Update from British Ski and Snowboard Chairman

Dear Member,

Last week British Ski and Snowboard held its final board meeting of 2014 and I wanted to take this opportunity to update you about a number of developments and changes that we are undertaking.

• Post Sochi review – as you may well be aware BSS commissioned an independent review of the process leading up to Sochi and the performance of our athletes at the Games. We are determined to learn from the experience and improve transparency and communications around the entire process and, in particular, selection criteria. We would like your views as members as to what you think our selection philosophy should be in the future. We recognise that one size does not necessarily fit all disciplines so as wide a response as possible would be appreciated. Shortly you will be invited to participate in a survey to provide us with your views.

• Communications – we are planning to modernise and improve the way we communicate with you, (and therefore you with us), through better use of social media. We recognise that it’s fragmented at present and often information can be difficult to come by. The BSS board has agreed in principle to a new communications plan and we are now pinning down the costs so as to ensure we get the best possible result for our budget.

• Performance management – as you are aware we were awarded a significant increase in funding following the Sochi games by UK Sport. This funding is for the Park & Pipe programmes that we run and is targeting medal success at the next Olympic Winter Games in 2018. It is vitally important that the deployment of these funds has every opportunity to generate Olympic success and therefore the board has decided that our Performance Director, Paddy Mortimer will devote the vast majority of his time and effort on the Park & Pipe programme. Paddy will provide limited support to our Nordic discipline, whilst strategic planning and performance management for Alpine will be delivered by the Alpine Business Group led by Tony Willis

• Alpine – we have heard many views and representations from Alpine in the past few months and are determined to find and support a new way forward for this discipline. To that end, your views in the survey mentioned above will be a further important input which I would encourage you to make. At the request of the Alpine, Speed and Telemark Committee (ASTC) the election to find a new Chair will be run in early 2015. In the meantime the newly formed Alpine Business Management Group led by Tony Willis is running the day to day work. The board received a presentation from Tony last week where he brought us up to date with the work he’s been doing and the changes he’s proposing going forward particularly with respect to pathways, selection and performance management. The board was delighted to endorse both his work and recommendations.

• Strategy – we have recently run a competitive tendering process to appoint an independent consultant to carry out an important strategy review project for us. We expect this work to commence in the next week or so with a final report for the board meeting in February. We recognise that our goal in the run up to Sochi, ‘To win a medal’ has served a purpose and had a number of very positive benefits, however we also acknowledge that looking to the future this one size fits all goal may not sit well with individual disciplines and the sports within those disciplines. The aim of this work is to provide a realistic route forward for all the sports we are responsible for over a sensible period of time. The terms of reference for this work can be found here.

• BSS governance – we are constantly in the governance spotlight and so we should be as an organisation that receives external funding – it is a requirement that we have first rate corporate governance. With this objective in mind we have recently made a number of changes:

(i) We have separated the responsibility for Company Secretary from the role of CEO. As of now my colleague John Foster, independent director and BSS treasurer, is the Company Secretary also

(ii) We have created a role of Vice Chair to enable me to share some of the workload and to ensure that we have at all times one of us available to lead the board as it goes about its business. My colleague Mark Lund who is BSS’s senior independent director, has taken on this role

(iii) Following a board effectiveness review we have revised and substantially expanded our subcommittee structure. This may sound a little bureaucratic but these groups have tightly drawn mandates and will typically only meet when there is a matter they are required to address on behalf of the board

(iv) Last and by no means least I am delighted to welcome Simon Platt to the board as athlete representative. His voice will be a welcome addition to our meetings.

We are now heading into what is set to be another successful season for all our athletes and more exciting times for British Snowsports.

Kind regards,

John Brewer

BSS Chairman