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As far back as I can remember, I had my hair in a ponytail, glove on my hand, and cleats on my feet. I grew up on the softball diamond. ...
Published on August 3, 2023 The “F” word… Fraud – it’s not something we talk a lot about in the non-profit world or particularly the amateur sport community, but just ...
Published on July 12, 2023 As Sport Law team members, we care deeply about sport, people and dreams. We often find ourselves working alongside leaders when they are feeling vulnerable, ...
Published May 31, 2023 Over the past year, we have noticed an increase in the requests to assist with Special Meetings of Members. This blog focuses on the process of ...
Published on April 13, 2023 We need to name it to tame it. Our words shape our worlds. What got us here, isn’t what we need to get us to ...
Published on February 2, 2023. Hope. The one thing that can change everything. A year ago we shared Hope on the Horizon by offering our views on the many ways ...
If we want to make sport better, we need to know better. After completing hundreds of governance presentations over the past 30 years, one of the most common comments we ...
For the past decade, the team at Sport Law has sometimes felt alone on an island, speaking about humanistic and values-based approaches to leading, competing, and coaching in sport. Over ...
Published on May 31, 2022 This blog is Part 3 of our ongoing virtual meeting roadshow, where we share our learnings and interesting moments from the hosting of online member ...
Sport Law has been accompanying sport leaders since 1992, helping them address legal, governance and communications issues. During this time, we listened to the growing needs of leaders who were ...
Published on March 31, 2022 Anyone else feel that sport is in deep transition? Everywhere we turn we see organizational leaders being fired or leaving because they are burned out. ...
Published on February 25, 2022 Overview Social media use is abundant today, especially as COVID restrictions have moved much of our personal and professional lives online. Many sport organizations have ...
Published on January 25, 2022 Last year I delivered a dozen keynotes on the state of sport and what we believe is needed to better meet the needs of the ...
Published January 19, 2022 I Thought YOU Were Doing That You’ve probably seen it before. Lofty goals and program objectives are listed in a strategic plan, but just don’t seem ...
Published January 12, 2022 As we turn our tired hearts to 2022, the team members at Sport Law are here to support sport leaders, coaches, athletes, and volunteers through the ...
Published November 9, 2021 Since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, we have all shifted to a new virtual reality. When we posted our initial blog about hosting your ...
Published September 30, 2021 As we gradually return to organized activities, many Sport Organizations are looking to update their COVID protocols for their employees, volunteers, participants, and spectators. A key issue is whether to introduce a ...
Published September 25, 2021 Written by: John Gobin In our continuing series of blog posts on the ONCA, this post will focus on the implementation of the Act, new amendments ...
Published April 5, 2021 Saying goodbye is hard. Have you noticed that sport leaders are really good at taking on new challenges, initiating things, and managing by objectives? I ...
Published November 25, 2020 Recently, we’re been asked to join virtual AGMs, town halls, and other gatherings to stimulate discussion, challenge outdated mindsets, and open hearts to new possibilities. What ...
Published September 21, 2020 September 21, 2020 – The SLSG is pleased to announce that we will be working with Queen’s University’s Athletics & Recreation on a department review. This ...
Published June 29, 2020 Since posting our earlier blogs about hosting your AGM amidst COVID-19 and SLSG’s Simply Voting subscription to support sport organizations, the response from the sport community ...
Published May 19, 2020 As this is a rapidly changing environment, the information contained in this summary document may not be the most up to date and we have used ...
Published May 12, 2020 I listened to author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek speak unedited to his team recently and he asked a powerful question: “What will we become?” This ...
Published April 21, 2020 As the world continues to adjust to the “new normal” under COVID-19, sport leaders have been considering how best to encourage safe training environments for athletes ...
Published April 16, 2020 The SLSG is hosting weekly “Conversation Matters: You Ask, We Share” where we spend an hour with sport leaders from across the country sharing information and ...
Published April 14, 2020 The SLSG is hosting weekly “Conversation Matters: You Ask, We Share” where we spend an hour with sport leaders from across the country sharing information and ...
Published April 9, 2020 Earlier this week we blogged about the support that SLSG can provide for your meetings, as well as the latest federal and provincial updates on annual ...
Published April 6, 2020 Due to COVID-19, many organizations who have regularly hosted their annual general meeting (AGM) over the next few months now face uncertainty as to when they ...
Published April 2, 2020 Considering current world events, the SLSG is hosting weekly “Conversation Matters: You Ask, We Share” and spent an hour sharing information and responding to questions from ...
Published February 12, 2020 We are increasingly being asked for help to identify, vet, and select prospective employees, vendors and higher-level volunteers (like nominees for a Board of Directors) through ...
Published September 16, 2019 The Sport Law & Strategy Group is pleased to announce that one of our associates, Jason Robinson, has successfully passed the exam to become a Certified ...
Published July 15, 2019 I have been writing about governance gremlins and outdated sport systems over the past year and my hope with this blog is to share some of ...
Published July 4, 2019 Over the past 27 years, the Sport Law & Strategy Group (SLSG) has written hundreds of articles on topics related to the law, planning, leadership, and ...
Published January 16, 2019 Since 2007, I have had the privilege to facilitate enterprise risk management workshops (ERM) with 56 National, Multi-Sport, Provincial/Territorial and Community Sport Organizations. In collaboration with ...
Published December 20, 2018 We last wrote about Criminal Record Checks – a Discussion for Every Sport Organization in January 2016 and its time to update our knowledge in this ...
Published October 29, 2018 Over the past number of months, I have been working with several clients to realign their financial management systems, bring their daily financial management in-house, and ...
Published June 7, 2018 Dispute resolution and abuse in sport are intersecting issues that can be addressed by policies (the current approach) or by an independent dispute resolution officer (an ...
Published April 11, 2018 *This post was revised and updated on June 13th, 2018 The Ontario government recently passed ‘Rowan’s Law’, which is concussion management legislation that will affect every ...
Published January 26, 2018 The Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) has been stuck in legislative limbo since 2010 – but there have been recent developments that affect every Ontario not-for-profit ...
Published January 10, 2018 Dom Chorafakis is the founder and principal technical consultant with Akouto, a cyber security consulting firm. Dom is actively engaged in cybersecurity research and development and ...
Published December 18, 2017 My business partner and good friend Steve Indig and I have been dreaming big these days. Fresh off a 25th anniversary which helped us launch a new ...
Published December 16, 2017 Tyler Matthews was a recent student of mine at Brock University. He completed a Bachelor of Sport Management (Honours) at Brock University and his sport management ...
Published December 9, 2017 Whether your organization’s year-end is December 31, March 31, or some other time during the year, the annual audit is always a source of stress for ...
Published June 6, 2017 Recently I completed a course on parliamentary procedure with the University of Wisconsin and proudly updated my LinkedIn profile to announce my status as a newly ...
Published May 10, 2017 In sport, we often talk about physical literacy as “the mastering of fundamental movement skills and fundamental sport skills that permit a child to read their ...
Published March 15, 2017 A person would have to be on a deserted island to not be aware of the increasingly frequent occurrence of cyber-attacks in the world of politics ...
Published January 27, 2017 In 2016, the SLSG partnered with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical ...
Published November 18, 2016 By now, most BC societies have received formal notice from BC Registry Services that the new BC Societies Act will come into force on November 28th, ...
Published October 28, 2016 Risk management has made front line news again over the past few weeks. Beyond politics and ethical considerations of medically assisted deaths to the striking of ...
Published September 20, 2016 In our previous post about Game ON, we discussed the policies that Ontario Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) will need to have in order to be formally ...
Published June 29, 2016 Increasingly I’m inspired to think of choices when tackling both every day and complex problems by approaching them as ‘and/with’ problems instead ‘either/or’. This connected duality ...
Published June 1, 2016 Since 2007 the Sport Law & Strategy Group (SLSG) has partnered with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport to deliver the Risk Management Project, a ...
Published May 9, 2016 One of the legacies of Toronto hosting the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games has been a renewed focus on sport in Ontario and the creation of ...
Published April 8, 2016 By Rachel Corbett. I have been very impressed by the Harassment in Sport blog series presented by the Coaching Association of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Ethics ...
Published April 4, 2016 Our intention for this four-part blog series on harassment in sport is to review the past, assess where we are, and chart a course forward that ...
Published March 24, 2016 Recently, organizations in Ontario and BC have been asking us about transitioning to compliance with the upcoming Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) and the new BC ...
Published January 27, 2016 Our intention for this four-part blog series on harassment in sport is to review the past, assess where we are, and chart a course forward that ...
Published January 7, 2016 Are Criminal Record Checks (CRCs) really necessary? Since they take time and effort for a volunteer to obtain, and they cost money, this is often the ...
Published December 16, 2015 Our intention for this four-part blog series on harassment in sport is to review the past, assess where we are, and chart a course forward that ...
Published December 8, 2015 Big news for BC sports organizations! The new not-for-profit corporations act – the BC Societies Act – has been announced to come into force on November ...
Published October 28, 2015 Hosting a successful sport event involves many factors, some of which involve taking risks or exposing your organization to potential risks. Minimizing risk during the hosting ...
Published August 26, 2015 Risk management is a concept that more and more sport leaders are embracing. In part, this shift towards proactive, integrated and system-wide management of risks is ...
Published June 25, 2015 There have been several recent changes in Ontario law that have come into effect, or will soon, that impact amateur sport organizations in Ontario that have paid ...
Published June 2, 2015 The Sport Law & Strategy Group has been handling internal appeals for sport organizations for over twenty years. Our task is to ensure procedural fairness during ...
Published May 27, 2015 [An updated blogpost relating to Management by Values was posted in August 2015 and is accessible here] by Dina Bell-Laroche and Rachel Corbett (originally written ...
Published May 26, 2015 Regardless of their certification level, experience, employment or volunteer status, sport discipline, or location, coaches have a legal obligation to provide a safe environment for their ...
Published May 20, 2015 The new BC Societies Act is expected to come into force within 18 months (by November 2016) and will replace the existing BC Society Act – ...
Published November 8, 2014 For a few years I’ve been recommending that sport organizations develop their own social media policy. In the most comprehensive blogpost - ‘Does your organization need ...
Published October 20, 2014 Midnight on Friday, October 17 was the deadline for federally incorporated not-for-profit organizations to transition from old legislation (Canada Corporations Act) to new legislation (Canada Not-for-profit ...
Published August 26, 2014 Four months ago in a blogpost we counted the remaining National Sport Organizations (NSOs) that had not yet transitioned to compliance with the new federal NFP ...
Published June 13, 2014 We last wrote about the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) in September 2013 and unfortunately not much has changed. The legislation is expected to come into ...
Published June 10, 2014 It seems that everywhere we turn, not for profits and charities are being put under more and more scrutiny. Whether this is warranted or not remains ...
Published April 29, 2014 With 24 National Sport Organizations (NSOs) having transitioned to compliance with the new NFP Act, and more organizations in the process of completing the final steps ...
Published April 14, 2014 On October 17th 2011 the NFP Act (also known as the CNCA) came into force and required that every federally-incorporated not-for-profit organization transition to compliance with ...
Published March 18, 2014Updated May 17, 2022 There are times within meetings, particularly executive meetings, when discussions must be kept confidential. Such discussions are considered to be “in camera” meetings. ...
Published January 15, 2014 I stumbled on this recently while reviewing our publication "Risk Management Guide for Community Sport Organizations" that we wrote for 2010 Legacies Now. I was reminded ...
Published November 26, 2013 Dina Bell-Laroche and I have just completed the 30th risk assessment workshop in the multi-year Risk Management Project funded by Sport Canada and the True Sport ...
Published November 14, 2013 These questions are intended to promote reflection on the concept of governance. They are by no means complete or comprehensive, but they arise from many years ...
Published September 20, 2013 I have been deeply immersed in the Canada Not-for Profit Corporations Act for over two years now, and so have many of Canada's national sport organizations. ...
Published September 19, 2013 It’s been nearly a year since we dedicated a blogpost to the Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA). During that time the implementation date of the ONCA ...
Published September 9, 2013 Back in June of this year, in collaboration with Rowing Canada Aviron, we asked sport organizations to complete a survey related to absentee voting. Absentee voting ...
Published July 4, 2013 What Documents Your Organization Needs to Keep and Who Can Access Them The new NFP Act requires that organizations maintain specific records and keep this information ...
Published June 13, 2013 The Situation A director of a sport organization is appointed to the board because of his or her position in another organization or because that organization ...
Published May 6, 2013 As most readers know, we are working with a great many NSOs and MSOs on transition to the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. Recently, we have ...
Published April 6, 2013 Carleton business professor Linda Druxbury researches and writes about the pending shortage of a skilled workforce. She puts it quite clearly … with baby boomers set ...
Published February 23, 2013 The NFP Act came into law in October 2011, with a 3-year window for corporations to become compliant (by October 2014). That window is now almost ...
Published January 29, 2013 Melanie Herman, of the Nonprofit Risk Manager Center, recently published her RISK eNewsletter and I wanted to share a great little excerpt. I hope you find ...
Published January 24, 2013 At the Sport Law & Strategy Group, we regularly receive requests from sport organizations asking for assistance writing policies. These are the policies, procedures, and rules ...
Published January 16, 2013 Late in 2011, Marie-Claude Asselin of the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) wrote an informative and practical article on conflict of interest in sport. ...
Published November 21, 2012 NSOs and MSOs in Canada have less than two years to make a successful transition from the Canada Corporations Act to the Canada Not-for-profit Corporation Act. ...
Published November 16, 2012 Ken Davies, President of Alberta Biathlon and Chair of Biathlon Canada, recently shared with me a simple model for board leadership that he uses in the ...
Published October 12, 2012 At the Sport Law & Strategy Group we have been working with almost 40 national level sport organizations on their transition from the Canada Corporations Act ...
Published September 27, 2012 [Edit September 2013 - there have been new changes to the proclamation date since this post was written] Two days after we wrote about whether there ...
Published September 25, 2012 The Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) is expected to come into force on January 1st, 2013 and organizations will have three years to comply with the ...
Published September 22, 2012 There have been a few recent member misconduct incidents making the news lately and we wanted to comment on how sports organizations should approach responding to ...
Published July 30, 2012 We wanted to share with our readers what we have learned about the requirements of the Not-For-Profit Corporations Act in relation to the timing of annual ...
Published June 19, 2012 This post provides an update on some exciting risk management initiatives that have occurred over the past year. Risk Management Impact on Performance Please see this ...
Published June 5, 2012 By Kevin Lawrie and Rachel Corbett. We recently published a snapshot on the voting structures of National Sports Organizations (NSOs) and we found some interesting results. As ...
Published May 9, 2012 By Rachel Corbett and Kevin Lawrie. We continue to help National Sport Organizations (NSOs) comply with the new Not-for-Profit Corporations Act and, as part of the ...
Published April 12, 2012 My colleagues and I have been thinking a lot about what it takes to create a high performing sport organization. Traditionally, assumptions were made about the ...
Published April 10, 2012 By Dina Bell-Laroche and Rachel Corbett. Okay, so Dina and Rachel got to thinking about what it takes for organizations to perform at a high level. ...
Published February 28, 2012 Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) may be hearing about the “NFP Act” or the new not-for-profit corporations’ legislation that every nationally-incorporated sport organization is currently addressing. Just ...
Published February 2, 2012 To date we have written extensively about the impacts that the NFP Act will have on membership classes and board structures. These are the main issues ...
Published December 6, 2011 In recent months I have been following a blog on risk management written by Melanie Lockwood-Herman. She is the Executive Director of an American non-profit dedicated ...
Published September 9, 2011 Along with some other governance experts, I have been working with Sport Canada for some time on creating a prescriptive set of "good governance principles" for ...
Published November 4, 2011 Last month we gave a presentation to the membership of the Sport Alliance of Ontario (SAO) relating to the requirements of the newly legislated provincial Bill ...
Published October 15, 2011 Industry Canada has very recently published their transition guide (HTML) for the new Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (NPCA) that will take effect in a few short days. ...
Published October 10, 2011 It is easy to get lost in social media guidelines and policies. Every organization has their own informed (and sometimes uninformed) views and ideas for how ...
Published September 7, 2011 Sport is full of risks. This we know well. We expect coaches and athletes to take risks daily in pursuit of performance excellence, and yet more ...
Published August 20, 2011 Some of you may be aware that we are undergoing a renewal of the Canadian Sport Policy (CSP). Fondly spoken of as CSP 2.0, this renewal ...
Published July 11, 2011 We know ... writing and reading policy documents and contracts can be boring and tedious. I can attest to this as I have spent the last ...
Published June 27, 2011 On June 22, 2011 I had the opportunity to make a presentation on the Canada Not-for Profit Corporations Act (NPCA) [1] at the 1st National Sport ...
Published June 6, 2011 There are countless articles, research, and management books that suggest the positive impact of having a set of enduring values is well understood and documented by ...
Published June 1, 2011 Lately it seems our website postings are preoccupied with governance and social media - whatever happened to the sport and the law? The reality is, the ...
Published May 3, 2011 We have written here before about the role that values can play in helping organizations improve their performance. But I am inspired to blog about a ...
Published April 8, 2011 By LeeAnn Cupidio and Steven Indig If your organization does not have a technology policy in place to deal with the use of electronic devices such ...
Published April 5, 2011 In this space we have written previously about the imminent Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (NPCA), due to take effect soon in Canada. Back in 2009, our newsletter ...
Published March 28, 2011 We ask our athletes and coaches to pursue excellence every day, and a recent article in National Post by Shaun Francis and John Kelleher (10 questions ...
Published March 17, 2011 The Alberta Court of Appeal has reminded us in no uncertain terms that sport organizations cannot, through their bylaws or policies, or through threats of disciplinary ...
Published March 11, 2011 Over the years I have worked with many National Sport Organizations (NSOs) on governance projects. These have ranged from small reviews and bylaw tinkering to massive ...
Published January 13, 2011 It's a new year! And many sport organizations are considering making changes to their governance structure. These are the ingredients for success as we see them (based ...
Published December 11, 2010 A lot of sport organizations are hearing buzz about a major government law that will affect their operations and possibly their bylaws. Organizations are coming to ...
Published December 10, 2010 An organization I have worked with for many years recently asked me if I could identify the hallmarks of good governance - the indicators of a ...
Published November 23, 2010 Rachel Corbett was appointed as the Commonwealth Games Team Ombudsperson in June 2010. Unlike in prior years, for these games the position was a joint appointment ...
Published October 14, 2010 In the fall of 2010, Rachel Corbett (co-founder of the Sport Law & Strategy Group) spent about a month in Delhi, India as a member of ...
Published September 9, 2010 Recently, I held a workshop at Skate Canada’s Annual Congress and General Meeting in Toronto and shared my views on how sport organizations can benefit from ...
Published August 2, 2010 This guide is intended to help volunteers and staff of local sport organizations make better decisions. Designed for leaders, administrators and volunteers within sport organizations and ...
Published June 19, 2010 The study examined the intentional use of NSOs' stated values. Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) was applied to an Appreciative Inquiry approach of interviewing NSO senior leadership. ...
Published June 2, 2010 In 2009, the federal Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (NFP Act) received Royal Assent. We wrote about the NFP Actin a previous newsletter and there is now more ...
Published April 11, 2010 Over the past 18 months, I have been working towards my Master's Degree in the Applied Health Sciences (Sport Management) at Brock University. I am pleased ...
Published April 10, 2010 The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver/Whistler received high praise indeed. And although these winter Olympics were one of the best, any evaluation cannot (and will ...
Published March 11, 2010 I write this column the day after the close of the 2010 Paralympic Games. The months of February and March have been quite extraordinary for people ...
Published February 20, 2010 The St. John’s School Lake Temiskaming Canoe Tragedy (1978) The Strathcona Tweedsmuir School Rogers Pass Avalanche Tragedy (2003) As a consultant working in the sport and ...
Published January 11, 2010 A force for good – that is what most not-for-profit sport organizations set out to become. For that very reason, sport often attracts dynamic, passionate and ...
Published December 23, 2009 Question: My son is active in club sports. He would like to switch to a different team to join his friends, but a representative of the ...
Published October 1, 2009 Question: I am a member of a board of directors of a sport organization – my daughter is an athlete member of this organization. I sometimes ...
Published January 27, 2009 Many times in this column we have written about a dimension of fairness – a concept that is central to the integrity of sport and also ...
Published November 18, 2008 For many national sport bodies, this is the time to debrief on the Olympic and Paralympic experience, take stock and begin planning for the next four ...
Published November 11, 2008 Practicing a Trade Without a License This describes the board director who has done no preparation to become better informed about his/her role as a director. ...
Published October 12, 2008 We started writing this column 15 years ago. Our inaugural column was titled ‘personal risk management’. Written in 1994, we compared the then-new Coaching Code of ...
Published May 3, 2008 During the last several months, the Centre for Sport and Law has been asked by sport organizations to help in the implementation of their discipline and ...
Published March 24, 2008 The time has never been better for sport organizations to consider the important role of values in their mandate and activities, and the contribution that ‘management ...
Published September 18, 2007 We are often asked to help sport organizations administer internal hearings to ensure procedures are carried out properly, thus reducing the chance of a complaint or ...
Published September 11, 2007 Sound familiar? Although this topic has very little to do with the law, we are nonetheless often called upon by client organizations for help. Over the ...
Published August 9, 2007 In the last 6 months we have helped two of our client organizations, PSOs in two different provinces, deal with the aftermath of employee theft. For ...
Published September 1, 2006 It has been my observation that the business of amateur sport in Canada has become increasingly complex and sophisticated in recent years, yet the governance structures ...
Published November 9, 2002 This fall we attended a two-day workshop on professional discipline and regulation. Organized for professional associations such as those governing dentists, nurses, architects, accountants and veterinarians, ...
Published November 2, 2002 By Rachel Corbett. According to the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, over 40 percent of Canadian volunteers hold positions on boards and committees. ...
Published August 23, 2002 INTRODUCTION Risk is an integral element of sport. Sport without risk would cease to be sport. This unique aspect of sport must be factored into any ...
Published August 10, 2002 Reports of violent sport incidents are becoming startlingly frequent. In 1996, members of the University of Moncton hockey team (including players and an assistant coach) attacked ...
Published February 28, 2000 The Charitable and Non-profit sector in Canada has experienced unprecedented changes in the 1990's. As senior levels of government spend less and transfer more responsibilities downwards ...
Published May 6, 1999 By Graeme Mew A constant challenge in any system of dispute resolution involves balancing the desirability of having fair procedures for the resolution of disputes against ...
Published January 15, 1998 Our column this issue is not about coaches. Instead, it is about directors, and we've chosen this topic because a good number of coaches also happen ...
Published December 2, 1997 Having general liability insurance coverage is something every coach should seriously consider. Apart from insurance being a sensible risk management tool, it is clear that in ...
Published January 25, 1994 More than ever before, coaches are aware of the risks and responsibilities they assume when they coach. These risks and responsibilities include those that are legal ...
Published May 1, 1993 Recreation is an inherently risky business. In Canada, injury statistics show nearly thirty percent of all injuries to adults result from sport and recreation activities. This ...
