SOUTH AND SOUTH EAST CONFERENCE REPORT NOV 2017
Ray Allen opened the conference by welcoming everyone, a special welcome was extended to the first timers. Apologies were received from Farnborough and Chatham Areas and Andy Elder from Southampton Area who is unwell. He also welcomed Hedley Featherstone Head Office, Debbie Morrison the new Regional Diversity Champion and welcomed back Andy Burdett to the Regional Conference. After the usual domestic arrangements the conference opened with the Annual General Meeting. The Chairman then gave his update for the last year. See Annex A
The Secretary then gave his Update. See Annex B
In the absence of the Treasurer Ray Allen presented the report. See Annex C.
The Treasurers report was agreed by all the Areas present.
The Secretary then dealt with the Election of Board Members See Annex D.
With regards to the re- election for two years of Julie Danch, Sue Read, and Martin Rudman , this was agreed by the delegates.
The Secretary concluded his update by stating that if the Sports Liaison Officer and Communications Officer are recruited then the sub groups would probably not be needed.
Regional Diversity See Annex E
Debbie Morrison then introduced herself as the new Regional Diversity Champion and gave details of her background which will help her in her role.
Debbie stated that Diversity and Equality covers a wide range of areas in the community. She stated that the aim is to open eyes in the area of diversity.
A day was held at Head Office put together by Audrey Haskell which was attended by the Regional Diversity Champions. The main discussion was women in sport and how we could affect Equality and Diversity in the organisation.
Recently an advert was put out for 3 posts which attracted 52 applicants.
At the day at Head Office some of the attendees were wheelchair bound. It came to light in discussion that coach drivers are not allowed to handle wheelchairs and there is currently only one coach company that can offer to take wheelchairs.
Chris Edge stated that when Areas are organising events they need to make reasonable adjustments where necessary.
Delegates then broke into syndicate groups to discuss what CSSC has to consider when organising events/trips.
See Annex F
Clive Arnold (East Kent) stated that some general wording could be put onto the CSSC website asking members to make aware of any special needs.
Barry Borrett (Brighton & Worthing) asked whether the on line booking form for events asks questions about needs for the participants.
Chris Edge asked Areas if they could do something/organise an event to raise awareness in one or more of the events on the diversity and inclusion calendar.
See Annex G
CSSC Games Volunteer Experience
Martin Rudman (Oxford) gave a presentation on his role as Volunteer Team Leader Role at the CSSC Games. See Annex H
Data, Partnership Framework and CSSC Heritage.
Hedley Featherstone opened this session by first of all thanking everyone for their hard work and all they do for CSSC. He then stated that CSSC will celebrate their Centenary in 2021 and a working group has been set up to discuss ideas on how we can celebrate this historic event.
See Annex I
Andy Burdett then introduced the session on data security. He stated that new legislation is coming out in May 2018 which will have an impact on everyone and what data we keep and how it is kept. He then went through how membership checking works and what information an Area will have to input to check whether someone is a member or lapsed member. He also stated that next year dedicated users will have access to some user reports which will provide more information on memberships. See Annex J
Barry Borrett (Brighton & Worthing) stated that the current information that is contained on membership lists is not good enough and does not help when checking on whether someone is a member or not.
Andy Burdett stated that data on members interests can be linked to neighbouring Areas so Areas will be able to see who would be interested in joining a particular sport or event.
Chris Edge then gave a short presentation on Partnership Framework.
See Annex K
Ray Allen brought day 1 to a close by thanking all the speakers and hoped that it had been a useful session for the Areas.
He stated that the session on Reward and Recognition would be taken at the start of day 2.
Day 2 started with a review of day 1.
Judith Hammond (Porstmouth) then gave a presentation on volunteering and what she does in her Area Association, which helped her win Volunteer of the Year. See Annex L
CSSC UPDATE
Ray Allen then introduced both Simon Lee and Andy Shaw who would be presenting a session entitled CSSC Update.
Simon Lee opened his presentation by stating that he was pleased to be back at our conference and he complimented the Region for all the work it has done over the past year.
See Annex M
Andy Shaw stated that he too was pleased to be back at our conference. He then gave his presentation.
See Annex N
Following the presentation the following questions were raised
Mike Waddleton (Isle of Wight) on the subject of Data Warehouse , asked what are CSSC doing about getting the information out to the Areas and making sure it is the same.
Sue Read (Gosport & Fareham) Asked if people join on line can the member choose which Area they wish their subs to go to.
Andy Shaw stated that this was not an option at the moment but it is being looked at in Head Office,
Sue Waddleton (Isle of Wight) enquired whether CSSC knew what the average age of potential members was. Andy Shaw stated that this was not known.
Mike Waddleton (Isle of Wight) asked whether there was any training package for Chairs/Secretaries. Andy Shaw said there was nothing specific but there is guidance on the website.
Martin Rudman (Oxford) suggested that a workshop on communications could be a good idea.
Andy Shaw stated that there is some guidance coming out shortly on Volunteer Awards. He also stated that some more work is being carried out on the volunteer database.
He also reported that there is some more volunteer branding coming out in the near future.
He reported that an e mail has gone out to those Areas, whose Quality Street scores have increased, informing them that they will be receiving a cash reward for the improved scores.
Andy Shaw stated that if Areas did not comply with the partnership framework Head Office could withhold monies.
A question was asked as to whether Head Office would be issuing information about when they have not complied with the partnership agreement.
Andy Shaw stated that this is all being looked at to see what improvements can be made. He was aware of times when Head Office has not responded to requests from Areas but as he said it is being looked at constantly. Part of this will include the undertaking of a pilot with selected Areas.
On the subject of DA Funding, Andy stated that there was a paper going to the Board on this subject. He stated that one proposal was that the first part of the grant to DA’s would be paid out as normal. The second part will need to be bid for.
Andy stated that on the CSSC games there was the thought about making it an annual event.
Martin Rudman (Oxford) felt that if this was done the games would lose some of its attraction.
There followed a syndicate group exercise which looked at the CSSC Subsidy Policy. There were 6 questions which needed discussing and these were:
· What do you feel the financial levels of subsidy should be
· Who should get the subsidy
· What type of events should get a subsidy
· Should we support/organise any events which include gambling/alcohol
· Should we subsidise vouchers
· Anything forgotten
After the feedback from the groups an open forum took place and the following questions/points were raised.
1. We need more Affiliate Communications Co Ordinators.
This was a remark about needing more people at Head Office to deal with Area newsletters. If something needs to go out quickly to members, this is not always achieved when it is sent out from Head Office.
Andy Shaw stated that we need to measure what the workload is for Head Office before going and getting more staff.
2. Why is there no choice about the Area that a member wishes to be sponsored by.
Andy Shaw stated that this is something that needs to be looked into.
3. What Financial effect will no membership rate increase have on future planning.
Simon Lee responded by saying that it was a big shock when the proposal was rejected by Conference. The way it was presented was not good and a painful lesson was learnt. He stated that a longer term planning was needed for the budget.
4. Can Area Committee members have business cards. This would be very helpful when recruiting.
Chris Edge agreed to take this away and enquire and then write out to Areas with the response.
5. Membership lists contain less details than before. Member’s addresses are missing amongst other things.
Andy Shaw stated that this is being looked into at Head Office. There have been some issues with transferring data across but this is gradually being sorted. However, membership list information will be less due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force in 2018.
Before conference closed Ray Allen stated that he had a pleasant duty to perform. For some time now the reward and recognition has been discussed but nothing has been done about it. He was pleased to say that after writing out to Areas to receive nominations a few were received.
The following people were all presented with an award for their work for CSSC.
Cheryl Johnson (East Kent) was presented with an award to recognise all her hard work in organising events in the Area. Cheryl was awarded the Regional Leisure Organisation volunteer of the year. Cheryl was presented with her award by Simon Lee.
Martin Rudman(Oxford) Was awarded a certificate of appreciation for all his hard work as Volunteer Team Leader at the CSSC games. Martin was presented with his award by Simon Lee.
Steve Rice (Gosport and Fareham) was presented with a certificate of recognition to honour all his work with CSSC over a number of years and various roles. The certificate of recognition was presented to Steve by Simon Lee.
Ray Allen then gave a quick resume of the conference and thanked all the delegates for all their contributions over the last 2 days. He felt that it had been a very good conference with a lot of good issues raised.
Ray wished all delegates a safe journey home.