QuadballUK Executive Team Minutes

General Forum Minutes

Annual General Meeting Minutes

Find all the minutes from Open Forum here.

Open Forum Meeting Minutes

Public minutes released that cover regular meetings within QuadballUK.

QuadballUK Executive Minutes contain summaries of the weekly meetings that are held by the Executive Management Team. They contain ongoing discussions about the sport, departmental and project updates, policy discussion, and voting.

General Forums happen several times a year, where QuadballUK leadership discuss updates and policies with club leaders and give them a chance to critique and feedback on the changes within the sport.

Annual General Meetings are yearly meetings where the QuadballUK Executive Leadership update the community on the financial status of the national governing body, upcoming changes both nationally and internationally, large changes to the upcoming season, and any major personnel changes.

Any queries about the minutes or QuadballUK leadership can be directed to secretary@quidditchuk.org

Minutes

In the Community division, six teams competed for glory across two days of intense action in the mid-May sunshine. The major storyline going into the weekend was the race for number 3. Velociraptors QC, London QC and reigning champions Werewolves of London Firsts had all previously won two BQC titles each, but who would get the elusive third? Or would a new challenger add their name to the honours list?

Werewolves of London Grab Their Third BQC Trophy

Oxford University Quadball Club becomes the first ever team to win three BQC Golds.

Oxford University Takes the Gold

This weekend, the nation’s top university teams storm Keele University for the 2025 British Quadball Cup; two days of fierce play and unforgettable moments. With glory on the line and no room for off-days, every goal, tackle, and flag catch could be the difference between going home with that elusive trophy or simply going home.

This is where it all comes together. Some teams arrive as favourites, some with a point to prove — but every single one of them has fire in their belly and their eyes on the cup.

So grab your jerseys, rally your squads, and get loud. The stage is set. Whistles at the ready and the sticks are down…

Eight teams. One trophy. Everything to play for.

As we head into BQC 2025, one thing is clear: this is the closest the university league has been in years. With talent stacked across the board and momentum swinging in every direction, every single game is going to matter. While I’ll admit I’m biased toward Warwick, it’s impossible to ignore the phenomenal seasons we’ve seen from teams like Oxford, UWU and Edinburgh. Truthfully, this could be anyone’s year.

But beyond the competition, BQC remains the highlight of the UK Quadball calendar. It’s a weekend that brings the entire community together—where freshers get a glimpse of what they can grow into, and returning players are reminded why they fell in love with this sport in the first place. The passion, the support, the friendships forged on and off the pitch—it’s something rare, something real, and something we’re all lucky to be part of.

To every university team taking the field: good luck, play with pride, and enjoy every moment. Let’s make it a BQC to remember!

BQC University Division Preview

We're excited to announce that both Gio Forino and Matt Bateman will be joining us as the new Directors for QuadballUK, fulfilling the role and responsibilities of the President as a shared venture, and leading the sport through the next leg of our journey.

Both Gio and Matt bring a wealth of professional experience from both within and beyond the sport.

Gio has been involved in quadball since 2017 – volunteering across QUK, QE, and IQA projects and events throughout their career. Gio has worked across media departments and international tournaments, as well as chairing and coaching for multiple clubs across the UK and Europe.

Professionally, Gio has a broad range of knowledgeable insight from their role as a film producer, able to manage logistics and finances, as well as build out the infrastructure required to ensure the sport remains sustainable in the long term.

Matt is also a welcome return to QuadballUK – having previously worked as Vice-President under Mel Piper, before donning the Presidential role in 2019 through to 2022. Matt returns to us after having successfully organised and directed the European Games in collaboration with the IQA in London in 2024.

Matt also works in almost every other area of the sport, serving as an Assistant Coach for England, a media producer for IQA, and an internationally successful referee with significant grand final UK, European, and American matches under his belt.

Matt Bateman, Director

Gio Forino, Director

Izzy Brown, Assistant Director

There's a lot to do and it's going to take us some time.

So please let us know how we can best work with you.

Gio Forino and Matt Bateman announced as the new QuadballUK Directors

After 5 years of volunteering with QuadballUK, Dec Ramsay is stepping down as President as they focus on their mental health and ongoing recovery from C-PTSD.

Dec took over the reigns of President last year, following 4 years of work across various positions. They have been an Events volunteer, Media volunteer, Technology Director, before taking up the role of President.

As a volunteer Dec has had a hand in most parts of Quadball at all levels over the last 5 years - some highlights include leading the QUK website rebuild, Tournament Directing Development Cup, Volunteering with the IQA as Assistant Communications Director, running contact clinics at fixtures, to all the responsibilities of leading the organisation as President.


Reflecting on their time with QUK as President, Dec states they’re particularly proud of their work bringing financial partners both old and new into the sport, including author John Green as shirt sponsor for Team England, and the uptake of the new Club Incentives that they developed for this coming season as part of the Strategic Plan.

Dec Ramsay Stepping Down from Presidential Role

Samaritans: 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org

Text SHOUT to 85258 (UK-wide) for text-based support

Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) 0800 58 58 58 (5pm-midnight)

Switchboard (LGBT+ support) 0300 300 0630 (10am-10pm) 

Victim Support 08 08 16 89 111 or chat at https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/live-chat

As one season ends and another rapidly approaches, it’s timely for me to look back at the year that has gone, reflect on what happened, and set the strategy for the future. For the first time we have produced an Annual Report and Strategic Plan for the 2024/25 season, based on the performance of QUK against our metrics we laid out at the start of the 23/24 season. 

It can be read in full here, and it include analysis of how we performed, what we need to do better, and the vision for the next season. Below is a summary of the report, details of our new club incentives, our strategic plan for 2024/2025, and details of our Open Forum for the community being held on Wednesday 14th August.

The report lays out our performance against the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) we released at the start of the 2023/24 season. While it would be easy to focus on the bits we did achieve - our successful bid for European Games, national team performance, and new sponsorships, we overall fell short of what we wanted to achieve.

We shrunk as a sport to our smallest since 2015 and we face fundamental challenges as a sport that we need to address collectively to change this trajectory. QUK has faults it needs to address, including improving our transparency and accessibility to the community. I am sorry for when we let the community down this season. Part of the reason for this document is to be held accountable for how we work as an organisation and provide transparency to the community.

In the report we have highlighted 3 areas of particular note: 

New Player Recruitment and Player Retention

We did not hit our targets and we've identified that this drop in players was larger than anticipated. This was not matched by recruitment especially at the Community club level, where we saw an extremely small amount of new players joining the sport through Community clubs. While we expect more players to join through Universities, with a smaller pool of players to draw from Community clubs will need to increase their own efforts to recruit new players this season.

The Quadball Community experience with QUK 

The community's experience with QUK has not been good. It has come through in our surveys, and we have been rightly criticised for things we have gotten wrong. We hear that people want QUK to be more receptive to feedback, that we need to be more transparent, and more accessible.

Our referees have been let down by not being paid for their work - which we set out as a Key Result to not only pay this year but catch up on the historic missed payments. We are sorry we've not achieved this. We have made the necessary preparations to pay this out but are currently awaiting over £25,000 in unpaid team and player fees from the 2023/24 season. If you or your club has not paid your invoices, please do so urgently so we can distribute this money to the referees and volunteers who deserve to be compensated for their efforts.

An area where we've succeeded this year is creating connections outside the Quadball bubble. Beyond new sponsors such as Partners in Health and returning ones such as Enrich Education and SISU Mouthguards, we have seen there is interest in the sport and what opportunities there are in a post-Quidditch world. We've become a member of Sported which is a charity that helps non-profits and charities get access to funding and expert advice. They are currently helping us move from a Non-Profit to a registered charity, which would open up new revenue streams and funding. We've also talked to other NGBs such as UK Dodgeball to learn and make connections where we have common ground (and in some cases, common athletes).

One aspect we get asked a lot about is BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport). BUCS offers a path for Quadball to be formally recognised as a sport at the University level, and we’ve had productive meetings with them this year to discuss Quadball becoming part of their offering. In order to achieve this, we need to show them that the University scene is growing, profitable, and the existing player base wants to be a part of BUCS. We have addressed the last point by asking for opinions on us joining BUCS in the recent Player Survey, but the other two points will need to be addressed by supporting our existing teams and helping new ones start.

Player Recruitment and Retention is vital for keeping the sport alive and growing. Clubs are at the forefront of these efforts, from recruiting players at freshers fairs and give-it-a-goes, to keeping players engaged through the off-season. QUK recognises that this work is critical and we want to make sure clubs are incentivised to keep up this great work. As a result we have 2 new incentives for waivers and grants being made available to clubs, and a new requirement for Crossplay.

Grow The Sport

As per the QuadballUK Constitution, the President must “outline specific and measurable goals they wish to achieve” when appointed to the role, which must have clear parallels with the QUK core mission. The core mission has 4 pillars: growth, ability, sustainability and community. Our new President has developed goals in accordance with this mission and presented them to the Executive Management Team (EMT) and now the wider community. 

The goals follow the methodology known as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). The purpose of these goals is to set an ambitious vision and for them to be measurable, adaptable, focused, and increase alignment. The OKRs will be tracked throughout the 24/25 season by the EMT and may be adapted internally based on how the season progresses.

OKRs are meant to be ambitious and stretch an organisation, so not every Key Result will be met. A rough expectation of setting OKRs is to aim for a 70% success rate - if all Key Results were achieved then the targets should have been higher, if none of the Key Results are met we were too ambitious.

Rather than 5 Objectives as per the 23/24 season, we have 1: Grow The Sport. It is the north star of our organisation, and everything we decide and work on will be framed by that Objective. While all core functions of QUK will continue, any other projects departments want to undertake need to further that objective.

One area in particular QUK needs to be better at this season is to be more open, more transparent, and more accessible. We need to engage with players and club leadership more, and be honest about how things are going. We have heard the feedback that people do not know what QUK does or what we're working on.

To that end, I will be hosting an open forum for the Quadball community to submit questions and opinions about QUK, the mission, and the plan going forward. The forum will be open to all on Wednesday 14th August at 7PM. This session will be an opportunity for any and all community members to ask questions of QUK and provide feedback of how QUK can improve or what needs to change. If there is sufficient interest and engagement, we’ll do more of these over the season (these will not replace our General Forums where club leadership have a regular call with QUK). You can submit your questions/feedback here. The forum will be held on Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/fmv-vyyc-wpj

I, personally, am hopeful for the future. I still remember the first training I attended and how quickly this sport became a central part of my life. This sport has so much to offer and I am so thankful to be able to serve this community that has given me so much. We can do so much together and I look forward to working with you all to make the 2024/25 season the best we’ve had.