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2006 EFA Annual National Forum
Feedback received from participants at the 2006 EFA Annual National Forum shows that the event was a success. Overview
The “outgoing” Chairman Russ Withers opened the Forum and welcomed delegates and a number of speakers and guests, including the CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, Mr. Mark Peters, the CEO of Swimming Australia Mr. Glenn Tasker, Definitive Events Chief Executive Daryl Herbert and the facilitator Mike Smith who was again donating his time to Equestrian sport. Russ gave a special welcome to representatives of the National Reining Horse Association, which was represented for the first time.
Russ mentioned club-based membership and better committees as two of the key topics of the conference and handed over to Facilitator extraordinaire Mike Smith. Mike mentioned that in contrast to some of the other organisations with which he had worked, he saw change and improvement in the EFA each time he returned in his 10-year association with the sport.
CEO Franz Venhaus gave a brief overview of development since the last forum, some important facts and figures relating to the current status and what was being planned in the immediate future. National Education Manager Brad Paterson and High Performance Manager Brett Mace followed with outlines of achievements and plans in their respective areas (refer annual report).
National Medication Control Officer Warwick Vale updated the audience on changed to the anti-doping and medication control rules and how they were being implemented in
The CEO of the Australian Sports Commission Mark Peters was the keynote speaker for the Forum.
During the Welcome Cocktail Party the night before, he had learned a lot about the various disciplines and the fact that they all need money. Mr. Peters was impressed by the financial standing of the EFA and its reduced dependence on government funding, when 18 of the 28 Olympic sports supported by the ASC had 70% of their income in the form of government funding. There is a danger in relying too much on the Government, as one wrong major decision could send a sport bankrupt.
Equestrian has taken on some very tough issues but the achievement of a good governance structure for the Board makes a lot of difference. He gave a few examples of sports that had for a period of time forgotten to care about where their young athletes would be in five or ten years. Athlete pathways were important so forthcoming MOUs with Pony Club and RDAA were steps in the right direction, as is the Interschool Competition program.
He was pleased to see that Equestrian had National Forums and other communication channels when sometimes he still came across sports that had little of no communication with their Branches.
Effective governance would lead to better sports. With little change in State Government funding this was becoming more important. Sport sponsorship was harder to get and so were volunteers. Club and venue management had to become smarter and think differently
On the High Performance side, Equestrian was doing well but could still do better, as there was now recognition at Government level that elite performance requires competition overseas and that expensive horse flesh was making a difference. The improved EFA approach to horse owners was important in this area.
You can download an audio recording of Mark Peters' address (3 MB).
Glenn Tasker, CEO of Swimming Australia (SA), outlined some of the history of the Federation, which will turn 100 in 2009. For the first 95 years during which the sport won 53 Olympic Gold medals and 35 World Championships medals, not much had been done for its clubs.
After an ASC-instigated governance review, SA had a new constitution in 2002 with an independent board appointed by the stakeholders. This board set a new strategic focus, moving from a concentration on the Australian team to “Swimming for Life”.
The Board wrote a strategic plan for 2004 – 2009 in consultation with stakeholders and distributed it to all the clubs. The annual operational plan is linked to it and the Board does an annual review.
With the recent third review, there was a complete re-write of the Strategic Plan. Its key areas are High performance, sport development, business development and people development.
SA has Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with each State association, with the Swimmers Association and with the Coach association, which consists of around 3,000 mostly professional coaches.
The National Squad consists of 100 swimmers who are all members of Swimmers Association, with which SA has a revenue sharing agreement that provides $1.2 million in grants.
The new directors also initiated a re-branding exercise that has resulted in the use of a common logo right across the sport except for the Swimmers Association.
With these and other measures the new Board has decided to lead and to harmonise the sport. Yes, there are still issues but the Federation has gone a long way.
SA has 1,102 clubs with 93,000 individual members (80% swimmers with 80% of these under 14, 20% officials, administrators, etc.)
State funding is a critical issue. Only WA and Qld. have increased their support for sport. Funding in NSW has not changed since 1972.
Weaknesses of the sport:
Some more comments on clubs:
The Australian Team consists of around 40 athletes. Only 115 of the 1102 clubs come to selection trials, so if our clubs get better, there will be more
250 clubs are represented at the Aged Championships.
How can we get clubs to do better?
Some clubs turn over $3-4Mil.
Encourage the EFA to make the people at the bottom of the pyramid.
There was a question from the audience on club-based membership for swimmers? Glenn Tasker confirmed that if you are not a member of a Swimming club, you can’t compete anywhere in the world. To illustrate this, Glenn told a story about a medal almost lost because the swimmer was not registered.
Membership is done by the State Associations. Financial years are not synchronised creating all kinds of coordination problems. Some States have a number of membership categories. SA only has two: Either you swim or you don’t.
(More later.)
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