Thank you Tristan Parris, Anthony Crutchett and Alex Savin

CHANGES

As many of you will be aware, President Tristan Parris and  Deputy President Anthony Crutchett stepped down from the Board of England Fencing at the AGM on 20th November. Alex Savin decided not to stand for re-election as a director.

Firstly, apologies for the long silence.

As incoming President,  I would like to thank all three for their hard work and what they have achieved. Much of the work has gone on quietly behind the scenes while they have also been coping with full time jobs. Of course I want to thank the rest of the board as well.

Particularly amazing was the Commonwealth Fencing Championships which included Para and also mixed events for the first time. All age groups were fenced at the same tournament in very high temperatures and with a huge number of entries. Some 1600 in one tournament! Hundreds of volunteers made it happen and there were large and raucous bodies of supporters throughout.

Alex has thankfully agreed to help with at least the next England Youth Championships.

Caryl Oliver has also joined the Board and is now Deputy President. Once we have the biographies up on the site you will see that Caryl brings a wealth of experience as well as energy to England Fencing.

UPDATES

Another initiative put in place by Tristan and Anthony has been to modernise the look and feel of England Fencing and to make it more attractive to newcomers. You will have seen the new branding, which was not hugely expensive,  in the kit worn by our fencers at the Commonwealths. This will gradually – or possibly very quickly – now make its way onto the website and our social media pages. These will also be expanded shortly as we seek to keep you up to date and support your events and your achievements as much as we can.

There are other initiatives which are nearly completed and these include work to better support and coordinated with the 10 regions in England. To facilitate that an extra Director post needs to be created and this will be put to members along with revised Articles as soon as possible. Meanwhile we won’t stand on ceremony and will invite the regions to send a representative to our next Board meeting, which will take place on 14th January.

We also currently have a vacancy for an Independent Director (as you will see from the page on the website)  and we will be advertising for that very soon.

GRANTS

A lot of fencers and clubs are struggling and I want to take this opportunity to tell you that there is support available. England Fencing has a GRANTS budget but very few applications. With £14k available this year and a very easy process to follow, why not at least give it a go and see if we can help. Just go to the Grants page and see how simple it is to apply.

We are here to support you in as many practical ways as we can whether you are a fencer, a coach, a parent, a volunteer, a referee, a club or someone else involved in our wonderful sport in England.

Peter