Regional Sports Forum

The day commenced with a keynote presentation from Professor Rochelle Eime, PhD, Professor of Sport Science at Federation University. Professor Eime is an internationally renowned leader in community-based sport participation and provided critical insights into the trends and patterns associated with local sport participation, and strategies to build dynamic volunteer led sporting club environments that support your community. As director of Physical Activity and Sport Insights (PASI) Professor Eime is leading the way in investigating sport and physical activity participation for evidence-based decision making for the sport, physical activity, health and wellbeing sectors. To find out more about Professor Eime and PASI follow this link: https://www.pasiglobal.com/

‍Our second presentation of the day was a panel discussion made up of State Sporting Association leaders. The panel included:

Jess O’Brien: Sport Development Officer, Swimming Victoria

Peter Bertoncini: Regional Tennis Manager: Country Victoria, Tennis Victoria

Rohan O’Neill: State Manager and Head of Club and Facilities (VIC/TAS), Golf Australia

The panel, facilitated by Nick Marshall, Community Sport Transformation Officer, South West Sport, explored insights from the panellists regarding programs they are delivering across regional Victoria.

Among the many highlights associated with the opportunities and initiatives their organisations are providing is the value of connecting with local volunteers and how the passion of these volunteers plays an important role in ensuring the sustainability of their regionally based clubs.

Our final presentation, focussed on Jamie Norton, President of the Camperdown based Corangamite Lions Football Club, who provided insights on his club’s participation in and recent completion of South West Sport’s Club Transformation Program.

From Jamie’s perspective the program has significantly helped the club in establishing organised volunteer structures and processes that have allowed club leads to share the volunteer workload more evenly among members. The club has been able to capitalise on this more balanced structure to develop and expand its program offerings which now includes indoor futsal for senior and junior players during the summer in addition to their traditional outdoor winter soccer teams that compete in the Ballarat and District Soccer Association.

More details about the Club Transformation Program and how it can help your club can be found here: https://www.southwestsport.com.au/wwd/club-transformation-program
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The next South West Regional Sports Forum is planned for March 2027. For details and updates, stay tuned to South West Sport Facebook, Instagram, website or subscribe to our E-newsletter.