Positive Innovation
Corinne Aiken and Courtney Frederiksen
Sport plays a pivotal role in the fabric of Australian society. The current global situation is forcing us to change our daily routines and for many this includes giving up organised sport. For club volunteers however, a new set of challenges have arisen. Keeping members engaged and clubs running and viable during this period of downtime has become the focus for many committees.
Although we may not be able to do everything we were doing before the COVID-19 crisis, that doesn’t mean we should stop all together. Take a look at your mission statement. How can you continue your purpose, your ‘why’, within the realm of social distancing? Are there other opportunities to engage members and the wider community that you perhaps haven’t considered before?
Snow Australia’s purpose is “to support athletes and develop champions”. To continue engaging people in the sport, they are now focused on developing champions from their own living room – producing Snowactive, a free and accessible training program run by 2-times Olympian Sami Kennedy-Sim.
Netball Australia’s purpose - Netball empowers girls and women to shine, while enriching and connecting communities. Netball Australia has partnered with Netfit to provide live online programs for young netballers stuck at home. The full-day programs include netball specific workouts, skills, fitness, nutrition and cooking and wellbeing.
To keep members motivated and involved with your club, use innovative technology to provide online training videos, meetings via online apps and stay engaged on social media. It is important to channel the passion you have for your sport into other methods to keep your members positive, driven and challenged during this period of forced downtime. As well as working on the business of running your club, make sure you also develop your online presence so members can still stay connected to their sport and community.
