Dear Members and Extended Family,
Another quick post to keep everyone informed of a few changes that have gone on within the association since my last blurb at the end of 2020.
As most of you may be aware, the beginning of February seen newly appointed employee Damon Selwyn from Brisbane start with MBI as our new General Manager. Then in late February Rob Grieve from Melbourne has also began work with MBI as our new Coaching Development Officer.
To give you a short quick briefing of Damon and Robs roles and responsibilities from a members’ perspective. Damon oversees all things operational, financial, facility, and staff management within MBI (Basketball and non-Basketball related) just to name a few, and as you would all appreciate there is a lot involved in keeping a facility the size of MBI operational.
As the Coaching Development Officer, Rob oversees the delivery of the Schools program to all Primary Schools within the Mackay region which is primarily run between Terms 2 and 3 in conjunction with our NBL1 North program, as the program includes the involvement of our McDonald’s Mackay Meteors and McDonald’s Mackay Meteorette’s contracted athletes. Co-ordinating and delivering Basketball programs to Schools in the Mackay and District through the government funding ‘Sporting Schools’ program. Rob will also have the responsibility to coordinate and conduct MBI introductory programs. Meteormites for 4–7-year-olds on designated Friday afternoons. The soon to be promoted ‘Bridge the Gap’ clinics. These clinics are designed for those junior members and Junior Club Coaches, who are new to the game of Basketball, and those domestic junior players and club coaches who are not involved in representative programs, wishing to receive additional coaching assistance. Robs other duties include overseeing our Junior Representative and Coaching those junior members involved in high performance programs, NPP, SPP, and FDP.
As members you would have seen the position of Business Development Manager advertised early this year. After short listing some very good applicants and conducting interviews, the selection panel felt we did not find a candidate with the right fit for the position. So, in the interim our General Manager Damon has taken on the position, with the role to be reassessed by the MBI executive and General Manager mid-year. This will allow the executive and to get a better understanding our current staff’s skill sets and assist in making the right decision moving forward. It will also place MBI in a more secure position financially in what has been a challenging period.
Basketball Queensland New Representative Structure Proposal
Although it is yet to be formally announced Basketball Queensland are considering changing the current Representative structure. The only suggested change is to move the under 12 State Championships to the September Holidays.
The proposed format would be as below,
Term Four 2021
- 3 x U/18 Carnivals
- 1 x U/16 Carnival
Christmas School Holidays
- U/18 State Championships
Term One 2022
- 2 x U/16 Carnivals
- 1 x U/14 Carnival
Easter School Holidays
- U/16 State Championships
Term Two 2022
- 2 x U/14 Carnivals
- 1 x U/12 Carnival
June/July School Holidays
- U/14 State Championships
Term Three 2022
- 2 x U/12 Carnivals
September School Holidays
- U/12 State Championships
As to if and when this change would happen, we can’t say but my early assessment is that it would be good move for MBI.
Competition Structure
I believe there has been a lot of conjecture of recent in relation to the junior competition structure. In 2019 MBI took the directive to implement the true summer and winter season formats that are currently in place. This format has been used in Victoria for some time and has now been taken on by our two nearest neighbours in Rockhampton and Townsville as well as other Associations in the South East Corner. For what its worth, I support this format and believe the benefits far out way the disadvantages for representative and domestic players, clubs and the association. While the association was closed in 2020 for Covid 19, I organized a consultation day for all clubs and relevant parties. It was during this meeting the motion was moved to adapt the current odd number age group brackets in Juniors by the majority. This option was mooted to enable the amended Representative Rule to be policed. The odd age group brackets which started in August 2020 does have both positives and negatives for those who have Children playing representative basketball. In a brief summary, bottom age Representative players don’t get to play with or against those players considered top age (both representative and domestic) while playing in that representative season. It is a disadvantage as they are not getting to play with or against those who would be physically bigger and stronger unless they were to sub up a division. The flip side being that top age players will only play with or against fellow top aged athletes and those a year older and eligible to play representative Basketball in the above age group as a bottom age player. The suggestion to move the 2022 season forward to May when our next season is due to start to cater for those representative players who are deemed to be disadvantaged would not be a very wise one in my opinion. Returning to even age groups would solve a lot of these issues, but MBI needs to take into consideration the additional workloads on clubs as changing them now before the start of the next season would mean Clubs would have to go through this process again after the next season finishes. Those involved would also have to consider implementing a new competition or an amended competition for those who would be forced out of juniors to play seniors. Remembering under 17 and 19 boys is the two age brackets with the largest growth in the association. I would urge all parties to take a deep breath and sit down sooner than later to discussion a solution for all members moving forward. I understand the concerns members have raised as I did back in August when it was voted in.
Glory League
In the very near future all members will receive information on a product called Glory League and be asked to vote on whether you are in or are not in favour of the proposal. On the 3rd of March, the executive and staff were given a presentation by David Hopkins from Victoria. Glory League is a fully automated video system that captures player highlights and statistics. Every player, coach, parent or supporter is emailed a link to the game two hours after they had played. It will contain yours and yours child’s only, scoring highlights and stats from the game they have just completed. It will also contain portals for MBI Coaches and Referees to utilize to assist with professional development. Glory League can also be to address physical player incidents assisting MBI judiciary and Referees. Obviously, a system like Glory League comes with a cost and I would encourage each member to take the time to review the proposal and make your own decision on its merits. It also contains very strict privacy laws.
New Policies
Newly elected committee members will be given drafts of policies that I have asked to be done in relation to Policies for the recruitment of Employees including NBL1 North Coaches, and a policy for the selection of Junior Representative Coaches. Both policies are to ensure correct protocols are followed in terms of process and conflicts of interest. These will not guarantee all decisions will be the correct moving forward, but they will ensure members interests are put first and foremost and lesson the ability for the process to be used incorrectly. I’d like to thank Roland Taylor for assisting in putting these policies together.
Jocks Garden
On behalf of the executive, I’d like to thank Mark and Sharee from Calligan’s Nursery for donating the lovely chip bark for the garden at the front of the complex. Your kindness is greatly appreciated. And If members are wondering who has been keeping the garden so neat and tidy. A huge thank you to Life member Judy Hicks for all her hard work. I am sure Jock would be equally appreciative as MBI members are of Mark, Sharee and Judy’s contribution.
Click here to view garden
Price Comparisons
As previously mentioned in a previous post, when elected the executive asked staff to enquire as to how Mackay Basketball Incorporated faired in comparison to the other major associations throughout Queensland.
The tables below are pre covid-19.
Farewell
As this will be my last correspondence as President of MBI I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of the executive to thank all of our Committee members, players, coaches, managers, officials, volunteers and supporters who work tirelessly to make the association what it is. The executive would especially like to thank the small band of volunteers within all clubs and Ladies Day Time for their tireless hard work and effort with coordinating you the members into club teams, identifying coaches and managers for each team, and the never-ending correspondence and the logistics involved to make it happen.
I would like to thank the rest of the team on the executive. Geoff, Colleen, Roland, and Ronelle have been asked a lot in terms of countless meetings, reviews and jobs I’ve asked of them. Throw the extra workload Covid-19 brought along and workload that goes with the transition and replacing three employees’, it has been exceptionally busy. We have not always agreed on issues, but all decisions have been made with the best interests in mind of all members of MBI.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife Maree and our three girls who have had carry the load while I’ve been busy being busy.
Warm Regards,
Guy Simpson
President | Mackay Basketball Inc.