Welsh Sports Association AGM
There was a terrific turnout for the Welsh Sports Association (WSA) virtual AGM on Monday evening, the first in its history!
The Chair to the Board, Lynn Pamment welcomed members and opened preceedings, with Mark Tweed, Finance Director presenting the WSA & Vibrant Nation annual accounts.
Victoria Ward, Chief Executive of the WSA delivered a brief synposis of the WSA’s Annual Report, which is available via the WSA Governance documentation link and responded to questions from WSA members. Matthew Williams, Communications & Advocacy Manager then followed, tabling a WSA Covid-19 Impact Report.
There was one elected Director position available on the WSA Board and so an online ballot was available for WSA Full Members via https://vote.electionrunner.com/ a very useful and effective online voting tool. Angharad Collins CEO of Torfaen Leisure Trust was successfully appointed with 52% of the vote. Congratulations Angharad and welcome to the WSA, we’re confident you’ll continue to make a valuable contibution to the WSA and the wider sector as a whole. We would also like to take this oportunity to thank all the other nominees, Gerry Stacey, Philippa Hearnden and Richard Brice for their committment and interest in the WSA. It is encouraging to see the calabre of nominees that are seeking opportunities on Welsh sporting Boards.
Following the Director announcement, there was also a vote on the proposed changes to the Company Articles – these were swiftly approved with 100% of the vote.
Once the formalties of the AGM had concluded, we were treated to a keynote from Chris Grant. Chris chaired the UK Chip & PIN Programme; was a lead tutor on UK Sport’s Elite Coach development programme, and currently chairs the Steering Group for English football’s Integrated Coaching Strategy, so we antipated great things – we weren’t disappointed!
Chris eloquently described how inclusion and diversity can help save Welsh Sport. Chris stressed that all of sport should take participation and representation seriously, and aknowledge the barriers to participation that exist across society. Chris challenged us to think about ‘How many people should play our sports?’ and to examine our blind spots and to try to understand what we’re missing in terms of diversity and inclusion. Everyone should have the oppotunity to be active and embracing the people furthest from us will help us serve everyone better. Perhaps this is the only way to build back better?
The recording of the keynote is located here and starts at 43 minutes into the recording. There’s some superb tidbits and quotes incl. ‘Fight for the right to be mediocre at Sport’, so we’d certainly recommend listening to the recording to digest fully.
Thank you once again to all those that attended the AGM and keynote, if you have any questions or queries re the WSA membership, please do not hesitate to contact the WSA team.
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