News02 Dec 2010


Athletics New Zealand Transforms Constitution; Small Changes with Big Results elsewhere - OCEANIA

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Valerie Vili launches her World indoor title defence in Doha (© Getty Images)

Athletics New Zealand has recently held their first General Meeting under a new Constitution. By making innovative changes to their constitution, they have been able to renew their strategy focused on a new vision and goals. We hope you can find inspiration from Athletics New Zealand, as their renewed vision for athletics is on target with spirit of the Athletics World Plan. 
   
Through the ‘Transformation Project’, Athletics New Zealand has redesigned their constitution to encompass a new vision for athletics in the country. The move was made to help the organisation to be more responsive to member needs and to new participant growth opportunities, to grow financially strong to enable future investment in development, to feature athletes at the highest levels and to create more consistency in-between national and grassroots programmes.

Following the renewal of their constitution, Athletics New Zealand has now developed eight work streams to drive the next phase of their transformation work. The streams include: Club Development, Volunteer Recognition and Retention, Rules & Regulations, Communications, Sales & Marketing, Web – Social networks, Systems, Funding and Leadership.

Now they are working towards activating each of the groups before the end of this year. All work will be subject to ongoing funding availability and each group consists of club representatives, staff and other advisors where a knowledge or skill gap is identified.

A copy of the new constitution is available at http://athletics.org.nz/Resource.aspx?ID=9192


Member Federations in Oceania introduce Small Changes with Big Results
 
Various Member Federations in Oceania have made great strides by making small innovative changes. Their willingness to try new strategies and make small improvements for their organisations are inspiring. We hope you can find inspiration from some of the examples. 

While some of the Oceania athletics associations are relatively small, they have not let their size get in the way of big ideas. They have made strong efforts in the spirit of the Athletics’ World Plan with initiatives that started in 2009 and are constantly working to improve athletics throughout their countries.

Micronesia held their first islands wide Athletics Championships in over 10 years in 2009 with over 100 athletes and participating and 1000s of spectators.

American Samoa started to host track meets while other school sports activities were going on so that other teams like basketball and baseball would be drawn to come watch the meets.

Norfolk Island made the decision to move their 2010 School Championships to May to coincide with the World Athletics day event, held together with the school system to encourage more participating at the event.

Tonga combined their national championships and secondary schools championships to make it a bigger and more attractive event.

The Northern Mariana Island hired a new marketing direction to work on developing new products to attract and retain sponsors.

Guam purchased a trailer to transport their athletics equipment. By selling advertising space on it they have been able to help cover their logistics costs.

Cook Islands launched a pilot programme for kid’s athletics and organised mini competitions that take place every two weeks at the schools.

Tuvalu involved schools to promote athletics by briefing teachers and including them in activities. Working together with the education department athletics was encouraged on the curriculum. 

French Polynesia has recently focused on developing young officials; they noticed that many young people weren’t interested in participating in athletics but that many of them actually wanted to have an officiating role instead. 

These are all great examples of what the Athletics World Plan is all about. Making small changes to improve your organisation and work towards a better future for the sport of athletics and its participants. How has your organisation implemented small changes? If you want to share some of your own experiences please contact us at worldplan@iaaf.org with a short summary, and a member of our editorial team will contact you. Together, we can share in the spirit of the Athletics’ World Plan.

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