When was sportsmark introduced

If a sport gets it right in the boardroom, then it should attract more members and more revenue. Its athletes and coaches will be part of a winning combination with the management and board," Trevor Mallard said.

Bowls New Zealand has enjoyed an excellent year in terms of international success, media exposure, coaching development and promotion of the game to attract new players to clubs, social leagues and at secondary school level. The recent results at the world championships were no fluke.

They were the result of excellent coaching and development, which in turn was the result of smart thinking at board level. Bowls New Zealand has also been awarded the staging of the world championships in Kerry Clark and his team have developed an excellent system for monitoring active coaches and managing their development.

More than new members joined bowling clubs in the past year, and Bowls has also re-invented itself as a game for all ages. There is a successful junior recruiting programme, which Bowls clubs have supported. A great result, and just a start. Bowls faces many challenges, but is not afraid of change. It has established a close relationship with ordinary bowlers, restructured their organisation and achieved a strengthened financial position.

Bowls has attracted significant sponsors to be able to lift the profile of the game culminating in winning at the NZ Post Sponsorship awards last year. Bowls New Zealand is now one of the sharpest acts in sport, and a management success story. Netball New Zealand is not just the largest women's sport in New Zealand, it is also the largest women's organisation of any type.

This presents an extraordinary opportunity, and Netball NZ is grasping it. Just three years ago Christine Archer led a move to embark on a new direction for the game, following extensive consultation at all levels.

This lead to new regional entities and a restructured board which continually investigates new initiatives to grow the game. Part of the reason netball is in charge of its future is because it is in charge of its finances. It is meeting customer needs and generating surpluses. Netball NZ was a finalist this year in the Annual report of the Year Awards, so it has certainly impressed the accountants! Netballers set very high standards in organisation - go to any courts on a Saturday and it runs like clockwork.

This ethic applies at the top level too. Netball NZ achieved world recognition for its role in organising the excellent Netball World Championships in Christchurch. The marketing of the sport has been excellent in recent years. Netball has a strong vision for itself going into the future. It aims to attract more girls and women with new products, such as the Fun Ferns for young players.

Achieving these goals will not just be good for Netball, but for New Zealand. The success of the Scouting movement can't be measured in championships and titles. It is about young people learning important personal and community skills.

Scouting is dedicated to youth development, and producing the next generation of leaders in our community. This is a tough calling, and in many ways society keeps changing the goal posts. Scouting is an institution, and this carries strengths and challenges. The greatest challenge is to convince the community that this traditional organisation is more relevant today than ever before. Scouting's national administrators know that they must investigate new ways to deliver the benefits they offer.

And they must enhance their membership and support the volunteers, who are the backbone of the organisation. To achieve this the organisation has focused on continuous improvement at all levels. It has a strategy and clear views on what it must achieve in the next few years. It has turned around a very poor financial position in recent times, and is very well placed to provide excellent services to its members.

Archery is not one of our high profile sports, but it is a sport that display's outstanding leadership in many areas. It has to, because it has limited resource and is completely made up of volunteers. The board has no staff to hand the work to. There are many small businesses that can give the large corporates a lesson in management. Archery New Zealand is a perfect example to other small sports.

It continues to achieve good success at the highest level. It continues to accredit growing numbers of coaches and officials, and its junior development work remains a priority. Archery New Zealand is setting standards in planning and administration structure that achieve and produce the results it wants. You can't do more than that. This mainly volunteer organisation is fortunate to have a strong board which has a clear strategic plan. Sometimes it is an advantage to be a small sport.

Judo has exploited this, by ensuring that its members played a central role in developing its plan. Now the athletes, coaches and officials have buy-in to the direction of the sport, which in turn makes the management easier and more effective. Sportsmark is a true family firm, started over 20 years ago by Stephen, Derick and Gaynor Gray.

Stephen led the development of the company and products for over 15 years working closely with industry experts to develop high quality products with safety as a top priority. Now in its 21st year Sportsmark is still under the leadership of Derick and Gaynor Gray with daugther Nickie managing the day to day operations. As ever, nothing stands still and new products are in the latest catalogue together with adjustments to prices.

After nearly 4 years since the previous catalogue was launched the world has changed considerably and we have had to mitigate price increases where we can with redesigns to keep costs down. A lot of prices have stayed the same, whilst some have increased and some have actually reduced. Fast forward to a post Brexit and lockdown world, material prices are going up dramatically, we are, amongst others entering a rocky phase of increased manufacturing prices, longer product lead times and higher shipping costs.

The principal team now involved are:- Nickie Newton nee Gray - Front of house, order processing, design and artwork, involved with the sportsmark range for 20 years.

Alex Chang- In charge of production and procurement and product design, involved with the sportsmark range for 20 years. Steve Baker — Production, order processing and despatch for nearly 20 years. Derick and Gaynor Gray — First conceived the early products in the sportsmark range and still supporting in the background.

New additions to the team are: Andy Slater- Production, order processing and resident sign expert. Andy Sim - Production. Sarah Harris - Sales administrator.