Special Olympics GB - November newsletter

Right from the first moment I volunteered with Special Olympics in 1999, I experienced first-hand the power of Special Olympics to transform lives – not only the lives of our athletes (the most important, inspirational people to us all) but also the lives of the families, volunteers and community. Without a doubt, being exposed to Special Olympics changed my life and from that time I’ve been driven with passion for what our organisation does - passion that has run through my blood ever since.

My first volunteer role? - Coaching skiing in Ireland, from which I was fortunate to travel to the 2001 Alaska World Winter Games before settling back in the UK and volunteering with Special Olympics GB. During my time with Special Olympics GB I have witnessed our athletes, supported tirelessly by our volunteers, achieve so much and inspire so many – something we can all celebrate!

Our organisation has grown, developed and achieved great things that we can all be proud of – the tens of thousands of lives we have changed, the reach of our organisation to the corners of our nations, our unique competition pathway second to none, our athlete leaders, our position in GB as advocates for intellectual disability, and so much more. Thank you to everyone involved in all areas of Special Olympics GB.

During the same period the environment in which we live, volunteer and devote ourselves has changed immensely – and will continue to do so. From legislation to social media (which didn’t exist back then), from the growth of Corporate Social Responsibility to significant increase in our costs (insurance, accreditation, travel, communications etc). We have achieved great things, but to keep up with the world around us our organisation has had to evolve.

Over the past two years Special Olympics GB has been undergoing its biggest transformation in its 40 years. This transformation is essential to improve and strengthen our organisation for the future so we can better support the extraordinary work that volunteers are delivering at a local level and so that we can serve our athletes - and importantly so we can do what is demanded of us by law and our partners. This enormous undertaking is looking at how we operate across GB, tighten our governance processes under our charitable obligations, protect our vulnerable athletes and the Special Olympics brand, and create a more transparent and simplified structure.

I’m sure our organisation has not got everything right in the past and during this transformation period, but learning from our mistakes will make us stronger. Change may feel like uncertainty for a period but working together – clubs, regions, national office, partners – we will deliver on the goal of better supporting more people to transform their lives through sport across the board. Our CEO Michelle is currently visiting the regions and listening to feedback on how we can improve – and your feedback is important. What’s been tremendous during the recent changes is the support of our partners and funders and their confidence in the journey our organisation is on.

Some things haven’t changed of course! The two biggest of these are the commitment of our volunteers to the athletes and the cause. The other, is the unstoppable energy of our athletes together with their ability to inspire us all with their joy, smiles and determination.

This is a pivotal moment in our incredible organisation’s journey and our story is still at the beginning as we’re only scratching the surface of the more than 1.5 million people in the UK with an intellectual disability.

As part of that journey, just as Lawrie McMenemy handed over Chair of the Board to me, I will be handing to a new Chair at the end of the year. I am confident that our new Chair, together with the Board and Michelle, will lead this remarkable organisation on to greater things in the next phase of its exciting story. I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank Len Dunne, our incredibly supportive Vice Chair; our Board; our partners who support and believe in us without whom we would not exist; our volunteers who form the backbone of our organisation, Lawrie McMenemy for his commitment; Special Olympics Europe Eurasia; and my family.

Thank you everyone for giving me the privilege of leading this remarkable organisation and for trusting in me… and a special thank you to our athletes who have changed my life!

All the best

Murton
Chair

As you will have just read, sadly Murton Mann will be stepping down from his role as Chair of SOGB Board at the end of the year. Murton has dedicated his time, money and energy to Special Olympics for two decades. He has been involved in the Board for nearly a decade, the majority of that time as Chair. He has overseen a great deal of transition and change for Special Olympics Great Britain and has been a wonderful support for me since I started in post last year. His family have played a huge part in our development, by being so understanding about the time he has given to Special Olympics over the years.

Being a Chair is unpaid and the time commitment is extraordinarily high – especially over the last few years – so thank you Heather and India for your understanding and unwavering support. I’ll write more about Murton in my December blog, but just wanted to express my sincere gratitude to Murton for giving me this wonderful opportunity to lead this incredible organisation and for his time and support.

There are a number of people who will be rotating off the Board over the next few months, all of whom have dedicated so much to our growth and development. With this change, comes opportunity and as a new Chair takes over the reins and new board members come with a new energy and ideas, expect great things to happen! At this point it is worth acknowledging the passionate commitment of Lawrie McMenemy as our Honorary President and Paul Anderson (Honorary Vice President) who have played such an important role for decades and continue to be great ambassadors for our movement. Christopher Maloney MBE started this amazing organisation in GB 41 years ago and continues to be an amazing support to me and the network as a whole. I love to see some of the older stories and publications about the early days of SOGB – it’s a reminder of how far we have come and also helps us to focus on how far we can go and how many more lives we can transform.

So on behalf of everyone within Special Olympics GB and the wider Special Olympics family, thank you Murton for everything and we look forward to seeing you soon!

All the best
Michelle

Keith Wilcox MBE

Huge congratulations to Keith Wilcox on being awarded an MBE in acknowledgment for his 40 years of volunteering for Special Olympics GB. A proud moment and so well deserved. Many thanks for all your hard work and dedication and congratulations again on such a well deserved recognition.

Special Olympics GB athlete, coach and Board Member Greg Silvester had a truly amazing and proud day when he was invited to speak at The Royal Institute in London back in October.

Talking about Special Olympics GB and the World Games in front of an invited audience, he also spent time with fellow speaker, Helen Sharman CMG, OBE, the first British citizen to go into space back in 1991, when she spent eight days on the Russian Mir Space Station. Talk about having high flying connections! Well done Greg - what an honour!

Congratulations to Special Olympics GB artistic gymnast Bethany Paull for being one of the 10 amazing athletes who have been nominated for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the year 2019.

The winner will be announced at the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards on Sunday, November 24 and will go on to attend BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Aberdeen on 15 December. Fingers and everything crossed. Well done again Bethany!

To read more click HERE.

Autumn is well and truly here and another very hectic month at SO Great Britain. My travels have taken me to Liverpool, Manchester, Solihull (twice!), Dublin and Lee Valley. We have been busy interviewing for a number of key posts and working on our governance processes and procedures at national office. We have announced a new Ambassador and there are a number of exciting names on the table for the future. The team have been planning for 2020 and beyond – which is especially important given the small team we have at the moment. Ginny and I have been meeting with prospective and existing corporate partners.

To read more about what we've been up to click HERE.

Give As You Live is a free and very easy way to raise free funds for Special Olympics Great Britain, simply by shopping online.

You can join for free and start raising money for Special Olympics GB when you shop at over 4,300 stores. Just simply click on a store you want to shop with and you will be directed to the store's website where you can continue to shop as normal. Your purchase will automatically generate free funds for us.

It's really easy. Thank you in advance and happy shopping!

Click HERE to get started.

Sporting Highlights

It’s been another busy month of sporting achievements with Special Olympics GB athletes competing across the home nations making us all proud and having fun.

A brilliant day was had by more than 260 athletes gathered at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre for the Special Olympics Greater Regional Indoor Athletics event kindly sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric. We had a film crew there talking to some of our athletes, volunteers and families so watch this space for more updates on that.

Huge congratulations to Robert Holden from Special Olympics Sheffield who won the Special Olympics West Midlands Golf Challenge for the third year in a row. And to Special Olympics North Devon who had a wonderful two days at the National Table Tennis competition.

Congratulations also to Daniel Bernard for receiving an award at this year’s Kidscount Inspiration Awards held at the House of Commons.

Many thanks and well done as always to everyone involved in organising or taking part in the many sport sessions, events and competitions which happen week in and week out organised by our amazing volunteers across the country. If you’d like a story to be included in our newsletters – please send details and pictures to ALISON LAVENANT.

Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for lots more stories about our athletes and what's been going on.

Charity Film Awards – your help please!

A very generous and talented person called John Cobb has made a lovely film called “Thomas” about Special Olympics GB athlete Thomas Miller and it’s been nominated for a Charity Film Award! We need to get as many votes as possible so the film can get through to the final stage of judging.

It’s really easy to vote. Please click HERE and follow the instructions. And once you’ve voted it would be brilliant if you could share on your social media networks too.

Public voting closes on Sunday, December 1, 2019 so please HURRY.

Thank you!!

Special Olympics GB is looking for a London based Membership Officer to make all our admin dreams come true.

If you are an organised, microsoft-savy people person with good communication skills who can multi-task and want to make a difference - this is the job for you.

But hurry, there's not long left to apply.

For more information, click HERE

Accreditation Reminder

Many thanks to those clubs who have completed their Accreditation for 2020. Just a gentle reminder that there's not long left to get your forms and Athlete census returned to us the deadline of Saturday, November 30.

To receive you club 2019 Athlete Census please contact please email LAURA DAVIES. And if you have any questions about Accreditation, just email TIM MASIH with subject title: Accreditation 2019.

Calling all Sporting Event Organisers

Please check our Events calendar HERE to be sure your up-coming events are all listed. We just want to be sure nothing has gone astray in the recent transitions so please take two mins to check. Any problems, please email LAURA DAVIES.

For those of you who were lucky enough to travel to Abu Dhabi for the Special Olympics World Games, this lovely film captures some of the incredible moments of our athletes, families, volunteers and all of those privileged to be in their company. For those of you who weren't able to be there, this video brings alive the joy, friendship and determination to win against all the odds. Many thanks and credit to Michael Newton and Cari Davies from ITV News and Regions for doing this for us. Enjoy!

The End of an Era

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