Strategic report


It is my pleasure to bring you our new look annual Strategic Report. You’ll see that we have moved to report on our impact, especially as we embed our ‘Together on Water’ vision, launched in June last year.


We have welcomed new colleagues to support us in turning our strategic vision into reality and we have worked with our members and affiliates to better understand where we’re starting from. In the following pages, I will share with you our progress in these strategic areas and how they fit alongside our commitment to you and all of our members and stakeholders in the coming years as we embark on the journey.


Business review


We continue to focus on making broad improvements to the way we work to support our strategy to enable many more people to enjoy the benefits we all love of being together on water. We have invested in our ambition of becoming much more aligned with modern technologies, be that in the way we engage with our members, our training candidates and centres, our clubs and our participants. Our website has continued to improve as both a shop window to our sport and a source of valued information, as a result of the money we have spent improving its stability as we prepare to move to a new platform next year. We have worked with external consultants this year to review our overall approach to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. This has, in part, led to some internal reorganisation, creating a team focussed on Legal, Governance and Integrity matters.


Having moved to RYA House in Hamble from Eastleigh over 20 years ago, we have invested in refurbishing the office to give our employees and volunteers a vibrant, open, modern working space that we hope will provide a great home for us for many years to come. Last year our income included £0.5m arising from our pandemic business interuption insurance claim. Trading income has continued to grow from both subscriptions and training activities in particular, and costs related to these areas have grown accordingly. Interest income has also grown as a result of the increase in bank interest rates.


Headcount has grown and our salary costs have also increased following two years of steady pay increases to ensure we remain competitive in the workplace. Another area of investment has been in our brand and our commercial strategy. We have reinforced several existing commercial relationships and entered into three new commercial partnerships this year. We are grateful to all of our commercial partners for their support.


Principal risks and uncertainties


It continues to be an uncertain time, both economically and politically. Internationally, outbreaks of war contribute to ongoing instability, while closer to home the impacts of poor water quality and climate change affect us all in ways we can’t always see.


We are confident we can adapt to these uncertainties. Our organisation has grown and evolved through difficult circumstances before. We also recognise the important role we have to play in addressing some of these global issues, lending our voice and name to campaigns against issues such as declining water quality.


The change in government following the recent General Election has some risks for the RYA, but our experience and solid relationships with government officials provides an element of stability. We are already nurturing new alliances through a programme of cross-party engagement. This will ensure visibility in front of ministers and planning for the next All-Party Parliamentary Groups.


We will assess how any changes in Parliament and policy affect our objectives around engagement and sustainability and continue to aim to influence with our partners and other National Governing Bodies. No matter who’s in charge in Government, we will support our clubs in showcasing the positive impact of sport and recreational activity on health and wellbeing in front of local MPs.


We are continuing to work on our digital capabilities. Over the past 12 months we have stabilised our platforms and onboarded new digital partners to help us improve the ways in which members, candidates, and credential holders can interact with us quickly and effectively. We are developing a new website, ready to launch later this year, with the aim of improving access and inclusion for all.


RYA Annual Strategic Report 2024 5


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