The British Curling Board of Directors. Some would say these are the most important jobs in the sport of curling in this country. Are you interested? Could you do the job?British Curling is the body recognised by the British Olympic Association/British Paralympic Association and UK Sport as responsible for the preparation, selection and performance of the British teams for those events which require the participation of a 'British' curling team i.e. the Olympics, World University Games and the Youth Olympics.
British Curling is seeking a new Chairman, a Financial Director and up to four Ordinary Directors. The details are here.
These Board level appointments will take British Curling to Sochi in 2014 and 'provide a sustainable legacy for 2018'.
The job description notes that the current Board was appointed on a competency-based system, and that Olympic and Paralympic medals will be the foremost measure of success in this next Olympiad.
With these criteria, as GB failed to gain any medals in the men's, women's or wheelchair curling events at Vancouver, British Curling's Olympic efforts over the past four years must be classed as a failure. It is harsh to say this, of course, as there were many positives on the journey. But Vancouver itself was a failure. Disappointingly so. I am sure lessons have been learned, and no doubt these will be passed on to any new Board.
The current Chairman is Chris Hildrey, Finance Director is Alan Chalmers, and two Ordinary Directors are listed, Hew Chalmers and Mike Gillespie. Chris has not decided yet if he will put his name forward again.
If you are interested in any of the positions, the closing date for the Chairman's job is September 13, and September 24 is the deadline for the other posts. You can find out all about British Curling on the company's website here.
Of course, even when a new Board is in place, what will happen in this new Olympic cycle is unclear. There is the small matter of the British Government's ongoing spending review! A report is expected in October, and it will only be after that date that UK Sport will know how much it will have to distribute to the various elite sports programmes it funds. We live in interesting times, certainly!
