As 2011 draws to a close it is a good time for a update from myself, after four months as CEO for Badminton Ireland.Well it has certainly been a busy four months, I have been lucky enough to meet all Branch boards, as well many of the Badminton Ireland membership and this has certainly been very beneficial.

 I firmly believe this interaction provides a great opportunity for both local and national issues to be discussed and for nationwide communication to be kept at a healthy level. To this end we will hope to expand the number of Badminton Ireland National events during 2012 where all interested stakeholders can get together and share good ideas and views.

We have successfully delivered the new Coaching Ireland Level two coach award and have revamped our Level one course to meet the Badminton World Federation standards with leading coach educators Mike Woodward and Dan Travers making various visits to deliver and oversee the award. I believe all the Badminton Ireland coach education team have been energised by this work and I must make a special thank you for the voluntary work of Tony Robinson (Head of Coaching) in support of these improvements. We will hopefully continue these positive changes in 2012.

The previous few months have all been about developing a strategy with as much stakeholder involvement as possible; over the upcoming months Badminton Ireland members will see a number of notable additions and a more structured delivery of events, Coach Education courses and membership services. Members would have noticed and improved Membership provision with a dedicated Membership Coordinator in Nicola Rance who started in November. This signals a first step in our commitment to a much improved service for your affiliation to Badminton Ireland.

Moving forward will work very hard to firm up our local authority’s partnership strategy and to move from planning into delivery and we will be looking towards schools and also our increase in various other initiatives designed to engage children into Badminton.

One of the highlights was yet another successful delivery of the Yonex Irish Open with more than 250 competitors; we also successful streamed the event and had significant media interest. Working closely with Badminton Irelands Ulster Branch Development officer Ryan Prentice we successfully maximised the event for the local community, ensuring a lasting legacy to the area. Again a special thank you to the Ulster Branch for their support and all involved.

In High Performance we were able to add a National coach in Daniel Magee whom has already had a very positive effect on the National players. Our three Olympic hopefuls have all fared well in International tournaments. Scott Evans is on track for Olympic qualification, Chloe Magee has excelled in 2011 and looks to have already guaranteed her Olympic place with five months remaining and won the November award as the ‘Irish Times Sports Woman of the month’. In the mixed doubles Chloe and Sam Magee sit in the first reserve position for the Olympic Games. Development players Sinead Chambers and Tony Stephenson have also had notable International results which add to the positive High Performance success. In 2012 we will look to focus our attention both on the Olympic Games and the junior system which will see a number of positive modifications.

Looking forward to 2012 I am particularly looking forward to the various National championships and the All Ireland Inter Club, County and Branch championships. The success of these events is essential to the improvement of Badminton in Ireland and needs the support of all stakeholders in Ireland.

There are many positive changes coming in 2012 and I am confident piece by piece all members will see Badminton Ireland is moving in the right direction.

To finish I would add there are many more people I could thank in my first four months that have contributed positively to Badminton in Ireland and to all I am very grateful for their continued support.

I wish everyone a great Christmas and New Year!

Richard Vaughan

CEO – Badminton Ireland