From the President

(from the December 2007edition of the ACA Magazine)

The Australian Croquet Association like so many organizations around Australia survives only because of the endless hours of work put in by volunteers. These volunteers may not play the best croquet but give of their time with other skills for the love of the sport and camaraderie it brings.

Sport today has changed greatly in that a sport must be recognised nationally by the governing sporting body. In Australia that body is the Australian Sports Commission.

To be registered the ACA must have in place policies such as membership protection, occupational health and safety, anti doping, dispute resolution and registration of referees and coaches.

All this creates administration work which is carried out mainly by volunteers.

Some say: "why should we be members of the ACA?" In additions to my comments above, insurance is also part of life today. We must have insurance to protect property, members and guests. That insurance costs less if we take out united policies. The ACA also runs many major tournaments and supports our players when they play internationally.

In my travels I have met endless volunteers at clubs state level and at ACA. These volunteers include the people who clean the clubs, put out the hoops, make cups of tea, mow lawns, referee small and large events, manage club, state, and national competitions, act as treasurers or fund raisers. I note that all these people then don't have time to improve their playing skills.

Then there are those who often do little, but find time to comment on all the small mistakes made by the active volunteers.

Today emails make it so easy to be critical. To simply sit down in the comfort of ones home and blast all those good doers. Would these critics do the same if they had to lick the stamp and post a letter to all those they wanted to communicate with?

Over the years I have learnt that positions on committees are often filled by selection rather than election because the people selected will do the job and do it well. Let us encourage more appropriately qualified people to volunteer for all these important roles within croquet.  Every one of us has skills in different areas.  Elite players are not necessarily good administrators and good administrators are not necessarily elite players.  We should all be combining our best and most appropriate skills to advance croquet in Australia.

The ACA is fortunate to have an Executive which is highly skilled in the task of managing such a complex organization as the Australia Croquet scene.  They may not be elite croquet players but they more than compensate for that by having the energy and skills more appropriate to the task.  We are all aware of the Davis Cup Tennis Coach who no longer plays tennis.

On a separate matter those who are members of the "Nottingham List" will have seen comments regarding an ACA direction to an Australian player to cease contributions to the list. For the record the ACA made no such direction, the player was asked to cease putting statements on the list regarding the future format of Australian Croquet as a subject about which the player has no authority.

John Fransen