I was at Lilleshall twice this week.
Early in the week, I was down for meetings and, during one of the breaks, went down to the Sutherland Hall (for those who don't know, this is where you can shoot 90m indoors all year round, and is used for squad training). There was a tremendous amount of activity where the Performance Unit were in the throws of making an Archery DVD which will go on sale later this year. High speed camera, professional film crews and sound men were all scurrying around.
Another sign of how far the Society has moved on.
The second trip was for the British Champs, packed out as usual. Her indoors was competing but had to pull out of the Scottish Team due to a bout of "woman flu" (well, if there is man flu, stands to reason there has to be a female variety) earlier on in the month. She seemed happy enough to be the most progressed native Scot in the compounds (oh dear, I hope I have got that right).
I get real bored by indoors, but may have to re-consider my position on this. Two of my Director colleagues were shooting (Jan and Ian) and, as well as me, another two Directors were at the Champs (David and Jean) - maybe others. Long gone the days when the Board was invisible.
It is reliably rumoured that CEO David was so terrified by the Welsh that he put his hand in his pocket, brought out £10 and bought two raffle tickets for the World Fields in Wales later this year. This will be shot at a smashing venue in the Museum of Welsh Life in Wales - well worth a visit if you are thinking of taking a holiday in the first week in September.
Monday 18 February 2008
Sunday 10 February 2008
Teachers, Uncles and Beer
I spoke at a meeting of SLANOPE this week - I think it stands for the Scottish Network of PE Teachers. I did a short presentation on Archery and showed a short film about GB competing on the world stage. The idea was really to see if there was an interest in providing advice on the introduction into schools.
They were a great audience and nice people individually. However, they asked some searching questions about what was the educational rationale which I was not really prepared for. I guess that there is a lesson to be learned there.
I also had the pleasure of fixing the computer of the other half's Uncle Willie. Getting it working was straightforward, if not a little time consuming, as all I had to do was put in a few passwords correctly (which, of course, he swore he had done) and sort the configuration.
In gratitude, he took us out for lunch, which was very welcome, and made a special gesture of giving me three cans of Carlsberg. He remarked that he had bought them originally for the slugs, which had not been as many this year (hence the surplus), and that he was sure that being 4 months past their date would be OK.
It's nice to be appreciated!
They were a great audience and nice people individually. However, they asked some searching questions about what was the educational rationale which I was not really prepared for. I guess that there is a lesson to be learned there.
I also had the pleasure of fixing the computer of the other half's Uncle Willie. Getting it working was straightforward, if not a little time consuming, as all I had to do was put in a few passwords correctly (which, of course, he swore he had done) and sort the configuration.
In gratitude, he took us out for lunch, which was very welcome, and made a special gesture of giving me three cans of Carlsberg. He remarked that he had bought them originally for the slugs, which had not been as many this year (hence the surplus), and that he was sure that being 4 months past their date would be OK.
It's nice to be appreciated!
Sunday 3 February 2008
Rotten Weather, Good News
It won't have escaped many people that many parts of the UK have been subjected to storms and snow - I guess I say this in the hope that this blog is being ready from sunny climes - which brings me to sunny Australia where I hear young Andy is shooting his socks off (read http://www.scottisharchery.org.uk/ for the details).
I'm not long back from the SAA's EGM caused by the lack of a quorum at the AGM, which seems a common problem these days. It was held in the lunch interval of the Scottish Indoor Champs, and the focus on getting matters concluded to be able to start the afternoon session meant that we rattled through a good 9 (?) votes in just over 30 minutes. Shows you what can be done when you put your mind to it.
Tina got elected as President and I'm sure that all of Scotland will be with her as she starts her first three year term.
I got the results back from sportsscotland on what their Active Schools database said about participation. It looks as if 300 primary and 250 secondary pupils get an archery session over twenty schools across the country. Here is a map ...
I'm not long back from the SAA's EGM caused by the lack of a quorum at the AGM, which seems a common problem these days. It was held in the lunch interval of the Scottish Indoor Champs, and the focus on getting matters concluded to be able to start the afternoon session meant that we rattled through a good 9 (?) votes in just over 30 minutes. Shows you what can be done when you put your mind to it.
Tina got elected as President and I'm sure that all of Scotland will be with her as she starts her first three year term.
I got the results back from sportsscotland on what their Active Schools database said about participation. It looks as if 300 primary and 250 secondary pupils get an archery session over twenty schools across the country. Here is a map ...
The red dots are the schools and the blue ones are the clubs. There are certainly some anomolies (as round Inverness) where there are schools without any local clubs. I guess we may have to write to the schools to get to the bottom of what is going on.
The helpful suggestion on involving Leaders by Michael Mather has certainly hit some spots, and I had a conference call with Ollie (Coaching Manager, GNAS) about it this week and he is certainly keen. With a following wind, we will see that kick off later this month after a few more folks have had the opportunity to input.
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