CEO Charlie Ford's message on two-year anniversary of taking up post

I must firstly acknowledge and recognise our affiliated clubs and their army of dedicated volunteers, who, supported by my hard-working team at Volleyball England, are achieving fantastic things for the sport.

Although by no means an exhaustive list, the below highlights some of the key achievements from the last 12 months: 

• Hosting two international beach volleyball events (NEVZA Youth and Queen & King of the Court).
• Increased presence and standing internationally including accessing FIVB empowerment funds to support workforce development and talent plans.
• New commercial partnerships with Malibu, Dynamik Sports Flooring and Steroplast.
• Indoor Beach facility and high performance programme agreed at Birmingham City University.
• Enhanced broadcast/stream quality for Volleyball England events and Super League competition.
• People Plan and Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans created to improve and improve enhance the Volleyball workforce.
• Significant social media engagement increases across all platforms highlighted by Facebook followers increasing from 18,000 to 65,000 and Instagram from 14,000 to 31,000.
• New digital platform scoped and introduced to support athlete performance and progression.
• Strategic partnerships formed with Masters Volleyball and London Volleyball Association to grow the sport and membership.
• Volleyball in England Heritage project initiated to ensure the history of the sport is immortalised for future generations.
• Joint Sitting Volleyball Working Group formed and development plans created. 

I’d finally like to thank the Volleyball England board our sub and working groups for their continued support of me and the team. 

I look forward to everything that year three brings and can assure everyone that my energy, commitment and passion for making positive and progressive changes in volleyball remains as vibrant as the day I started in post.

Charlie Ford, Volleyball England Chief Executive Officer