To help facilitate the creation and sharing of best practice, BF has created a series of community discussion events, inviting members to raise issues, discuss topics and share ideas.
The output of these discussions will be fed into the BF Return to Fencing Work Group. This work group has been set up specifically to coordinate and make recommendations on the community aspects of the BF Return to Fencing plan. This plan will need to adapt as and when government advice and guidance changes.
We hope these discussion opportunities will help sharing of current best practice, help us create advice and guidance to support a future return to fencing and also crowdsource ideas on how we can create a stronger better sport.
Please note that all current sessions will be held through ‘Zoom’, which is a virtual platform. Once you have registered for an event you will be sent the relevant login details and instructions on the day of the session. You do not need to have a ‘Zoom’ account in order to access these sessions and there is no cost to take part.
Wednesday 27th January – GB League Session. BF will be running a series of sessions to update the community on the new GB League structure. Sign Up for this event is not yet live. Registration information will be available on this page.
Thursday 11th February – COVID-19 Officers. Sign Up for this event is not yet live. Registration information will be sent out to all assigned Club Admins and COVID-19 Officers on sport80.
March – Regional Chairs. Date TBC
Thursday 11th March – Club. Sign Up for this event is not yet live. Registration information will be sent out to all assigned Club Admins on sport80.
Thursday 15th April – Club. Sign Up for this event is not yet live. Registration information will be sent out to all assigned Club Admins on sport80.
Thursday 14th January – COVID-19 Officers
Friday 18th December – Webinar; Risk Assessment Webinar with Hannah. You can watch the recording of this Webinar here.
Friday 11th December – Webinar; Funding Webinar with Hannah. You can watch the recording of this Webinar here.
Thursday 10th December – Regional Chairs
Wednesday 2nd December- Club
Friday 27th November – Community Q&A with BF’s CEO Georgina Usher
Thursday 12th November – Club
Thursday 15th October Club
Thursday 17th September Welfare Officers
Thursday 10th September COVID-19 Officers
Wednesday 9th September COVID-19 Officers
Tuesday 8th September COVID-19 Officers
Thursday 23rd July COVID-19 Officers
Wednesday 22nd July COVID-19 Officers
Tuesday 21st July COVID-19 Officers
Tuesday 7th July Welfare Officers
Friday 5th June Coaches
Monday 1st June Welfare Officers
Wednesday 27th May Welfare Officers
Monday 18th May Club
Monday 11th May Club
Please note that you will need to be a valid British Fencing Member to take part.
We run the groups on Zoom, by invite. We will sometimes limit the number of participants (approx 25-30) to ensure all questions are considered and there is time for discussion. You can put questions to the panel by asking beforehand when responding to your invitation, or during the session in the chat function.
The discussions will differ depending on the topic and are usually set for around 1-2 hours.
These discussion groups will all cover a range of topics around supporting lockdown and returning to fencing for example health and safety, events, coaching, welfare, marketing, and more. There will be plenty of opportunities to contribute ideas and ask questions.
Some, however, to facilitate an open discussion and allow people to share their honest opinions, we will only use the recordings internally to inform next steps and help us produce the return to fencing plans and guidance. We have found this approach puts people at ease and allows for a more honest discussion.
We are currently considering creating topic based member-led working groups to move forwards with particular areas of guidance after we have completed the first round of discussion events. We welcome participants who would like to help develop ideas prompted from the sessions.
If you have any suggested topics to discuss or want to know more about the series please e-mail hannah.gavin@britishfencing.com.
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