Sport research priorities

Promotion of safe sport experiences and sustaining volunteer engagement are two of the eight top research priorities identified by Canadian sport and physical activity stakeholders. By tailoring their research activities to fit the needs of knowledge users, sport and physical activity scholars can produce more impactful research.

Board accountability

A board of directors is 100% accountable for everything that happens in an organization. However, being accountable for everything doesn’t mean the board must do everything, or even specify how to achieve its purpose. When determining how the organization will best accomplish its purpose, the board must differentiate between responsibility, authority, and accountability. Check out tips…

Board governance

While management is about “getting the work done,” governance ensures organizations pursue the right purpose, in the right way, and continuously develop. In any sport organization, the board of directors’ role is to govern the organization. When board members are also on the management team, it can help to divide meetings into 2 parts. One part…

Gold medal governance: Embracing a steward-leader board

This is the fourth blog post in a series designed to increase sport organizations’ capacity to govern well in an increasingly complex world. Check out the previous posts about the role of the board, strategic foresight and the keys to gold medal governance. — In the first blog that I wrote for the Gold Medal…

Recommendations for evaluation

Through evaluation, sport organizations can gain insights and solicit feedback about their programs. Evaluation can also inform decision-making, guide program improvements and build stakeholders’ value and advocacy for programming. In the SIRC blog, discover three recommendations for sport organizations to enhance evaluation: stakeholder engagement, evaluative thinking and sharing data through storytelling.

Gold medal governance: Understanding and optimizing the role of the board

This is the third blog post in a series designed to increase the capacity of sport organizations to govern well in an increasingly complex world. Check out the previous posts about strategic foresight and the keys to gold medal governance. A team’s success often depends on how well each player understands and executes their role….

Six Keys to Gold Medal Governance

Unlike the young athlete who dreams of becoming a champion, few of us grow up dreaming about joining a board of directors. Many people join a board out of a sense of duty to an organization with which they have been involved, or because they thought it time for new leadership, or were recruited for…

Financial Literacy – What is it and who needs it?

In sport, we often talk about physical literacy as “the mastering of fundamental movement skills and fundamental sport skills that permit a child to read their environment and make appropriate decisions, allowing them to move confidently and with control in a wide range of physical activity situations”. Financial literacy can be similarly defined as: “mastering a basic understanding of…

Board Governance – Succession Planning: Volleyball Canada

Recognizing the importance of engaging highly qualified leaders on the Board of Directors, Volleyball Canada recently completed a succession planning process. Mark Eckert, President and CEO recognizes that, “With only 7 people on our board, it’s critical that we continue to attract exceptional directors to govern our organization.” After reviewing a number of on-line resources,…

Board Evaluation – Basic Steps to Maintaining Good Governance on Your Board

(Full article can be found in the Leadership SIRCUit – Winter 2016) Good governance is the goal of all not-for-profit sport organizations and having an effective Board of Directors is a key tool in achieving good governance. In order to make sure that your Board is performing to its best capacity a regular Board Evaluation…