The Sussex Gymnastics Committee Meeting was held on Wednesday 16th October 20:30 at The Jack & Jill Inn, Clayton, BN6 9PD.

Present

Mike Gevaux

Dawn Hyland

Emily Knight

Beth Burchett

Lisa Jestico

Sally-Anne Warner

Richard Keasley

Kim Mirceta

Heather Sampford

Kim Kennedy

Sarah Dyson-Bottle

Apologies for Absence

Keith Walter

Emma Ballancore

Charlotte Wynne-Pennels

Nikki Huggins

Mark Poore

Julie Belchamber

1. Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes from the last two meetings were reviewed. 

Funding of welfare officers attending events was bought up, a topic which had only been touched upon briefly in previous meetings. As a committee we agreed  that we would encourage the welfare officers to approach the region first as they also act as welfare officers for them. It has been agreed that Emily (Secretary) will put together a letter that we can use to support our welfare officers, should the SE region decline funding for welfare to attend events. 

2. Chair's Report

No report given so was unable to be discussed. 

3. Treasurer’s Report

Report Attached
 

4. Discipline Reports

General

Report Attached

Acrobatics

Report Attached

Trampoline/DMT

No report was received for this discipline. A brief discussion was had, 4 competitions have been run, however numbers have not yet picked up to those before COVID-19.

Festival

Report Attached

Team-gym

No updates since previous meeting. Sussex currently have 12 gymnasts representing Team-Gym at the European Championships in Azerbaijan.

Men's Artistic

Report Attached

Women's Artistic

Report Attached

5. Welfare Report

Report Attached
 
Questions were bought up regarding the new British Gymnastics flexibility course. It was confirmed that level 1 coaches are only allowed to assist with flexibility training, and must have a level 2 coach supervising/leading the stretching. 
 
The welfare officers received emails regarding both the national British Gymnastics awards and Active Sussex awards, asking for nominations. It was discussed that there are a lack of people nominating individuals/clubs within Sussex. We discussed that there could potentially be one county representative who deals with the nominations and is able to nominate externally, rather than each club having to go through it individually. Many of the smaller clubs do not have time to put forward nominations, and they may not even receive the emails, therefore this could maybe be something to consider. As a committee we came to the conclusion that a county representative may struggle to have access to the information needed to nominate any individuals from clubs, and therefore it would stay as something that each individual club has to put forward. 
 
The Active Sussex awards currently have no awards category for welfare and safeguarding. 
 

6. Any other business

6.1 High Performance Funding Proposal

As proposed at the last two meetings, Lisa Jestico (WA representative) came to this meeting with her final application form for the funding. It was confirmed that  . this funding would only be available for those gymnasts representing GB or a home nation.

This form had been created through liaison between the WA representative and the treasurer. We made a couple of adjustments of wording, with the final form shown below. Clubs will fill this in on behalf of the gymnasts.  

We agreed as a committee that we would trial this, with receipts having to be provided for proof of funding claim. The year would run as a calendar year, with a start date of 1st January and a cut off date of 31st December. This would work retrospectively, with the first trial run occurring for the year of 2024. This will be revisited prior to the next AGM in May 2025, to see how successful it has been and whether the clubs are applying for this.  

 

6.2 Meetings

It was agreed that there could potentially be a day time and evening meeting to ensure everyone was able to attend. Zoom/video call was suggested for those who were unable to physically make the meeting. 

Emily (Secretary) is to collate previous responses of suitable days and times for meetings, as well as send out a google form, to gauge an idea of availability and thus arrange the next committee meeting. Venues suggested were John Selden, Worthing GC, Wickers GC or the Jack & Jill inn. 

 

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 5th February, venue and time TBC. 

The meeting closed at 21:32