Vacancies & Volunteering | Midlands Hockey

Make Hockey Happen in the Midlands

Midlands Hockey Limited is responsible for delivering all aspects of hockey across the Midlands Area - from Masters to Juniors and everything in between. It is one of the 8 Areas, formed as part of England Hockey’s structure changes in 2022, responsible for making hockey happen across the country.

If you’d like to be part of the team making hockey happen in the Midlands, enabling many hundreds of people to participate in a rewarding and inclusive sport, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact the relevant committee chair to express your interest and a Director or member of the relevant committee will get back to you.

Here’s a summary of the roles and committees that govern Midlands Hockey and how to get involved.

Midlands Area Committees

There are two main committees that have oversight of all activity:

Board of Directors
Area Management Committee

The key functions of the Area are performed by 5 Committees that report to the Board:

Adult Leagues & Competitions
Junior Leagues & Competitions
Masters
Discipline
Officiating

Each committee has a range of time and skill requirements as well as some flexibility in approach depending on the time you can give. Please be aware that the exact roles and the number of volunteers needed within the Midlands Area is still evolving so, even if there isn’t an exact fit for your interests and skills but you think you have something to offer, please get in touch. You can contact the relevant committee chair to express your interest.

Adult Leagues and Competitions Chair – see Committee Chairs section for a full role description.
Area League Manager – currently two positions (one each for the men’s and women’s leagues) – the ALMs work closely with the Adult League & Competitions Chair and provide support and guidance to the Grade and Divisional secretaries to ensure the smooth running of the Leagues with fair and consistent decision making.
GMS Manager – technical interface between adult leagues and England hockey.
Grade Secretary – one role for each Grade - working closely with the Area League Managers and supporting the Divisional secretaries, particularly to ensure consistency of decision making across specific Grades.
Divisional Secretaries – To manage a division(s) proactively, be first point of the contact for the teams in the division(s) they manage to provide advice and to check and challenge the team match information on the GMS.
Indoor Lead & Administrators – To enable / co-ordinate the delivery of the Area Adult Indoor Competitions programme and ensure the smooth running of all the indoor competitions.
Communications Officer –To ensure clubs are kept informed about all news relevant to the Adult Leagues via newsletters and appropriate social media etc and to arrange forums and feedback as required.

How to register your interest

If you are interested in getting involved with any aspect of running the Adult Leagues, even if you are not sure which roles might suit your skills or time, you can contact the relevant committee chair to express your interest at any time and find out more.

Junior Leagues & Competitions Chair – see Committee Chairs section for a full role description.
Junior Coordinator/ Vice Chair – to work with the Chair to co-ordinate the planning and delivery of all junior competition formats across the Area.
Junior Clubs Competition Administrator – responsible for organising the Area Clubs Junior competitions in line with the Centralised Calendar Dates.
Junior County Competitions Administrator – responsible for organising inter-county junior hockey competitions in line with the Centralised Calendar Dates.
Indoor Lead – To enable / co-ordinate the delivery of the Area junior indoor competitions programme and ensure the smooth running of all the indoor competitions.
Sub-Area Reps – To represent the Sub-Areas (counties) at the Juniors League & Competitions Area Committee, to give feedback on Junior Competitions within sub-Area, what is working well, what could be improved, and support as required at the Sub-Area level.
Schools Lead – To oversee, organise and implement the Area and Sub-Area schools hockey competition programme.

How to register your interest

Junior Hockey is growing in participation so the structure of the committee and its supporting roles are still evolving; if you are interested in getting involved with any aspect of Junior Hockey, even if you’re not sure which roles might suit your skills or time, you can contact the relevant committee chair to express your interest at any time and find out more.

Masters Chair – see Committee Chairs section for a full role description.
Competitions Coordinator – To co-ordinate the planning and implementation of Masters competitions across the Area i.e. liaising with Selectors, Team Managers, Competition Organisers, Officiating Rep etc
Lead Selector – To be responsible for ensuring a fair and transparent selection process for all players wishing to be part of an Area Masters team, including appointment of selectors and an agreed selection process.
Competition Organiser(s) – To lead the organisation of specific Masters tournaments hosted within the Midlands Area.
Masters Officiating Rep - to liaise with the Officiating Committee to ensure appointments to Masters competitions as required.
Team managers – To administer and manage a specific Masters team in the lead up to and participation in the age-group Area tournaments, including selection, kit management and training sessions as appropriate.
Sub-Area Reps – To represent the Sub-Areas (Counties) at the Masters Area Committee, to give feedback on Masters hockey in the sub-area, what is working well, what could be improved, and support as required at the Area level.
Masters Club Liaison Officer - to co-ordinate all communications to clubs, including social media and website, regarding Masters Hockey in the Area.
Masters Administrator - to support the committee with general administration and organisation of meetings and co-ordination of events.

How to register your interest

Masters Hockey is growing in participation and so the roles on the Masters Committee are still evolving; if you are interested in getting involved with any aspect of Masters Hockey, even if you’re not sure which roles might suit your skills or time, you can contact the relevant committee chair to express your interest and find out more at any time.

Officiating Committee Chair – see Committee Chairs section for a full role description.
Appointments Lead – To appropriately appoint to highest levels of Area Competition, EH Cup and any other requested competitions
Club Liaison Lead – To provide essential link between clubs and Officiating Committee, to deliver development support for club-based Umpires and Technical Officials
Development Lead – To oversee the development of individuals undertaking Area Umpiring appointments, as well as overseeing the development of umpire coaches & assessors to the agreed standards.
Young Umpires Lead – To proactively recruit, retain and develop Young Umpires (under 23 years old) to service Junior and Senior Umpiring opportunities
Area Technical Officiating Lead– To coordinate recruitment and development opportunities for Technical Officials to support Area and National competitions
Vice-Chair – Administration – To coordinate all the required administration functions required by the Officiating group including: Kit, IT liaison, Welfare and Media/Communications

There are also supporting roles available in each of the areas named above.

We are currently recruiting for the key role of 6 x "Club Cluster Leads" to support the engagement of clubs across the Midlands. With responsibility for a cluster of hockey clubs they will; help drive the strategy of MHOC, be a local point of contact for clubs and improve the support, communication and messaging outreach from MHOC. Please click here for the role description and if you are interested, or have any questions, please contact areaadmin@midlands.hockey.

How to register your interest for Officiating Roles

All Officiating Committee roles are appointed at the EHO – Midlands Branch AGM 2024 (date tbc). If you are interested in getting involved with the work of the above committee you can contact AreaOfficiating@midlands.hockey for more information on the appointment process.

Area Disciplinary Administrator (ADA) – see Committee Chairs section for a full role description.
Assistant Area Disciplinary Administrators (AADAs) – To be a member of an Area Discipline Panel (ADP) delivering effective management of all aspects of Discipline across an ‘Area’ (as defined by England Hockey). To support the Area Disciplinary Administrator (ADA) including review of Disciplinary processes across the sport.

How to register your interest for Disciplinary Roles

The ADA is a skills based role and is appointed by the Directors in consultation with England Hockey, the ADA then appoints an appropriate number of suitably experienced (minimum two) AADAs to the Discipline Committee. There are a limited number of roles available but we are keen to expand the diversity of members of the Discipline Committee so if you are interested in getting involved with the work of Discipline Committee you can contact discipline@midlands.hockey for more information.

Area Committee Chairs

Each of the committees is led by a Chair. This is a key role and you will be expected to lead your Committee effectively and attend Management Committee meetings with the Area Directors as well as national meetings with England Hockey to support the direction of the function nationally. The majority of Committee Chairs are elected (or re-elected if standing again)*, annually by the members at the AGM. Please click on these links to see the role descriptions.

Applications for the 2024/25 season are now closed.

If you wish to stand for election (as Chair of Adult Leagues or Juniors or Masters), a formal nomination will be required – the nomination form and candidate statement template will be emailed to those who express an interest. The signed nomination forms need to be returned no later than 15^th May 2024. Nominations will be considered by the Nominations and Remuneration Committee and suitable candidates put forward to the membership for election at the AGM on 10^th July 2024.

* The formal appointment processes for the Officiating Chair and Discipline Chair are different. Please contact AreaOfficiating@midlands.hockey or discipline@midlands.hockey if you require further information.

Area Directors

The people who are elected to these positions play a crucial leadership role and need to take responsibility for the organisation. There are 5 titled director roles that are suited to people who are prepared to play an integral team-working role within the leadership team.

Chair of the Board
Vice Chair of the Board - Expressions of interest welcomed
Finance Director - Expressions of interest welcomed
Governance Director - Expressions of interest welcomed
Operations Director

The Area Directors form the Board of Directors and have all the usual Limited Company statutory responsibilities. Applications for the 2024/25 season are now closed.

To find out more or express your interest in becoming a Director of Midlands Hockey you can contact the relevant committee chair at any time. If you wish to stand for election for either of the existing vacancies you will need to express your interest as soon as possible and then a formal nomination will be required – the nomination form and candidate statement template will be emailed to those who express an interest. If you decide to stand for election your signed nomination forms need to be returned no later than 15^th May 2024. Nominations will be considered by the Nominations and Remuneration Committee and suitable candidates put forward to the membership for election at the AGM on 10^th July 2024.