In May 2016, the UK Government published a Charter for Sports Governance in the UK which set out some key governance principles that they expect all sports in the UK to follow.

As a result of this, the British Judo Association recognised the need to review its governance of the sport more generally than we explained in our recently published Strategic Plan for 2017-2021. A further trigger for this action was following the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate withdrawal of the 2015 European Judo Championships in February 2015 and the governance issues arising from the review.

Following the successful vote at the March Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), 96% of club representatives voted in favour of the proposed Governance changes within the British Judo Association (BJA).

Since March, the Association has been working hard to implement the required amendments that will allow the BJA to modernise and improve our governance arrangements and also ensure compliance with the provisions of the UK Sport/Sport England Code for Sports Governance.

Now four months on from the EGM vote, here are some of the changes already actioned as part of the process:

• Ronnie Saez was appointed as Chair of Association in May 2017. The process saw the role of Chair go out to advert in April 2017 followed by the Nominations Panel reviewing the applications at the end of the month. Selected applicants were then invited to interview for the role at the start of May with the final selection and ratification taking place at the Board meeting later that month.
• Malgorzata Grzyb has been appointed as the Senior Independent Director, who was appointed by the Board. Her responsibilities include providing a sound board for the chair, serving as an intermediary for the other directors, acting as an alternative contact for stakeholders to share any concerns if normal channels are unavailable and leading on the process to appraise the chair’s performance.
• President of the BJA, George Kerr, Ronnie Scott and Brian Davies have been nominated by the Council to be appointed to the Nominations Committee.
• Ryan Wilkinson has been appointed by the Board as the 2^nd Independent Director to the Nominations Panel.
• Shortlisting for two Independent Non-Executive Directors by the Nominations Committee to the Board has taken place with Board approval due in August.

Over the next three-six months, the BJA will look to undertake the following work:

• Nominations for the England Area Director will open in July, with voting taking place in August.
• Board of Director elections will resume it’s “normal” cycle in August.

Please take the time to read our Governance Review Implementation Plan for a full action plan. We will continue to update you of the progress against the actions over the coming months.

Click here to download our Governance Review Implementation Plan