CAPACITY BUILDING Member Capacity Building The BWF MA Grants Programme was a new initiative with a focus on building the capacity of Member Associations focused on training and development of people; tailored to the needs of each Member Association based on results from the Member categorisation survey in 2019. This BWF led programme was adapted in 2020 due to COVID-19, to assist Members to get ‘back to badminton'. Oceania had 15 eligible Members for a grant (Australia were not eligible as they were ranked 9/10 in the categorisation survey). Of the 15 Members eligible, 13 applied and received grants for a variety of projects, the most popular being: Shuttle Time, AirBadminton and player development activities. These activities commenced late 2020 and will continue into 2021.
The year started with 7 Member Association (MA) Agreements being signed outlining personnel, equipment and financial support Badminton Oceania would provide during the year aligned with the target KPIs for each programme or activity. It quickly became apparent, in the second quarter of the year, that many of these plans and activities would not be activated as we had intended and we needed to find alternative ways, with a focus on in-country activity with assistance from our staff via virtual means, to achieve the KPIs. The positive side of the forced changes to plans was the increased communication and one on one work with key people within Member Associations, and the new innovative activations which subsequently occurred. We conducted an on-line survey of key people across our pacific countries, who are
all volunteers to determine what motivates them, what assistance we can provide and how we can both retain them and recruit others into our sport. These learnings will be utilised across all our activities and programmes going forward. Governance - Annual General Meeting Our AGM was held in conjunction with the VICTOR Oceania Championships, in Ballarat, Australia in February with 9 Members attending: Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga. Leody Vainikolo stepped down from the Executive Board after serving 6 years (over an 8-year period). Johanna Kou (NCL) and Ngaoa Ranginui (COK) were re-elected, Karyn Gibson (FIJ) was elected for her first term.
Executive Board The Executive Board met once in person prior to the AGM with a very short meeting following the AGM to welcome in new member Karyn. There was another faceto- face meeting planned for the last quarter of the year however this was unable to go ahead. The Executive Board met on five occasions throughout the year utilising the Zoom meeting platform to ensure that all members were kept up to date on how Badminton Oceania was impacted and adapting in a constantly changing world. The major achievement of 2020 was the confirmation and release of the 2020-2024 strategic plan outlining our direction and goals for the next four years from which the annual operational plan is propagated. 10
