Take a look at your club’s committee members. What do you see? Do you see a mix of people of different backgrounds, experiences, genders, cultures and ages?
Hopefully the answer is YES.
The benefits of having a diverse range of views and experiences represented on your club committee are well established. Being able to draw upon a variety of views and experiences will lead to more informed discussions and better decisions. As an example, studies show that ASX companies with significant female board membership outperform those with minimal female representation.
Even if you are predominantly a single gender sport, your members have Mums AND Dads or friends or partners across all genders. Therefore, you need to consider the views of these important stakeholders when making decisions for your members.
But what if the answer is NO?
Firstly, you are not alone. Many clubs that we work with lack diversity on their committees but there are things that you can do to address this.
Many sports have national or state level policies covering diversity and inclusivity. Look up yours and see if you are following their recommendations.
A growing number of sports are advocating for the 40 / 40 / 20 rule that promotes 40% women, 40% men and 20% of any gender as the ideal composition of a club’s committee or board.
Clubs can implement procedures to follow this guidance. Some clubs include clauses in their constitutions to ensure diversity among their management committee and others actively seek committee nominations from people with different backgrounds and experiences.
Does your committee succession plan ensure diversity?
Are committee roles advertised in a way that encourages applications from all of your members?
Do you provide committee induction training so that all potential applicants can be confident that they can fulfill a committee role?
If the benefits of diversity are not enough to convince you to seek a gender balance on your committee, then maybe hard cash will. Some state governments are indicating that future grant funding will only be awarded to clubs that have a gender balanced committee – so now might be the right time to take action and put steps in place to address any imbalance that you may have.
