Two weeks ago Juls Hanvey (Active Clubs Coordinator) and I attended the SportNI Sportmaker Awards 2018 Celebration Event in the Titanic Centre.
The main business of the evening was to present awards to a number of coaches and club officials, but we were one of a number of clubs to receive our Clubmark NI award. It was a slickly organised event – for the main awards, a video describing the winner’s achievements was played as they were presented with the award, followed by short interview.
Clubmark is Northern Ireland’s quality standard for sports clubs. The programme aims to identify, develop, accredit and recognise high quality sports clubs and the contribution that they make to the development of sport in Northern Ireland.
An accredited club is recognised as a safe, quality environment for participants of all ages to enjoy sport and stay involved throughout their lives.
With the assistance of Belfast City Council, I collected the evidence to gain the accreditation in 5 areas:
- effective club management
- community engagement
- quality coaching & competition
- creating a safe environment
- safeguarding members
However, the evidence was actually provided by the large number of club members who organise the running of the club, raise funds to get the resources we need, maintain the equipment, provide the coaching, training and competition, recruit and develop members and volunteers, ensure we provide a safe environment etc.
During the evening, it stuck me that orienteering is one of the few sports where parents and children can both participate. In most of the award interviews, it was obvious that parents had made huge sacrifices to allow their kids to compete in their chosen sport.
The Clubmark award shows we’re in good shape at the moment, but please help us make the club even better through your enthusiasm and involvement!
PS Lots of other photos from the evening at https://www.facebook.com/pg/sportninet/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2182516258472169