DRAFT Minutes of NCC meeting, Saturday 8^th

March, Birbeck College, London

 Present: Kate O’Sullivan, Debbie Connolly, Celia Hetherington, Mark Cooke, Terry Wilson, Stuart Andrews, Gary Harris, Jonathan Cheesman, Graeme Cunningham, Loretta Williams, Ray Cassidy, Richard Philips, Rosemary Napp, Vicky Parry.

 Apologies: Di Ellis, Annamarie Phelps, Rosie Mayglothling, Charles Green, Sarah Harris, Stuart Jolly, Ann Homa, Philippa Sondheim.

 Kate O’Sullivan opened the meeting by asking those present to think about the committees role with regards to the terms of reference. Kate will e-mail out her questions on this for reflection. ACTION: Kate O’Sullivan to e-mail out questions.

 Minutes of previous meeting

• One revision: Dry Instructor courses will continue to run alongside the new L1 and L2 courses in indoor rowing, until the new courses are embedded.

 Matters arising from the previous meeting

• Parent helper guide: The photos have been removed to allow it to be downloaded easily, they were making it a very large file. It should be on the website (RowHow) in the next few days, and information on it will go out in the next club mailing. There were suggestions that an illustrated glossery on RowHow would also be useful.
• Names of potential candidates for tutor/assessor training to be passed to Celia: Celia hasn’t received any, though most RCC’s have been working on this with the CDO’s. ACTION: RCC’s to make sure this info is passed on to Celia.
• List of current tutors and assessors from Celia: Paper copies supplied at the meeting. If there are people missing from your region then it means they aren’t up to date, and need to contact Janet Coleman (janet.coleman@ara-rowing.org) to arrange upskilling.
• Hard copies of papers: Di Ellis and Mark Cooke have requested hard copies of all pares for meetings, any others to let Debbie Connolly know.

 Feedback from the regions

• SARA: still struggling to recruit tutors and assessors. L2 course running in Aberdeen, looking at running an L3. Several ‘100% me’ workshops run in junior clubs, suggestion that these could be incorporated into the L2 etc?
• Wessex: Have run L2’s and a L3 but have had problems getting resources in time. Another L2 planned for the autumn. Region have produced a crib sheet to prepare candidates for assessment. ACTION: Terry to forward it to Loretta, RCC’s to also forward her any other examples of best practice they may have. ACTION: Any problems with getting resources, phone Rosemary. They should arrive 5 days before the course starts. The process of ordering them is going to change from 1^st April, details to follow.
• West Midlands: Provided written report. Four L2’s planned for the next 12 months. Explained how several potential L2 candidates were taken to the Coaching Conference for experience before attending L2.
• South East River: The region’s first L2 course due to start next week. Kent Indoor Rowing Championships had led to good publicity and resulted in a new school getting involved.
• North: Two L2’s completed, L3 being planned in conjunction with Yorkshire and North West. Steve Gunn, Richard Boulton and Robin Williams have all visited the region to give talks. ACTION: All requests for HP coaches to visit region to go via Rosie.
• WARA / JRC: next JRC meeting at JIRR. WARA: 46 candidates through L2’s, 20 have completed assessment, 6 don’t want to complete, 3 candidates haven’t responded, the rest have assessments planned. L2 running in Swansea. 4 people through CTS. Coaching forum held, attended by Rosie, to suggest ways forward. Action plan produced.
• Thames: Struggling to get L2 candidates through assessments, suggested they don’t run any more courses until the backlog has been cleared. It was pointed out that candidates can apply for a 6 month extension to the 2 year deadline if needed, but candidates still need to be ARA members to be assessed.
• East Midlands: L2 just finished, another one planned. No-one assessed so far.
• East: Not running any more L2’s until the backlog of people awaiting assessment has been cleared. The message of who the L2 is aimed at isn’t getting through.
• WAGS: 1 person assessed from 3 L2’s so far.

 UK Coaching Strategy

• ARA endorsed the principles last week, SARA and WARA should do soon.
• Meeting broke into group discussions around what the outcomes of the strategy would be for participants, coaches, coach educators, and those running the sport. Feedback from the groups to be fed into the strategy and action plan.

 Coaching Conference

• Feedback was very positive. It was seen as a key networking opportunity, as well as building knowledge. The main theme for 2009 will be coaching and participant pathways. The group workshops will be introduced, and there will be coach and athlete perspectives on the Olympics. Venue will be in the Coventry area, dates 24^th and 25^th Jan 2009.

 Technical Team Report

• Loretta’s report circulated prior to meeting.

 National Team Report

• Club and Coach fund: interviews w/c 17^th March, CDO’s to confirm the interview process. There will be a formal interview followed by a practical interview in April. Practical interview will be held in the region, ideally RCC’s will be on the interview panel. CDO’s and Celia need dates when RCC’s would be available to attend the interviews, and will need volunteers to be coached on land by the interviewee. All regions bar the NE have been signed off by Sport England, NE should be signed off imminently. ACTION: RCC’s to notify Celia of availability for interviews.
• Coach education calendar to be published in the almanack, as well as on the website. At present this includes dates for L2, L3, CTS and IAPS. In future it will include conference and regional seminar dates.
• CTS and IAPS courses are planned, but are currently lacking in candidates. ACTION: RCC’s to notify Celia of any potential candidates.
• Course costs: There is a possible £20k subsidy for courses that are on the coach education calendar. RCC’s to work with their CDO’s to apply for support.
• Suggested that clubs should also help to subsidise their coaches, as most membership fees at clubs include coaching.
• Given that the ARA and NCC now know the true cost of the L2 and L3 courses, both commit to subsidise coach education but at a fixed level meaning there will be new prices for the courses from 1^st July.

 Coach of the Year Awards

• Kate O’Sullivan produced a document. The adaptive award have now been incorporated into the other categories. Scope still remains for additional awards.
• Nominees MUST be ARA registered.
• New award: Development Programme Coach of the Year.

 AOB

• Feedback to Kate O’Sullivan, along with items for future agendas.

 Summary of actions agreed

• Kate O’Sullivan to send out questions re terms of reference for feedback.

• RCC’s to notofy Celia of IAPS and CTS candidates.
• Terry to forward pre-assessment crib sheet to Loretta, RCC’s to also forward her any other examples of best practice they may have.
• Any problems with getting resources for L2 or L3 phone Rosemary
• All requests for HP coaches to visit region to go via Rosie.
• RCC’s to notify Celia of availability for CCF interviews.
• Feedback to Kate with AOB and items for future agendas.

 Next Meeting

Saturday 6^th September, 11am - 3.30pm, London, Venue TBC.

Saturday 6^th December, 11am - 3.30pm, London, Venue TBC.