Team England Charter Proposals (November 2024)

[speedingbullet]

The proposed Team England Charter is attached. The proposed changes are shown in red so that you can easily identify them. The main change is to allow for the Squad approach that was discussed in the recent election campaign. Information on how to vote to approve or reject this Charter will be posted below. A simple majority of approve votes will be required for the attached document to become the new Team England Charter. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[deeferdan]

To vote to approve the charter please use this voting form

Voting closes 19th November.

[cornish]

In an effort to prod a bit of community engagement on the proposed Charter update I’ve posted a couple of questions/ observations below and would welcome other community thoughts, not necessarily the Committee members - but those are welcomed as our standing representatives! I also want to state up front I appreciate each Committee member’s commitment in volunteering to progress the TE agenda year on year and develop the charter for the benefit of the TE community.

- If this proposed change allows for the Captain to select the 12 coach pool for the EB and EO what true value does the Committee feel it can now offer to the selection process?

- Does the community feel the current TE governance allows for too much variation year to year at the mandate of a new Captain and a single individual’s preferences? Should the Charter address this? Is it going to change next year with a new Captain?

- Were alternative considerations had around the selection process and the Committee’s role (with the Captain as a member) before this proposal was taken forward publicly?

Thanks

[deeferdan]

Hi Cornish,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. I'll add in some context to the alterations that we have proposed around committee involvement.

- It's interesting that both captains came forward on a platform of selecting a squad of 12 to give them more flexibility when choosing a final squad. This was absolutely something that the committee were already in discussion about, lead primarily by the experiences of 2024 captain Kfoged.
The Eurobowl landscape has changed enormously in the last 2 years, with tickets being released earlier, massive competition for spots, and the normalisation of the EurOpen national team. As such Kare was under a lot of pressure to pick his 8 quickly last year and his feedback to us was that he would have liked more time. We were keen to facilitate this, so had already begun to think about how as we moved into the election period, with the relinquishing of the Open picks top of the pile to allow time for team decisions to ferment.

- The election period brought forward 2 candidates. Both proposed very similar squad based selection processes. The Q&A drilled down into this a little, and it was clear that it was a popular approach. Nothing speaks to this more, than the excellent turn out in voters, with both candidates supported well.

- We then move to this post election period as we support Wulfyn to take the project forward. Not only is Dan proposing a squad of 12 is picked and then split 8/4 in early Summer, but he has also decided to take forward a broader "squad England" approach. Engaging even more (another 12) players in the process as he seeks to build on the community spirit that has seen increased interest in TE and develop a culture of self improvement amongst those involved. We, the committee, are really pleased to try and help facilitate this more community focussed approach.

- The counter argument, that the committee is relinquishing "power" is a fair one. I think, however, that we all have to look at the bigger picture, which is that we are all working together to help support the captain to win the next Eurobowl. As such some pragmatic choices have been made, to help facilitate this. The committee still consider themselves an important check against the process, and a sounding board both internally (for the captain, who will share his proposal with them prior to announcement) and the externally (for the community whom we represent). I would say however, that the charter remains a relatively new document that we are finding our way around, we need to be organic as situations change, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if further changes followed, but I'd also expect those changes to be less frequent as we find our way forward.

- As an aside, elsewhere there have been calls for us to more clearly formalise what the committees role should be. Ultimately, we are custodians of the charter, and general dogsbodies for the processes around it, the election of a captain, and outward communication. It could be that next year, during a quiet moment we work on this a little more and formalise it, but at this moment in time it was felt it was not necessary for us to address it as we need to support the proposed approach from the new captain in good time.

[dragonborn]

Thanks for explaining your/the committees thought process, Dan.

Accepting what you’ve said, I’m wondering why the committee has chosen to relinquish all ‘control’ in determining who plays for TE? I feel that an easier way to achieve what you’ve outlined above and incorporate what both nominees (and outgoing captain) said, but retain the committees influence. Would be to maintain the 8 (Captain) + 4 (committee Inc captain) selection but allow the final selection (at a later date) for each part of the event to come from that overall pool.

Instead what has been proposed feels a more purposeful rewrite which deserves a more thorough conversation than a binary vote. Was any consideration given to just combining the 8 + 4 (selected in the previously agreed way)?

I’ve also posted previously that I feel the charter needs amended to strengthen the Committee’s (including the captain) role in community engagement. Given we’ve significantly altered part of the charter, did the committee give this any consideration, what was the outcome and why has this not been included?

Thanks.

[cornish]

Thanks Dan for addressing my comments and I’m glad to see others have started to engage in this forum thread now and are equally interested in its strengthening. The work that you and the Committee do to improve the governance is really appreciated thank you.

I was drawn to your comment that “we are all working together to help support the captain to win the next Eurobowl”. I don’t disagree.

However, my observation would be that I am sure our Euro Captains will have enough focus for us all on winning the Eurobowl (and hopefully Europen victory should be equally valued now too)!

As a community member I would like the Committee to develop its focus and Charter on building the TE community and culture surrounding the English National team(s) to support that aim. Ideas such as the Squad as a wider pool to draw talent from are good examples of this, not least Kåre’s progressive outlook to bringing in excellent National new coaches.

I would have however hoped to see the Committee and a group of elected members contribute more to a selection short list (or even long list). I’m biased on the 2024 TE Ambassador role and although not perfect, felt that it had a strong catalyst of what the Committee membership could offer for the future, maybe with regional representation.

Personally, although I don’t think I’m alone; I do not think winning and community are mutually exclusive as I believe an engaged community and values driven culture will find success.

Thanks again for giving us a podium to engage. Best of luck and see you across a table soon!

[deeferdan]

Thanks for explaining your/the committees thought process, Dan.

Accepting what you’ve said, I’m wondering why the committee has chosen to relinquish all ‘control’ in determining who plays for TE? I feel that an easier way to achieve what you’ve outlined above and incorporate what both nominees (and outgoing captain) said, but retain the committees influence. Would be to maintain the 8 (Captain) + 4 (committee Inc captain) selection but allow the final selection (at a later date) for each part of the event to come from that overall pool.

Instead what has been proposed feels a more purposeful rewrite which deserves a more thorough conversation than a binary vote. Was any consideration given to just combining the 8 + 4 (selected in the previously agreed way)?

I’ve also posted previously that I feel the charter needs amended to strengthen the Committee’s (including the captain) role in community engagement. Given we’ve significantly altered part of the charter, did the committee give this any consideration, what was the outcome and why has this not been included?

Thanks.

Hi Lee,

I would say that the committee is not relinquishing control completely, we will still be there as a sounding board and check and balance, supporting the process and push back if needed.

Re the alternative approach you’ve suggested. I think the 8+4 element doesn’t quite work. For us to confirm a squad of 12 by Christmas and still give the captain flexibility to pick a final 8, the captain needs to take the lead on this. As noted this decision wasn’t taken lightly, but is really in instigated in response to bother outgoing captain Kåre and incoming captain Dan’s manifestos.

Re the wider committee role and changes I think I addressed that above. We are in a process of considering this, but in truth wanted to pass this change relatively hastily to maximise the time for the captain to utilise.

[deeferdan]

I would have however hoped to see the Committee and a group of elected members contribute more to a selection short list (or even long list). I’m biased on the 2024 TE Ambassador role and although not perfect, felt that it had a strong catalyst of what the Committee membership could offer for the future, maybe with regional representation.

Hi Chris, I think I’ve addressed most of what you say above. On this point, I guess you’re suggesting we bake in the regional input to captains. Personally, I think we need to leave captains some autonomy on this. For example the captain next year may not want to take on the squad selection approach and just pick an 8, in which case the committee would step up to pick the 4.

Hopefully I’ve not misinterpreted!

Best

D

[Barney the Lurker]

Hi,

I voted in favour of the new changes.

Firstly, I've always liked the Team England method of giving the captain full autonomy to pick their team as they see fit. Further to that, I've seen the Committee role as stewards of the process, so we can maintain engagement and fair elections, and supporting the captain rather than being directly active in picking the team.

Having said that, I did initially like the Europen as being a testing bed for coaches wanting to step up, however having had a bit of an insight into the selection process, I do now support the squad approach of 8 + 4, as picking 8 coaches is definitely different to picking 8 coaches and races, especially if GW are going to make significant updates during the process!

[speedingbullet]

To add a little to what has been said already. The Squad of 12 approach, once underway, does relinquish Committee control of EO selection for that year’s EuroOpen. However, the proposed update does require the Captain to share proposed selections with the Committee before they are announced. This allows a period of time where the Committee can talk with the Captain and influence. There is no control by the Committee at that point, just an ability to influence. The opportunity for influence is across the whole 12 rather than the EO 4 only. So I believe the proposed update gives the Committee more influence on EB selection and retains influence on EO selection, although with a loss of control on EO selection.

[speedingbullet]

With regard to questions about the Committee’s role in community engagement and TE culture. This is a tricky one for me. The Committee is primarily the custodian of the Charter on behalf of the community. In terms of wider engagement, nothing is enshrined in the Charter. We hear that there is some desire for the Committee to do more. The current Committee is producing newsletters which we believe are well received. Wulfyn, our new Captain, who is part of the Committee, is keen to play the lead role in developing a TE Discord Channel. That should see an improvement in community engagement opportunity. The Committee have talked a little about the Discord already and the intention is for the Commitee to support on this and become custodians of the Discord, once it’s established, to provide continuity as Captains come and go.

[deeferdan]

Voting has now closed on the proposed changes to the charter.

25 votes were cast:

Approve: 22
Reject : 3

This means that the new charter has been approved. An updated version will be uploaded ASAP.

Thanks to all those who took the time to vote and engage with the process.

Dan