Acknowledging the Need for Diversity

SIRC was pleased to attend the meeting "Diversifying Your Board" hosted by Sport4Ontario at the Sport Alliance for Ontario. Diversity is an integral part of the Canadian landscape and that is no more evident than it is in Canada’s biggest city of Toronto. Almost half (44%) of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) residents are not native born to Canada, compared to 16% of the Canadian population as a whole.

DiverseCity onBoard is an organization that currently provides over 1500 qualified and pre-screened visible minority candidates in the GTA who are ready, willing and able to serve on an organization’s board of directors. Their statistics show that visible minority leadership in the GTA is 12.5% for board members in the voluntary sector and 4% of leaders in the corporate sector. To date, their program has linked over 500 qualified visible minorities and new comers to agencies, boards and commissions in the GTA. Because of their reach out ability and achievements, several provincial sport organizations have had the opportunity to use their services, with many more to come.

DiverseCity onBoard is the brain child of the Maytree Foundation who has the support of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They have been working over the last two years to realize the promise of a stronger and more prosperous GTA through a more diverse leadership.

But first things first. As an organization you will need to establish a baseline acknowledging the need for diversity on your board by asking a few simple questions:

• Could a homogeneous board composition be limiting creativity, fundraising ability and vision?
• Are the demographics of your community being served?

Diversity does matter in business and in the business of sport, no matter how big or small you are. It assists in bringing a perspective in decision-making which leads to making better decisions, helps legitimize the mandate of an organization, and builds social capital and cohesion among diverse populations.

For more information on any of these topics please contact SIRC.

Implementing Your Strategic Plan

On February 28, 2012 SIRC hosted the latest in a series sport governance webinars entitled ‘Implementing Your Strategic Plan’ presented by Dina Bell-Laroche of the Sport Law & Strategy Group. The goal of this series of sport governance webinars, done in partnership with Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee, is to help sport organizations advance good governance within their organizations.

Ms Bell-Laroche discussed 10 ‘tips & truisms’ gathered from management science, experience and good practices in and outside of sport on strategic planning. The following are some of the highlights of the webinar:

Bringing your Strategic Plan to Life
Moving it off the shelf and into practice

Strategic Planning is …
A systematic process through which an organization agrees on – and builds commitment among key stakeholders to – priorities that are essential to its mission and which are responsive to the environment.

10 Tips for Implementing your Strategic Plan

1. Communicate – Develop a communications plan with core messages and share with key stakeholders 
2. Keep it relevant - Plans need to evolve and adapt in order to maintain relevance
3. Compass – Make sure everything you do is helping you achieve your mission, move towards your vision, reflective of your values 
4. Measure Progress - Once the plan is approved, develop indicators to demonstrate progress for the plan and activities 
5. Train and Educate – Ensure that you have the knowledge you need to implement your plan 
6. Engage – Proactively communicate and look for ways to involve your members. It doesn’t stop once the plan has been approved, it continues 
7. Budget - Integrate budgeting into your planning process. Ensure budget reflects priorities. Ensure plan meets available human/financial resources 
8. Show Early Wins – Demonstrates action. Shows progress. Creates trust. 
9. Celebrate Success - Recognize contributions in creative and impactful ways. Creates a sense of accomplishment and builds momentum 
10. ‘Can Do’ Culture - Recognize that ongoing investment is required to create the right environment that encourages the “doing” in a planned and strategic way 

 An archived version of this webinar, the PowerPoint slides, as well as resources discussed in the session are available from the SIRC governance website 

The next webinar in the Sport Governance series on Board Orientation takes place on March 28, 2012 and will be presented by Joan Duncan, JDI Consulting. Registration is free of charge. 

For more information on Sport Governance check out the SIRC Sport Governance portal

SIRC Governance Resources and Webinars

Over the past year, SIRC has been working together with Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee to enhance the knowledge base about issues concerning governance within sport organizations. In an effort to help sport organizations develop and maintain effective governance practices SIRC has been gathering resources and tools that can assist sport organizations with their governance and made these available through our online Sport Governance portal.

Why should governance matter to sport organizations?

• Strategic thinking and direction-setting are fundamental to success 
• The sport environment is complex and the demands on leaders are significant 
• Management can thrive when supported by strong governance 
• Organizations need to be accountable to their members and stakeholders 
• Organizations want to be recognized as credible by the public 
• Funding partners expect results and accountability 
• Participants in sport have high expectations of their organization and its leaders. 

As part of our efforts to bring useful tools to the sport community SIRC has been working with experts in the governance field to develop a series of free webinars that focus on a variety of governance related topics. All webinars continue to be archived on the SIRC website so that anyone can go back and share with colleagues that may not have been available at the live presentation.

Topics already presented include:

• Governance and Operations presented by Marg Soden-Strus (en Français)
• Board Models and Structures presented by Rose Mercier 
• Implementing Your Strategic Plan presented by Dina Bell-Laroche (en Français)
• Board Orientation presented by Joan Duncan 

We invite those interested in governance concerns to register for the upcoming free live webinars on the following topics:

• Meeting Management and Facilitation presented by Nora Sheffe
  April 25, 2012 from 11:00 - 12:00 (EST)


• New Canada Not for Profit Corporations Act presented by Rachel Corbett
  English: May 29, 2012 from 11:00 - 12:00 (EST)
  French: June 5, 2012 from 11:00 - 12:00 (EST)
  
• 
  Board Evaluation presented by Judy Sutcliffe
  June 27, 2012 from 11:00 - 12:00 (EST)
  

Contact SIRC for more information on sport governance!