A Brief update from the Chair of some key events and recent news from February:
Hi Judo Community,
This month’s Report from the Chair is slightly different to the norm. I’d like to focus a bit more on where we are in JudoScotland and to ask for your support.
We’re just about to start a big piece of work to refresh and improve our current grading system. And we’ll shortly be approaching member clubs to get your views. With this in mind, and as a bit of pre-work, can I ask all our clubs to review your membership and ensure that they’re all JudoScotland members so that we have an accurate picture of numbers. As part of our strategy, we’ve set targets to increase our membership over the next 4 years. We know there are many benefits to membership but critically everyone doing judo in Scotland needs to be insured. In fact, a club has had this tested recently.
Can I also ask you to look at our grading rebate incentive where clubs are rewarded for doing a 3rd grading in the year.
If we can push our membership and grading capacities up, we will not only be rewarding learning and achievement but will be generating additional income that can be reinvested from grassroots right through to high performance. And that benefits all of us as a community. We’ve always had great support from all of clubs – and long may that last!
As part of the gradings review, we’ve revised the previous Job Description for the Area Director of Examiners. The role is now called the JudoScotland Director of Examiners and will work in conjunction with the Business Delivery Team to focus on Dan Grades and the recruitment and training of Senior Examiners. The position was promoted to the wider community, and after a series of interviews, I’m delighted to announce that Rick Kenney was successful in securing the role. Congratulations Rick and we look forward to working closely with you to enhance our Dan Grades.
One area that we’ve always struggled with in JudoScotland is attracting Independent Directors. We now have Jodie who joined the Board last year with her legal background and who has been a great asset. We recently went out to recruit two more Independent Directors and were delighted when 5 strong candidates came forward. I’ll give you more info in my next report as the appointments will be ratified at the next Board Meeting on 7th March.
Incidentally, it was interesting during the interviews that all the candidates indicated they’d come forward because they’d heard exciting things about our organisation. -music to our ears!
My tenure finishes in 3 years and 8 months – let’s work together to make this an exceptionally productive and exciting period for the judo community.
Thanks
Marc