ABTO MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING 5/17
Wednesday 16th October 201711am
Attendees:
Chairman: Ray Lovell (RL),Honorary Secretary, Bernadette Halton(BH), Honorary Treasurer Maureen Laffey (ML), John Frame (JF) for part of the meeting as noted, Diane Gibson (DG), Peter Grimsdale (PG), Malgorzata Grzyb (MG), Kath Lovell (KL), LTA Officiating Officer (OO), Matthew Morrissey (MM).
Apologies: Vice Chairman Tom Kinloch (TK),Martin Etheridge (ME) and Darren Michaels (DM), Marc Ritchie (MR),Adrian Wilson (AW)
Agenda item and minutes / Action- 1.
RL welcomed everyone to the meeting. A minute’s silence was held for Frank Glasspool RIP.
RL reminded everyone to declare any conflict of interest at the appropriate time.
JF reminded the meeting that he would need to leave at about 3pm
- 2.
None recorded at this point
Completed actions since last meeting
Action 16082017 – 2 RL to send ABTO Strategy document to all MC members
Action 16082017 – 3 MM to consider word attachment of The Line or use ML’s document as sent to Associate members.
Action 16082017 – 4 ME to send next issue of Referees Hints and Tips
Action 16052017– 9 RL to look at all TORs and ensure consistency.Update: RL to still ensure layouts are consistent.
Action 16102017 – 1 RL to check layouts on all TORs for consistency
Action 16082017 – 6 MM to take idea to next RTCC meeting (Regional Tennis Competitions Coordinators) for Control Desk Training
Action 16082017 – 7 DG send all MC members list of mentors and mentees.
Action 16082017 – 8 MM to send dates for Stirling to JF so that it can be published in Tennis Scotland.
Action 16082017 – 9 BH to send email requesting update on availability to check numbers for next meeting.
Action 16082017 – 10 ML to write a short piece for OLS site so that members are aware of the contact that has been made.
Action 16082017 – 12 MM to then feedback to MC re wording for a leaflet from MI with suggested wording for promotion in LTA publications. None received, and action removed.
Action 16082017 – 13 All to supply an action plan for top three actions following survey.
Action 16082017 – 14 BH to contact MG and RL to contact all to confirm next steps re survey.
Action 16082017 – 15 ALL/ML please inform if there are any unlicensed officials working LTA sanctioned tournaments.
Action 16082017 – 16 TK to report back following LTA Strategy meeting.
Action 16082017 – 19 BH provide timeline for awards process
Action 16082017 – 20 ML proposals for motions to be tabled at meeting 5/17
Action 16082017 – 21 All to consider process for receiving and dealing with queries re marks and feedback at meeting 5/17. BH to add to agenda.
Action 16082017 – 22 JF – please explain comments in previous report to MC. Update: end of year spreadsheet complete and none to be added.
Action 16082017 – 24 BH to send an update on Facebook statistics.Update: added in next edition of The Line
Action 16082017 – 23 PG send update re National Referee Development Group to all MC members.
Action 16082017 – 26 BH to send report to ML for upload to OLS site. / RL
- 5.
Action 13032017 – 12 All to view OLS Menu List as produced by ML and action any documents that are listed against an MC member’s name if an action is required.
KL – Control Desk Course training could take the form of 2x3 hour modules and be delivered once a year in a central location;one a module on ITF/Professional Control Desks to be delivered once a year in a central location. The other module on LTA Junior Control desk assignments, a 2-3hour course delivered around the regions could be offered. MM suggests that budgets need to be considered. Could something be done at the Officiating Conference by way of a one-hour taster? MM suggests that budgets need to be considered. Could something be done at the Officiating Conference by way of a one-hour taster?
Action 16082017 – 5 KL to speak to CD re Conference and write up a proposal.
RL – Disability. RL/ME had a chat at Wimbledon re People with disabilities becoming officials. Geraint Richards (Tennis Foundation) talked with KL at Nottingham and Matt Ilkington (MI) (Disability Development Manager) put in touch with Jill Osleger (Tennis Foundation) who is keen to progress the conversations. Unfortunately, ME, in his role, was unavailable to attend the meeting at Nottingham but will be involved in the future discussions.
16082017 – 11 RL/ME to take conversation forward.Update: RL has emailed Jill but had no reply. Available to meet and take further with ME.
Meeting dates in 2018 – BH and MM to confer on room availability for possible dates in 2018 and to fit in with earlier discussion regarding appeals and budget available.
Action 16082017 – 17 BH/MM confer re 2018 meeting dates and room availability
Action 16082017 – 25 RL to consider presentation for the AGM and feedback to MC in his next report.Update: Can this be done within the timeframe of the Conference and AGM? Could there be a drop-in session in a room during the Conference – an ‘ABTO’ room. Decision is that RL to contact MM to discuss content and consider filming it for use at the AGM if time or add in at another time or be uploaded onto the OLS site? Does not need to be long. / ALL
KL
ongoing
RL/ME ongoing
BH/MM on hold
RL/MM
Reports
Action 16102017 – 2 BH to add page numbers to report document.
RL – None that are not covered elsewhere
TK Request that TK leave out the reference to 36 referee evaluations in his report as this is captured in JF’s.
MG asked what the purpose of the LTA Strategy meeting was. MM replied that it was by way of an update on progress and to inform the next steps for MM to progress. MM informed the meeting that the LTA Strategy was started during 2016 for completion in 2018 however there needs to be some fluidity in completion of some actions as there is no lead sponsor for the LTA at this time. There will be an update at the end of the year and there will need to be some changes in 2018. Some of this will depend on the 2019 ITF Transition tour.
RL was asked how this fits in with our priorities and what are the timescales? RL asked if there was a document with the ABTO Strategy that can be put together that matches with the five strands of the LTA Strategy including timescales. RL said that he had one prepared and that he would send out to MC members by November 1st ready for discussion at the next MC meeting in November.
NB the Referee Grading structure and Court Supervisor Structures were previously ratified by email.
Action 16102017 – 3 RL to send out document with ABTO Strategy reflecting the 5 strands of LTA Strategy by 1st November 2017 and request comments from all.
Action 16102017 – 4 RL/TK to discuss the ABTO strategy further ready for the next meeting once comments have been received and for meeting 1/18.
BH – Facebook statistics will be put into next issue of The Line.
KL referred to questions being asked on LTA Competitions Forum (CF) Facebook page in an open forum which does not appear to be heavily monitored and where referees tend to respond to each other. Suggestion was made that perhaps Chris Mann (CM) can answer these on the CF page and also include in the ABTO Facebook page?
Action 16102017 – 5 KL to speak to CM and request answering refereeing questions on the CF and copy onto the closed ABTO Facebook page.
ML – Tom did the last check on the accounts for June, July and August. Accounts are now with the Accountants. The only outstanding cheques that have not been seen are three in September (for RL, MM, ML).
ML reiterated some of the increased costings in this financial year and the possibility of a reduced LTA grant for next year. There was a discussion around budget for 2017/18 in light of the lack of sponsorship. We need to wait and see but be mindful of this situation.
RL, TK and BH completed a review of ML as a Councillor
ML apologised to KL as recent document listing outstanding actions for KL on OLS list was now complete.
ML provided a copy of the open report of the LTA May Council meeting. Content noted including motions on governance which were approved at the LTA AGM.
MM – LU assessment queries – lots of email queries come in relating to LU assessments and there is a continuous back and forth of emails and questions. Basically, if there is no comment then the assessment can be changed otherwise this is taking up valuable time that could be better used to support officials and British Tennis. ML commented that it is not the role of the grading committee to be involved in this. All agreed that the responsibility should be with the Chiefs at tournaments when they fill in their Form 1s. This becomes the evidence and includes all the details needed. If a Chair umpire fails to add a comment, then it is up to the Chief to follow that up suggestion is that we should trial this process. This will need an addition to the procedures for chiefs and comments sent to JF with chiefs keeping the cards. At Wimbledon AW, Phil Evans and Ali Hughes will need to pick this up.
All agreed that we should trial this and see if it cuts down on the emails and LTA must ensure that Chiefs send to JF. Chiefs must be trusted to challenge a chair umpire. Once with JF then process is finalized. The end of the form should therefore be seen as clarification and information only. To be trialled at Glasgow 2018.
Action 16102017 – 6 MM to put a form in the Chief’s workbook and ML to update Procedures.
Fees and expenses for 2019 to be published shortly as based on information previously given as 2018/2019 was a 2-year programme.
ME – Will there be an edition of Hints and Tips before Christmas?
Action 16102017 – 7 ME to confirm another edition to be coming out before Christmas
ME has made initial contact with MR re CPD and hopes that questions will be ready by 1st December. All need to submit questions to MG by 1st December. Need to meet that deadline for January publication. Needs to also be checked independently for clarity.
Action 16102017 – 8 ME/MR/MG/All to ensure questions are ready for 1st December deadline.
JF – no questions.
DG – meeting in Loughborough held for Referees/Competition organisers. They were asked about a mentoring scheme and what they wanted:
- List of people in their region that they can contact
- To be able to shadow a referee
- Assigned to a mentor after the course therefore a list needs to be available
At present KL/CD ask tutors to become mentors during the initial accreditation stage on behalf of ABTO then once accredited the new officials are assigned to an individual mentor in their region.This also matches with the survey responses of providing a Welcome Pack/Handbook and Mentor Scheme.
Action 16102017 – 9 DG to review list of mentors with RL, TK, MM ready for an update at next meeting
Action 16102017 – 10 MR as the lead for the Welcome Pack to action with DG
Action 16102017 – 11 MM to send list of umpire mentors once confirmed with the mentors.
Action 16102017 – 12 MR to contact the line umpire mentors in consultation with MM.
Question was asked about how the regional meeting came about? It was Rory McCutcheon and RTCCs had organized the meeting and Di jumped on the back of it! The North and Midlands did a combined meeting. It is important for referees to be covering these groups and meetings in conjunction with RTCCs.
PG – there is a meeting for the Development Groups on Friday 20th October.
MG – Uniform buying period is at the end of the month.
Action 16102017 – 13 MG to provide details to CD for next edition of The Line.
CPD – RL sent 15 questions for checking on referee software and sent KL 20 questions re court supervising.
Thanks were expressed to MG for all her hard work and to ensuring that we stay focused and follow up on our actions moving forward.
KL – no questions. KL meeting with CD after this meeting re Court Supervisor course. PG asked if resits for the National level tests were being done in Regional Offices. It was suggested that they should wait 3 months before being allowed to do resits. Should there only be one exam on the Accreditation course or two? Can we have a bank of questions to choose from in order to amendthe first exam and using multiple choice questions as a resit?
DM – questions for DM to be held until later in the meeting.
MR – questions covered earlier.
AW - all were delighted to see that Long Service certificates will now be distributed at the reception event prior to the start of the Championships. Confirmation that the current Buttery will be closing after next year.
Stopped for lunch at 13.22
13.51 resumed.
Action 16102017 – 14 RL to write on behalf of MC to James Keothavong congratulating him on his assignment to the chair at the Davis Cup Final, Ali Hughes at the Fed Cup and Phil Evans as Review Official at the Davis Cup Final.
DM – asked question re Appeals in his report. DM has concerns re the timelines in Jayne Littlewood’s (JL) timeline. It was clarified that the timeline was an illustrative one rather than specific to actual dates. Question – are the number of working days achievable? – 15-20 working days. Can the Appeal Hearing be completed within 20 working days from the date on which the email informing grade changes is sent?
As a process the grade changes are sent to the MC for ratification because the Grading Sub Committee is a sub-committee of the MC and therefore all grading decisions must be ratified by the full MC. This can be done by email.
It will be possible for 2017 that DM can be given the report on 11th December following the British Tour Masters. DM’s points were agreed and clarified. Emails should the all go out at the same time. The regrade letters would then go out four weeks after Grading Sub Committee meetings ie 15th January in 2018. This would then start the Appeals process.
The Chair Umpire Grading structure was approved by the MC ie ratified by all.
Action 16102017 – 15 RL to email to DM and copy in BH.
Discussion of DM’s previously submitted points then followed.
- Re the TORs – question as to why there are no timescales specifying when the Chair of Grading or LTA OO are to be informed. There is a short period between appellants receiving the outcomes and then being sent to the LTA OO. It would be possible to send the outcomes to everyone by email rather than waiting for a meeting.
- Regarding the provision of further information – it will be necessary to ensure that we capture the offer of providing further information when sending the regrade emails.
- As per DM’s request the following has been minuted: ‘In the minutes of the last meeting it says that it would be helpful if there was a timeline of communication to support a statement of case. I would like it minuted that all of the statement of cases I produced for the last Appeals Hearing in March 2017 included a full-time line of all communications that had taken place between the Grading Sub-Committee and the appellant. Copies of these communications were also made available to the Appeals Panel at the Appeals Hearing.’
Discussion followed re the link to the Appeals Committee and MC. At present the link is ML Following this discussion it was agreed that the role could be fulfilled by anyone and that the Honorary Secretary would be that person for now. Therefore BH to ask JL to do a first draft of the TOR for the MC and to update the timescales and guidelines. The TORs will need to be ready and up and running in time for the regrade emails going out. Also discussed the role of Presenting Officer/s (PO) and whether there can be one or two, what is involved and whether she is still happy to train the PO/s. More information to be requested from JL by BH. It was agreed that if possible, the PO/s should be independent of the MC but must have no conflicts of interest at all.
Action 16102017 – 17 BH to email JL and make request for first draft of TOR, an update on the guidelines and timescales, and for more information regarding Presenting Officers.
Action 16102017 – 18 BH to add to next MC agenda.
It was noted that discussions over the reports and minutes had taken until 14.51 ie 3.5 hours – how can we improve the time this takes?
Action 16102017 – 19 ALL to consider ways in which this can be sped up ready to feedback at the beginning of the next meeting. / BH
RL/all
RL/TK
KL
MM/ML
ME
ME/MR/MG/All
DG/RL/TK/MM
MR/DG
MM
MR
MG
RL
RL
RL
BH
BH
ALL
Awards
It was noted that we need to start this process earlier both online and in The Line for nominations. Discussion around who is ‘credited’ with nominating a nominee – either everyone or no-one, or show the number of people that nominated them.
NB JF Left at 15.06
BH announced the award winners and number of votes cast.
Each award nominee will be contacted and told of their nomination requesting confirmation of the information that was submitted and for a photograph as well as reminding them that the winners will be announced at the AGM.
There was also discussion around the LTA Award nominations and that the MC had previously agreed that the winners of the ABTO Awards would then be put forward for these awards. ML offered to contact the Councillors for the areas that the two winners live in and let them know that we are putting their names forward.
Action 16102017 – 20ML to nominate, as agreed, for British Tennis Awards and to contact Councillors to inform. / ML
ABTO AGM
- Constitution
ML took note of several agreed changes made verbally at the meeting and from comments emailed by other MC members and will make the necessary changes ready for submission as motions. These changes and discussion points are to be encapsulated in a supporting document to be sent out to members.
Action 16102017 – 21 ML to amend motions according to the discussions/points raised ready for confirmation at meeting 6/17.
- Timetable and documentation
Action 16102107 – 22 BH to send out AGM timetable asap and request for Annual reports to be returned to meet the deadlines.
- Conference
BH
- 6.
MG had previously sent out a document listing the actions required by members and encourages all to complete these and let her have an update and timeline on when actions will be completed – please return the document to MG by 1st November. This document will then be a standing item on future agendas.
A summary document has also been written and appears on the OLS site as an update for members.
Action 16102017 – 23 MG to resend action document to all MC members
Action 16102017 – 24 ALL to return action document to MG by 1st November noting timelines and activity to date. / MG
ALL
AOB – none as covered in other parts of the meeting although agenda items for next meeting were noted.
Meeting ended at 17.20
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 15th November2017 at 11am NTC