Sport and Wellness Dual Engagement Meeting
10am, Thursday 20th January 2011,
Ted Wragg Meeting Room, Northcote House, University of Exeter
Present:
Russell Seal, Chairman of University Council (RS)
Neil Armstrong, Deputy Vice Chancellor (NA)
Jeremy Lindley, Director of Finance and Deputy Registrar (JL)
Phil Attwell, Director of Sport (PJA)
Josh Belsher, President of the Athletic Union (JB)
Katherine Salvetti (notes)
1.
Minutes of Dual Engagement meeting, 14 October 2010 and notes of Management
Meeting, 30 November 2010
Matters Arising
- Wednesday Afternoon Sport:
NA confirmed that he and JB had successfully secured Wednesday afternoons to be
free for students to participate in sport. NA commented that this was likely to be an
ongoing challenge and JL reported that discussions were ongoing with regard to the
scheduling of future timetabling.
- Police/Wellness Agenda:
NA confirmed that the Police-Wellness agenda had been passed to Stephen Cooper
Action Point: PJA to ‘close the loop’ with Lucy Studholme.
- RBS Proposal:
PJA confirmed that the letter to RBS had been redrafted and that the proposal
favoured the sponsorship of volunteering activities.
- Annual Report:
PJA confirmed that he had entered into discussions with Stuart Franklin to ensure
Sport would receive a higher profile in the 2010/11 Annual Report.
- Internationalisation and Sport:
NA reported on his visit to Shanghai University where it had been evident that
Chinese students considered work to be paramount and subsequently rarely engaged
in extra-curricular activities.
PJA reported that he had met with David Boughey from the Business School on18
January 2011 and had been informed of plans to carry out a small project looking into
the engagement of Chinese students into sport and other extra-curricular activities.
- Sport in Tremough:
PJA confirmed that an initial meeting with Simon Wright and James Hutchinson had
been brokered to discuss the provision of services to students in Cornwall.
NA confirmed that a group had been convened to discuss the ongoing problems with
Cornwall.
- AU Governance:
NA confirmed that the AU document was to be presented at the next University
Council meeting (April 2011).
PJA reported that it had been impossible to pinpoint an exact figure on the number of
unique participants in Sport that academic year, but as accurate a guess as was
possible put the number at 7400.
The Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
2.
Report of the Director of Sport and Student Activity
The following points were raised in discussion of the circulated report:
- JL commented that Sport is considered the leading area on Customer Services
within Corporate Services.
- JB observed that the students had been delighted with the refurbishment of Duckes
Meadow.
- In response to RS’s query as to whether the sponsors of the tennis centre had been
consulted with regard to the use of the building for exams, PJA reported that he had
engaged in several conversations with the sponsors and had ultimately persuaded
them to allow exams to be held in the Centre for the necessary length of time.
JL reassured the meeting that as and when the Great Hall and the LEH were back in
use, problems surrounding the use of the Tennis Centre for exams would be
alleviated.
- NA noted that he and Susie Hills were to meet with the sponsors of the Cricket
Centre (Sir Christopher Ondaatje) on Monday 24 January 2011.
- JL corrected PJA that Sport would be included in the Tribal benchmarking exercise,
but not necessarily in the same capacity as other areas of Corporate Services.
3.
Summary of Athletic Union activity, 2010/11 and Athletic Union Out-turn 2009/10
JB drew attention to the following items from the circulated report:
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The AU had been pleased with the small numbers of refunds that have been
given this year, indicating a high level of student satisfaction among AU
members.
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‘ReFresh’ week had run successfully, enabling the AU to recruit even more new
members. It was noted that the AU had reached a membership of 5000 members
for the first time.
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JB reported that the AU were continuing to look for a second, title sponsor.
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JB reported that a successful Rugby Varsity match had taken place against Bath
University and subsequently, Bath had approached the AU with a proposal to run
a Varsity Series. PJA concurred that Bath wanted to build on the success of the
Varsity match.
NA queried whether the AU should approach Bath, Bristol and Cardiff, using
Varsity as a means to build relationships.
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JB reported that the AU was continuing to look for a new sponsor for the SVS
scheme. RS and NA concurred on the need for the scheme to continue to run
and emphasised that it should not be allowed to fail owing to a lack of funding.
NA informed JB that he would be happy to assist and supply ‘bridge-funding’ if
needed.
4.
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JL advised that he meets regularly with Barclays and RBS, and will be meeting
with HSBC in the near future. JL reiterated that he would be happy to pitch
proposals to these banks and also suggested that the AU consider legal firms for
sponsorship.
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JL queried the difference in membership incomes between 2009 and 2010,
against the increased numbers of AU members.
JB clarified that in 2010, clubs had began to pay their coaches’ fees directly from
their own club accounts, and subsequently, income from overall subscriptions
appeared to be lower than previously.
PJA confirmed that sufficient financial oversight is granted to clubs.
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RS queried who employed the coaches. PJA responded that all coaches are
either contracted, or casually employed by the University.
Update on Health and Wellness Programme
PJA drew attention to the following points raised within the circulated report:
- An encouraging number of students and staff (1200 -1300 individuals) participated
in ongoing Wellness activities.
- Paul Mouland had been asked to make greater headway on activities being studentfocussed.
- NA queried the level of awareness of the referral programme. JB responded that
Paul Mouland had been working closely with the Students’ Guild Welfare Officer in
order to promote this initiative, and PJA informed the meeting that there had been a
cap on the numbers of students eligible to participate in the referral programme (20)
and so the number to date (13), was not an unreasonable.
- In response to the continued funding of the Wellness programme, NA and PJA
commented that they were confident that the Annual Fund would continue to support
sporting initiatives, including the wellness programme.
- PJA reported that Paul Mouland will be working in collaboration with Occupational
Health in the future.
5.
University of Exeter in Cornwall
The following points were noted:
- PJA commented that it remained to be seen whether or not the University would
continue to support Cornwall at the same level in the following academic year.
- PJA reported that he had been working with Cornwall to make the provision for
students immeasurably better and that this would only be sustainable with recurrent
funding.
- JL commented that TCF match the funding the University of Exeter grants to
Cornwall and that this could be the point to ‘up the anti’. JL cautioned that should TCF
disengage, the target of parity between funding sources would be compromised. JL
observed that while there is an aim for parity in investment, none-the-less, the
Student Experience could never be the same for Cornwall students as it is for Exeter
students.
- RS cautioned that future fee increases will bring the need for justification for the lack
of parity between facilities.
- JL advised the meeting that the University was conscious that Cornwall needed to
be looked at specifically with regard to future charging.
- JL advised that Sport should continue to find a way of developing relationships with
Penryn.
- NA queried whether there were any other institutions within BUCS who had
encountered similar problems to Cornwall? PJA confirmed that UEA and Essex had
similar problems, but that Tremough was unique.
JL queried whether unique relationships might be fostered with other institutions
located as close to airports as Tremough was to Newquay Airport.
- NA advised that Sport needed to show the direction of movement towards parity
between Exeter and Cornwall.
6.
Analysis of BUCS Performance and High Performance Programme successes
PJA summarised that the information given in the AU report had been just a flavour of
the amount of work that has gone on, and that the BUCS results reflected the effects
of employing professional coaches.
PJA reported that teams were on schedule to equal the previous year’s BUCS result.
JB commented that the highest level of international participation occurred in tabletennis and JL observed that the number of BUCS points achieved had been partly as
a result of internationalisation.
In discussion of the HPP report, RS commented that this had been the first time that
a focus on para-sports had been included and that this was a significant step forward.
PA reported that while it was not possible to enter para teams into the BUCS league
at present, BUCS had been looking to hold one-off para-events in the future.
RS queried whether there was the scope to produce a mini-strategy in this area:
could Exeter become a flagship for para-sports?
Action: PA to speak to Nick Beasant and Stuart Franklin about the possibility of
initiating the Exeter as a flag-ship for para-sports.
7.
Sports Capital Programme
PJA presented the options related to a new Sports Park facility and the following
points were raised in discussion:
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PJA asked the group to consider whether a move to Exeter Arena could be the
ultimate option and if so, what would need to happen with the existing facility in
the interim?
PJA noted that even if the Sports Park was to be moved to the Exeter Arena,
provision for casual Health & Fitness use would need to be maintained
somewhere on campus.
JL commented that there was too much financial uncertainty at the present time
and it would be difficult to give a firm steer on the feasibility of moving to Exeter
Arena before December 2012
RS and NA concurred that they felt that moving facilities off campus was an
immeasurably worse option than investing in new facilities on campus. NA
emphasised that the movement away from campus would ‘kill-off’ the Wellness
programme.
RS requested that PJA carry out further research comparing the current facilities
with those of Exeter’s competitors and in addition, students should be consulted
with and surveyed. RS emphasised that a decision on preference could not be
made until such time as the meeting had all this information to hand.
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JL expressed caution that car-parking provision would need to be considered
very carefully.
JL informed PA that Tranche 2 of the capital planning programme had been
approved and so it would now be possible for PA to approach them, requesting
the relevant money be released.
Discussion ensued as to whether there was scope for a further option: were the
current plans ambitious enough?
JL observed that whichever option was decided upon, the re-roofing of the Sports
Hall would need to be included in the equation.
RS and JL encouraged PJA to a draft proposal to be sent to ICG in order to
obtain the necessary funds to develop the current plans into costed options. It
was emphasised that only when this level of information was available could a
final decision on a new facility be made.
NA emphasised that this was the time to be ambitious and encouraged PJA to
continue discussions with DARO.
JL concurred that during the early phase of the new fees environment, there
would be the opportunity for the University to develop and invest in capital
opportunities.
RS observed that the University’s biggest threat in the new fees environment
would be those ‘Destination Universities,’ and that a new Sports facility (the wow
factor) would be what Exeter needed to seal its own position as a Destination
University.
NA extended thanks to PJA for the presentation.
Meeting closed at 12.04