BAFRA BAFRA - How it works
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BAFRA is governed by six directors who are responsible to the membership for the smooth running of the Association. The six are elected annually and report to the membership at the AGM held every year at the Convention. The Association has a constitution (laid out in the member's handbook) and all members are expected to adhere to it. The six directors are:

  • President
  • General Secretary
  • Director of Finance
  • Director of Operations
  • Director of Training
  • Director of Youth and Development

For an up to date list of who holds which post, please refer to the contacts page.

The directors are responsible for the day to day running of the Association. They meet periodically to discuss how things are going and to determine BAFRA's response to external matters such as relations with leagues and BAFA. This latter Association is the 'umbrella' organisation for British American Football. A good deal of BAFRA's directors' business is now conducted by telephone, fax or Email as this cuts down on costs.

Briefly, the six directors have the following responsibilities:

PresidentChairs BAFRA and co-ordinates business and is the first 'port of call' by organisations outside of BAFRA
General SecretaryLooks after the general administration of BAFRA including producing the weekly Newsflash; arranges the meetings of the Directors and, at present, looks after membership
Director of FinanceLooks after all aspects of BAFRA's money, including dealing with teams and leagues on any financial matters
Director of OperationLiaises with the leagues and is the person with overall responsibility for the scheduling of games and Officials
Director of TrainingCo-ordinates all training programmes, assessment and exams and is responsible for the organisation of the Annual Convention
Director of YouthLiaises with all Youth Football organisations

In addition all Directors have a number of Committees they attend and possibly chair.

These Committees can be divided into two sorts: 'Expert' and 'Judgemental'. The former are:

  • The Rules and Mechanics Committee
  • The Grading Committee
  • The Examinations Committee (which is a sub-committee of the Grading Committee)

The latter are :

  • The Selection Committee
  • The Officiating Review Committee
  • The Disciplinary Committee

These Committees are open to all members of BAFRA. Generally, volunteers are called for and if too many are forthcoming then an election takes place.

Each area of the country has its own Local Association. These Local Associations hold regular meetings (and social events) at which discussions are held over rules questions, peculiar happenings during games etc. To facilitate this, each area has its own Training Officer who is responsible to the Director of Training for the training of the local members.

There are, in addition, some volunteer positions within the organisation. The two main areas of Great Britain (North and South) have Regional Scheduling Officers who are responsible to the Director of Operations. Their job is to schedule members to games within their region. There are also three Incident report Co-ordinators whose job it is to sit by the 'phone on a Sunday evening and gather information from games that have taken place on that day. Last but by no means least, there is a person whose responsibility it is to receive and then disseminate the paperwork from each game.

All this means that there are a lot of people involved with the running of BAFRA. Over a quarter of the current membership in fact and they are all volunteers !

If you think you can assist in any way contact the General Secretary (or any other Director). All comments are welcomed.