The following list shows who is responsible for various aspects of BAFRA's administration.
Job Person(s)
Accounts Robert Banks B HDBK
Appeals Ctte (Chairman) Dave Norton P HDBK
Appeals Ctte (members) Robert Banks, Jim Briggs N HDBK
Appeals Ctte (alternates) Tony Rivers (1), Richard Whitby (2) N HDBK
Assessment reception and distribution Phil Cottier B HDBK
Awards administrator Steve Tonkinson B HDBK
BAFA representative Dave Norton P HDBK
BAFRA Convention organiser Phil Cottier B HDBK
BSAFA liaison Steve Tonkinson B HDBK
BYAFA liaison Steve Tonkinson B HDBK
Chain crews (London Monarchs) Paul Coppin B HDBK
Chain crews (Scotland Claymores) Les Connor B HDBK
Coaches reports reception & response Phil Cottier B HDBK
Director of Finance Robert Banks E HDBK
Director of Operations Richard Jeffrey-Cook E HDBK
Director of Training Phil Cottier A HDBK
Director of Youth and Development Steve Tonkinson A HDBK
Disciplinary Ctte (Convenor until 1996) Robert Friel N HDBK
Disciplinary Ctte (members until 1996) Chris Jarvis, Steve Tonkinson N HDBK
Disciplinary Ctte (alternates until 1996) Ian Coleman (1), Alan Bond (2) N HDBK
Examinations Sub-Ctte (Chairman) Phil Cottier T HDBK
Examinations Sub-Ctte (members) Jim Briggs, Chris Randall, Dominic Ray C HDBK
Expense claims Robert Banks F HDBK
Flag Down editor Ian Coleman B HDBK
Game report reception Mark Randall B HDBK
Game report statistics T Hutchison B HDBK
General Secretary Ian Coleman D(N) HDBK
Grading Ctte (Chairman) Phil Cottier T HDBK
Grading Ctte (members) T{
Dave Allan, Jim Briggs, Richard Jeffrey-Cook, Chris Randall, Dominic Ray, Peter Scott, John Slavin
T} N HDBK
Incident report co-ordinators Phil Cottier, T Hutchison, Chris Jarvis B HDBK
Incident reports (follow-up) Richard Jeffrey-Cook & Ian Coleman O&G HDBK
Induction training booklet vacant B HDBK
International liaison vacant B HDBK
Manual of Football Officiating Jim Briggs R HDBK
Members' Handbook Jim Briggs B HDBK
National Council (Chairman) Dave Norton P HDBK
National Council (Secretary) Ian Coleman N HDBK
NCAA rules liaison Jim Briggs R HDBK
Newsflash distribution Ian Coleman B HDBK
Newsflash editor Jim Briggs B HDBK
Officiating Review Ctte (Chairman) Phil Cottier T HDBK
Officiating Review Ctte (member) Richard Jeffrey-Cook O HDBK
Officiating Review Ctte (member) Kevin Holt N HDBK
Photo library Norman Cox B HDBK
President Dave Norton E HDBK
Public relations Ian Coleman D(B) HDBK
Referees' kit (distribution & stocks) Ian Coleman B HDBK
Returning officer Tony Heywood B HDBK
Rules & Mechanics Ctte (members) T{
Dave Allan, Bill Bowsher, Jim Briggs, Dominic Ray, John Slavin, Brian Yates
T} N HDBK
Scheduling (Midlands) Tony Rivers B HDBK
Scheduling (North) Paul Sutton B HDBK
Scheduling (Scotland) Les Connor B HDBK
Scheduling (South East) Paul Coppin B HDBK
Scheduling (South West) Graham Coleman B HDBK
Selection Ctte (non-voting Chairman) Richard Jeffrey-Cook O HDBK
Selection Ctte (member until 1996) Peter Scott N HDBK
Selection Ctte (members until 1997) Mark Randall, Steve Tonkinson N HDBK
Special Cases Ctte (Chairman) Phil Cottier T HDBK
Special Cases Ctte (members) Jim Briggs, John Slavin C HDBK
Status of games Richard Jeffrey-Cook & Robert Banks O&F HDBK
Although primary responsibilities are as above, the Directors share collective responsibility for the proper running of the Association. Any problem therefore in the running of the Association can be broached with any Director.
National Council consists of the six Directors plus delegates from the local associations listed below. A local association can be represented by any one of its members and it is up to the local association to decide who that should be and how they should be appointed.
Local association:No.:Contact:Base London:2:Clive Wardley:London Thames Valley:3:Bill Bowsher:Newbury North West:4:Susan Banks:Blackburn & Warrington Kent:5:Pete Scott:Sevenoaks Sussex Coast *:6:Kevin Holt:Brighton West Midlands:7:Alan Bond:Birmingham Essex:10:Steve Tonkinson:Chelmsford North East *:11:Jim Briggs:York East Midlands:13:Chris Randall:Worksop Chiltern:15:Tony Rivers:Luton Severn:17:Bev Evans:Bristol & Cardiff Wessex:19:Gordon Dedman:Southampton Scotland:20:Robert Friel:Glasgow Pennine:22:Mike Fenton:Leeds Norfolk & Suffolk:24:Larry Rigby:Newmarket* indicates a local association that does not meet the constitutional requirements to have a vote at National Council in 1995
by by Jim Briggs (first published in Flag Down, 1994)
I have been asked by the Directors to write an article about BAFRA and how it works. The intended audience for this article? Not the leagues, not the teams, not the press - you, the BAFRA member. Hopefully a fuller understanding of how the Association is run will help you appreciate why you get asked to do various things at various times. Perhaps it will encourage you to volunteer your time and services, or even stand for election as a director or National Council rep. At least it keeps you informed.
BAFRA is governed by a committee that is called National Council - it has the final say on all matters of policy. The Constitution (which can be found in the Members' Handbook) lays down much of how it works, though that has been supplemented by a number of "normal" ways of doing things that have evolved through time. National Council currently has 21 members: six directors and 15 representatives of local associations. The directors are elected annually by a postal vote of the entire membership. The way the local association reps are appointed is up to the local association they represent. Some associations always send the same person, some rotate it around a committee, some send whoever is available - each method has its good and bad points.
National Council determines the overall policy of the Association. Most of our policies (at least those that impact directly on our members) are stated in the Members' Handbook, but in any event the minutes of the meetings are circulated to all members of Council, and appear in Flag Down. To reduce costs we have this year switched over to a system whereby National Council will meet only once or twice a year (previously it met four or five times). This obviously means that National Council meetings will be slightly different in the way they do business, and some business will be conducted by post or phone. The Executive Board consists of the six directors. They have the responsibility to run the Association on a day to day basis. They meet periodically between Council meetings to discuss how things are going and to determine BAFRA's response to external matters such as relations with leagues and BAFA. However most directors' business is conducted semi-formally by phone and supplemented by letter or fax. Each year's Board operates in a slightly different manner, depending largely on the circumstances of the individuals involved.
An appendix to the Constitution lays down some of the directors' responsibilities. For example the President chairs the Board and Council and must co-ordinate things. The General Secretary looks after membership registration and general administration, and arranges the meetings of the Board and Council. The Director of Finance looks after all aspects of BAFRA's money, including dealing with teams and leagues who owe members game fees or expenses. The Director of Operations liaises with leagues and is the head of the scheduling function. The Director of Training co-ordinates all the training programmes, plus assessment and exams. The Director of Youth and Development has the fewest responsibilities of office - he is responsible for liaising with youth football organisations. In addition to these, each of the directors has a number of assigned responsibilities which in most cases simply go to the person or persons most able or willing to do the job.
National Council has set up a number of committees to deal with particular aspects of BAFRA's activities. There are really two sorts of committee. There are some expert committees whose goals are to set long term strategy and see its implementation through. This category includes the Rules & Mechanics Committee (responsible for the Mechanics Manual and, with BAFA, for the rulebook), the Grading Committee (administering the Grading Programme) and the Examination Committee (responsible for setting all the exams), and their members are appointed without a fixed term of office. There are also what could be termed judgement committees whose aims are to decide on particular short-term issues. This group includes the Selection Committee for choosing playoff officials, the Officiating Review Committee for dealing with officials' on-field performance problems, and the Disciplinary Committee for dealing with the most serious problems. The members of each of these committees are re-elected each year, normally at the first National Council meeting of the year in January. Any BAFRA member can be appointed - you don't have to be a regular National Council attendee, though naturally in the absence of outside nominations a vacancy often gets filled from those sitting at the table. If you would like to be nominated, get in touch either with the General Secretary or your local association rep.
Finally and by no means least, come the people without whom BAFRA would not function at all, the administrators. These are the people who entirely voluntarily often work many hours a week doing the business of the Association. There is a long list in the Members' Handbook which is sometimes slightly out of date but does indicate the number of people involved. Currently we have five regional scheduling officers, three incident report co-ordinators, at least three people involved in receiving and collating weekly post-game paperwork, four people involved in producing BAFRA's regular publications and a couple of others whose duties are concentrated into one or two periods of the year. Administrators are appointed by the Board; some are for a fixed period of time but usually an administrator serves for as long as they are willing to give up the time to do the job. Vacancies are advertised from time to time in Newsflash or Flag Down.
As you can see, an awful lot of people are involved in running BAFRA. At a rough count I would say that at the moment in excess of 30 people have either been elected or appointed to some post that carries responsibility, and that does not include the many tens of people who serve their local association in some capacity. How much time do they spend? How long is a piece of string? At every level from the directors down some people spend more time than others. All contributions are welcomed and really the only advice to give is don't volunteer more time than you've got.
If you think that you could make a contribution or have any ideas how the Association could be made to run better in any respect, please don't stay silent - write or phone one of the directors or ask your local association rep to pass on your comments. Your views will be listened to.
Back to overview of 10th edition
Editor: Jim Briggs, Editor, BAFRA Manual of Football Officiating
Jim.Briggs@port.ac.uk
Generated: 20/4/2000, 1158