Update from the Joint Steering Group on the Ice Hockey Governance Project
The Joint Steering Group met again last week to continue the progress on this important project for ice hockey.
Following the last update the Steering Group can confirm that the members of the Development and Sports Administration Working Groups are as follows:
Development Working Group: David Hand, Richard Grieveson, Geoff Hemmerman, Richard Carpenter, Tony Wood, Richard Gray, Michael Evans and Tony Hand.
Sports Administration Working Group: Andrew Miller, Jonathan Hall, Jim Taylor, Jon Patterson, Andy French, Paul Hayes, Charles Dacres, Gary Dent and Liz Moralee.
Both groups have been considering the best and most convenient way of transitioning from how things currently operate in the various areas covered by their groups to how they could operate under a new UK umbrella organisation in time for the start of the 2019/20 season. The focus has been on coming up with pragmatic solutions to how the sport can continue to operate smoothly to start with under a new umbrella UK body and with as little disruption as possible.
More specifically, the Development Working Group has been considering the impact of a new UK wide organisation on various development areas of the sport such as talent pathways, league structures, tournaments, competition regulations and playing rules. The Sports Administration Working Group is considering the impact on the various policies, procedures and systems that support the sport and the contribution of so many volunteers in these areas. These two working groups are planning to provide their feedback to the Steering Group over the coming months to help the project move on to the next phase.
As we previously reported, the Joint Steering Group is itself considering the governance issues and managed to make good progress on this at its meeting last week where it considered possible structures for the Board of the new organisation, composition of the proposed Game Advisory Group as well as other committees/sub-groups of the new Board . Richard Grieveson and Joy Johnston are leading on the partnerships work stream. They are liaising with bodies such as the IIHF, the BOA, UK Sport and others to make sure the sport’s partners are aware of the project and timelines.
By way of reminder, the Steering Group’s aim is to come up with more detail on the proposals for a new UK wide ice hockey organisation by the end of December 2018 so that the proposals can be presented to stakeholders in Q1 2019 as part of a consultation process. The proposals are then due to be finalised with a view to members being able to vote on the changes by the end of April 2019 ahead of the 2019/20 season.