| Changes at the Top |
| Congratulations to Keith Smith on being
elected President of British Fencing. As most of you will
be aware Keith was elected early in the summer to be our
president and I am sure that he has our best wishes as he
starts on his plans to modernise British Fencing and to
obtain the maximum Sports Council grant possible for our
sport. |
| He has set up a management team to put
together a development plan which is now out for comment,
this draft plan is the most comprehensive to have been
drawn up for the future of fencing. It has already been
reviewed by the Region’s Committee who were
impressed by its content. It was also received favourably
by those who attended the meeting prior to the AGM. |
| As well as a presidential election, we
have just had the annual election for the Board and we
are pleased to report that our Regional Chairman, John
Ramsay, was re-elected. The other successful candidates
were Janet Cooksey, Ismay Cowen and Graham Paul. Also
Rodney Francis, who runs many of our region’s
competitions has been co-opted to join the Board. |
| Fencing enters the e-world |
| British Fencing is in negotiations with
a provider of internet services with an aim having an
hierarchical series of free web sites, starting with a
British Fencing site at the top and cascading down to
club level. If the negotiations complete successfully web
sites will be provided for regions, counties and clubs
and these sites will all be linked with information being
automatically distributed downwards, i.e. From BFA HQ to
regions, regions to counties and counties to clubs. It
will enable every club to have a web site and all the
sites to look the same. |
| Clubs within our region should start to
consider this future, identify an internet contact and
start to plan what their site should contain. Some
counties and clubs already have web sites and already
receive information such as this newsletter
electronically and I would encourage other clubs and
counties to identify a member who has an e-mail address
and would be happy to receive correspondence via that
medium. It would make my life as Region Secretary much
easier and cheaper if everything could be sent by e-mail. |
| Already entry forms for competitions
and this newsletter will be available on the Essex,
Suffolk and Hertfordshire web site and I hope this will
expand. Remember the internet is now often the first port
of call for people trying to find information and this
could be a way of attracting members. |
| If you can please let me have an e-mail
contact for your county or club. |
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