A new Governance Guide for Golf Clubs has been launched by Golf Ireland.
The guide is aimed at helping clubs to engage and practice good governance principles across their operations.
The way in which sport is governed has significantly progressed in recent years with greater expectation falling on National Governing Bodies and sports organisations to have solid foundations in place to govern their sports.
The Governance Guide for Clubs takes that to the more granular level of helping individual clubs meet that same standard.
Advice
It provides advice, based on best practice, of how clubs should structure their management committees, what club policies and processes should be put in place and provides detailed descriptions of the key roles within a club.
Providing a checklist on what needs to be done by whom, and making it consistent across the whole of the sport, makes it much easier for incoming volunteer officers of a club to know that they are doing things in the right way.
The document guides readers through nine key principles of good governance and is supported by additional resources including a newly developed Level Par toolkit addressing the approach to expanding the presence of women and girls, as well as downloadable templates that will be available to clubs in the coming weeks.
The One Governing Body Proposal, voted overwhelmingly in favour of by clubs in January 2019, referred to the development of a governance code for golf and governance guide for clubs to ‘assist affiliate clubs who wish to make the journey towards a new club model, with best practice guidance by Golf Ireland’.
Change
For those clubs now considering structural change under Golf Ireland, specific detail is shared regarding a One Club Model structure and the roadmap to achieving this.
“The production of a Governance Guide for Clubs marks the completion of another important task in the mandate the Transition Board of Golf Ireland has been given to establish a single governing body for golf on the island of Ireland,” said Brian Punch, Chair of the Golf Ireland Governance Committee.
“We hope this resource can prove to be a valuable component in the modernising and development of club life.”
“We are committed to upholding the principles of good governance as laid out by Sport Ireland and Sport NI and hope that our affiliate clubs can follow in adopting good governance practices which are inclusive, modern and progressive,” added Mark Kennelly, CEO of Golf Ireland.
Ongoing support will be available for clubs from Golf Ireland through a series of educational workshops that will be delivered in the new year, and through one to one club support from designated Golf Ireland staff.
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