I've started this side thread to go alongside the enough complaining thread because there are aspects of the discussion that turn on actions of the BFA and the Home countries and could do with a certain degree of thought. Apologies on the essay, this is all obviously complex and my thoughts are still forming.
The point was raised that the BFA apparently have no Grass roots plan... but from what I remember this was meant to be the remit of the devolved home countries, to pursue and develop fencing in their individual countries.
I just spent some time looking over the England fencing page and from what I can see the focus has shifted away from grass roots development and support, to focusing almost exclusively on the England fencing team.... so in short it's a reflection of what the BFA was meant to be doing in terms of international competition and developing National teams.
So as far as I can tell, with England fencing at least they then tried to devolve to the regions the role of developing grass roots fencing and the regions then started doing the hub days (again focused on already competitive fencers) and focusing on their teams for the winton cup, and further devolution of responsibility then goes to the counties, which don't have either resources or enough active members and somewhere along the line communication isn't reaching the clubs.
Now it's good in principle that there is a infrastructure in place.
NGB-HomeCountry-Region-County-Club. But at each level you need a committee of volunteers to organise and run things and there simply aren't that many people that have the time to give.
I'm struck by the example of Amazon who discovered that every extra click a person had to make lost them up to 25% of final sales. Then we wonder that the fencing world isn't growing.
The next thought I have is that when I started fencing, I was a member of the BFA. I had a little card that went in my wallet with my name and membership number on it. Whenever I opened my wallet it was there amongst the other cards. A point came where the devolution happened, I didn't feel at the time that the new home country devision was particularly relevant to me. To me it felt like I was just being categorised in a different department of the same company. I watched people getting frustrated with the BFA and there was a sense of ownership from the fencers and a sense that the BFA could be held accountable. I'm struck by how the fencers I see now seem to regard the BFA as some separate entity that makes decisions completely outside of their control.
So in essence the question is this, has the devolution efforts of the BFA failed?
Has it diluted the quality of volunteer participants across too wide a field?
Have the devolved organisations fulfilled their purpose or become distracted?
Do you as a member of the BFA feel like the BFA is working for you as a member?