BFA AGM 5 December 2015

BFA AGM

The 2015 AGM was conducted by Skype on Saturday 5 December and we had the biggest turn out to date! Year on year our membership grows as does the support you all show us so thank you.

2015 was an exciting one for British Freediving. It would be difficult and near impossible to mention everything so a summary of the highlights will have to do! The year started with the announcement of the BFA’s annual UK Freediving National Champions Liv Philip and Michael Board, both top athletes and wonderful ambassadors of our sport. We were treated to multi-national record holder Georgina Miller holding her breath live, for five whole minutes on the BBC1 the One Show, prime-time TV, coached by her partner Daan Verhoeven; the show also featured top British freediving athlete Ian Donaldson. Samphire Amps shared her imaginative insights and experiences as a freediver with Jarvis Cocker for a special edition of Wireless Nights at the Proms. Over the last twelve months we have seen 6 national records set by the following athletes: John Moorcroft (DNF 176m), Georgina Miller (STA 06:33), Alice Hickson (DNF 153m & 174m, STA 06:58) and Michael Board (FIM 97m). And I think it is fair to say that one of the biggest highlights has to be Alice Hickson coming home a World Champion Freediver with not only a gold medal for her massive dynamic no fins swim of 174m, but also a bronze for her equally impressive static breath hold, two seconds shy of seven minutes at Freediving World Championships in Serbia!

Freediving has continued to make appearances across the press, in print, online, on the Radio, on TV and even in the form of a hugely successful exhibition in the centre of London. And we are continuing to appear on Redbull Adventure’s website and Facebook page courtesy of top freediving videographer Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com).

Finally and last but not at all least, a massive thank is owed to our wonderful sponsors Divesangha (www.divesangha.com), Elios Sub (www.eliossub.com), Bounce (www.bouncefoods.com) and Saltfree (www.saltfree.biz) for their generous support of our British Freediving Team in 2015.

From all of us at the BFA, we wish you all wonderful and safe dives for 2016!

Minutes from the Meeting

Location: Skype

Present: Adam Drzazga, Andy Jardine, Bart Lubecki, Beci Ryan, Deborah Gaskell, Georgina Miller, James Cluskey, Jean- Fabrice Detard, Liv Philip, Matt le clerc, Rebecca Coales, Tim Money.

Apologies: David Tranfield & Martyn Jones

1) Thanks were given to Martyn Jones for his time on the committee as Treasurer. We are pleased to announce that Julian Jansen van Rensburg has stepped up to take on the role of Secretary.

2) Notification of Committee Members for 2015/16 were announced:Chairman: Adam Dzraga
Clubs Officer: George Miller
Competitions Officer: Bart Lubecki
E Media Officer: Tim Money
Membership Officer: Rebecca Coales
Press Officer: Rebecca Coales with support from Beci Ryan
Records & AIDA Liaison Officer: David Tranfield
Secretary: Julian Jansen van Rensburg
Sponsorship Officer: Jay Cluskey
Training & Safety Officer: Liv Philip
Treasurer: care taken by Liv Philip & Tim Money

3) Constitution & New Committee Applicants:

a. Working Groups & Volunteers: There have been a number of people expressing an interest in volunteering their time but are unable commit to a full role. It was decided that we should invite volunteers to help with projects that arise throughout the coming year. It was suggested we send an e-newsletter via Mail Chimp to invite volunteers from our database of contacts (a note could be included in the renewal for membership and a list kept on the BFA Drop Box folder).

a. References: It was suggested that any committee applications must be supported with a reference from someone within the freediving community. This proposal was voted in favour and it was agreed that a paragraph should be written into the constitution to reflect this.

b. Statement on role integrity: It was suggested that committee members should be sign a statement on role integrity and again this was voted for in favour. Georgina Miller volunteered to write this up.

4) Treasurer Role: As there were no applications for the role of Treasurer, Liv Phlip and Tim Money volunteered to stand in. Tim will contact Martyn Jones and find out what the state of accounts is.
It was suggested that the Treasurer give regular updates to the rest of committee on the state of accounts; an outline of what this might be is to be drawn up.

5) Membership Officer: See Membership Report
Also to note, Rebecca requested that the note that members get a log book on the website be removed and it was agreed by attendees to do so:

6) E-media Officer:
a. Sponsor logos: These are now clearly displayed on the BFA website on top right hand corner as well as at the bottom of the home page. The sponsor logos directly link to the sponsor’s website.
b. Membership E-card: We have now moved away from plastic cards completely and are using e-cards, which have the added benefit of being more eco-friendly. This year there was a photo competition for members and the winning image is to be featured on the 2016 e-card.
c. Website: Google thinks website has been hacked. This needs to be sorted. Redesign might help. At present we have three options for updating the BFA website:
i. Martyn Jones has a website ready but needs to pass on instructions;
ii. Bart Lubecki has made a suggestion for a completely new website; and
iii. We have received a third option from a potential volunteer

7) Sponsorship Officer: The sponsors for the 2015 teams were Divesangha, Elios Sub, Bounce Balls and Beet-it (Pool Team only). Divesangha, Elios and Bounce Balls have expressed an interest in continuing to sponsor the team in 2016. Beci has agreed to continue her dialogue with these sponsors. Jay has been in contact with other potential sponsors.

8) Press Officer: See Press Report

9) Competitions Officer: See Competitions Report
Bart will send a reminder of the BFA Competition Grants.

10) Safety Officer: As well as offering advice to the media, Liv has been liaising with other emerging freediving agencies that have sought her out for guidance and her expertise. New AIDA material on courses will be available shortly, which is up-to-date and user-friendly. There are a number of projects Liv would like to develop for 2016 and a request was made for a training bursary fund to encourage people to go on courses – this was agreed in principal although a detailed proposal would need to be submitted and then voted on by committee.
The Affiliate Clubs Safety Agreement needs updating. It was reiterated that all affiliate clubs must sign the Safety Agreement in order to be listed on the BFA website. Georgina and Liv to look at updating and sending it out to all clubs to resign.

11) Clubs Officer: See Clubs Report
It was proposed that non-AIDA freediving agencies be allowed to become an affiliate club and listed on the BFA website. After some discussion, it was agreed that as long as the other freediving agency club agreed to sign the (updated) Affiliate Clubs Safety Agreement, then they would be allowed to become an affiliate club and be listed.

12) Team Selection for 2016 World Championships: The BFA aim to send the maximum number of athletes possible to each World Championships. Team members are chosen based on AIDA Ranked performance from 18 months prior to cut off date (with a cut off date 3 months before entry deadline).
a. AIDA Individual Pool World Championships will be hosted by the Finnish Diver’s Federation in Turku, Finland.
i. Dates: 25 June to 4 July 2016
ii. BFA Deadline for applications: 15 March 2016
iii. Registration Deadline: 30/04/16
iv. Maximum number of athletes: 4 men & 4 women, Coach and Team Captain
v. Official website: http://aidafinland.org/

b. AIDA Team World Championships will be hosted by Freedive Club Greece in Kalamata, Greece.
i. Dates: 16 – 25 September 2016
ii. BFA Deadline for applications: 16 May 2016
iii. Registration Deadline: 31 May 2016
iv. Maximum number of athletes: 3 men + a reserve, 3 women + a reserve, Coach and Team Captain.
v. Official website: TBC
An announcement of both events and call for applicants is to be written up and published on the BFA website and Social Media.

13) Membership Fees 2016: It was agreed there would be no change to Membership Fee for 2016. However, it was proposed and unanimously and enthusiastically agreed, subject to checking the accounts for 2015, that £2 per individual membership fee be donated to AIDA International for their incredible work on research into safety.

14) Announcement of 2015 UK Champions: Congratulations to Liv Philip & Tim Money. Results are calculated according to AIDA ranked points from November 2014 – November 2015 (across all 6 competitive disciplines using the website Apnearanking.se). A press release is to be written by Rebecca Coales for the BFA website, Press Contacts and Social Media.

British Freediving needs you! We are looking for a Treasurer, Press, Secretary and Clubs Officer.

BFA AGM

British free diving needs you! We are looking for a Treasurer, Press, Secretary and Clubs Officer..

The committee would like to say thank you to Beci Ryan, Martin jones and Georgina Miller for their time as press, treasurer and clubs officer (and joint secretary) over the last years. We are sad to see them leave and wish them all the best with their diving in the future. Your help will be missed!

It’s that time of year again. This year’s British Freediving Association Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on Saturday the 5th December at 6pm where we will all gather on line. You are all very welcome to come to the AGM, listen, take part and give your views. If you would like to attend, please send an email to secretary@britishfreediving.org, add We_are_the_BFA as a friend on skype and we will call you at the start of the meeting

The AGM is your chance to find out what the British Freediving Association has been up to over the past year and express your views on what it should be doing in the year ahead. Most importantly, it is your chance to stand for a Committee position and get involved!

We need to fill quite a few gaps in the BFA Committee this year and really hope you will use this chance to give something back to the sport you love. Without the BFA, we may not be able to compete at International level or organise recognised competitions, will struggle with teaching insurance and won’t get our records recognised properly. If the Committee positions are not filled, then there is a good chance the BFA won’t be able to continue – so please consider whether you might be able to give an hour or so a week to give something back. To continue, according to our Constitution, we must appoint at least a Chair, Membership Secretary, Training & Safety Officer and a Treasurer. There are lots of other roles to fill! At the moment we desperately need a press officer, clubs officer, and secretary,e- media and treasurer, there are others standing for the other roles but if you are interested do stand up to be counted! The Committee posts can all be managed wherever you live, as long as you have internet and email access a couple of times a week. Whilst it would be helpful, to us and to you, you do not need to attend the AGM to stand for a position.

The BFA Committee positions are:

Chair – Currently Adam Drzazga, who will stand again. The Chair manages the organisation of the Committee in terms of the AGM, leads discussions on new developments for the organisation, keeps a bit of an eye to make sure all the Committee members are fulfilling their post’s requirements and generally keeps email and other discussions under control. The Chair sometimes also ends up covering roles in the short-term when vacancies arise and acting as a point of contact for other Committee members when they are on leave.
Clubs – Currently Georgina Miller, who will step down. The Clubs Officer manages the recognition of BFA affiliated clubs, answers questions from club organisers and members, supports the clubs in developing their activities and advises on how to set up new clubs.
Competitions – Currently Bart Lubeki, who will stand again. The Competitions Officer supports anyone in the UK organising AIDA-ranked competitions, oversees the competition from the BFA’s point of view and may work with the E Media and Press Officer to help promote the competition. If organisers do not come forward, the Competitions Officer may be required to proactively seek out and encourage members to organise competitions.
E Media – Currently Tim Money, who will stand again .The E Media Officer runs the BFA website and e-communications. This is the face of British freediving!
Membership – Currently Rebecca Coales who will be standing again. The Membership Officer keeps track of who the current members are, processes membership applications, sends out membership e-cards and works with the Sponsorship Officer on building member benefits. Some IT knowledge is a help in this role.
Press Officer – Currently Beci Ryan, who will be stepping down. The Press Officer liaises with the media (mostly the UK dive press and dive websites) to publicise records, competitions and other Freediving stories and acts as a point of contact for media with queries about freediving. A new appointee will be provided with lists of contacts but it would be helpful if they had some previous PR or writing experience. The Press Officer needs to work closely with the E Media Officer and the Sponsorship Officer, to ensure all stories are covered on the website and that Sponsors get sufficient coverage in return for their support. They also manage the face book page- Phew!
Records and AIDA Liaison Officer – Currently David Tranfield, who will be standing again. This position is responsible for liaising with the AIDA International Board and AIDA Judge list, sending information on any AIDA International Level votes (about 10 a year) out to the Committee, monitoring responses and sending back our reply. This post also handles the management and recognition process for UK records, based on the UK record rules you can download from the BFA website, and liaises with the Press and E Media Officers to make sure the records are publicised. It would be helpful if the person appointed to this post were an AIDA Judge.
Secretary – currently care taken by Georgina Miller and beci Ryan. The Secretary manages communications with members, takes minutes at the AGM and provides secretarial support to the other Committee members as required.
Sponsorship – currently Jay Cluskey, who will be standing again. The Sponsorship Officer manages our relationships with sponsors and builds new sponsorship agreements. Sponsorship normally relates to the UK Team but it would be great to achieve more general sponsorship for freediving in the UK.
Training & Safety – currently Liv Philip, who will be standing again. This post oversees freedive training within the UK, working with the AIDA Education Committee to advise instructors on matters of training. It also has a wider remit, usually working with the Clubs Officer and sometimes with the Competitions Officers, to advise on matters of safety and is responsible for keeping the Open Water and Confined Water BFA safety advice sheets up to do date. The Training and Safety Officer needs to be a qualified freedive instructor.
Treasurer – currently Martyn Jones, who will step down.The Treasurer produces the annual BFA accounts for the AGM, keeps an eye on our finances, makes a final decision with the Chair on major expenditures, runs the BFA bank account and PayPal account. The treasurer ideally would have experience of keeping accounts, or accounting qualifications.

ALL the Committee members are actively involved in voting on AIDA International matters, discussing and putting forward the UK’s views on the development of the sport through AIDA, selection and support of the UK Team at AIDA International competitions and supporting the BFA in various ways in its purpose of “promoting freediving recreationally and competitively, in safe environments”.

Voting Process – In line with the BFA Constitution, anyone who wishes to stand (or re-stand) for a post, should send an email submission, stating the post or posts for which they would like to be considered along with a short CV or manifesto explaining why they think they would be suitable. This should be sent in by the 15th November to committee@britishfreediving.org. Where more than one person stands for a post, it will go to a majority vote of BFA members. Any vote will be sent to all BFA Members by the 21st November. You have two weeks to vote and the results will be announced at the AGM on the 5th December. Thanks again for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

British Freediving committee

BFA AGM 8 November 2014

BFA AGM 2014 bubble rings

The annual AGM was was hosted by Salt Free (http://www.saltfree.biz) at the NDAC (www.ndac.co.uk) on Saturday 8th November and we had a great turn out! Despite the chilly weather some of us even went for a dip before the meeting. It was a beautiful day for a dive and we were treated to 20m visibility. There was even time for a bit of bubble ring blowing to end the session before getting down to the serious business of the meeting. It’s been a great year for British freediving, we can’t mention everything, but to give you an idea we’ve seen BFA members breaking national records, winning international competitions, taking and being the subjects of beautiful underwater photography, there was a short film featured by Redbull and spreads on freediving in the broadsheets. We can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year, but its that time when the committee often changes and so we would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to Charlotte Sundberg, our membership officer and welcome in her place Rebecca Coales. Thank you all for your continued support of the BFA and the committee; we hope we may continue to be of service to you and our aim is still the same, to help freediving flourish and grow.

From all of us at the BFA, we wish you a Merry Christmas and lots of exciting, wonderful and safe dives for 2015!

Minutes from the Meeting

Location: Salt Free divers, NDAC

Apologies: Adam, Charlotte, David, Liv, Martyn

Present, George, Beci, Bart, Tim, Rebecca, Luke, Jay and Daan

2013/14 Committee
Chair – Adam Dzraga
Clubs Officer – George Miller
Competitions Officer – Bart Lubecki
E Media Officer – Tim Money
Membership Secretary – charlotte sundberg
Press Officer – Beci Ryan
Records & AIDA Liaison Officer – David Tranfield
Secretary – care taken by Georgina Miller
Sponsorship Officer – Jay Cluskey
Training & Safety Officer – Liv Philip
Treasurer – care taken by Martyn Jones

1) Thanks to Charlotte for her time on the committee and warm welcome to new committee member Rebecca Coales who is the new Membership Officer.

2) Apologies were received.

3) Minutes of last meeting were reviewed with no comments or objections.

4) Notification of Committee Members for 2014/15 were announced:

2014/15 Committee
Chair – Adam Dzraga
Clubs Officer – George Miller
Competitions Officer – Bart Lubecki
E Media Officer – Tim Money
Membership Secretary – Rebecca Coales
Press Officer – Beci Ryan
Records & AIDA Liaison Officer – David Tranfield
Secretary – care taken by Georgina Miller and Beci Ryan
Sponsorship Officer – Jay Cluskey
Training & Safety Officer – Liv Philip
Treasurer – care taken by Martyn jones

5) Committee reports, condensed versions were read out.

6) Announcement of Fees – it was unanimously agreed that there would be no change to Membership Fee for 2015.

7) Team Selection for 2015 – AIDA Individual Pool World Championships will be in Belgrade in June. It was proposed that we aim to send maximum number of athletes possible to this event (top three by AIDA ranking plus reserves, captain and coach). Maximum number of athletes is to be confirmed. The individual team members will be chosen based on AIDA Ranked performance from 18 months prior to cut off date. Cut off date 3 months before entry deadline. The Depth World Championships are to be held in Cyprus. Team selection will be the same as for the Pool World Championships.

8) Announcement of UK Champions – Congratulations to Mike Board and Liv Philip. Results gathered by Georgina Miller according to AIDA ranked points (Nov 2013 – Nov 2014)

ChairIt was suggested that the Chairman and Secretary collaborate more closely to ensure that emails and responses are organised and seen through to an end point. It was agreed that the Chairman organise quarterly meetings along with a To Do list for each role.

Membership

To get an operating e-membership system up and running with up to date database to allow membership communication via mail chimp to members from all roles.
Build Membership, invest a budget amount for marketing, i.e. advert in Dive Magazines, a stand at the dive show. A suggestion was made to attend a Triathlon show.
What can we offer our members? It was agreed that a quarterly newsletter go out to members and possibility of a members get together.

Clubs

How to build Clubs and members?
Ways in which to include, or not include, other freediving agencies or organisations on the BFA listings of affiliate clubs was discussed. At the moment we list SSI Clubs only if they have AIDA instructors and are teaching AIDA courses. Should we also include other freediving clubs who do not teach AIDA courses on our affiliate clubs in our listings? The topic was discussed and it was suggested that the Club’s Officer build a proposal to be discussed at a later date.
How can we encourage Clubs to recommend BFA membership to their club members, should this be mandatory? It was agreed that it should not be mandatory but we should invite organisers to encourage their members to join by sending information out to them of promotional offers and / or flyers to hand out (maybe for inclusion as part of a welcome pack if already done so by the club).

Sponsorship

Report was given on this year’s sponsors: Elios, Prawno, Beet-it and Bounce Balls.
Ideas for next year’s National and World Championship sponsors were discussed. It was suggested and agreed that the Sponsorship Officer along with the Press Officer should start targeting potential sponsors for 2015.
It was requested that the following be voted upon:
Should the BFA should cover shortfall in sponsorship – i.e. currently, if there are not enough suits provided for all athletes, the team splits the cost between them to ensure all the team are provided for.
Decision: It was voted that the BFA would not cover the shortfall
Should the BFA cover the cost of any extra bags or weight costs incurred by athlete/s to carry kit to an event?
Decision: It was voted that the BFA should in principal cover the costs of transporting goods but covering the shortfall should be done on a case-by-case basis.
Should the BFA pay for a Media package if offered at a World Championship event, to be used by BFA for sponsors and given to athletes for their use, and our promotional material.
Decision: It was voted that the BFA would vote upon this on a case-by-case basis.

Press

It was suggested that we should get sponsorship offers out to members. This could go out with renewals for membership? Offers could also be shared on the Face Book page and website.
A vote was requested on the BFA covering the costs of dive shows.
Decision: Yes but on a case-by-case basis but only with enough information and plenty of time to organise. It was also stipulated that the data base of personal information and contact details go back to the BFA ONLY and not to individual clubs. It was proposed that the BFA pay for one dive shoe and one tri show.
The possibility of a media page for the website was suggested.

Training and Safety: A report was read out at the meeting.

Treasurer: Statement was emailed to committee members on-line. It was decided that rather than set budgets in advance, decisions on finances would be made on a case-by-case basis of proposals. It was agreed that quarterly statements would be very useful to help consider spending. Report on monies spent.

Competitions

The first competition grant was awarded to Apnea Revolution, a London based club. This was their first competition. The first competition grant generated new membership to cover the cost of the grant. The grant and competition were deemed to have been a success.
Grant maximum amounts were agreed:
Pool Competition Grant (maximum £250 Grant)
Depth Competition Grant (maximum £400 Grant)
National Championships Grant (Pool or Depth, maximum £250 Grant each)

AOB:
The possibility of organising an outdoor happening in the summer for freedivers to meet, take part in workshops and take part in games. Bart and Rebecca agreed to have a look into this and report back to the committee.It was proposed and agreed to have a meeting every quarter via Skype to ensure ideas and projects run smoothly and are progressed efficiently.

BFA 2014 Annual General Meeting

The committee would like to say thank you to David Tranfield for his time as records officer over the last years. We are sad to see him leave and wish him all the best with his diving in the future. Also we should say another big thank you to Charlotte Sundberg, who will be stepping down as membership Officer. Your help will be missed!

It’s that time of year again. This year’s British Freediving Association Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place on Saturday the 8th You are all very welcome to come to the AGM, listen, take part and give your views. We will meet first for a dive session at 1100 am and the AGM will be after that. So please come along have some fun! Diving is open to anyone qualified to AIDA 2 Star or equivalent. Please sign up at http://www.saltfree.biz/8novag letting us know what kind of maximum depth you’d be diving to (max on the day is 50m). Please note there will be a £7.50 entry fee to NDAC on the gate and £5 payable to Saltfree on the day. You will need to have your own kit, including a lanyard. If you need to hire anything, please contact sam@saltfreedivers.com who may be able to help out.

The AGM is your chance to find out what the British Freediving Association has been up to over the past year and express your views on what it should be doing in the year ahead. Most importantly, it is your chance to stand for a Committee position and get involved!

We need to fill quite a few gaps in the BFA Committee this year and really hope you will use this chance to give something back to the sport you love. Without the BFA, we may not be able to compete at International level or organise recognised competitions, will struggle with teaching insurance and won’t get our records recognised properly. If the Committee positions are not filled, then there is a good chance the BFA won’t be able to continue – so please consider whether you might be able to give an hour or so a week to give something back. To continue, according to our Constitution, we must appoint at least a Chair, Membership Secretary, Training & Safety Officer and a Treasurer. There are lots of other roles to fill! At the moment we desperately need a membership officer, records officer, treasurer and secretary, there are others standing for the other roles but if you are interested do stand up to be counted! The Committee posts can all be managed wherever you live, as long as you have internet and email access a couple of times a week. Whilst it would be helpful, to us and to you, you do not need to attend the AGM to stand for a position.

The BFA Committee positions are:

Chair – Currently Adam Drzazga, who will stand again. The Chair manages the organisation of the Committee in terms of the AGM, leads discussions on new developments for the organisation, keeps a bit of an eye to make sure all the Committee members are fulfilling their post’s requirements and generally keeps email and other discussions under control. The Chair sometimes also ends up covering roles in the short-term when vacancies arise and acting as a point of contact for other Committee members when they are on leave.

Clubs – Currently Georgina Miller, who will stand again. The Clubs Officer manages the recognition of BFA affiliated clubs, answers questions from club organisers and members, supports the clubs in developing their activities and advises on how to set up new clubs.

Competitions – Currently Bart Lubeki, who will stand again. The Competitions Officer supports anyone in the UK organising AIDA-ranked competitions, oversees the competition from the BFA’s point of view and may work with the E Media and Press Officer to help promote the competition. If organisers do not come forward, the Competitions Officer may be required to proactively seek out and encourage members to organise competitions.

E Media – Currently Tim Money, who will be standing again .The E Media Officer runs the BFA website and e-communications. This is the face of British freediving!

Membership – Currently Charlotte Sundberg who will be stepping down. The Membership Officer keeps track of who the current members are, processes membership applications, sends out membership e-cards and works with the Sponsorship Officer on building member benefits. Some IT knowledge is a help in this role.

Press Officer – Currently Becky Ryan, who will be standing again. The Press Officer liaises with the media (mostly the UK dive press and dive websites) to publicise records, competitions and other freediving stories and acts as a point of contact for media with queries about freediving. A new appointee will be provided with lists of contacts but it would be helpful if they had some previous PR or writing experience. The Press Officer needs to work closely with the E Media Officer and the Sponsorship Officer, to ensure all stories are covered on the website and that Sponsors get sufficient coverage in return for their support. They also manage the face book page- Phew!

Records and AIDA Liaison Officer – Currently David Tranfield, who will be stepping down. This position is responsible for liaising with the AIDA International Board and AIDA Judge list, sending information on any AIDA International Level votes (about 10 a year) out to the Committee, monitoring responses and sending back our reply. This post also handles the management and recognition process for UK records, based on the UK record rules you can download from the BFA website, and liaises with the Press and E Media Officers to make sure the records are publicised. It would be helpful if the person appointed to this post were an AIDA Judge.

Secretary – currently care taken by Georgina Miller. The Secretary manages communications with members, takes minutes at the AGM and provides secretarial support to the other Committee members as required.

Sponsorship – currently Jay Cluskey, who will be standing again. The Sponsorship Officer manages our relationships with sponsors and builds new sponsorship agreements. Sponsorship normally relates to the UK Team but it would be great to achieve more general sponsorship for freediving in the UK.

Training & Safety – currently Liv Philip, who will be standing again. This post oversees freedive training within the UK, working with the AIDA Education Committee to advise instructors on matters of training. It also has a wider remit, usually working with the Clubs Officer and sometimes with the Competitions Officers, to advise on matters of safety and is responsible for keeping the Open Water and Confined Water BFA safety advice sheets up to do date. The Training and Safety Officer needs to be a qualified freedive instructor.

Treasurer – currently Martyn Jones, who will step down if a replacement can be found. The Treasurer produces the annual BFA accounts for the AGM, keeps an eye on our finances, makes a final decision with the Chair on major expenditures, runs the BFA bank account and PayPal account. The treasurer ideally would have experience of keeping accounts, or accounting qualifications.

ALL the Committee members are actively involved in voting on AIDA International matters, discussing and putting forward the UK’s views on the development of the sport through AIDA, selection and support of the UK Team at AIDA International competitions and supporting the BFA in various ways in its purpose of “promoting freediving recreationally and competitively, in safe environments”.

Voting Process – In line with the BFA Constitution, anyone who wishes to stand (or re-stand) for a post, should send an email submission, stating the post or posts for which they would like to be considered along with a short CV or manifesto explaining why they think they would be suitable. This should be sent in by the 18th committee@britishfreediving.org. Where more than one person stands for a post, it will go to a majority vote of BFA members. Any vote will be sent to all BFA Members by the 25th October. You have two weeks to vote and the results will be announced at the AGM on the 8th November.

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

British freediving committee

BFA AGM 15 December 2013

The annual AGM was held via Skype in Sunday 15 December. It was great to have some more BFA members take part. So, it’s the end of another year and it is not quite all change, but the BFA are saying goodbye to some key committee members. We would like to say a huge thank you to Steve Millard, Martyn Jones, Gary McGrath & Ed Wardel. Without the hard work and support all our committee members give, the BFA could not function and it’s been a successful year thanks to team work. We would like to say an extra big thank you to Martyn Jones who as E-media officer has given so many years service to the committee and always with such support, warmth, enthusiasm and energy. And in saying goodbye, we welcome Adam Drzazga, Bart Lubecki, Tim Money and Charlotte Sundburg.

From all of us at the BFA, may we wish you a very Merry Christmas & may 2014 be full of beautiful blue dives!

Notes:

Agenda

Apologies

Dave Tranfield, Ed Wardle, Martyn Jones, Jay Cluskey, Gary Lowe,

Present, George, Beci Ryan, Gary, Steve , Adam, Tim, Benedicte

20012/13 Committee

Chair: Steve Millard
Clubs Officer: Georgina Miller
Competitions Officer: Ed Wardle
E Media Officer: Martyn Jones
Membership Secretary: gary lowe
Press Officer: beci ryan
Records & AIDA Liaison Officer: David tranfield
Secretary: ary mcGrath
Sponsorship Officer: Jay Cluskey
Training & Safety Officer: Liv Philip
Treasurer: Gareth Cantin care taken by martyn Jones

1) Thanks to Steve, gary lowe, gary mcgrath, ed, and gareth for their time on the committee and warm welcome to all the new committee members, Adam as chair, Bart as competitions, tim as emedia, and charlotte as membership.

2) Apologies

3) Minutes of last meeting : any objections? If not, continue

4) Notification of Committee Members for 2012/13

Chair: Adam Dzraga
Clubs Officer: George Miller
Competitions Officer: Bart Lubecki
E Media Officer: Tim Money
Membership Secretary: Charlotte Lundberg
Press Officer: Beci Ryan
Records & AIDA Liaison Officer: David Tranfield
Secretary: care taken by Georgina miller
Sponsorship Officer: Jay Cluskey
Training & Safety Officer: Liv Philip
Treasurer: caretaken by Martyn jones

5) Statement of Income and Expenditure

6) Proposal that accounts should have independent report

7) Committee reports : Full reports will be online.

8) Constitutional Changes :to have 3 signatories for finances from committee as treasurer, chair and membership. Agreed.

9) Rule Changes : none

10) Announcement of Fees : no change to Membership Fee for 2013

11) Team Selection for 2013 :

AIDA Individual depth World Championships will be in Sardinia in September 2014. Propose: aim to send maximum number of athletes possible to this event (top three by AIDA ranking plus reserves, captain and coach),choose the team based on AIDA Ranked performance in 18 months prior to cut off date. Cut off date 3 months before entry deadline.

To try to run ranked competitions in all disciplines in the UK in time for the selection date .

Teams selected at the event according to ranked points with reserves.

12) Announcement of UK Champions :Congratulations to Tim Money and Liv Philip. Results gathered by Georgina Miller according to AIDA ranked points.

13) Key mission for 2012/13 : get up to 300 members so we can aim for more recognition from UK Sport. By paying for a stand at the dive show open to all clubIdeas welcome on how to grow membership, and membership lists becoming available to committee members to use for their roles..

14) AOBTo ask committee members to create handover packs for next generation committee.To create a collaborative workspace and file sharing space for committee.

BFA AGM December 2012

The committee would like to say thank you to Sara Campbell for her time as press officer over the last two years. We are sad to see her leave and wish her all the best with her diving in the future. Also we should say another big thank you to Lia Tseki who is stepping down as membership officer. Your help will be missed!

It’s that time of year again. This year’s British Freediving Association Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place at Upstairs bier bar, lark lane ,Liverpool L 18 at 12pm. You are all very welcome to come to the AGM, listen, take part and give your views. If you can not make it in person, you are very welcome to join in via skype. We have an account: We_are_the_BFA, password is SteveZissou

The AGM is your chance to find out what the British Freediving Association has been up to over the past year and express your views on what it should be doing in the year ahead. Most importantly, it is your chance to stand for a Committee position and get involved!

We need to fill a few gaps in the BFA Committee this year and really hope you will use this chance to give something back to the sport you love. Without the BFA, we may not be able to compete at International or organise recognised competitions, will struggle with teaching insurance and won’t get our records recognised properly. If the Committee positions are not filled, then there is a good chance the BFA won’t be able to continue – so please consider whether you might be able to give an hour or so a week to give something back. To continue, according to our Constitution, we must appoint at least a Chair, Membership Secretary, Training & Safety Officer and a Treasurer. At the moment chair and training have someone who definitely wishes to stand for election, however membership role needs to be filled! It is currently be care taken by Liv Philip.

The Committee posts can all be managed wherever you live, as long as you have internet and email access a couple of times a week. Whilst it would be helpful, to us and to you, you do not need to attend the AGM to stand for a position.

The BFA Committee positions are:

Chair – Currently Brian Crossland, who will stand again. The Chair manages the organisation of the Committee in terms of the AGM, leads discussions on new developments for the organisation, keeps a bit of an eye to make sure all the Committee members are fulfilling their post’s requirements and generally keeps email and other discussions under control. The Chair sometimes also ends up covering roles in the short-term when vacancies arise and acting as a point of contact for other Committee members when they are on leave.

Clubs – Currently Georgina Miller, who will stand again. The Clubs Officer manages the recognition of BFA affiliated clubs, answers questions from club organisers and members, supports the clubs in developing their activities and advises on how to set up new clubs.

Competitions – Currently Ed Wardle, who will be standing again. The Competitions Officer supports anyone in the UK organising AIDA-ranked competitions, oversees the competition from the BFA’s point of view and may work with the E Media and Press Officer to help promote the competition. If organisers do not come forward, the Competitions Officer may be required to proactively seek out and encourage members to organise competitions.

E Media – Currently Martyn Jones, who will be standing again. The E Media Officer runs the BFA website and e-communications. Some technical ability is required for this post.

Membership – Currently care taken by Liv Philip after Lia tseki stepped down. The Membership Officer keeps track of who the current members are, processes membership applications, sends out membership packs and works with the Sponsorship Officer on building member benefits. Some technical ability required for this post.

Press Officer – Currently Sara Campbell, who will be stepping down. The Press Officer liaises with the media (mostly the UK dive press and dive websites) to publicise records, competitions and other freediving stories and acts as a point of contact for media with queries about freediving. A new appointee will be provided with lists of contacts but it would be helpful if they had some previous PR or writing experience. The Press Officer needs to work closely with the E Media Officer and the Sponsorship Officer, to ensure all stories are covered on the website and that Sponsors get sufficient coverage in return for their support.

Records and AIDA Liaison Officer – David Tranfield who will stand again. This position is responsible for liaising with the AIDA International Board and AIDA Judge list, sending information on any AIDA International Level votes (about 10 a year) out to the Committee, monitoring responses and sending back our reply. This post also handles the management and recognition process for UK records, based on the UK record rules you can download from the BFA website, and liaises with the Press and E Media Officers to make sure the records are publicised. It would be helpful if the person appointed to this post were an AIDA Judge.

Secretary – currently Gary Mac Grath, who will be stand again. The Secretary manages the BFA E-newsletter and other communications with members, takes minutes at the AGM and provides secretarial support to the other Committee members as required.

Sponsorship – currently Jay Cluskey, who will be standing again. The Sponsorship Officer manages our relationships with sponsors and builds new sponsorship agreements. Sponsorship normally relates to the UK Team but it would be great to achieve more general sponsorship for freediving in the UK.

Training & Safety – currently Liv Philip, who will be standing again. This post oversees freedive training within the UK, working with the AIDA Education Committee to advise instructors on matters of training. It also has a wider remit, usually working with the Clubs Officer and sometimes with the Competitions Officers, to advise on matters of safety and is responsible for keeping the Open Water and Confined Water BFA safety advice sheets up to do date. The Training and Safety Officer needs to be a qualified freedive instructor.

Treasurer – currently Gareth Cantin, who will be standing again. The Treasurer produces the annual BFA accounts for the AGM, keeps an eye on our finances, makes a final decision with the Chair on major expenditures, runs the BFA bank account and PayPal account.

ALL the Committee members are actively involved in voting on AIDA International matters, discussing and putting forward the UK’s views on the development of the sport through AIDA, selection and support of the UK Team at AIDA International competitions and supporting the BFA in various ways in its purpose of “promoting freediving recreationally and competitively, in safe environments”.

Voting Process – In line with the BFA Constitution, anyone who wishes to stand (or re-stand) for a post, should send an email submission, stating the post or posts for which they would like to be considered along with a short CV or manifesto explaining why they think they would be suitable. This should be sent in by the 17th November to committee@britishfreediving.org. Where more than one person stands for a post, that post will go to a majority vote of BFA members. Any vote will be sent to all BFA Members by 24th November. You have two weeks to vote and the results will be announced at the AGM on the 9th December.

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

BFA AGM Announced – Sunday 14th November

It’s that time of year again. This year’s British Freediving Association Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place at the National Diving and Activity Centre, Chepstow (www.ndac.co.uk for directions) from 1pm until about 4pm on Sunday 14 November. You are all very welcome to come to the AGM, listen, take part, give your views and if you wish, to join us for a freedive in the morning.

The AGM is your chance to find out what the British Freediving Association has been up to over the past year and express your views on what it should be doing in the year ahead. Most importantly, it is your chance to stand for a Committee position and get involved!

We need to fill quite a few gaps in the BFA Committee this year and really hope you will use this chance to give something back to the sport you love. Without the BFA, we may not be able to compete at International or organise recognised competitions, will struggle with teaching insurance and won’t get our records recognised properly. If the Committee positions are not filled, then there is a good chance the BFA won’t be able to continue – so please consider whether you might be able to give an hour or so a week to give something back. To continue, according to our Constitution, we must appoint at least a Chair, Membership Secretary, Training & Safety Officer and a Treasurer. At the moment, only one of these posts has someone who definitely wishes to stand for election.

The Committee posts can all be managed wherever you live, as long as you have internet and email access a couple of times a week. Whilst it would be helpful, to us and to you, you do not need to attend the AGM to stand for a position.

British Freediving Association AGM – Sunday 15th November 2009

This years BFA Annual General Meeting is being held at the Kingston & Elmbridge BSAC clubhouse in Tolworth, Surrey, on Sunday 15th November between 14.30 – 17.00hrs.

The Agenda will be published two weeks before the AGM and will be available on this website. If you wish to add items for discussion to the Agenda, please send a brief description of the topic via email to Emedia by Sunday 1st November 2009.

There are ample parking spaces for everyone. The bar will be serving tea, coffee and light refreshments. Warm clothing is usually advised as November can be frosty and the room does not heat up in the time we have to set up.