Some reflections and highlights on my time with Squash Australia where a short three-year stint, became 6 great years.
2015-2018 – The first three years were really focused on some major changes we brought to the sport ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
- Member engagement and a new strategy for 2016-2022 period
- A complete restructure and new team
- A rebrand for Squash Australia
- A new high-performance system, significant funding increases, topping the Commonwealth games medal table in squash with three Gold Medals.
- A huge part to play in the running of the Squash event itself at the Commonwealth Games
- The development of great new IT platforms and participation programmes.
2018 – 2020 – The next period was all about putting the organisation back together again after the commonwealth Games, and the responsibility of setting up the National Squash Centre. It was also where we saw all the returns from the hard work the previous 4 years:
- Green rated across all areas by Sport Australia – Performance, Governance, Participation, Financials
- Increase in members from 11,086 to 19,378
- Increase in social participation from 110,300 people to 293,300
- Increases to HP and Participation funding.
- Performance – rated in the highest-level grouping for Australian sport
- Significant additional funding grants for the National Squash Centre and a National participation programme
2020 – 2021 – The transition and handover after COVID
- Maybe the proudest moments were how well organised the team and organisation was for COVID, we were already set up for remote work, we had cloud systems, and the regular team meetings worked well.
- The launch of improved online learning through the Cahoot platform and play from home programmes
- Even more importantly we had sound financial systems and management, so we weathered the COVID storm better than most
- Most impressive of all were the staff, who pulled together amazingly in this period.
- 300% increase in turnover
- 6-month cash reserve achieved
Thank you for all your support to make these achievements happen!!
After some time to relax and recover, will look for the next challenge, most likely back in Europe. Please keep in touch everyone.
