski/Schools Clubs have to adhere to this policy.

The original CRBS process has now been fully replaced by the new PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups) scheme. This is now live for all applicants including existing CRBS disclosure holders who will have to re-apply for their PVG disclosure. N.B. all members, instructors, coaches, officials etc. who are in possession of the old style disclosure will require to apply for a PVG membership as their existing disclosure is not now valid. This is a free service offered by WWS providing the applicant meets the criteria.

Please contact me for more information.Our Child protection programme and our policy can found on the company website.

First Aid:There was a first aid course held during 2016. Notification was made via. the NTS, posted on the website and through clubs. We now have trained operators to administer AED (Automatic External Defibrillation) using our own device which is housed in the office. Thanks to all who attended this course and the first aid course and a big thank to the facilitators who are making the NTS a safer place for all to be. For your 2017 season requirement please contact Andrew Haslam for further details. A water rescue course was held at the NTS for staff and coaches and was facilitated by one of our members. Thanks to Chris Warmer for running this excellent workshop. It is something that I would encourage ALL coaches to familiarise themselves with and we will hope to run a similar course in 2017.

Administration & Communication:

Regular quarterly Board/Management meetings are held. We also hold 4-5 meeting of the NTS Steering Group to deal with the issues of running the National Training Site.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the board of directors for their commitment to our sport and in particular Steve Clayton Chairmanwho has expertly chaired the meetings over the past few years. Steve is stepping down in March 2017 and we are actively looking for a replacement. I would also like to record a big personal thanks to all directors for their continuing commitment.

  • Andrew Haslam for his NTS operational/coach/driver skills and role at the tournaments.
  • Brian Gordon for his vast business experience and role as SWSA finance director
  • Mark Murray for his branding and marketing experience and more recently his involvement with Cable development and the NTS Refurbishment. This was a large piece of work and Mark should be thanked for his voluntary input into the project management of this wonderful facility that we now enjoy.
  • Campbell Cavana for his work on the website/booking bug and shared role as competition coordinator.
  • John Taylor for his work with Child Protection, Inclusion within our sport and more recently has shown an active interest in our stance within equality. John has also taken a lead on development within the NTS for the 2016 season.
  • Callum Mark, notwithstanding his Foxlake commitments, for his fresh approach to the meetings and his input into Cutting Edge programmes, wakeboarding and cable development in general.
  • Julie Doncaster, notwithstanding her Glasgow Wake Park associations has brought a much needed female vision to our meetings and her day job knowledge as a partner at Harper McLeod one of Scotland leading law firms is invaluable.

All the above directors are collectively responsible for the good governance of our sport and strive to ensure that we are fit for purpose as a Scottish Governing Body.

With Steve Clayton stepping down as a director this leaves us shout of one director and we are actively looking for nominations to fill this voluntary post. The post of Chair and vice chair are therefore vacant and we will need to recruit these positions for 2017 season.

Governance:

As part of our investment agreement with our funding partner sportscotland we have to undergo a development audit which tests us against set criteriawhich covers the following areas of our business.

governance; financial management; risk management; planning and reporting; human resources management; policies; communications and IT.

This audit will beonce again administered by KPMG and wewill start this process in the first quarter of 2017. This is a fairly large and important piece of work and it’s no surprise that our investment funding form sportscotland is intrinsically linked to a good audit result.

Equality:

As part of our good governance and investment funding agreement we have to update our equality policy to make sure it is still fit for purpose and go through the next process of achieving Preliminary Level within the equality standards to better reflect our sport. This process has been started and I have a target date of December 2016 to achieve this level. This process involved our Directors, members of staff and a random group of full members completing an online survey pertaining to equality.The next stage of this process it to write an action plan for our sport and showcase good standards of equality within our sport. A good example of this type of work was highlighted with the Disability Inclusion Training course that we hosted at the NTS in May/June this year, these 2 highly successful workshops facilitated by Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and funded through a BWSW bursary led onto the production of a high quality Inclusive coaching video featuring one of our inclusive skiers. This video has been raved about by sportscotland, SDS, the Equality Standards Team and other Scottish Governing Bodies and is being promoted as a great example of ‘best practice’ within sport. Thanks must be recorded to all involved in delivering this exceptional piece of work. N.B: Current Equality Policy is on our website.

Management:

In accordance with our Arts of Association we require a maximum of nine directors to manage the company on your behalf. As ever the board are actively encouraging applications from anyone who feels that they have the necessary skill set and would like a meaningful input into the future direction and running of our sport. In particular we are very keen on recruiting female directors as this fits in with our desire to maintain gender equality within our workforce and directors, in saying that the right person for the job is still paramount. In the event of being oversubscribed a vote will take place either by proxy or directly on the day. The Directors of the NGB meet approx. 4-5 times per year with a subgroup meeting a further 4-5 times per year to oversee the running of the National Training Site at Townhill, there is no pressure to attend this sub group and directors need only to attend the Main management meetings. All of these meetings are properly constituted with pre-meeting agendas and notes of each meeting taken and freely available to any member for their perusal.

Communications:

Our website offers information to all interested parties,with the Scottish HQ at Townhill acting as the information hub for all aspects of our sport. We welcome all enquiries and can be contacted directly by phone, email or through our social media portal. Our website is currently undergoing a complete re-vamp and it is proposed to separate the SGB site form the NTS operations. This has taken longer than expected to bring to fruition and newly appointed, National Development Officer, John Beattie has taken on the task to complete this process. It is anticipated that both sites will be fully functional early in 2017.

Articles of Association: As you are aware we are constantly reviewing our policy and procedure documents, and of course the company’s Articles of Association.

N.B: There are no requests for change to our Arts of Assoc. for the coming year.

It is proposed for the 2018 AGM notice that we change the Arts of Assoc. to enable the company to send out AGM notifications by email instead of the current and very expensive posting method. This will be presented as a special resolution to the 2017 AGM, If the proposal is accepted by the membership, then the default positon will then be ‘send electronically’ of course this will not preclude anyone from receiving a mailed out version if they specifically request this method.

Funding:

We were fortunate to receive £33,000 funding from sportscotland in support of our 2015/16, operational plan investment submission. In addition to this we received further funding to support our UKCC coaching programme delivery. The newly refurbished and extended National Training Site which was financially supported through the Active Places Legacy 2014 fund and facilitated through sportscotland is looking fantastic and the accolades just keep coming in, it has to be one of the best waterski/wakeboard sites in the UK and we should all be very proud of it. It goes without saying that without our partnership with sportscotland and this investment funding the SGB would not survive in its current from.

Future Funding:

Our 12-monthoperational plan 2016/2017which forms part of our overall 4yr corporate strategic doc. was completed at the end of October and the investment funding application waspresented to sportscotland in November as part of our Strategic Planning. I am extremely pleased to report that sportscotland have agreed to invest £58,000 in our sport based on our long term strategic direction and the one-year operational pan. This will mean a total of £232,000 over the four-year plan period, (always subject to terms and conditions and available funding of course.) This gives the sport some stability going forward and will allow John Beattie, NDO, to develop the sport to the next level. I would like to thank sportscotland once again for their continuing support by investing in our future.

Future areas of work:

For 2016/17we will be working on:

  • Continuing our work to rollout the PVG Protection for Vulnerable Group scheme
  • We will run ‘Safeguarding for Children in Sports’ and ‘In Safe Hands’ courses for all who are involved at the appropriate level with children.
  • Marketing and communications, headed up by John Beattie the members of the marketing group will continue to look at all aspects of our marketing and communications, this will include social media opportunities, re-vamping the website and continuing to improve the facilities in parallel with the newly refurbished NTS.
  • Clubs/ Ski/Boarding Schools, through John Beattie, NDO, we will be very active in this area promoting the services on offer from the HQ at SWSA / waterskiscotland.
  • Cable Development, in line with our strategic plan and as major part of the newly appointed John Beattie NDO’s role, we will continue to investigate all possible sites for developing a cable network in Scotland.
  • BWSW, we will maintain good contacts with the national committees of our UK governing body through the following areas All Regions, Advisory Council and at Board Level, waterskiscotland are represented at all levels of BWSW and our continuing relationship is paramount in our growth and credibility within the industry. Through John Beattie, NDO we will work much closer with the BWSW Development Team at HQ to further our common goals.
  • National Groups, waterskiscotland is represented on a whole myriad of groups and agencies and include but not exclusive to the following:
  • MCA, Maritime and Coastguard Agency
  • COO, Scottish Sports Association/sportscotland discussion group for Chief Operating Officers/Executives of Scottish NGBs
  • OMG, sportscotland discussion group for Operating Managers of Scottish NGBs
  • ERG, this small expert resource group controls and manages a sportscotland budget for the sole use of HR, Legal, Financial and Child protection support for Scottish NGBs and which we have had recent support. (this group still exists but in a slightly different format)
  • OPG, sportscotland Outdoors Pursuit Group are concerned with anything that has an impact on outdoor sport, access, legislation, etc. This encompasses work carried out by the old Adventure and Activities Licensing Authority.
  • SSA, Scottish Sports Association, who represent the interests of governing bodies of sport in Scotland. They are particularly active in the political scene in Scotland influencing the funding and direction of sport at Scottish Executive and government level
  • Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults with input into the future strategy of this group.
  • UKAD, we are fully committed to the goals of UK Anti-doping Ltd.
  • SAS, the SportsAid Scotland who sponsor some of our young talented athletes through the various trusts that they administer.
  • SCI, Sporting Chance Initiative acts as an access portal connecting businesses and SGBs with Higher Education Facilities.
  • Waterskiing is also represented at the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood through occasional attendance at the Cross Party Group for Sport meetings.
  • Learning & Development workshops, seminars, we are active within these workshops which are wide and varied and are facilitated through SSA in partnership with sportscotland.

Although this list is not exhaustive it will give you a flavour of the work that is currently being carried out on behalf of our membership. We are very proactive in areas of work that could have an impact on our sport.