By Michael Fisher
As I sat in my office 7 years ago, the General Manager of our department bounded in. ‘Would you like to be our Member Protection Information Officer?’, he asked. What I didn’t know at that time, was that becoming an MPIO would commence a learning curve that would significantly impact me both professionally and personally.
At the time, our sport and many others were heavily focussed on child safety, following a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. One of the early steps our organisation took was to seek further education for staff and volunteers from a child safety and member protection expert.
The first time I sat through a training session, my prevailing thought was how much heartache I could have saved myself had I done the training prior to commencing my career as a sports administrator. For all the positives that sport brings to our lives, that same passion can often lead to heated disputes. Even more so in the role I was in at the time, as administrator of a district level competition.
Another point made in the training has stayed with me ever since. An MPIO can act not only to provide information about complaints, policies and procedures, but also to prevent issues in the first place. By being present, connecting with members and providing guidance to Committees and volunteers, MPIOs can foster cultures of safety and inclusion.
Whilst culture can go a long way to avoiding integrity issues in sport, they can’t always be prevented. What is most important in my view, is how complaints are handled. This is where member protection can play a role in a ‘feedback loop’ to ensure a safe and inclusive environment. To this end, formal and informal complaints can provide valuable information to aid a sports organisation’s practices being effective.
So where to from here if you’re interested in learning or revisiting member protection for your organisation?
The PlaybytheRules website is a great place to start. They are a brilliant connector in Australia’s sports ecosystem, providing information, resources, tools and free online training to increase the capacity and capability of administrators, coaches, officials, players, parents and spectators. The information on the website assists in preventing and dealing with discrimination, harassment, child safety, inclusion and integrity issues in sport. The online training modules can also be returned to at any time for reference, which is an excellent support mechanism when dealing with issues.
Sport Integrity Australia are leading the way in ensuring a safe, fair, and healthy environment for sport in Australia. They work together with PlaybytheRules to do this and also have a wealth of sport integrity resources on their website.
It’s also important to review resources in the context of your own sport. Most national and state sporting bodies provide their own guidance and resources for member protection.
For those interested in formal training, I’m starting to deliver this face-to-face for Member Protection Information Officers to go with the pre-requisite online training. CPR group also offer governance solutions, training and services to support conflict resolution. Please feel free to reach out if there’s any way that we may be able to assist.
Most importantly, we need to continue the conversation about an area that can appear daunting for sports personnel and volunteers, but is critical to fostering a safe and inclusive culture in sport.
