Sports Development Section Annual Report - 2007 Brian Minikin – Manager Regional Sport Development 2007 was a busy year during which a number of programs gained some traction, despite a large part of the annual focus being taken up with the 2007 South Pacific Games held in Apia, Samoa. The following report summarises the developments that have taken place throughout the year complete with a prediction of what is likely to follow in 2008. Oceaniasport Oceaniasport continues to expand its services to the Pacific Region and is gaining ever increasing routine usage from a wider diversity of sources. Sportsware Web Sites have now been upgraded containing even greater flexibility and usage features for out members. Total Web Site Page Requests remain stable at around 400,000 per month overall but peaked significantly in the lead up to the South Pacific Games which in its own right attracted 2.0 million page requests continuing to highlight the attraction to major sports events has on getting people to look at the Pacific. Consequently, the smarterweb sites that once were used by the NOC’s have been replaced by the SWC Sites for the sake of consistency and to encourage better usage of the web sites within each country. The process of changing over was completed during August 2007. The Number of Web Sites being used is increasing steadily. Vanuatu, Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Kiribati remain the most active users of their web sites. Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa are making a concerted effort to get their members to use their web sites and to this end, Sporting Pulse created url’s for every sport federation under oceaniasport. Now every sport federation has a url as follows; http://www.oceaniasport.com/countrysport . For example Fiji Volleyball Federation is www.oceaniasport.com/fijivolleyball . These are listed at Attachment 1. A recent IOC report, compiled by the Institute for Applied Training Science, in Leipzig, Germany, highlighted that the NOC’s of Oceania were to be highly commended for their use of Internet technology. Sportzware Software has now been upgraded to version 6.3. It is now being used more regularly in 5 countries but the take up remains slow. To some degree this reflects the lack of regular, organized sport played out in the Pacific. Papua New Guinea however have demonstrated good expertise in using sportzware and with the help of the NOC staff, a number of National Federation representatives are taking the opportunity to use sportzware. The Oceaniasport Games Management System has now been officially adopted as the Games Management system for accreditation and results management for the Pacific Games. The entire South Pacific Games accreditation and results system was employed with decentralized results posting for the first time ever in Samoa during 2007 and provides a lasting legacy of results photos and stories for this great event and the establishment of a solid foundation for the Games History on top of web sites for the 2003 Games and 2005 MiniGames. PNG was the first country to utilize the online accreditation system at the 2007 National Games held in Lae during November 2007, although this was done on a limited basis largely due to the poor level of internet connectivity throughout the Country. Solomon Islands have established their Games with the Games Management system and are ready to utilize it for the National Games scheduled for June 2008. Reports are available on all these events and the web sites remain active at www.oceaniasport.com . Sporting Pulse Staff are taking on an increasing role in supporting Regional and Sub Regional Games and this is freeing up time considerably to concentrate on other aspects of sports development. The Online database has been upgraded and additions to accommodate the OSEP and Olympic Solidarity operations are nearly complete. Extensions to accommodate the Talent Identification database are being formulated for roll out during 2008. Development activities are being highlighted on a Web Site dedicated to the activities of the Regional Development Officer. See www.onocdevelopment.com . Work is currently underway to publish training modules for Oceaniasport that will be applied to the Competition Level Sports Administrator under the O.S.E.P. This will be followed by more advanced modules to be applied to the Advanced Sports Administrator Modules that will incorporate much of the M.O.S.O. syllabus being offered by the IOC Communication Our instant messaging tool is now regularly signed in by 8 NOC’s and 14 Sports Development Officers improving the regularity and frequency of communication within our Region. It is proving to be of increasing value in dealing with day to day issues with the SDO’s in particular, significantly reducing the need to travel. Those NOC’s that make the best use of this tool have the required technology to be online at all times although strangely enough the best NOC’s remain Solomon Islands and Kiribati where the IT in the Country is much less developed than most. PNG in particular have made significant gains in the use of their internet technologies for communication. With the advancements in telephone and internet technology that are taking place it is recommended that consideration be given to finding a Regional Sponsor in this area to assist in putting the best services possible in place within our NOC’s. It has also been recommended that the IOC consider developing a secure Instant Messaging system to improve communication within the Olympic Movement and between the Regional Offices. Oceania Foundation With Anne King appointed as Executive Director, the Development areas of ONOC are working well with her to expand the scope of its programs. Thanks to a much needed boost of funding from Samsung, it is expected that the Talent ID initiatives will be expanded further and lead to direct funding for identified athletes to undertake special training or participate in suitable events. A more complete report on the Oceania Foundation will be provided by Anne King. Through the Oceania Foundation we are consolidating links with institutions such as Sporting Pulse and Monash University to improve access to support services in Australia for our athletes and coaches. This was an important objective sought in the setting up of the foundation and the basis for which the Government of Victoria offered to provide the seed funding for the Foundation. From a development point of view, the relationship with and the involvement of the AOC stiff requires further negotiation. The Foundation is for all the NOC’s of Oceania and already Australian athletes have benefited from Samsung sponsorship through the foundation. The spin off of being able to utilize these athletes as Ambassadors for the Region has much merit. As programs expand however their might be a need to urgently review the structure of our development operations and determine as a matter of policy how we are to utilize Australian and New Zealand expertise in the Pacific as well as ensure that Australia and New Zealand also benefit from some of the work that we are doing. Oceania Sport Education Program (OSEP) Sainimili Roqica, a MEMOS graduate from Fiji was successfully employed to lead the Roll Out of the OSEP which is now in full swing. The initial phase of development primarily funded by the Australian Government is now complete. Materials have been completed to support basic and intermediate education courses in sports administration, course presentation and community coaching. In addition there are modules covering a variety of subject matters for training Presenters and Assessors as well as integrating existing courses into a competency based framework. The ‘Roll Out’ phase and the ongoing development will fall under the responsibility of a multi disciplinary management group coordinated by the ONOC. It is recommended that consideration be given to incorporating the overall Executive Management of the OSEP to a Multidisciplinary Board that includes representatives from the ONOC, ASC, Forum Secretariat, OSFO and the USP. These Boards will be finalized in the next couple of months. A Management Group consisting of representatives from the ONOC, ASC and the OSFO continues to work to establish a strategic plan for the roll out of the final program. A more detailed report on the progress of OSEP is provided separately by its Coordinator. Sainimili Roqica also traveled to Lausanne during November 2007 to undergo training as an advanced Management of Olympic Sports Organisations (MOSO) instructor. She is now able to offer these courses to NOC’s in the Pacific and will work steadily over the next 2 months to establish the MOSO as our highest level of OSEP Administrator Training. Talent Identification ONOC has engaged Monash University and Sport Fusion from Melbourne and Brisbane respectively to assist in the implementation of a Regional Talent Identification Program. Initial funding is being sought from IOC Solidarity for this and it is likely to be further driven by the Oceania Foundation. However the company appears to have fallen away and we have turned our attention towards Monash University as a potential partner in this project. With Speed Kinetics demise and the pressure of the South Pacific Games and other projects, the start up process was postponed for about 12 months. The speed measuring equipment offered by Sport Fusion offers a great deal more flexibility in measuring more advanced aspects of sports performance and opens up a whole new variety of sports training options that will assist Countries to establish advanced training programs for identified talent as well as support existing national programs. VASANOC, FSMNOC and ASNOC have been successful with their application for a Talent ID Grant from the Solidarity World Programs and expect to have their program implemented by March 2008.