Date:                      30 Nov 2022

 

Time:                     15:30                             

 

Location:                 Virtual (Microsoft Teams)

 

Meeting:                 Great Britain Luge Association Annual General Meeting

 

Present:                  Mark Armstrong (MA) – Chair

                             Gavin Arnold (GA) – Chief Executive

                             Graham Holmes (GH) – Vice Chair

                             Eddy Dunlop (ED) – Natural Luge Member

Danielle Scott (DS) – Athletes Member

                             Mark Hatton (MH) – Performance Director

                             Kevin Brown (KB)

                             Chris Dupree (CD)

                             Luke Farrar (LF)

                             David Macutkiewicz (DM)

                             Emma Miles (EM)

                             Mark McQuitty (MQ)

                             Rupert Staudinger (RS)

                             Derek Prentice (DP) – Honorary Vice President                           

                            

Apologies:              

Mike Howard (AH)

Aimee Elliott (AE)

Martin McArdle (MM)

Avril Riddell (AR)

Neil Townshend (NT)

 

 

Conflict of Interest Register and Declarations

 

  1. The Chairman asked members to declare any conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest were recorded in the GBLA register.

 

Approval of Minutes of Previous AGM

 

  1. It was accepted that the minutes of the previous AGM were a true and fair record.

 

 

Chairman’s Welcome

 

  1. MA welcomed all to the meeting. GA noted that the meeting was to be held virtually due to logistical constraints but that an in-person meeting would be scheduled for Summer 2023. MA recorded thanks to GA for pulling the meeting together, to DP for offering to host the meeting and that all in the association looked forward to taking him up on the offer for 2023. MA also thanked all those involved in the Beijing games for their efforts, in particular RS for his outstanding performance at the Olympics despite the challenges brought by Covid-19 and to LF for his excellent work in a supporting role.

 

  1. MA stated that GB Luge had been awarded performance funding for the first time since 1988 and how there had been a palpable change in direction from UK sport in recognising the importance of funding previously unsupported sports in order to provide assistance in the early steps towards success and how welcome this funding was.

 

CEO’s Report

 

  1. GA gave some background in the work being completed towards tier 1 compliance as a condition of receiving public funding. It was stated that this work was still ongoing and was driving much of the constitutional changes being proposed during this meeting. GA gave a brief overview of the proposed board and executive committee construct with a 4 elected member board plus 2 independent members to be recruited and appointed at a later date with assistance from UK Sport. GA also stated the importance of having a smaller, more agile board to provide oversight whilst having a larger executive committee in place to organise the day to day running of the association.

 

  1. GA also gave a financial report presenting the accounts from the 2021-22 season, GA stated that although a loss was made, this had been anticipated and planned for as part of the 4 year cycle and was attributed to high costs of qualifying and attending the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games with the high costs of the FIL charter flight being a particular factor in the magnitude of loss. However, GA pointed out that with both senior athletes taking a sabbatical year for the 2022-23 season, it was likely that the GBLA would underspend during the season which would give a greater war-chest available for the other 3 years of the Milan-Cortina cycle. GA also stated that there were funds available albeit limited, for development training opportunities and Talent ID sessions. RS stated that he had been given approx. 600 track vouchers which could be made available for development and service level sliding.

 

Decision: The 2021/22 accounts were accepted as accurate and the 2022/23 budget was approved

 

 

  1. Artificial Track Report

 

  1. MH presented a performance report for the season, noted the excellent performance of RS at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games in achieving a 23rd position which placed him within the top 67% required by the BOA. MH also pointed out the difficulties caused by Covid-19 protocols as well as the logistical challenges involved in transiting to and from Yanqing for both the games and the test event.

 

  1. MH stated that developing a women’s doubles team should be a priority for the GBLA given that it was a new discipline using standardised sleds which removed many of the disadvantages the team has traditionally faced,

 

Natural Track Report

 

  1. ED was unable to maintain a connection to the meeting and was unable to present. He will provide a written report to members at a later date,

 

Services Report

 

  1. GH presented a report from the services’ luge organisations, noting how pleasing it was that services sliding had returned post-covid with the festival of ice held in spring 2022. The Interservices are to be held in Lillehammer in Mar 2023 and GA stated that the British Championships would be held in conjunction with this event.

 

 

Congress Update

 

  1. MA gave an update on congress including some background on the switch from Poland to Innsbruck as hosts as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. MA also gave a summary of the Emergency Congress held to propose suspensions against Russian athletes, officials and the Russian Luge Association which were partially passed. It was noted that no Russian officials were elected at the Congress proper. MA also noted that FIL funds had taken an impact from Covid and that funding was likely to be hit as a result but that he felt the FIL was moving in a pleasing direction under the stewardship of Einars Fogelis as the new FIL president.

 

 

Anti-Doping

 

  1. GA discussed the latest WADA Anti-Doping code and the large amount of work that was ongojng with UKAD to ensure the GBLA was compliant. GA thanked DM for his hard work in helping the GBLA to make progress and to EM for her assistance in publicising the work through social media channels. GA introduced DM as the UKAD lead for the GBLA who went into further detail on the work completed so far.

 

  1. It was stated by DM that a new education strategy was being put in place and would be implemented from the 2022-23 season with education sessions to be delivered at least annually. The first such session would likely take place in conjunction with the 2023 British Championships.

 

Decision: The GBLA will adopt UK Anti-Doping rules for the 2022/23 season and review again at the next AGM.

 

Elections

 

The following officers were duly elected by consensus, there being no more than one nominee for each position

 

BOARD

Chair – Mark Armstrong

Vice Chair – Graham Holmes

Artificial Luge Member – Aimee Elliott

Natural Luge Member – Eddy Dunlop

 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Chief Executive – Gavin Arnold

Performance Director – Mark Hatton

Services Member – Emma Miles

Athletes Member – Luke Farrar

Membership Secretary – Martin McArdle

Head of Performance Services – David Macutkiewicz

Commercial Manager/Company Secretary – Kevin Brown

 

AOB

 

  1. GA thanked all those that had taken on an elected position and pointed out that not having an official position was no barrier to getting involved in the association and that inputs from all were welcome.

 

  1. There being no further business, MA brought the meeting to a close. The next AGM would be planned for Apr 2023 with a strong desire to hold this in person.