A COPY of the Showjumping Ireland executive minutes, which was sent anonymously to The Irish Field, shows SJI finances are under the spotlight by directors.

In the minutes, dated March 19th 2019, of a meeting of the National Executive Meeting at SJI offices, financial issues and the hiring a CEO/Manager were among those highlighted.

The minutes outline the board being reminded of their responsibilities as Directors in terms of the financial management before highlighting the following costs from 2018: sponsorship income (€112,890), less marketing cost (€92,638) and sponsorship cost (€15,855) giving a net surplus of €4,397; salaries: €52k increase, the majority of which was due to salary increases (€22,898), new staff (€12k), temp staff (12k) and PRSI/Pension/Healthcare.

The following was noted: salary increases were not approved by Management and Finance. It was also noted that many of the directors were “extremely unhappy’’ with how the money was spent in 2018.

The structure in SJI’s Memorandum and Article of Association demands that all decisions are committee based.

After a lengthy discussion, the minutes document that the committee agreed that SJI should appoint a CEO/General Manager.

The matter was referred to the Management and Finance Committee to ascertain if the association can afford to employ a CEO/General Manager.

Recently new SJI chairman Michael Blake publicly appealed to all members to please give their support and co-operation to the new regime, particularly over the next six months.