terry donovan chairman's report - England Basketball

ENGLAND BASKETBALL ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 200702ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 2007REGISTERED OFFICEEnglish Basketball Association1st Floor, English Institute of SportColeridge RoadSHEFFIELDS9 5DASTAFF (at 31st May 2007)STAFFChief Executive:Keith MairEXECUTIVE BOARDEXECUTIVE BOARDThe following served as the voluntary members of the Executive Board and as directors ofthe English Basketball Association within the meaning of the Companies Act:Finance Manager:Tracie HuntNational Leagues Manager:Nicky BrownCoaching Development Manager:Brian AldredElected (4):Terry Donovan (Chairman)Kevin HibbsJeff JonesAlison MuirOfficiating Development:Simon UnsworthNational Leagues Officer:Todd StuartMembership Officer:Peter GriffithsOffice Administrator:Jess PluckEvents and Education Officer:Graham BlankleyCo-opted (3):CONVENORSCONVENORSCoaching:Competitions:John AmaechiPeter MortonJoyce Richardson (resigned Nov 2006)Bob Mitchell (appointed Dec 2006)Nick AdamsonTrevor LowesOffice Manager:Chris BrownCouncil:Paul ChristensenEquity & Diversity: Martin MortonSoftware Programmer:Mike PayneOfficiating:Alan RichardsonClub Development Manager:Steve DarlowREGIONAL CHAIRSREGIONAL CHAIRSHONORARY OFFICERSHONORARY OFFICERSNational Leagues Officer:Simon TurtonEast: Bernard BallPatron: Keith Mitchell OBENational Teams Officer:Martin BlandEast Midlands: Jenny CollinsLondon: Craig BoundyPresident Emeritus: Kenneth Charles MBELife Vice Presidents: T A E Barnet, R P Ray,ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 2007Child Protection & Equity:Laura HunterOffice Administrator:Craig CostelloREGIONAL DEVELOPMENTMANAGERS:London:Steve AlexanderCentral:Mandy PollardSouth:Sam SpareNorth East: Alan YoungerNorth West: Colette AllerstonSouth: Mick ByrneSouth East: Kevin HibbsSouth West: Paul ChristensenWest Midlands: Simon FisherYorkshire & Humberside: Brian SlyMD Welch, W H Ambler, H Keats, J Lloyd, MWordsworth, D Smith

ENGLAND BASKETBALL ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 2007CHAIRMAN’S REPORT03I write this at the beginning of August with renewed optimism.Later this month, possibly the best men’s national team everassembled, albeit playing as Great Britain, will seek to reachthe European ‘A’ division and take an important step towardsthe 2012 Olympics, the future of England Basketball has beensecured after an intense five-month period, and a new five-yearagreement with the British Basketball League is close to beingsigned.Nevertheless the past year has been a severe test of ourfocus and determination as external forces have conspiredto undermine our plans and interrupt our progress. For eightmonths we were denied any funding from Sport England, yetwe continued all of our programmes and had the courage tounderwrite the four Great Britain national team programmes lastautumn by utilising nearly £350,000 of our own reserves. Thesefunds have since been reimbursed by UK Sport.2007 England U18 WomenEngland for the LTA in early 2006 appeared to leave a vacuumat Sport England, and consequently issues raised with regard toEngland Basketball at the time of Board resignations last yearwere dealt with improperly, leading to the setting up of the MallinReview. Had there been calls for such a review in 2003 theywould have been totally justified and warmly embraced, howeverin 2006 it was ill-conceived with political undertones.The Mallin Review was originally due to be published in mid-November 2006, but was delayed first to January this year, thenMarch, then May and finally July. In the meantime Sport Englandwithheld all funding for basketball in England from 30 September2006, pending publication of the Review; arrears that eventuallygrew to nearly £0.5m.In March this year England Basketball and FIBA wereindependently provided draft copies of the Mallin Review “forcomment”. Apart from the fact that the copies provided to thetwo organisations on the same day were different (!), therewere recommendations in the report which were unfounded andunacceptable. One conclusion of the report was that “the currentorganisation of basketball in England is untenable” and “the widerbasketball community does not believe that England Basketballand other existing bodies can take the sport forward”.When I joined the Board in 2003, England Basketball was in totaldisarray. Membership had been in decline for ten years, theorganisation had a net indebtedness of £518,000 and a workingcapital deficit (i.e. technically insolvent) for nearly a decade; therewere no senior national team programmes and national agegroupteams had to fund themselves.First of all “the wider basketball community” was never consulted.Out of about 760 member clubs, only ten in total were consultedby the Review team, and six of those were BBL clubs. On theother hand, much of the wider basketball community possiblydoesn’t care. All the vast majority of our members probably wantis to turn up to their local gym once or twice a week to practiceor play. On average less than 5% of member clubs would everattend an AGM, regardless of where in the country we might holdit, and that in itself is a weakness in governance, and makes theorganisation vulnerable to minority and self-interest groups.Since then the number of affiliated members has increased by78%, passing the 25,000 mark in the 2006-07 season and thenumber of active affiliated coaches has risen by over 300%.During the same period, through to the upcoming 2007-2008season, the number of teams entering our England BasketballLeagues (EBL) has risen by 72%, with increases of 76% forsenior teams and 71% for age-group teams. In addition, thenumbers of referees and table officials have increased by 90%and 161% respectively over the past two years.These are the achievements not of one person, but of a Boardworking well together, making correct decisions, and with goodexecution by members of the staff receiving strong leadership. Byany objective analysis, this is a remarkable turnaround and thoseresponsible should be congratulated and given full support totake the sport forward. Indeed, on 22 December 2005, the thenChief Executive of Sport England, Roger Draper, wrote to me tosay that “England Basketball is now a sound NGB in terms ofgovernance and finance”.It was somewhat of a surprise therefore to find ourselveseffectively coerced into a review of our governance structuresjust ten weeks later. Unfortunately Draper departing from SportD. WearnSecondly the original draft of the Mallin report was suggesting thatEngland Basketball should be replaced by a new organisation,with a Board of up to ten members of which only three wouldbe elected by the membership. That would effectively be incontravention of FIBA regulations; hence the intervention of FIBAin the process from early March. FIBA’s view, based on objectivescrutiny of our performance since 2003, is that any attemptto discredit or displace England Basketball was and is totallyunjustified.CHAIRMAN’S REPORT TERRY DONOVAN

ENGLAND BASKETBALL ANNUAL REPORT 2006 - 200704CHAIRMAN’S REPORTcontNevertheless the Mallin Review has taken place - and there arepositives that can be taken from it. We are currently midwaythrough a 4-Year Plan (2005-2009) that was accepted by SportEngland in January 2005. In September 2004 we submittedour plan and applied for core funding of £4.8m over the fouryears. This would have amounted to £1.56m by the fourth yearof the plan (2008-09) an amount necessary to properly developour sport in England while fully utilising the services of theCounty Sports Partnerships. Sport England initially awarded us£2.15m of core funding for the full four years, while holding usto the targets as per the higher level. The draft Mallin Reviewconcluded that basketball needs exchequer funding of £1.7m perannum to take it to its potential, and stated that “without sufficientfunds it is highly unlikely that success will be achieved”. Somecommentators have suggested that England Basketball has notdone enough to move things forward; however it is clear from theMallin Review that we have been grossly under-funded, and inthis respect the Mallin Review is a far greater indictment of SportEngland and government funding policies than it is of EnglandBasketball.2007 U16 Boys Playoff ChampionsTeamSpirit Sheffield Junior SharksThe participation targets in the draft Mallin Review were basedbroadly on doubling the numbers of registered players and clubsbetween now and 2012. Sport England have already movedaway from the Mallin Review’s proposed measures and wouldlike to impose instead a target of doubling the number of adults(defined as aged 16+) claiming to play basketball at least oncea month, as measured by their Active People Survey. In the firstsuch Survey, published last December, the figure for basketballwas about 275,000, making it the 3rd most popular team sportafter football and cricket. So our target would be 550,000. Yetthere are sports below us in the table that receive significantlymore funding than even the Mallin Review is recommending forbasketball.InprintsPRIORITIES 1 April 2005 to 31 March 200912To increase participation as measured by:- The total number of affiliated young (U-18) players.- The total number of affiliated players, coaches andofficials.To increase the amount of regular (preferably weekly)playing opportunities available to people of all ages (i.e.from 6 to 66+).CHAIRMAN’S REPORT TERRY DONOVANIt took Sport England fourteen months to appoint a new ChiefExecutive. Since that occurred in April 2007 there has been aregular dialogue between them and ourselves, funding has beenrestored, and there is a feeling that Sport England are finallyworking with us rather than against us. A year ago we intendedto re-write our Articles of Association, and we will now do that withSport England’s assistance, as well as the involvement of FIBAand the BOA. That will necessarily involve some restructuring;however this will be based more on best practice models fromother successful basketball national bodies around the worldthan the UK-centric views of the Mallin team. It will also involvebringing other basketball organisations in England, such as theEnglish Schools Basketball Association and Mini BasketballEngland, under the umbrella of England Basketball.At this time we can look forward with more optimism than anyonewould have dreamed possible only six months ago. It will requirea lot of hard work, the swallowing of some egos, and the removalof some longstanding prejudices, however there is a goldenopportunity in front of us for a unified sport to grasp. On behalf ofthe Board, I ask that you give us your full support in making thishappen.Terry DonovanChairman345678910To improve / increase access to reasonably priced, orfree, (indoor) basketball courts.To increase the number of Sport England – EnglandBasketball Clubmark accredited clubs.To increase and improve the number and quality of active,qualified and affiliated officials.To increase and improve the number and quality of active,qualified and affiliated coaches.To increase the number of formal school-club links.To improve the performances of the national teams– measured by placings / rankings achieved at EuropeanChampionships.To align all basketball development and talentidentification programmes, including the playing pathwayand coach education, with the philosophy of long termathlete development.To promote the recognition, recruitment, retention andtraining of volunteers aligned to affiliated clubs, regions,associations and leagues.