THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES ASSOCIATION OF JERSEY
Minutes of the Council meeting on 28th.March 2017 at 18.00 at Highlands
Present: President Paul du Feu, Vice Presidents Morag Obarska, Secretary General Paul Huddlestone, Treasurer Graham Huelin;Athlete Representatives Peter Irving: Council delegates; (Archery), (Athletics), Carmen Cann (Badminton), Eileen Vowden (Bowls),Julia Falle and Penny Shurmer(Gymnastics), (Judo), (Shooting),Frances Pallot(Squash), Nathan Jegou (Swimming), (Table Tennis),(Tennis), Tim Rogers(Triathlon), Paul Adamson(Volleyball)By Invitation; Sophie Le Blond (Jersey Sport Foundation)
1.Apologies:-(Archery), (Badminton), (Bowls), (Gymnastics), Rikki du Heaume(Judo), Mike Quenault (Shooting), (Squash), (Swimming),Clive Hansford(Table Tennis),BeroBobus (Volleyball).
2.Quorum:As there weresufficient persons and sports present, a quorum was present.
3.Minutes:-The minutes from the previous meeting on6th.December2016 were approved unanimously.
3Matters Arising:-The President stated all matters will be covered with the agenda. He also noted that we are now just one year from the Games in Gold Coast.
4Athlete Representative:Further to the resignation of Gary Jones at the last Council meeting, the President was pleased that Peter Irving was present this evening and was duly confirmed in the position of Athlete Representative.
5Finance:The President opened the discussion on finance with a review of a spreadsheet he had prepared detailing cash flow for the Association in columnar format under the respective headings of source of funds. He stated that the plan is for the current Committee to leave a balance of £60,000 in the Association funds at the end of its term in 2018 for subsequent years. Some of the listed items had already been paid and others had yet to be paid. GAH stated that the annual accounts would be presented at the AGM in April, but were not yet ready for this meeting. There will therefore be the necessity of another Council meeting shortly before the AGM to approve the accounts. It was noted that there was still an unallocated amount of approximately £15,000 of Acorn monies. The next instalment (30%) of the Federation grant is now due, but we are awaiting notification from the Federation of the format to report our progress so far, which will trigger the next instalment. The President confirmed that the sponsorship agreement with Acorn had been signed in December and they were pleased with the arrangements to date. These had included coverage of the School activities on Commonwealth Day when the Fort Regent staff had been very supportive. He further added that all athletes on the pathway would be given Acorn T and Polo shirts on the forthcoming April athlete seminar and sizes needed to be forwarded to ensure adequate supplies. Sports were also requested to forward reports of athlete results and other useful news for publication on the Association website, so we can maximise exposure for Acorn.
6Validation-The President stated that the number of athletes in the Pathway is reducing and is now down to 81. It is important for us to see the results in log books, on which CGAJ grant money is now dependent. Such athletes should not wait to apply, if they think they have met the criteria for a grant. He then presented a Selection Process paper issued on behalf of Validation setting out the procedure and timetable for selection of athletes for G2018. He emphasised the importance for sports to note the dates and their responsibilities in this process, which is very different form previous Games due to the fixed team size. Sports need to identify as soon as possible whether they will want Validation to consider competition results after early November but before December 2017 for later submission of data to support applications. This paper will be discussed again at the forthcoming Athlete day in April 2017. Athletes need to be fully aware that British Championships and International events will be the top level for consideration. All results are important, but the quality of the event will add to the submission. For Island Games to be considered they should be listed in the respective sport Performance Indicators. It was noted that Beach Volleyball will follow a different selection process governed by the Federation. It was noted that Bowls had not yet submitted anything further to their 2017 criteria, but Triathlon and Badminton have now agreed their criteria.
72017 Youth Games:These Games are going to be expensive having been quoted for the flights and the cost for extra officials over and above the minimum level. As is customary at the Youth games the ratio of officials to athletes is high as we only have a small team spread over four sports. The selection process for these Games will be a trial run for G2018 and the President outlined the process from a Paper handed out to those present. The deadline is early May and the time frame for selection is very tight to meet the accreditation deadline. It was noted that there will be a Government House reception for the Youth Games team to go to The Bahamas on 11 July 2017.
8Gold Coast 2018: The Secretary General informed the meeting that we had been advised by the Government that we should now change our anthem from Ma Normandie to Beautiful Jersey. The meeting approved this change. He further added that no ticket applications had been received for G2018 from any of our sports and the opportunistic CGA window is closing this week. After that tickets will be on open sale to the public. Provisional travel has been reserved, but sports were put on notice that there will be a travel desk at the Athletes Day where sports will be expected to confirm their planned travel dates to and from Gold Coast, so we can secure seats at best prices. Athletes would not be expected to stay in the Village more than 10 days before competition, so those competing very late in the Games should think about their travel dates. There will be special Australian visas issued to all accredited persons and thus visa applications should not be done until we advise the process. It is important that the correct visa is issued, which will not incur any cost and will need a unique identifier from the accreditation system. It is understood that there will be possibly only one States member attending the Games and thus the CGA guest accreditations will be used for past and current Committee members as well as Derek de la Haye.
9Queens Baton Relay:The Baton has now commenced its journey and is not due to arrive in Jersey until September this year. It coincides with the Air Display, so we are having discussions with that Organising Committee for displaying it on the front during the Display. MO requested anyone with thoughts on plans for an evening with sports and their athletes during the visit and any volunteers willing to help with the visit should contact her. She is keen to confirm drivers.
10Twinning of Schools for G2018: The locally selected schools were invited to Fort Regent to help celebrate Commonwealth Day on 13 March, which gave us the opportunity to introduce some sports to them and enable some good exposure to our sponsors, Acorn, who seemed very happy with the coverage. Acorn plan to attend the respective Schools Sports Days and sponsor prizes for specific events.
11Any Other Business; (i) It was noted that only 32 out of the 81 athletes had responded to the Athlete Day in April. There were some apologies, but the athletes should now be responding so we can assess numbers. (ii) The President stated that there would be a session on the Athletes Day straight after the AGM, which would be specifically for Team Managers and given by Greg Searle. It will be worth attending especially if anyone is planning to act as a manager at the Games. iii) The Sport Team Manager Nomination Form will be circulated with the Minutes from the meeting and submissions should be made as soon as possible, if the persons have already been identified. iv) The subsequent team day is scheduled for Saturday 25 November 2017. Please advise your athletes on the Pathway. v) The President stated that the European CGA meeting had just been held and there were concerns at the removal of Durban as host for the 2022 Games both for the now shorter time to find an alternative venue and the resultant financial implications. A group letter from that meeting has been sent to the Federation President expressing these concerns. It was noted that the 2017 General Assembly has now been cancelled and there will not now be a forum to discuss all the related issues until Gold Coast 2018. vi) The President informed the meeting that there will be a proposal at the AGM to defer the 2018 AGM to June/July 2018 in order to avoid a clash with G2018. vii) The President stated that the new Lieutenant Governor had replied and confirmed his acceptance as Patron of the Association
- Next Council meeting:-The next Council meeting and AGM are scheduled for the morning of Saturday 22 April 2017 at Radisson Blu Hotel, St Helier.