MINUTES
OF
ICE SPORTS PARTNERSHIP MEETING
31 January 2013
Present: Chris Murphy - Sports Development Manager
Adam Strain – Youth Sports Development Officer Mark Pilkington – Galleon Leisure Centre
Ryan Rodger – Active Schools Coordinator
Jim McFadzean – Riccarton Curling Club
Margaret Seaman – Waterside Curling Club
Robert Whiteford – Stewarton Heather Curling Club
Roddie Blaney – Kilmarnock Junior Ice Hockey Club
Craig Reid – Stewarton Heather / Galleon Juniors Curling Club
Tom Reid - Galleon Juniors Curling Club
Andrew Gardiner – Galleon IDFSC
Jim Cuthbertson – Galleon IDFSC
1. Apologise for Absence
2. Reason for Establishing Group
East Ayrshire Council priority in supporting community groups and organisations within the authority.
Strong provision of ice sports in East Ayrshire – consisting of a variety of curling clubs, figure skating clubs and an Ice Hockey club. Expertise from East Ayrshire Council and Galleon Leisure Centre will play an active role in assisting clubs achieving their potential.
Current support available to clubs includes East Ayrshire Sports Council- Facility Discounts, coach education/CPD programmes and financial assistance, EAC Sports Development Staff support clubs with funding applications, development plans, welfare policies, recruitment and training of volunteers, marketing and promotion of club activities, and support to talented athletes through the Talented Athlete Support Programme. EAC Active Schools target children and young people to be physically active, coordinate curriculum and extracurricular activities, promote and support the development of school to clubs links.
New investment opportunities from Sportscotland to implement Community Sports Hub via East Ayrshire Council will develop community sports clubs and support the development of gymnastic. Direct club investment opportunities will be available to support facility aspirations.
East Ayrshire Ice Sports Partnership will look to utilise the expertise and opportunities available to support clubs in the authority. A focus will be to strengthen existing school to club links, promotion of activities and marketing of clubs across East Ayrshire and sharing of best practice. This will ensure that clubs and athletes in East Ayrshire have the best opportunities to develop in their chosen sport.
Partners around the table were made aware of the fact that the partnership can, in time, apply for funding that EAC may not be able to access so there are benefits to the formation of such a group.
3. Areas of Work
Galleon Figure Skating Club
The club has approximately 70 members, aged between 4 – 18 years old. Club members are not solely based in East Ayrshire, they come from as far as Glasgow. They would however like to increase the membership and ensuring that there is more of an attraction from those in East Ayrshire.
The representatives from the club believe that they struggle to develop the athletes further due to the lack of ice time as they have already lost athletes to a Kyle Figure Skating Club. They also commented that this may well get worse for the club when the Galleon Ice Rink shuts down for refurbishment, which will be up to 3 months. The costs of moving to a similar rink in Ayr will cost the club approximately £5000 for 2 sessions per week for the 3 months that the Galleon is out of use.
Kilmarnock Ice Hockey Club
The club has been running well with memberships currently sitting at 61, some of which are from out with East Ayrshire. Roddy Blaney said that to ensure that the club is self sustainable it requires 65/66 memberships.
The club has members who are competing at national level, one of which is currently an athlete supported through the East Ayrshire Talented Athlete Support Programme – Andrew Barr.
The club is lacking funds and are continuously trying to source funds through sponsorships and funding applications and have previously been successful in Grant Applications to the East Ayrshire Council.
Galleon Juniors Curling Club
The currently have approximately 20 – 30 members who regularly attend that club and these are young people who have parents involved in the sport.
The junior section players can go through the pathway and become seniors but some players have left the club to play elsewhere. The club train one per week during the season which runs between September and March.
Tom Reid comments that he is the only person who oversees the running of the club, from the club coaching to the administration element of the post. He would be delighted if he had assistance from a volunteer to assist in order to free up some of his time.
Stewarton Heather Curling Club
A very successful club that boasts a variety of champions who have competed at National, European and World level. The membership is healthy with currently 70 members at the club with the vast majority of those over the age of 18.
Riccarton Curling Club
This club has around 40 members on its books with the age range between 16 years an above. Jim McFadzean commented that the younger players tend to move from the club to the Galleon Junior Club, where they are getting excellent coaching from Tom Reid and further develop their ability.
Waterside Curling Club
The club has a small membership of only 12. There is one member who is 18 years old and the remaining is made up of members aged 40 years and over.
Margaret has expressed her concern on the need to strengthen her junior section otherwise the club is at risk of folding.
4. Partnership Working
All clubs around the table were in agreement that the lack of ice time at the Galleon was their main concern. The idea of sharing ice time between different clubs was suggested however logistical reasons meant that this was something that would not be able to be considered. As the ice rink needs to be prepared appropriately for each sport, this meant that curling would not be able to share with ice hockey.
The issue of capacity at the club was raised. All clubs agreed that they would be happy to have more coaches and/or volunteers assisting during club training nights or matches. This would free up the time of those at the club will many roles. The idea of the possibility of hosting a local NGB coaching course, specifically for Curling, was discussed and was favoured. As the courses are generally held in Perth, this idea was well received by the curling representatives.
The Galleon Leisure Centre currently run a Skate UK programme on a Saturday morning and the possibility of this becoming a shared or joint venture with other clubs was discussed. This was discussed due to Kilmarnock Ice Hockey Club raising the issue of some of their athletes not being ‘as good as they could be’ whilst skating on the rink. Mark Pilkington was asked if members from all clubs could attend this which he confirmed was the case, but there is a waiting list for this. Mark will explore the option of expanding the Skate UK programme or whether this can be done in partnership with another club.
Craig Reid asked Mark Pilkington about the possibility of the Galleon purchasing some sliders for the curling clubs and Mark has said that he will investigate this. Craig confirmed that the sliders will be stored at the Galleon and be available to all clubs who use the rink.
Chris detailed the successes of other East Ayrshire Sports Partnerships and what they have achieved - Athletics, Rugby and Golf. As well as this he expanded on the recent formation of a Bowling, Gymnastics and Disability Sport Partnership. Being part of the Ice Sport partnership would not only offer more support to clubs but could help to secure additional funding to support school based programmes, covering staff costs and transport, a co-ordinated approach to coach education and CPD opportunities.
Adam Strain provided an update about funding that is available for local clubs and spoke specifically about clubs who currently receive funding from EAC. Kilmarnock Junior Ice Hockey Club have received a total approx £2300 in grant applications for equipment and Coach Education and have one athlete currently on the TASP. Galleon Curling Club has one athlete on the TASP. All clubs were encouraged to promote the TASP to all athletes who are currently representing at National level and reside in East Ayrshire.
Mark was asked about the possibility of resurrecting the Cashspiel Tournament at the Galleon. Craig Reid mentioned that he would be able to bring teams to compete at the tournament if this was something that could be done. The level of interest in this tournament previously saw teams from Europe competing in the event.
Ryan Rodger has told clubs that he will promote the services of all clubs within the schools in his cluster.
Discussions around marketing and promotion of activities and all clubs agreed that they had capacity for new members, including coaches volunteers and participants.
Discussion around social networking to engage young people and the possibility of activities/clubs to advertised on EAC Sport and Galleon Facebook page as well as on EAC GLOW.
5. Moving forward
Agreement by those in attendance that the establishment of a Ice Sports Partnership would be a positive step forward which would support all clubs in East Ayrshire.
The group would only meet 4 years per year with an Ice Sports Action Plan drafted with support and input from all representatives. This would include actions such as Marketing and Promotion, School to Club Links, Coach Education, and National Programmes.
Actions: Adam to send out East Ayrshire Sports Council affiliation pack to Stewarton Heather Curling Club.
Action: Adam to email Roddy Blaney the link to the TASP website
Action: Mark to investigate possibility of expanding the Skate UK to incorporate club input.
Action: Creation of the East Ayrshire Ice Sports Partnership Action Plan and will be circulated prior to next meeting for comments.
Action: Adam will email over community grant forms and information Communities 2014 Fund, Lottery Facilities Fund and any other relevant funding streams.
Action: Mark will investigate the possibility of the Galleon being able to purchase sliders for the curling clubs.
Action: Mark to investigate the possibility of resurrecting the Cashspiel Tournament.
Action: Ryan Rodger to promote clubs across the Active Schools network and investigate the possibilities of GLOW being used to promote clubs.
Action: Adam to contact the Galleon Leisure Centre to book out Bonspiel Bar for future meetings
6. AOCB
7. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Thursday 25 April, 7pm at the Galleon Leisure Centre.