Strategic Plan – British Skydiving

Strategic Plan 2018-22

Introduction

Since our foundation in 1961 as the British Parachute Association, we have a proud record of accomplishment. Following successful completion of our previous five-year plan from 2011-16, the next five years are about maximising the momentum and continuing our development. We aim to be fit for the future as an expert, world-class organisation providing services and support for people experiencing the exhilaration of British Skydiving and to promote, encourage and enable participation in our sport. We remain fully committed to our prime strategic priority of increasing safe participation and enjoyment of British Skydiving, and of growing and developing the best of British Skydiving to shine on the world stage.

As a third sector, not-for-profit membership body, we are uniquely positioned to use our resources – including volunteers from our membership – to drive positive action, influence and delivery more widely than ever before. We have expertise and networks in all aspects of our sport to fulfill our role as the authoritative and pre-eminent organisation for British Skydiving, with responsibilities in both the home countries and in showcasing the best of British Skydiving talent on the international stage.

We operate under an Exposition from the UK Airspace Regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, by which British Skydiving is regulated. This has resulted in a world-class safety record for British Skydiving, achieved by an effective and efficient system of safety management in which all our Affiliated Operators play an integral part.

We are recognised as the National Governing Body of British Skydiving by UK Sport and the home countries sports councils. We nominate the UK delegation to the International Skydiving Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale – the World Air Sports Federation. The FAI is represented in the UK by the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, in its coordinating role as UK National Airsports Control. We are a member of, and we nominate delegates to, the RAeC Council. We engage with the wider sporting landscape through our membership of the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

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Annex: Components of strategic goals

Engage with communities of our members and our other stakeholders, and beyond with the media and the wider public

Develop an inclusive culture and community that respects the varied individuals who participate in British Skydiving

i. Build on our strengths and our members’ passion
ii. Recognise and respect our differences
iii. Extend our reach further into our communities

Support our members and our Affiliated Parachute Training Organisations (PTOs)

i. Build our networks
ii. Develop our influence

Give a compelling reason to join, engage with and support us
Strengthen British Skydiving to better serve and support our members

Strengthen and grow our role and reputation as the premier source of expertise in British Skydiving

Maintain and improve our framework to govern, regulate, manage and oversee British Skydiving

i. Increase our volunteer workforce
ii. Evidence the impact of our work
iii. Be passionate and ambitious for our members

Control aviation activities in UK airspace associated with skydiving aircraft, where we are authorised by the Civil Aviation Authority to self-regulate

Provide ongoing training and risk management to ensure that members’ activities are conducted under the highest standards of safety management

i. Innovate product development, services and delivery
ii. Provide a personalised approach to meet members’ needs
iii. Increase support to Coaches and Instructors
iv. Invest in safety and risk management
v. Respond to the growing numbers of people wishing to experience British Skydiving

Provide support to the British Skydiving community and its development

Promote sport and competition excellence

Provide a service, on a cost recovery basis, for all operators to support their operations
Enhance perceptions of British Skydiving to inspire the passion of our members and encourage take-up of our sport

Increase visibility, recognition and awareness of the range of our support to the skydiving community

i. Promote skydiving through competition involvement at all levels
ii. Measure and build perception of our brand
iii. Provide brand clarity
iv. Provide clear messaging
v. Integrate communications, marketing and digital activity

Gather and maintain high quality, relevant data

Generate respect for what we do, our membership and our staff
Assure the financial sustainability of British Skydiving
Represent British Skydiving by influencing on behalf of our members and our other stakeholders

Engage with government and other decision-making bodies to promote skydiving and influence thinking and
understanding in airspace and aviation

i. Influence intelligently on behalf of our members, staff and other stakeholders
ii. Take the lead in representing skydiving
iii. Increase our public profile as the voice of skydiving

Have credible positions on issues relating to our members’ and other stakeholders’ needs
Make British Skydiving resilient by assuring that our governance structures are up-to-date, fit-for-purpose, and compliant both practically and legally

Strengthen our volunteer and staff structures

Build the skill in both our staff and our volunteers

Develop better understanding of the ‘will’ of volunteers

Be an attractive employer

Put the appropriate resources in place to achieve our goals

Build upon the skills of the members of Council as both Directors of the organisation and champions of the sport

Emphasise collaboration in all that we do
h. Grass roots talent identification
Our committee structure

Our challenge and context

For all those involved, there has never been a better time to make the most impact, nor a brighter light to shine on our ambition. We should focus on what is still to come, what is new and stimulating and what can be created and built upon as we reach out and develop British Skydiving.

National Governing Bodies (NGB) of Sport are under greater scrutiny from members, the media and the wider public than ever before. The environment in which sporting bodies operate has become increasingly litigious. Also, the last decade has witnessed a digital communications revolution through social media in particular. These influencers look set to continue over our next five-year planning cycle and beyond.

NGBs such as ourselves, historically with the culture of a national club, need to equip ourselves with a clear vision and a strategic plan to realise it. Our strategic plan needs to be supported by the right structures and competences to govern, support and champion our members and our sport in an efficient, effective and businesslike manner. We need to do this while nurturing our personal, member-centric approach, cherishing the camaraderie and bonhomie for which our sport is renowned.

Within our own sport over the last decade or so, we have seen:

the development of improved safety management systems;
recognition of new competition disciplines such as Canopy Piloting and, most recently, Wingsuit Flying; and
growth in Tunnel Flying (‘indoor skydiving’) not only for training, but for international indoor skydiving competitions organised by the FAI, etc.

Our most powerful role is as a nexus, the go-to body for all aspects of British Skydiving. With our membership, including many specialists and active volunteers, and our staff, we have unparalleled knowledge. We must use this
knowledge to apply our resources wisely and in a structured and systematic manner to govern, support and champion our sport, recognising that we can only do this in partnership with other stakeholders whose support we must continue to earn.

Our vision

To secure skydiving as a safe, enjoyable and accessible sport for all.

Our vision is driven by our belief that through the power and inspiration of our members, partners, staff and supporters, we can achieve a change in the way wider society sees British Skydiving.

Our culture and values

As a membership body, our culture is to ensure that our members and those who support them are treated, and treat each other, with respect, integrity and consideration.

Our approach will always be member-centric, concentrating effort and resources where we believe we can make the most significant impact. This approach will apply to all of our activity, with our belief that it is support for our members that matters most, and where transformation can best be achieved.

We will continue to organise and structure ourselves to best achieve our ambitions, and employ or engage with people that are driven by excellence, have a belief in the highest standards and the need constantly to improve.
We will demonstrate a passion for everything we do and an ambition to achieve the most we can. We believe we can make a real difference for the better by working together.

We are an organisation with unique responsibilities and roles. However, we will only achieve our ambitions by working with and through others, and by appreciation of where we fit within the skydiving and wider sporting communities.

To secure the mandate we need to maximise momentum, we must inspire confidence, trust and respect from our members, staff, partners and our other stakeholders. We are, therefore, committed to a culture of openness, integrity and honesty.

We will be guided in our member-centric behaviour by four primary organisational values:

Commitment to Excellence
Honesty and Openness
Respect, Integrity and Trust
Building Our Knowledge

We will facilitate the continuous learning and development of our members to improve their performance and enjoyment of skydiving. We will continuously transform ourselves as a learning organisation in response to the pressures we face to maintain our pre-eminent position in British Skydiving.

We will ensure that our knowledge and development as a body is always of the highest level so that we can support our members to the full.

Our Challenge and Context

We have six strategic goals for the five-year period, 2018-22. Our goals determine our activities by providing a clear strategic focus and outcomes, and these goals are complementary to each other rather than being set out in any particular order:

Engage with communities of our members and our other stakeholders, and beyond with the media and the wider public.
Strengthen British Skydiving to better serve and support our members.
Enhance perceptions of British Skydiving to inspire the passion of our members and encourage take-up of our sport.
Assure the financial sustainability of British Skydiving to 2022 and beyond.
Represent British Skydiving by influencing on behalf of our members and our other stakeholders.
Make British Skydiving resilient by assuring that our governance structures are up-to-date, fit-for-purpose and compliant both practically and legally.

Our Planning Timetable

This is our timetable for developing detailed plans:

Focus	Purpose
Thematic Plan	Top line outcomes for each of the six strategic goals
Financial Forecast for the 2018/22 cycle	Top line budget and financial forecast for the cycle
Business Plan and budget for 2018	Operational plan and budget for the first year of the cycle
Performance Ability Measurement for 2018	Ability to measure the impact of our activities and their contribution to the achievement of the top line thematic outcomes.

Our strategic goals, strategies and the business of British Skydiving need to be correctly directed, and appropriately governed and scrutinised. We will seek to continue to operate, as we have done successfully to date, through a structure of committees, subcommittees, Specialised Interest Groups and ad hoc working parties and panels. Their number, remit and authority will be determined by the strategy adopted by Council, as our Board of Directors, to develop our sport. The structure of committees and staff supporting our Council needs to be suitable and sufficient to achieve our strategic goals.

Working in Partnership with our Stakeholders

We recognise that we cannot achieve our strategic goals in isolation. We have not just a responsibility but a desire to work in partnership with other stakeholders and commercial partners for mutual benefit. We must work hard to keep our mandate to act in the way we believe is best for British Skydiving, our members and other stakeholders and our sport in general.

Our values reflect this; not just our commitment to excellence, but the openness and honesty of our approach, and the respect and trust we have for others. Most of all, we will keep our members as beneficiary at the heart of everything we do. To lose that focus would be to lose our purpose.

All this will happen against a background of organisational transformation; a process of learning and improvement that will build upon our previous great work that has built our proud history and heritage, and ensure that we are best placed to adapt, progress and succeed in an ever-changing world.

The necessary and important steps on this journey are:

Continue the revision and amendment of our governance structures to deliver our strategy to 2022 and beyond.
Enhancing our staffing structures and any associated development.
Ensuring that we are financially robust.

Conclusion

In delivering this plan, we will differentiate between those areas in which we are mandated to deliver; those where we can lead activity for the good of the wider skydiving community; and those where our influence and our profile – our brand – can help facilitate the activity and ambitions of our members and our other stakeholders.

It links an ambitious vision to clear outputs: six strategic goals that focus on our primary role of delivering wider benefits to our members and other stakeholders, and our ability to develop and promote British Skydiving on the national and international stage. We are clear about our core programmes and activities; our priorities, affiliations and partnerships that will enable us to work effectively; and about the means by which our members and other stakeholders will contribute to our strategic goals and share in our success.

Council & Committees