Peter King again chaired the February staff meeting at British Fencing’s Headquarters.  The purpose of these meetings is for all members of staff to share what work they have been doing to ensure that we work productively together as a team, supporting each other and the Board and serving the sport and our members as effectively as we can. 

Before the meeting started Margaret Nolan and Alex Newton updated the group on how the Talent Pathway project was developing.  This work will continue for some time to come.

A brief update of the meeting follows.

Performance

Alex Newton – Performance Director

–        Ongoing recruitment with interviews to begin soon

–        World Class Programme for the Rio cycle is on target to start on 1^st April as planned

–        Management of the senior international competition circuit which is well under way

–        Continued planning for the Talent Pathway

–        Organised World Number 2, Andrea Cassara and his coach, training with our MF in Lee Valley.  There are already plans in place for this to be repeated and for the men’s foil squad to train in Italy prior to the GP in Venice

Maxine McCombie – International Operations & Logistics Coordinator

–        Managing logistics for the senior international competitions

–        Managing logistics for Salzberg camp for MF & Rome camp for MS

–        Facilitated Andrea Cassara’s visit to Lee Valley

–        Working on the new kit for the Senior European Championships

Development

Charlie Miller – Workforce & Business Development Coordinator

–        It is now peak season for training Fencing Activity Leaders Award (FALAs) holders. These courses whereby staff at holiday camps are trained to deliver one introductory fencing class in their holiday park.

–        Working on a newsletter for the County Sports Partnerships

–        To The Point

–        Has been supporting Karim Bashir’s work with distributing the recent Communication Survey to members

–        Has been in discussions with other NGBs to obtain some generic and good practice refereeing materials for the incoming Referee committee to work with

Jack Boteler – GO/FENCE Coordinator

–        Setting up Go/Fence courses

–        Working on a Club Coaches Guide to provide support for coaches who go into schools

–        Continued work on Change4Life to reinvigorate the fencing programme.  Every school that delivered the programme last year has now been contacted

Katie Dolan – Events Coordinator

–        Beazley Trophy event management

–        GB Cadet & Junior event management

–        Administration on the National Academy camp

–        Planning for the British School Team Championships

–        Planning for the British Youth Championships

–        Planning for the UK School Games which this year may include Brazilian athletes (as part of the activation for the 2016 Olympic Games)

–        Work on the Competitions Pathway

Alan Rapley – National Academy Manager (absent – Chef de Mission at the Cadet & Junior European Championships in Budpapest)

Neil Brown – Projects Officer

–        Ran the National Academy camp in Brunnel

–        Organised the administration for the Cadet & Junior European Championships

–        Finalising plans for the upcoming Coach Master Class

–        Planning for the next National Academy camp

Margaret Nolan – Head of Grow and Development

–        Performed a major IT systems review in conjunction with a potential additional funding pot from Sport England which needs to be allocated by the end of March 2013

–        Club Development/Coaching Education review

–        Working on plans on how to measure the GROW aspect of the Board’s 3G agenda

–        Working with the 10 Regional Officers to support a consistent approach

Liz Behnke – Equality & Safeguarding Manager

–        The Equality Standards Portfolio is nearing completion

–        The development of the Welfare Pack is strongly linked to this work

–        Delivered training on Safeguarding to all staff which is a Sport England requirement

Communications

Karim Bashir – Media Officer

–        Liaison with Beazley’s marketing agency, WSM, including planning an event incuding WCP athletes at the end of March

–        Update on the work of the new Communications Group

–        Various web/press releases have been prepared, posted and/distributed as well as management of British Fencing’s social media (including live results service on Twitter for all of the senior international events and some Junior events)

–        Finalising the payments and accounts for the Beazley Trophy FIE100 activity

–        Cassara interview shot, edited and published

–        Delivery of live results from the GB Cadet & Junior Championships

–        Working on new format for To The Point

Finance

David Moseley – Finance Manager

–        Management Accounts and Forecast for the month

–        Ongoing preparation of the 2013-14 budget

–        Development of an expenditure system

–        Application for contingency funding from UK Sport – ongoing

Jo Martin – Assistant Accountant

–        Reconciliation of youth trips

–        Closing accounts for the year at the end of March

Head Office

Kim Robinson – Head Office Manager

–        Regular office management

–        Management of the Board Election nominations

–        Implementation of a new HQ phone system

–        Attended a DBS counter signatory course

Jennifer Bathurst – Admin Assistant

–        Working on the move from CRB to Disclosures & Barring Service

–        Implementation of the new HQ phone system

CEO

Peter King (supported by Penny Moseley) also provided everyone with an update of his work this month, which was punctuated by annual leave.

The next meeting is scheduled for 28^th March 2013.