NOTE OF THE BOA COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 12 JUNE 1999
AT CRYSTAL PALACE SPORTS CENTRE

Present:

Keith Dunkinson, Anne Spencer, Keith Hadland, Grant Mosedale, Kevin Hyman, Colin Dellor, Lindsay Poyner, Helen Field.

Apologies for absence

1. Apologies were received from Neil Dixon, Cliff Underwood and Martin Reed.

Minutes of the last committee meeting

2. These were agreed. There were some outstanding items that had not been completed and these were passed on to the relevant officer to complete. They were:

Director of Coaching to produce a guide to setting up/running a club and send to all clubs.

Committee to decide on whether to bid to host the 2004 underwater hockey world championships.

Publications Manager to publish list of agreed expenses in Octopush news (listed in Octopush Hansard).

Officers reports

3. As this was the first meeting of the new Committee, Officers were asked by the Chairman to say what they wanted to achieve this year. These would be reviewed at the last Committee meeting before the AGM. Officers comments were:

Chairman (Keith Dunkinson)

4. The Chairman explained that he wanted to develop the role of the regional representatives. In his view they were a much-underused resource of the BOA. Clubs ought to be going to their regional representatives when they wanted something. He recognised that this would need more support than they currently got from the BOA Committee and advocated having a Regional rep’s co-ordinator. Anne Spencer volunteered to take up this role. He had already confirmed regional representatives for nearly every area but was still short of a Southern regional rep. Volunteers for the job would be most welcome.

Chairman to send advert for Southern area rep to be put in Octopush News.

Director of Coaching (Lindsay Poyner)

5. The Director of Coaching explained that her primary aim was to do things for the junior section. In particular she wanted to see the junior logbook / training scheme finally launched. She also intended to work on producing "how to get started" booklets to help people in setting up and running junior clubs. It was pointed out that a lot of the information she needed was available on the "web". The National Coaching Federation would also be a good source of information.

 

Secretary (Grant Mosedale)

6. The Secretary said nothing about what he intended to achieve during the year.

Junior/Youth Co-ordinator (Kevin Hyman)

7. The Junior/Youth Co-ordinator explained that he wanted to have better integration of the junior/youth game with the adult game. He wanted to see the junior logbooks; training scheme etc introduced this year. He wanted to improve publicity both within the BOA and outside for junior Octopush. More advertising of junior stuff in Octopush news would help. He also hoped to run more local junior tournaments. He intended to work closely with the Competitions Manager & Junior National Squads Manager to achieve this. He also questioned the cost for junior teams of BOA membership. He pointed out that £60 to join the BOA plus £60 per tournament fee was a lot of money to a junior club. There were junior teams that were not BOA members because they saw no benefit to membership.

Committee to discuss fees for junior membership.

Development Officer (Colin Dellor)

8. The Development Officer explained that the BOA needed to have a ten-year plan. This would enable the BOA to set objectives – such as more membership etc and then set out what the BOA needed to do each year to achieve this. He produced two documents (Annex A & B) that explain in more detail what he meant. He intended to come back to this idea at the next meeting in more detail. As Colin is also the Welsh area rep, he gave a report on the current activities in Wales (Annex C). He cautioned that the major problem holding back Welsh underwater hockey as he saw it was funding. He knew of a number of funding avenues but these were unavailable to underwater hockey in Wales as the criteria used by the Sports Council and other grant funding bodies was that a sport has to have its headquarters in Wales. He understood that Scotland had set up their own underwater hockey association to get round this problem and urged the BOA Committee to urgently look at the problem. If necessary, allowing Wales to set up its own governing body to allow them access to grant funding.

Committee to discuss funding problems.

Committee to discuss ten year plan.

Treasurer (Keith Hadland)

9. The Treasurer explained that there were a lot of funds that the BOA took in/paid out that never went through the books. This made the BOA out to be a far smaller organisation financially than is the case. To remedy this he intended to work closely with the Competitions Manager and National Squads to ensure that all monies are properly accounted for. He also pointed out that there was no list of BOA assets and where they were. He intended to put together a BOA asset register so that everyone knew what was available to use (this would also help the Competitions Manager). He asked that all Committee members prepare a draft-spending plan (so that he could budget accordingly). Given that the current BOA insurer had not given a particularly good service this year he intended to find a better one – this was currently under investigation. He intended to send out the renewal notices in July and also intended to write to non-BOA clubs explaining the benefits of membership. He was currently investigating the pros and cons of moving the start of the financial year to 1July from 1 April. The reason for this is that a lot of BOA activities take place around March/April time which involve getting in and paying out a lot of money and the accounts to not give a clear picture of the true financial state of the BOA. He was also looking for a new Auditor, as the current Auditor could no longer continue. He asked that a letter be sent to the current Auditor thanking him for his services. and asked if anyone knew of an Auditor who may be willing to do the BOA accounts cheaply.

Treasurer to send advert for an Auditor to be published in Octopush News.

Secretary to write to current Auditor thanking him for the work he has done for the BOA.

Publications Manager (Helen field)

10. The Publications Manager explained that she intended to publish the first issue after the European Championships. She would try to put the magazine on E-mail. All articles would be gratefully received. It was pointed out that "Dive" magazine had asked for an article on the European Championships and the Publications Manager agreed to provide this.

Publications Manager to send article to Dive magazine on the European Championships.

Vice-Chair (Anne Spencer)

11. The Vice-Chair had no specific plans and offered to help out generally.

AOB

12. The following matters arose:

The Development Officer had answered 23 questions on underwater hockey and had five outstanding – one of which was a request from an Irish club to join the BOA. The Committee was asked to make a decision on this quickly so that he could respond to the Irish club.

It was noticed that the web-site needed updating. Officers were urged to ensure that their bits were up to date. Officers were asked to think about what information they could have put on the web-site. Anything for the web-site should go to Martin Reed via the Secretary.

It was pointed out that we should send articles to "freediver" magazine as well.

It was reported that the disciplinary actions against Brain Murray (Northampton) and Southport Octopush club were ongoing. The Committee would be kept informed.

Officers asked for BOA stationary. It was explained that Cliff has the letterheads and is willing to make up stationary on request.

One Officer questioned whether we should have a fixed P.O. Box address so that letters were always sent to the same place. The cost would be about £150. It was agreed to discuss this at the next meeting.

The Treasurer asked whether the BOA should still fund Antoine Mourad to buy Australian pucks, as he was no longer Competitions Manager. The Chairman decided that this issue would be discussed and a decision taken at the next meeting.

Committee to decide on continuing to fund Antoine Mourad.

Committee to decide on continuing to fund Antoine Mourad.