Minutes 18/12/22

Quorum, Minutes of previous meeting & action points

Quorum of members reviewed

Minutes received and agreed by all members 

No action points to be discussed at this meeting due to the limited timeframe since the last meeting.

Financial Update

Overview - MM confirmed that he was now in receipt of the finance documents from the previous treasurer.

He confirmed that the association was in a positive position and confirmed that an external accountant was in place with audited accounts being prepared in line with usual practice. MM advised that he will be contacting the accountant in the near future to introduce himself. 

Expenses - MM confirmed that he recently received three mileage expenses claims from members for attendance at the EGM. A discussion ensued about whether the association had a current expenses policy. The consensus was that there is not one in place, but it is something that needs to be looked at going forward. It was agreed by all present that MM will draft an expenses policy for us to review in the New Year. 

MM was asked to review the documents from the previous EGM to see if expenses had been paid before. He could not identify that any expenses had been paid previously. The committee took a vote on whether it was appropriate for the expenses to be paid and all those in attendance were of the opinion that the expenses claims should be declined.  

Storage Costs – a discussion regarding ongoing costs to the association and one of those was the costs of storage units.  It was highlighted that a cheaper option than the unit located in Cambridge could possibly be sourced, and it was agreed that this would be investigated further in the New Year.  KSB asked what the insurance arrangements were for the storage and MM agreed to explore this further by reviewing the insurance schedule/policy. 

Association – MM explained that the BFA is an unincorporated association which means we are not for profit and all monies raised should be invested back into the association for the benefit of its members. 

CB advised that the BFA are currently on a waiting list for sets of lights(currently three sets of Czech lights and potentially a set of Belgian lights). The attending committee members agreed that we need to remain on the waiting list due to the ‘life’ expectation of current sets and it being in the membership’s best interests to have several sets of good quality lights available for use.   

Membership renewals – A discussion was had regarding the rationale for the membership renewals deadline date.  In order not to reduce the number of months a member pays for; the decision was taken to leave the renewals cut-off date as it currently stands  - all in attendance agreed.

Co-opting members

Co-opted members joined at the beginning of the meeting and as CG had not yet signed the confidentiality agreement, he was requested to do so before any discussions took place. He did so and also set up his BFA Gmail account. 

As the committee now consists of nine members, no further co-opting will take place. 

Policies & Templates

KM indicated that agility associations have formal safeguarding policies in place and suggested that the BFA need to bring themselves in line with other associations of a similar nature. 

KM advised that the majority of the membership are unaware that we have a safeguarding officer and therefore we need to add the details to our website. 

KM advised that a safeguarding risk assessment document was compiled with the assistance of SA and the safeguarding officer earlier in the year.  She suggested that the risk assessment should be added to the website so it can be publicised, and teams can complete it for children and vulnerable adults within their teams.

KM said that the BFA safeguarding officer suggested for all HJ’s to undertake the online NSPCC’s safeguarding course.  This comes at a cost to the association of £25 per person.  KM proposes to roll this out in stages from January 2023 with a view that all HJ’s have completed the course by Spring 2023.

KSB suggested that all BFA committee members should take the course which would enable them to be a  point of contact for the whole membership. All in attendance agreed with both the committee members and HJs undertaking the course.  They also agreed with the cost being borne by the association.  

As CG had not been in post when the safeguarding documents were previously circulated by KM, EB agreed to forward these to him. 

The risks of not having comprehensive safeguarding policies and processes in place were highlighted by KM.  Agreement was made by all in attendance that KM, CG and the current safeguarding officer will review and finalise safeguarding policies and standard operating procedures. 

CB suggested we need a safeguarding board to provide support for all HJs, DJs and TOs. He also advised that we need to liaise with the Judges Board to keep them informed and for assistance with rolling out the training.  EB will email the Judges board in this respect.

At this point KM left the meeting for a prior appointment

Tournament(s)

Indoor Champs - CB and MM confirmed that Newark had been booked from 13th to 15th October and the deposit for the venue has been paid. Racing will take place on the 14th & 15th October with set up scheduled for the previous day (13th)

University Study

Box study - JS explained that further studies are needed due to the previous data capture identifying discrepancies. Four more dogs are required for the study. It was discussed and agreed by all present, that a handler would need to be reimbursed for their campsite costs for an overnight stay and the mileage expenses. The full analysis of the box study should be made available to us by Autumn 2023.

Reimbursement also needs to be made to a team for 8 wings and 4 slats which needed to be modified for the motion capture technology needed for the study.  All in attendance agreed in the reimbursement. 

Restricted Item

An emailed enquiry received from a team captain regarding tournament hosting was explained by EB and discussed by those in attendance. Twomembers declared a conflict of interest with regard to this enquiry and therefore did not participate in the discussion. 

It was agreed that EB would forward the email trail to all committee members for their view (bar those that had declared a conflict of interest). Once the views have been collated, it was agreed that EB would email the finalcommittee response to the team concerned. 

Restricted item

A discussion took place regarding further actions that need to be taken following the recent EGM.

Restricted Item

A social services department requested a BFA risk assessment for a child doing flyball. One was compiled and sent however in future teams with children need to fill these in and have them readily available to social services and outside bodies. 

AOB

Webmaster – a member that has offered his services previously was approved by all those in attendance to be appointed as the BFA webmaster.  Confirmation to be made to the membership in due course.  EB will contact Reece Marsland to ensure website access can be granted to our new webmaster.  

Accident Book – CB queried whether an accident book was required for reporting purposes.  The consensus of opinion amongst the members present was that the incident reporting form should be sufficient. 

Interference reports – CB advised that a review of the interference reports needs to be undertaken especially where dogs have made ‘contact’.  It was agreed that support needs to be provided to the handler/team to offer training support etc before any further action needs to be taken.

Date, Time & Venue of next meeting

Consideration being given to holding a face-to-face meeting in January 2023. Date, time and venue to be arranged.