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England Athletics Member-Elected Director election process goes live

One of the two England Athletics elected board positions* is up for re-election at this year’s AGM, currently scheduled for 10 October 2020.  The election process opens today with the nomination form being available for candidates to download.

Myra Nimmo (Chair) comments: "The England Athletics Board brings together a rich diversity of skills to allow them to support the executive and the sport. The next few years will inevitably be challenging and we would value the contribution from someone who feels they can contribute to the debate and direction that England Athletics should take in order to build on the sound foundations of our clubs to a successful home Commonwealth Games."

CEO Chris Jones comments: "England Athletics and the wider sport are proud of the achievements and contributions of our athletes, runners, coaches, officials and volunteers across all levels of our great sport. Athletics and running clubs provide opportunities for both participants of all backgrounds, ages and aspirations on and off the track. It is, therefore, important that we work to encourage and promote representation that reflects the great diversity of our membership, not only on our Board, and our National and Regional Council structure but also across Club committees and management groups nationwide.

"England Athletics is committed to addressing inequality at all levels and to recruit a Board of Non-Executive Directors who provide a rich balance of skills and backgrounds. England Athletics is keen to address the current under-representation on its Board in the areas of disability and BAME and we positively encourage nominations from candidates regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or belief."

Nominations and Support Confirmations

The process is as follows:

  1. The candidate should complete the nomination form listing the names of the clubs which have agreed to nominate them and the number of votes each is entitled to cast (there must be at least 8 supporters - including their own club - which are between them entitled to cast at least 15 votes
  2. The candidate should also ask each nominating club to complete a supporter confirmation form and send this to England Athletics.

Nominations are required to be in writing but due to the difficulties associated with measures to address the current Coronavirus pandemic and the England Athletics office being closed at this time, candidates are encouraged to send their completed nomination forms, and encourage their nominators also to send their supporter confirmations, by email to elections@englandathletics.org.

If candidates or nominators need to send completed nomination/confirmation forms via the post, they should be sent to Ben Patel-Sadler, Board & NED Secretary, England Athletics, Athletics House, Alexander Stadium, Walsall Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2BE.  In view of the difficulties referred to above, nominations and confirmations sent by email will be deemed to have been signed by the sender (hard copies sent by post must still be physically signed however).

Nomination forms will not be considered if all of the candidate’s supporters have not provided their written consent confirming their support of the candidate. If the completed form is being submitted via post, then each supporter’s physical signature must be included in the signature box.

Please note that the deadline by which England Athletics should have received any nominations is Friday 4 September 2020.

Job Description

Click here to download a full job description with the key accountabilities and responsibilities being:

Key accountabilities:

  • To act as an unbiased, objective and impartial member of the Board, ensuring that all decisions taken are in the best long-term interests of England Athletics, and its stakeholders.
  • To offer advice and guidance in a consultative capacity to the Chief Executive and other Senior Managers as required.
  • To assist in the development of the organisation’s strategy, ensuring this is implemented via effective policies and plans, whilst ensuring effective governance and control processes are in place.
  • To ensure that the organisation is run in a transparent and equitable manner.
  • To ensure that the Board operates in line with accepted good practice in terms of Corporate Governance.
  • To act in accordance with the Board of Directors’ Code of Conduct at all times.
  • Represent England Athletics on relevant external national bodies.

Key Responsibilities:

  • To attend 6-8 formal Board meetings a year, as well as other ad-hoc meetings and to sit on Board Sub-Committees/Groups as required.
  • To ensure that the organisation has a robust, workable and viable operational strategy, including detailed financial plans.
  • To monitor the operational performance of the organisation and the executive management.
  • To attend England Council and/or Regional Council meetings, as required.
  • To represent and champion England Athletics at the highest level in terms of advocacy and networking with relevant government ministers, senior civil servants and with key partners, stakeholders (especially UK Athletics and Sport England as required).
  • To contribute towards the development of vision, strategy and policies of England Athletics.
  • To act as an ambassador for the sport at national, regional and local level, and also as the guardian of England Athletics’ reputation with all stakeholders in athletics and the general public.

Downloads

Note

* Tim Soutar (Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC) and Neil Costello (Cambridge & Coleridge AC) were  elected in 2014. To avoid both representative directors retiring at the same time, the initial terms of office were set such that Tim Soutar would remain in place until the AGM in 2017 and Neil Costello until the AGM in 2016. Both Tim Soutar and Neil Costello successfully stood for second terms in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Tim Soutar therefore remains as an Elected Director until 2021, while Neil Costello’s position is now up for re-election at this year’s AGM. The successful candidate will commence their role from this date.

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