Area 6 Response to RCCC Area Structure Review
Posted on Friday, April 24, 2015 at 10:50am
Area 6 Response to RCCC Area Structure Review
Background
This document is a summary of the discussions at both the Stirlingshire Province and Area 6 AGMs held on 21 April 2015. The discussion was primarily based on the reply to the structure review prepared by Gifford Rickard, past president of RCCC, and this paper is shown as Appendix 1.
This summary takes account of the wide range of views expressed, and consolidated by myself in my role of Area 6 Secretary. The Paper will also be updated as a consequence of any points raised at AGMs held by Scottish Central and West Lothian Provinces, scheduled for week commencing 27 April 2015.
Since I have a range of experience in local curling matters as past president of Stirlingshire Province, past president of a Stirlingshire club, secretary of another, and secretary of a West Lothian club, as well as being a council member of Stirling Curling Group I have my own views on the questions raised, but to emphasise that these are my personal view I have included them as Appendix 2.
Discussion Points
There was general agreement that the existing Area structure is not working in Area 6. This can be highlighted by the lack of any volunteers to take on the role of Area Representative leaving Joe Barry to plough a lone furrow for the past 4 years. Past practice of Stirlingshire, by far the largest Province in the Area, always providing one representative with the remaining three Provinces providing the other representative in turn, had been abandoned when the Board of Directors was formed by RCCC and nothing was put in place to provide representation.
There was fairly wide support of the suggestion that representation should be ice rink based, using the model of the Ladies Section, but this would cause difficulties for some of the smaller provinces, for example West Lothian with only 7 clubs, using Hamilton, Murrayfield and Kinross as home rinks as well as the Peak, and Forth and Endrick where a number of clubs use Braehead as their home rink.
There was a view that club curlers do not understand the relative roles and responsibilities of the Area, Province and Stirling Curling group, and that there are probably too many levels of administration as a consequence. During the meetings it was generally agreed that Area is about governance, Province is about promoting interaction between clubs in the Province by organising league and cup competitions, and Stirling Curling Group provide opportunities for individual teams to play competitive curling. However it was felt that Stirlingshire province finds it harder to engender a community feeling as there are too many clubs to arrange a league competition, and of the cup competitions only a minority of clubs take part.
There was a lack of understanding of the role of Area representative, since the management of RCCC is undertaken by the Board of Directors, and the communication channel most used is the email ‘Your Curler’ mechanism. Joe outlined his actions in the standing committees – club and Member development, Marketing, Grand Match, etc. and also the benefits of understanding the issues in the wider world of Scottish Curling. It was also emphasised that this role is open to Ladies since there are a number of Ladies only clubs in Stirlingshire.
Communication was another topic widely discussed and it was apparent that few club curlers regularly look at the RCCC website, nor the Area or Province websites. Thus many of the items that Joe outlined in his Chairman’s report to the Area AGM, such as the hosting of World Championships, the restoration of the Lees painting, and the blueprint for incoming tours were not widely known about until the meeting. Some views were expressed that representatives should endeavour to get more publicity locally, in local papers, but no one in the body of the meeting volunteered to take on that responsibility.
Although the questions raised by the Review Group were not addressed directly – there was a view that they did not represent all of the issues – there was recognition that the role of Development Officer, ably supported by local volunteers had worked in encouraging new curlers to Try Curling sessions, beginners classes and virtual clubs and that this had proved successful – though how many joined clubs and regularly participated in curling thereafter was not known.
Appendix 1 – Paper by Gifford Rickard, past president RCCC
Area Structure Review Group
The recent consultation paper issued to clubs for comment in which you ask for views on the current structure of Areas/Provinces refers
I am submitting my reply on behalf of Denny CC.
- The Area structure bring little to the clubs playing at Stirling ice rink.
The Area competitions consist of an annual inter Province bonspiel and an interclub K/O competition. Of the four Provinces making up Area 6 three are active running inter club Province leagues and one off yearly competitions. The fourth province runs annual competitions for three trophies played on a bonspiel format and a Province K/O competition for individual clubs to enter.
- Area 6 consists of four Provinces. Two of the Provinces play a great deal of their curling at other ice rinks such as Braehead, Murrayfield and Kinross. There is therefore little cohesion to keep the Area together which is evidenced by Area 6 being unable to find more than one representative to the ASC for a number of years.
- The current boundary of Area 6 is too diverse with little in common between clubs. The only time clubs meet each other is in the two Area competitions and the Area AGM, at which the majority of clubs are not represented.
- The simple answer to providing a more meaningful representation would be for Areas to be based on ice rinks as is the case in Ladies Branch. I am aware that this has been mooted previously and been rejected for various reasons however if representation is to be meaningful to members it should come from a location where clubs play the majority of their curling.
- It is difficult at present to find volunteers to take up posts within the current structure. Asking for them to do more is likely to scare more people off, however, one thing that might be possible for them is to seek some publicity in local press giving details of what is happening with local clubs and thereby raising interest in the local communities. As an example because curling takes place in Stirling only the Stirling Observer will print any curling based articles. The Falkirk Herald does not give any coverage apart from occasional articles submitted by local clubs and these are general hidden away in a local events section The West Lothian Journal I am sure follows the Falkirk example.
For RCCC members information is provided through the website or in the Your Curler magazine which takes way much of the previous responsibility of Area representatives for disseminating RCCC information to members.
The introduction of Development Officers to most ice rinks has meant that much of the responsibility for organising beginners classes and virtual clubs has fallen on them albeit with numerous volunteers who assist with these activities. These are supplemented by clubs themselves attracting new members largely through personal contact.
- As a past president I know how difficult it is to alter a structure which has been in existence for many years. When the RCCC was restructured in 2005 there was a view that the Area structure was redundant as there was no clearly defined role for representative to play. I am sure that thing have moved on since then but I think the role of ASC members is unclear to most members.
If the structure is to continue albeit in some altered form it must be made clear exactly what role the ASC members play in the governance of RCCC setting out their roles and responsibilities. This information should then be passed to members by way of a newsletter or through articles in the Your Curler magazine.
Gifford Rickard
Secretary
Denny CC
Appendix 2 – Personal Thoughts of Alan Wilson, Area 6 Secretary
Local Structure
During my years as President of Stirlingshire Province I came to believe that it is too big to be efficient. There are 26 clubs in the Province, many of whom operate in isolation to the others, being content to play only club curling. Comparing this Province to West Lothian – the Province of my home club – there is no cohesion in Stirlingshire. It became apparent when I took over as President that the number of people willing to be office holders were few and far between and as a consequence we managed to get a rota of roles to be filled by all clubs adopted. This means all clubs provide the role of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer in rotation and for only 2 years at a time.
I concluded at the same time that Stirlingshire is unwieldy and would benefit by being separated into 2 Provinces – one based in south and east Stirlingshire and centred round Falkirk/Grangemouth, and the other based in north and west Stirlingshire and centred round Stirling and Kilsyth. The benefits would be that a sense of community could be developed based around a Province league which would aid inter-action between clubs and their members, however the downside is that as it has proved difficult to populate the roles of office holders in one Province it would be doubly difficult in two provinces.
The elephant in the room in terms of local structure is Stirling Curling Group since its role is not widely understood, particularly by clubs in the outlying periphery of the geographical area, especially if their home ice rink is not at Stirling. Having been a member of Stirling Curling Group since its inception until a couple of years ago, I re-joined Stirling Curling Group last year when I became Area 6 Secretary as I felt the Group benefited from the input provided by Ian McGregor when SCG was formed who gave an RCCC and Area perspective to the development of the Group.
Stirling Curling Group has a strong programme of league curling – 3 leagues of team curling, a total of 26 teams, a further 8 team league of mixed curling, and an 8 team afternoon league also of mixed curling. Thus there is a substantial amount of competitive curling undertaken outwith the traditional structure of Area and Province and club curling.
Many of the clubs at Stirling feel frustrated that their issue and grievances with Active Stirling – the local council group who provide the facilities at the Peak, whether it be incorrect ice bookings or other matters – are channelled through SCG but that is a consequence of having a lot of clubs using the facility, some regularly, some only occasionally, to fulfil Area or Province games.
Way Forward
I have concluded that there are too many levels of curling administration in Stirling and either the Area role needs to be eliminated, or the role of the Province, as advocated by the Secretary of one of the Forth and Endrick clubs should go. My own feeling is that the Provinces provide a coherent structure for clubs, a focal point for local issues, and a means to regularly communicate with and play like minded clubs is a relatively small geographical area. This also helps members to join a number of local clubs and play with friends and colleagues – and not to be forgotten helps with sharing travel arrangements.
The responsibilities of the Area have changed over the years and could be distributed to the Provinces and Stirling Curling Group:
Stirling Curling Group could take over arrangements for the Indoor Grand match – already there is duplication of personnel who are working on this for the Area, and who are also members of Stirling Curling Group. Similarly they could provide liaison between clubs and the RCCC in terms of any possible outdoor Grand Match.
Stirling Curling Group could also take over responsibility for local arrangements for incoming tours – again many of the same people are involved.
RCCC and National competitions are adequately publicised on the RCCC website and could be incorporated in SCG and Province websites if necessary.
There is a pool of like minded individuals who are capable of providing support to RCCC in terms of populating committees and sub committees or playing appropriate friendly matches who do not need to be appointed as Area representatives. These can be past members of outgoing tours, past office holders in RCCC or Area roles, or similarly committed curlers.
Currently Area 6 promote three curling competitions – a knockout, a bonspiel and a recently introduced Championship between the top nominated clubs of each Province. These could be distributed by nominating the winning Province in each of the competitions to book the ice for the following season and invite the other Provinces to take part. This model works well for a local competition in Stirlingshire – the Alex Reid memorial trophy – which has been played since 1879.
Whilst the above views on distribution of responsibilities is not necessarily comprehensive – I’m still developing my thought on this – I believe it provides a framework for further development of the existing Areas structure depending on the level of enthusiasm for change.
Alan Wilson