AGM 2019

Headlines:

• Awareness Week a huge success
• Relief that JSAD formally registered with Jersey Charity Commission
• Administrative overhead - how do we manage this?
• Strong relationship with Jersey Sport developing 

Once again I find myself sitting back and reflecting on another successful year of operation for JSAD and looking ahead to see what the future may have in store for the Association. Part of this process is for me to review the last annual update I wrote last year and there are remarkable similarities as you will see.
 

Last year I talked about how pleased I was to have seen JSAD transition its main event successfully from a Games style weekend to a Disability Sports Awareness Day, incorporating our Annual Awards. Well the Awareness Day has become an Awareness Week and I think the first one staged last November was a huge success and I have every confidence that the 2019 event will be equally good. This really does give all our Members the opportunity to show Jersey what they can do.
 

I am also very pleased and relieved really to have finally seen JSAD being formally registered as a charity with the Jersey Charity Commission. From start to finish I estimate there has been about four years where this matter has been on our radar. I have no doubt we will have other regulatory bodies to engage with in the coming months and years.

This leads me on to the recurring theme of my annual mutterings – administrative overhead. It seems to me anyway that for the past 12 months JSAD has been pretty much delivering the same extensive programme of activities both on and off Island but the amount of work effort in maintaining this activity has really increased significantly and we must, as an Association, meet this issue head on so a priority focus for the new General Committee in 2019 will have to be how we manage this overhead, which is not going to go away.
 

As I start to look at 2019 activity one of the things that shines out to me is the way our relationship with Jersey Sport has developed over the past 12 months and I am really quite excited at the prospect that younger people with a disability may be able to access sport earlier in their lives due to various initiatives Jersey Sport are working on in association with JSAD. I am sure there will be more for me to report on in my paper to you next year.

I am leaving this paragraph in from my report last year as I believe it is still very relevant – “With all this talk of administrative overhead and regulations it may be easy for us to forget that the reason JSAD exists is to support our membership in participating in sport. Unfortunately these days in many ways no organisation like JSAD can exist without complying with an ever increasing administrative workload”.

The success of JSAD over time is down to great and active members, dedicated volunteers and many wonderful supporters. To all I thank you.

Paul Patterson MBE

Chairman