17 Nov 2016

Sport and Recreation Alliance Board Meeting Summary - October 2016

Board Meeting Summary – October 2016

CEO Report

Emma Boggis presented her paper which included a report on the second quarter of the year’s Operational Plan. Items covered in discussion included:

An update on membership figures as renewal subscriptions had been completed and the retention rate was confirmed as 95%.
The 2016 annual return of the Sports Broadcasting Monitoring Code had been completed in over the summer. The Alliance continued to provide the Secretariat to this group currently chaired by Sir David Scott CBE.
Parliamentary engagement had included facilitating a meeting The All Party Group for Sport which provided an opportunity for UK Sport, BOA and the BPA to brief MPs and Peers on medal targets for Rio 2016 and hosting the inaugural Parliamentary Sports Fair which was very successful to the extent that the Speaker of the House of Commons would like the event to be repeated next year.
Updating the Board on the successful acquisition of the assets from the Join In Trust and the work that was now planned with the five partners on developing this area of work.

The Board noted the report.

Board Governance

The Board was informed that they would be required to completed the annual skills audit ahead of the 2017 Board Recruitment and agreed the list of skills that were required across the Board as a whole which would be included in the audit. The Board noted the position and agreed those skills provided in the paper as those required on the Board for 2017.

The Board also approved the Alliance "Rules" document which set out in more detail the way the organisation operated under its Articles of Association. The Rules will be made available on the website.

Finance Report

The Board received the management accounts and commentary for the five months to August 2016 and noted that whilst there were some variances there were no issues for concern.

Based on the September figures, the YTD and budget reforecast was being prepared.

The Board received the draft minutes of the Finance Committee meeting held on 4 October 2016 for information. Items covered in discussion included:

The ‘Shared Services and Bulk Procurement Scoping Project’ had been completed and discussions were ongoing with Sport England as to next steps.
The Committee’s recommendations on the way forward regarding pension provision, including the introduction of auto-enrolment from February 2017, were approved.

Business Development

The Board received for information the minutes of the Commercial Committee held on 6 October 2016. Lee Mason had taken over the Chair of this committee and the first meeting had included a review of the current commercial activity of the Alliance and a discussion about areas for future development. The Committee would hold another meeting following the Board’s discussion regarding the Alliance’s new strategy and a review of the Committee’s membership would be held to ensure that the right skills and experience was around the Board table.

Divisional Meetings

The Board was advised that for the autumn round of meetings all the agendas had included an item on volunteering/Join In, the UK Governance Code and the Alliance’s new strategy as well as items of relevance to their own Divisions. Those Board members that were able to attend the Divisional meetings provided feedback to the Board.

Strategic Planning

The Board was reminded that the Chief Executive had been tasked with developing a draft Strategy following the Board awayday held on 6 September 2016.

The Board was invited to address the questions set out in the paper in order that the Chief Executive and the executive team could take forward the draft plan to the next stage for review at the December meeting.

The following comments were made:

Engagement with members at the recent divisional meetings had provided helpful insight into the areas of the work they thought we should continue doing, could stop doing or should start doing.
The Board felt the draft strategic priorities broadly covered the right areas.
The independence of the Alliance as the collective voice of our members to influence government policy and spending was our USP. The ability to convene and collaborate was also a key strength;
The Board wanted the strategy to demonstrate the organisation was developing and was forward looking and ambitious and shouldn’t simply reflect what we do now.

A revised document would be circulated before the next Board meeting and discussed at the December Board.

Board Meeting Dates for 2017

These were agreed as:

Tuesday 14 February

Tuesday 11 April

Tuesday 13 June

July after the AGM

Tuesday 5 September – Strategy Day

Tuesday 17 October

Tuesday 5 December

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