NCSMBA Safeguarding Officer Elaine Willies represented the NCSMBA at the ESMBA AGM as a Norfolk Delegate and provided the following information for our website.
After the Chairman, Barry Hedges, made an opening speech the minutes of the 2024 AGM were passed and there was no matters arising. All Officer reports were accepted by the meeting. All the officers were voted in again en block but the Umpires Director explained that although he was standing down he wouldn’t see the ESMBA left without an Umpires Director so would be happy to do the admin with support from some of the more experienced umpires. The other vacant positions of President and Vice Chairman were left unfilled as there were no nominations submitted prior to the meeting or from the floor. The meeting recommended a 10% increase in the management fees. The Safeguarding report mentioned that every club should have a safeguarding officer in place for the 2027-2028 season. The I.C.C Secretary Steve Bailey stated that the ESMBA diary for 2025-26 should be confirmed in the next two weeks. It was then agreed that Membership fees would be increased by 50p. Next years ESMBA AGM will be on Saturday 25th July 2026.
OPEN FORUM
The BDA gave a presentation on what they can do to help Short Mat bowls and the benefits they can offer to the sport on a whole. They have taken six areas as pilots to try and help Short Mat bowling to become more popular and Norfolk, as previously reported, are one of the areas chosen.
The BDA website includes further information on workshops, learning weeks, dates and times. There are now some instructions cards to available to help schools PE teachers with the delivery of Short Mat Bowls with more information to follow. One of the ideas is to maybe run workshops for getting your club online. Weeks of learning are open to all ESMBA registered members and the next ones are between the 4th - 8th August 2025. They can be checked out on the BDA website for anyone interested. You can then register your interest and they are conducted online. There was a safeguarding Update overall and a discussion took place on how to recruit and find new safeguarding officers. Introduction to safeguarding in bowls takes 15 minutes and is available on the BDA website. Other matters included a presentation on EDI Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity and a presentation on the new insurance scheme with Marsh Insurance. There was also discussion on a North Yorkshire query with regards to Qualification for ESMBA National Places which was not received in time to discuss under proposals.