Director Appointments

Further to our announcement last week of the appointment of Peter Storr to the Board of British Dressage, we have been contacted by a number of members asking for clarification on how the election process for Directors is going to be managed this year.

While the current constitution has no provision for making interim appointments in the event of casual vacancies outside of an AGM or EGM, the Board has endeavoured to provide continuity within each technical area where possible, to ensure that we can achieve our objectives and make the necessary progress for the sport in 2018.

However, the Board has agreed that while we do have interim measures in place to oversee each aspect of the organisation this year, all four Director portfolios should still be put up for election, with appointments then ratified as normal at the AGM in September.

A formal notice will appear in the British Dressage magazine at the end of February and online, with members invited to put forward nominations for the following positions:

• Para Director
• Finance Director
• Judges Director
• Business Development Director (formerly the Marketing Director)

Peter Storr will continue as a co-opted Director on an interim basis, responsible for Judges, and may put himself forward for election in the permanent Judges Director position. This will enable him to potentially serve up to two terms on the Board, rather than just one term of four years as a co-opted Director.

Julie Frizzell will continue as a co-opted Director on an interim basis, responsible for Para Dressage, and may put herself forward for election in the permanent Para Director position as she only served one term of three years as Marketing Director. The marketing portfolio now falls under the broader remit of Business Development Director and this role is currently vacant. We will also be advertising for volunteers to join our new Business Development Committee in due course. In the meantime, Julie will continue to support the marketing and communications team internally, as well as chairing magazine meetings.

Maggie Copus is no longer eligible to serve as a Director, having already completed two terms of three years as Finance Director prior to September 2017. However, Maggie has kindly agreed to support the Board in an advisory capacity to support our financial administration until a new Director, responsible for finance, has been identified.

The Board is therefore currently constituted as follows:

• Chairman – Penny Pollard
• Sport Operations Director (formerly Rules & Fixtures Director) – Tamsyn Cowie
• International Director – David Trott
• Training Director – Paul Hayler
• BD Youth Director (formerly BYRDS Director) – Claire Moir
• Co-opted Director, responsible for Judges – Peter Storr
• Co-opted Director, responsible for Para – Julie Frizzell
• Business Development Director (formerly Marketing Director) – vacant
• Finance Director – vacant

Maggie Copus will be invited to attend Board Meetings in an advisory capacity, until a Director responsible for finance is appointed, but with no voting rights. Other than these changes, the Board will continue to operate in the same way until the four Director posts above are formally elected by the membership later this year.

The Articles of Association will be updated in due course to allow for the provision of interim appointments for casual Director vacancies, with special resolutions put forward for members to vote at the AGM in September. Details will be published in advance on the BD website and the British Dressage magazine.