To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

This petition of Vijay Dubey and certain residents of the Ginninderra, Australian Capital Territory draws to the attention of the Assembly that:

Background:

WE have so many local sporting clubs (for littlies, junior and seniors and both boys and girls) operational from the past many years.

These sporting clubs provides training, healthy physical activity environment to our littlies and coaching to our young scouts at the grassroots level. They are the main reason for producing elite sports athletes performing at the National and International levels. In short, these clubs are the back bone of our future elite performances at the highest levels. Plus, it encourages healthy community living.

You may find it surprising to know that these clubs also provides an ideal environment for parents to create/expand their friends circle and enjoy socialization. I have noticed that parents also take part in the games as a coach, volunteers and as a referee.

Issues:

During my community consultations, research, visits and face to face talks with the stakeholders:

• Most of the sporting clubs are operating due to individual’s initiatives, efforts and enthusiasm. They spent hundreds of hours in planning, staffing (gathering volunteers), organizing, cleaning and packing up each week. Plus, hours in registrations and unnecessary hurdles to jump in terms of grounds availability, maintenance, parents concerns and complaints. We need to recognize these active members of our community in any shape and form we can.
• If you look closely, most of the sporting clubs are RUN by home. All the operations and meetings are organized by individuals and mostly are at home or some rented area. The truth is, most of our clubs have no proper address and office space to organize meetings.
• Each year our clubs struggles to get the wording out in terms of Registrations and event dates. It will be wise for US to provide WEB SUPPORT to our clubs.

Proposal

1. A container office/office space with a telephone and seating for the club delegates, so that they have a fixed place to operate. Please note most of the clubs already have a container access for storage.
2. All local sporting organizations/clubs can be on ONE WEBSITE (web support). This way parents can easily FIND their nearest club and REGISTER. The advance settings can be an APP and event calendar for multi users and SMS for fees and events etc.

Petitioners therefore request the Assembly to:

Look into Vijay Dubey’s petition and proposal and set up a communication line with the sporting clubs and address the following issues.

Proposal

1. A container office/office space with a telephone and seating for the club delegates, so that they have a fixed place to operate. Please note most of the clubs already have a container access for storage.
2. All local sporting organizations/clubs can be on ONE WEBSITE (web support). This way parents can easily FIND their nearest club and REGISTER. The advance settings can be an APP and event calendar for multi users and SMS for fees and events etc.