At its April meeting, the Board received and approved the Terms of Reference for a new Nominations Committee. Guided by Sport England’s Code of Governance, the Nominations Committee will review the composition of the board aligned to requisite skills and diversity and develop succession plans and shape recruitment of key positions such as the presidential team, board members and the Chief Executive. The aim is to provide dedicated board focus to better engage Bowls England’s membership in securing a high quantity of suitable nominations or applicants. Reporting into the Board, the Nominations Committee will be chaired by the Senior Independent Director. A Terms of Reference can be found here.
After not receiving a County Association nomination for the 2024/25 Junior Vice President position, the Board has decided to review the Presidential Team and the Governance Working Party has been tasked to lead this. A survey is being prepared to understand perspectives of how we can maximise the opportunity of a Presidential Team and ensure it plays an effective role in Bowls England’s future ambitions.
The board received two presentations, one from Coach Bowls and one from the English Bowling Umpires Association (EBUA). Having a thriving and effective coaching and umpiring network is important to the Fit for the Future strategy and the Board were eager to hear progress.
Coach Bowls’ Coach Manager, Amanda Scriven-Purcell shared that course numbers and Coach Bowls members were growing and that there were current challenges with the Coach Bowls website. There was agreement of the importance of creating a coaching culture in our sport and increasing the value of coaching.
EBUA Chair, Charlotte Emmanuel, and Secretary, Bernie Hill, delivered an update on their work and talked about some recent changes to the Association. The focus was on areas of development and the EBUA has developed an action plan to progress work on recruitment, communications and EDI. With the clarity and confidence, the Board in principle agreed to re-establish the EBUA ‘donation’ to support this work.
The Board also discussed the latest Risk Register and March Management accounts and were comfortable that all was on track. The Board approved the write-off of £1600 of out-dated stock, which will affect the balance sheet. They also received the Chief Executive’s operational report on activity since the February meeting. Highlights were an increase in take up of Bowls Bash following the roadshow and Weeks of Learning programme as a result of positive collaborations with the Bowls Development Alliance, excellent feedback from the Annual Awards and the positive progress of the Governance Working Party.
The full minutes of the meeting can be found here.