CEO Report - May 2009

ON TARGET? AN UPDATE FROM PIERS MARTIN, BRITISH FENCING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO)

We have now entered one of the most exciting times for our sport.  As the London 2012 Olympic Games draws rapidly closer the spotlight will be increasingly on us, reflecting our successes, but also our mistakes and missed opportunities.   Our job is to ensure that we are ready and do not miss the potential in front of us. Over this last year as Chief Executive of British Fencing I have been excited to see a number of projects and programmes develop and both I, and the Board, feel we are on the verge of something very special as this work now starts to show  tangible results and the various benefits become clear.

The following is a summary of some of the projects, programmes and general operational work which is currently happening. It is intended to be brief to ensure that it covers a wide range of areas and we hope that this will also encourage people to communicate with us further – for example, by attending the On Target road shows mentioned below.  

The England Development Project
Undoubtedly the biggest project we have been involved with has been the England Development Project (EDP). Following a lengthy submission process, we have been able to access over a million pounds from Sport England to achieve mutual objectives of:

• GROW: Growing the sport, opening the doors to fencing and selling our sport to allow more people to access fencing, regardless of background.
• SUSTAIN: Developing a sporting pathway that will give people the best opportunities to fence to their desired level and will make people confident and satisfied with the way the sport is run.
• EXCEL: Developing a national talent development system which will allow those with the talent and desire the opportunity to succeed in the sport on the world stage.

In partnership with England Fencing, the EDP will deliver these outcomes and develop a bigger and stronger sport. In the first year, we will be focused on ensuring the organisation of our sport is fit for purpose, that we are doing things in the right way and are open and transparent. Also we will be establishing national programmes such as the National Fencing Academy and SwordMark (see below) to help us to deliver these objectives and also to raise the quality of what we do. We will work with those clubs in the London Region (Sport England Region) initially to get things right and then move through the Regions to cover the whole country by 2013.

We have recruited a National Development Manager (NDM) to run this project for us and I am pleased to introduce Ben Campion who has taken on this key role. Ben’s experience of working in several National Governing Bodies (NGBs), with Sport England and also in the area of investment will make him an asset to the sport and I am sure you will join me in welcoming him when he starts work towards the end of July.

Most of the delivery of the EDP will be through the clubs, as the backbone of our sport. Consequently Ben will be working with clubs to ensure that we offer them the best possible support to become fit for purpose themselves, linking clubs to sports development support, communities, schools, other clubs, colleges and universities and indeed other sports.

Workforce Development Strategy
A fundamental part of the EDP is developing a Workforce Development (WFD) strategy which will provide a roadmap to develop the people within our organisation. Over the next four years, we will establish a structure which will provide a continuous education and development programme for stakeholders such as coaches, referees, armourers, competition organisers, team managers and club administrators. We intend to put as much information and course modules online also to give people the opportunity to learn, gain qualifications and continually develop in the way best suited to them.

The National Fencing Academy
In order to deliver many of the outcomes of the EDP we will be establishing the National Fencing Academy to focus on the following three areas:

• Club Development: providing club development support through British Fencing, England Fencing and our partners.
• Workforce Development: establishing a workforce development system to allow people to qualify, develop and license.
• Talent Development: to prepare those with talent and desire to succeed for the international programme.  
  

The National Academy will have both a real world and virtual presence.  A National Fencing Academy website will be established to give access to resources on the 3 strands listed above; allow people to undertake qualifications and continuing professional development (CPD). By 2013, each Region (based on 9 Sport England Regions) will have one hub Regional Academy, based within a university (predominantly for education and qualifications reasons, but also because of facilities), which will deliver these three strands. It is likely that each Academy will operate in a slightly different way but will be connected to the whole network so that anyone accessing these services can see the pathway clearly. It is hoped that the Academies will be rolled out across all Home Countries and although direct funding for these may would have to come from elsewhere, there would be collateral benefits of having undertaken preparatory work in England. For example the virtual resources could be shared in any event and training materials would be able to be used across all regions subject to local jurisdictional amendments.

SwordMark
SwordMark is the brand name for our quality programme. Whereas the National Fencing Academy is our delivery arm, SwordMark is the quality control element. By 2013, wherever you see the SwordMark brand, you can be assured that British Fencing (in partnership with the home countries) has set not only minimum operating standards (MOS), but more importantly is continuously raising those standards. This is important not just for our external reputation as a National Governing Body (NGB) but also internally as it will allow our members and participants to see that we are serious about raising our game.

Fundamental to this programme is the concept of licensing.  We will issue licences where standards are reached and then issue them again as they are raised. By 2013 this licensing process will extend to:  coaches; referees; armourers; clubs; club officials; competitions; team managers; and international teams travelling to camps and competitions. We will be piloting the SwordMark process with our Junior British Teams this season and will be launching the new Team Manager Course on the 5th July at Aldershot – please contact Head Office for further details.

These standards will be set by those people with the right experience, for example, the SwordMark licence levels programme for referees will be set by the Referees Committee themselves, with independent advice where needed and subject to a central review to ensure consistency. We will make no excuses for raising the bar, but we must ensure that alongside this quality system we provide support through the National Fencing Academy to support people achieve those qualifications and progress through the various levels.

Fencing: 2020
We are often asked by people inside and outside the sport, particularly funding partners or those interested in investing in Fencing, what our strategy is and where are we headed. With so much good work happening in our sport we must ensure we are all working in one direction and sending out a uniform message.

As many of you will have seen, in late 2008 we recruited a working group to develop a strategy. We have been extremely lucky that under the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) FTSE 100 Partner Scheme, we have been linked with SABMiller, the global drinks company, who are assisting us with developing this strategy and actions to implement it. Bringing together ideas from a wide range of people with the intention of forming a more cohesive sport, the concept of Fencing: 2020 was born – a vision to develop the sport up to and beyond 2020. This allows us to look beyond 2012, create sustainability and over the next 12 years develop a sport which is run well and has something for everyone: A World Leading Fencing Family:

• A world leading organisation, run along business principles
• World leading people and a world leading people development system
• A world leading development framework allowing people to start, stay and succeed in our sport
• A world leading performance system, producing world leading results

It is hoped to communicate and consult further on Fencing: 2020 at the On Target road shows explained below.

Online Member Systems and Marketing Project:
The Board has established a working group to develop our long term online systems and marketing with the following objectives:

• Financial: to save the company money in the short term by reducing administration costs and to increase the income of the organisation in the long term
• Sustainability: to increase membership, retain existing members and to increase satisfaction with our service
• Marketing and Communications: to utilise cutting edge technology to improve our marketing and communications both internally and externally, providing uniform messages and to increase awareness of the sport.
  

There are two main strands to this project:

• Functionality: this is the systems part of the project which is associated with establishing online membership, online competition entry, e-commerce and payments, licensing, database management, reporting and the functionality of the website.
• Marketing and Communications: this strand is associated with internal and external marketing and communications, producing a uniform message, branding, utilising social networking and online channels to sell uniform messages (eg: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, diggit, Flickr, Google) and to increase our range of digital marketing channels (such as texting, blogging, viral marketing etc.) to communicate. Additionally, the information we hold on our membership database allows as to market our sport in a more efficient way.
  

Events
In April, we ran the World Cadet and Junior Championships 2009 in Belfast. The event ran successfully and also gave us a fantastic learning experience for when we run the European Senior Championships in 2011. We have already started planning this event with our partners and also intend to use our domestic championships, the UK Schools Games and World Cup events to continually develop the quality of our events and improve our processes in the build up to 2012.

This year, on 12th September, we are planning on holding the AGM with a general conference and possibly an awards dinner. Please keep an eye on the website for further details on this.

Communications:
In order to communicate more openly, we are organising a series of On Target road shows at a series of events. The following have been organised already and there are likely to be further planned in the future so please keep an eye on the website:

• The Cole Cup: 13th and 14th June
• The England Youth Championships: 27th and 28th June
• The Senior Nationals: 25th and 26th July
  

The objectives of the road shows are to improve two way communication, with information on what we are up to, but also allowing you to check and challenge this. As part of the communications drive and also in line with our business transformation objectives, we are keen to ensure that the information flow is two way. In addition to this I encourage anyone with ideas, comments, queries, a gripe or even (and it does happen sometimes!) a pat on the back to contact either Kim Robinson at Head Office: headoffice@britishfencing.com or me personally: piers.martin@britishfencing.com. Please put “On Target” in the subject header so we know what it’s about.

Piers Martin
CEO