Sports Officials UKChairman's report
As we were aware last year, this present year was expected to be one of financial constraint. Many Development Partners of Sport England who had been funded in the past had their funding severely reduced, and some became completely unfunded. As a body which has been accepted as a Development Partner but which has never received funding, we got nothing this year. We understand why Sport England wish to protect as far as possible the support which they give to National Governing Bodies, although since our work would be of direct advantage to NGBs it is a pity that we cannot achieve even the minimal level of finance which would enable us to move forward at greater speed.
Our CEO, Janie Frampton, will be reporting in more detail on some of the developments during the year, but I would like to give one or two highlights.
Having completed the National Occupational Standards for Sports Officiating at level 4 with a working group from SOUK, SkillsActive arranged for a launch of the NOS at an event held in London. They generously advertised SOUK as being co-presenters of the event. Janie will give you the detail here, but what she may omit to tell you is that she gave the central talk and I am sure that those of you who were there will agree that Janie’s presentation was excellent and SOUK could not have asked for a better advertisement.
On a less public note, the Directors felt that they needed to re-address their vision for SOUK. We were very fortunate in being led by Pauline Harrison at a meeting which we held at Staverton Park, and Pauline’s knowledge and experience as a former CEO of an NGB were invaluable. “Woods” and “trees” come to mind; Pauline helped us to stand back from the immediate problems and to look again at what we wanted SOUK to be and where we thought we should be going. I found this meeting stimulating and informative, and we decided that we would like to share the experience with you. Although you elected us as your Directors, I think we all see SOUK as being for its members; and so where you think we should go and what you want us to be is the important thing. For that reason, we shall use some of this afternoon’s Council Meeting to gain your input. I am delighted to say that this will again be led by Pauline. Incidentally, Pauline also plays an excellent game of golf; her birdie on a par-5’s when playing from the men’s tees make me glad we were not keeping score!
In my vision for SOUK there is still the e-learning and e-support package which we discussed during the year. We have progressed this slightly, in that we have asked two companies to outline their ideas and the level of costs which would be involved. This will, of course, need a sponsor to provide the finance, but the support which has been shown for this idea both at our own meetings and at the NOS launch have shown that your governing bodies support this project. This is part of the focus of our ongoing discussions with Sport England. We look forward to considering this further this afternoon.
We have now completed our first year as a Limited Company. We have tried, in difficult circumstances, to keep SOUK in the public eye and to move forward. We hope we shall be able to continue our progression in the coming months. I would like to offer my thanks to Pat Smith and Janie Frampton for their continued support as my fellow directors, and I am sure that Pat will agree with me in paying particular tribute to Janie who manages to complete a lot of work for SOUK as well as being an important member of the FA’s management. We also thank you all for your continued interest.
David Pegg
Chairman