CEO Charlie Ford reflects on his first year at the Volleyball England helm

Here, he reflects on some of the organisation’s key achievements during his tenure – and why taking a different approach has been an important contributing factor to that progress.

After being in post for a year, I wanted to take the opportunity to review, reflect and provide a summary of the time I have spent within the sport. 

I must firstly acknowledge all of the fantastic people that I have had the pleasure of working with and meeting through my first 12 months – and apologise to those who I haven’t yet spent time with.  

Enthused by the passion 

From the Volleyball England Board, staff, sub and working groups, through to regions, counties, clubs, partners and stakeholders, I have been hugely enthused by the level of passion and commitment that exists. 

As I am sure you will appreciate, the first few weeks and months involved a lot of listening to help understand the current position of Volleyball and identify where there were opportunities to make measured, but progressive, changes.  

Through consultation, discussion and debate, minor changes were made to our 2020-30 The Game Plan strategy and a new five-year implementation plan was created which through its early phases has resulted in a number of early progressions being made. 

Key achievements so far 

• There have been many advancements, and just a snapshot of those include: 
• ‘Communities of Practice’ groups introduced, primarily with Regions and Counties to allow the volleyball community to connect and share best practice. 
• New roles created and recruited to in the organisation to provide capacity to enhance our plans across major events, community stakeholder engagement and talent.  
• New commercial partnerships established with Mikasa, MAAREE, Sportserve and Universal Services, with all committed to working with us to support our growth ambitions. 
• In line with the above, new VolleyStore online shop set up earlier in the year. The shop and proceeds from sales provide unrestricted resources to reinvest into the sport, in line with our implementation plan.  
• Reformed approach to our engagement and communications. Taking a community-centred approach, telling the story of the sport, through the sports eyes’, to expose and celebrate the many hard-working people in clubs, regions and counties that are Volleyballs’ lifeblood. 
• Beach Volleyball Development Centre initiative launched and implemented across the country, which will allow for dedicated workforce development activities to take place and to provide a structured pathway for beach players. 
• Partnership with HUDL, which has introduced technology to support the Super League, Talent programmes and referee development. 
• Competition branding refreshed and introduction of a series of initial initiatives to begin uplifting and enhancing the Super League. 

VolleyZone migration 

As everyone is acutely aware, we took the tough, but measured, decision to launch and migrate our existing and separate membership, competition management and referee deployment systems into one unified platform through SportLomo.  

Our VolleyZone system experienced initial teething issues, which although not completely unexpected, did result in a significant amount of the time being spent on trouble shooting issues and supporting the Volleyball community with its implementation. 

I sincerely appreciate the patience and understanding that you have all given us during this time and I am pleased that although we continue to provide ongoing support and make system refinements, the true benefits and value of the system is starting to become abundantly clear.  

Commonwealth Games legacy and future developments 

With me starting in post just after the Commonwealth Games, I have spent time with colleagues working through various legacy activities, including the development and launch of the three beach courts at Moseley Rugby club, workforce development and the aforementioned Beach Volleyball Development Centres.  

I’d like to make clear that the progressive steps that we have and continue to make are a result of a collective, aligned, and conscious effort to do things differently. 

It was always clear to me that taking the first steps would be the hardest, but, until they are taken, the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.  

I firmly believe that we have taken those first steps and look forward to everything that the next phase of my journey in the sport brings.