SportsMark Awards of excellence
Thursday 6 July 2000 Media Statement
SportsMark Awards of excellence
Eight organisations have received SportsMark Quality Awards presented by Sport, Fitness and Leisure Minister Trevor Mallard and Hillary Commission Chairman Sir Brian Lochore at a ceremoney at Parliament this evening.
The organisations are:
Bowls New
Zealand
Netball New Zealand
The
Scout Association of New Zealand
Archery New
Zealand Inc.
New Zealand Judo
Federation
New Zealand Ski Council
New Zealand Golf Association
New Zealand
Cricket
They join previous recipients Women's Golf New Zealand and New Zealand Hockey.
The awards are given in recognition of good governance among organisations involved in sport and activities.
Trevor Mallard said while the public was well aware of competition among athletes, today’s sport administrators also often found themselves involved in intense competition.
"Running a national sport or leisure organisation has never been more complex and demanding. This is an age where members need to be cherished as customers.
"That’s why SportsMark is so valuable.
"SportsMark is a world first. It gives New Zealand sport and leisure organisations a valuable tool to help them be competitive. If a sport gets it right in the boardroom, then it should attract more members and more revenue.
"An organisation with the SportsMark Award should also be more competitive in international contests. Its athletes and coaches will be part of a winning combination with the management and board," Trevor Mallard said.
Contact: Moerangi Vercoe (Press Secretary) 04 471 9080 or 025 270 9194
Further details about recipient organisations attached
Bowls New Zealand
Bowls New
Zealand has enjoyed an excellent year in terms of
international
success, media exposure, coaching
development and promotion of the game to
attract new
players to clubs, social leagues and at secondary school
level.
The recent results at the world championships were
no fluke. They were the
result of excellent coaching and
development, which in turn was the result
of smart
thinking at board level. Bowls New Zealand has also been
awarded
the staging of the world championships in
2008.
Kerry Clark and his team have developed an excellent
system for monitoring
active coaches and managing their
development. More than 2000 new members
joined bowling
clubs in the past year, and Bowls has also re-invented
itself
as a game for all ages. There is a successful
junior recruiting programme,
which Bowls clubs have
supported. This has led to an 84% increase in
junior
members. A great result, and just a
start.
Bowls faces many challenges, but is not afraid of
change. It has
established a close relationship with
ordinary bowlers, restructured their
organisation and
achieved a strengthened financial position.
Bowls has
attracted significant sponsors to be able to lift the
profile of
the game culminating in winning at the NZ Post
Sponsorship awards last year.
Bowls New Zealand is now one
of the sharpest acts in sport, and a management
success
story.
Netball New Zealand
Netball New Zealand is
not just the largest women's sport in New Zealand, it
is
also the largest women's organisation of any type. This
presents an
extraordinary opportunity, and Netball NZ is
grasping it.
Just three years ago Christine Archer led a
move to embark on a new
direction for the game, following
extensive consultation at all levels. This
lead to new
regional entities and a restructured board which
continually
investigates new initiatives to grow the
game.
Part of the reason netball is in charge of its
future is because it is in
charge of its finances. It is
meeting customer needs and generating
surpluses. Netball
NZ was a finalist this year in the Annual report of
the
Year Awards, so it has certainly impressed the
accountants !
Netballers set very high standards in
organisation - go to any courts on a
Saturday and it runs
like clockwork. This ethic applies at the top level
too.
Netball NZ achieved world recognition for its role in
organising the
excellent 1999 Netball World Championships
in Christchurch. The marketing
of the sport has been
excellent in recent years.
Netball has a strong vision for
itself going into the future. It aims to
attract more
girls and women with new products, such as the Fun Ferns
for
young players. Achieving these goals will not just
be good for Netball, but
for New Zealand.
The Scout
Association of New Zealand
The success of the Scouting
movement can't be measured in championships and
titles.
It is about young people learning important personal and
community
skills.
Scouting is dedicated to youth
development, and producing the next
generation of leaders
in our community. This is a tough calling, and in
many
ways society keeps changing the goal posts.
Scouting is an
institution, and this carries strengths and challenges.
The
greatest challenge is to convince the community that
this traditional
organisation is more relevant today
than ever before. Scouting's national
administrators
know that they must investigate new ways to deliver
the
benefits they offer. And they must enhance their
membership and support
the volunteers, who are the
backbone of the organisation.
To achieve this the
organisation has focused on continuous improvement at
all
levels. It has a strategy and clear views on what it must
achieve in the
next few years. It has turned around a
very poor financial position in
recent times, and is very
well placed to provide excellent services to
its
members.
Archery New Zealand Inc.
Archery is
not one of our high profile sports, but it is a sport
that
display's outstanding leadership in many areas. It
has to, because it has
limited resource and is completely
made up of volunteers. The board has no
staff to hand
the work to.
Despite this, these men and women always hit their targets.
There are many small businesses that can
give the large corporates a lesson
in management. Archery
New Zealand is a perfect example to other small
sports.
It continues to achieve good success at the highest level.
It
continues to accredit growing numbers of coaches and
officials, and its
junior development work remains a
priority
Archery New Zealand is setting standards in
planning and administration
structure that achieve and
produce the results it wants. You can't do more
than
that.
New Zealand Judo Federation
This mainly
volunteer organisation is fortunate to have a strong board
which
has a clear strategic plan.
Sometimes it is an
advantage to be a small sport. Judo has exploited
this,
by ensuring that its members played a central role
in developing its plan.
Now the athletes, coaches and
officials have buy-in to the direction of the
sport,
which in turn makes the management easier and more
effective.
Judo has a very well developed volunteer
structure, an excellent development
pathway for
participants from entry level to international competition,
and
a very strong junior development programme.
The
international programme is well established and is getting
results, with
4 athletes qualified for the
Olympics.
Judo's training systems for coaching, officials
and administration are of
the highest standard, and it
has just introduced a new coaching
qualification system
to further improve these standards.
New Zealand Ski
Council
The New Zealand Ski Council is the first genuine
joint-venture in New
Zealand sport. The Council is made
up of five member organisations
representing the
industry, sporting and recreational interests. In many
ways
the Council is a 'model federation'.
Ski is an
organisation that has built up an excellent relationship
with its
partners, particularly the snowboard industry.
Ironically for a business
that's going downhill, it has
positioned itself for solid growth and
achievement. It
is a win-win-win for the organisation, the members and
the
industry. This relationship helps put over a million
kiwis on the slopes
every year.
So ably led by Miles
Davidson, the New Zealand Ski Council provides
excellent
management services for members. It works with members to
develop
comprehensive coaching plans and strategic plans
to ensure sustained results
in all of its priority
areas.
New Zealand Golf Association
In terms of
playing numbers, Golf is undoubtedly the national game of
New
Zealand. Nearly half a million men and women are
regular golfers. This
doesn't happen purely as a result
of marketing activities and broadcasts
overseas. It
happens because the national body is on the ball, and
the
standard of customer service in every golf club is
very high.
The NZ Golf Association has long set high
standards in administration and
management. The results
are plain. Player numbers are up. Kiwi golfers
perform
with distinction overseas. And children are given every
chance to
swing a club and join a club. Golf places
particular emphasis on junior
development. Large numbers
of volunteer coaches are trained, and each year
around
66,000 kids experience KiwiGolf.
The leadership of golf
are not resting on their laurels. They are
always
looking for different ways of attracting people to
their sport. An example
is the new slope handicap
system. Another initiative is "adopt-a-school".
"Kids
and clubs" is a programme for disadvantaged children. How
long before
one of them goes on to beat the world ?
In
many ways this award tonight is the legacy of our friend
Grant Clements.
His approach to running a sports body was
exemplary. But it is also
testament to Neil Woodbury and
his board, who drove the vision, and to
Philip Aitken,
who has picked up where Grant left off.
New Zealand
Cricket
Cricket has long been one of our high profile
'icon' sports. It can now
claim to be one of our most
professionally and expertly managed and governed
sports.
There is a very high standard of administration and planning
within
the national organisation. In recent years cricket
has dramatically changed
the way it operates and has
grown its income four fold in as many years.
NZ Cricket
has worked hard at achieving a relationship with its
many
members. Its soon to be released strategic plan is
the product of wide
consultation, as the organisation
aimed to call on the vast experience of
its membership to
help shape the future.
New Zealand Cricket holds centre
stage during our summers, and public
expectations of
success are always high. The board and management
cannot
take the field with the players, but they have
provided a high performance
programme and academy that is
considered as being one of the best in the
cricket
world.
New Zealand Cricket is strongly managed and led by
a highly skilled board.
It is another organisation that
focuses on continual improvement in all
areas and has
built a solid blend of skills within management
which
complement each other and offer the chance of
success.
ENDS