2019-20 Football Canada President’s Report

The challenges we face in 2020 are so fluid that they may have shifted from the time I started writing this sentence to the time I completed it. Regardless of the hurdles the world outside of football has dropped onto our path, I believe that collectively we have made strides as an organization to position ourselves for success when we get to run the race again.

First off, I would like to thank Louie Velocci for his eight years of service to the Football Canada board during a time of transitional change. I am pleased to hear that he will continue to contribute to efforts with Football Nova Scotia and hope to see him at and around future Football Canada functions. Louie was the key point person during our recent legal proceedings in Nova Scotia and worked through our issues to re-establish our charitable status. The fidelity of the organization was always central to his position on issues. Our Football Nation owes him a debt of gratitude for his service at the national level.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to Ken Volden who is finishing his term on the Board after three years. Ken was able to provide clarity and the ability to reset the discussion. Our dialogue also helped us to develop the opportunity to get our Football Canada PSA onto the air in regular rotation on Krown Gridiron Nation on TSN. Ken is a true friend of the game and I hope he continues to be a champion for football at all levels.

This is an odd time of optimism and pessimism as all of us manoeuvre through this pandemic.

The pessimism is obvious. We face it on a daily basis in terms what we manage, how we keep athletes and coaches engaged, and how we try to predict the unpredictable while managing expectations from both ends of the range.

As an organization, I believe we have conducted ourselves resolutely in attacking the challenges laid down by the cascading effects of the Coronavirus. We were the first NSO to announce a ban to play, practice or conduct face-to-face meetings on March 12. We activated Football From Home, coaching certification and training while the country was mostly shuttered. And we provided the PSO’s a guide for reactivating the game based on government directives in their areas in addition to educational tools for those standing on the grass roots in our “Return to Football” guide.

Through our FINANCE committee, Terry McIntyre and Shannon Donovan have been able to chart a course which should get us through the next year. The steady flow and change of information surrounding finance, government programs and funding and insurance have been relentless. Terry can discuss more in his Finance report.

Our EVENTS have been pushed to next year with PSOs having the option to host the cancelled events they missed this summer. It is hard to predict where we will be this fall and winter in respect to evaluating our Women’s team for 2021 and attending International Bowl in the middle of the US-COVID belt.

The central positive throughout all of this is that most “siloed” areas of the game started to discuss alternatives outside of their bubbles. As people looked for answers they began dialogue outside of their own groups, associations or circles. This kind of dialogue needs to be sustained.

IFAF has asked us if we would consider hosting a 2021 version of the World Junior Championships. We are discussions in regard to this as a “make-up” for the cancelled defense of our back-to-back world championships. If COVID or timing gets in the way of a 2021 event, it will still prepare us well for a 2023 “Four Continents” event which will likely determine some berths into the World Championship in Edmonton in 2024.

I believe that our partnership with the NeuroKinetic Project will continue to grow from humble beginnings in 2019-20. The teamwork from Jay Heatherington, Allan Champagne and his team and by Aaron Geisler sets the stage to provide innovative solutions to safety which are football-focused.

It was a particularly busy year in terms of addressing several GOVERNANCE issues which had been left unattended for quite some time.

Our Executive Director had worked with job guidelines during her tenure. Over a nine-month period

several concepts were discussed within Governance Committee to what should the position should realistically entail, and how it should be described. Also, the GC took into account that we eventually aspire to have a CEO in place within our management structure, and how the current ED would complement that role when it was activated.

We have delivered a job description which accurately and realistically represents the duties of the ED.

In many ways we’ve made significant strides to create a more functional committee structure. However, in some areas we still have work to do to provide well developed policy through the committees and subcommittees to the Board.

By-Law change and updates are in front of the membership as part of this AGM. The passing of this motion will bring us one step closer to being at the centre of the discussion for all football in Canada at a national level. Through the Associate Membership measure, we will begin outreach to the CFL, CFOA and other national groups. Other groups with participants 18-and-under must ensure they are compliant in the PSO territories where they operate and operate within at least three regional zones to be considered for membership.

By-Law reform was part of a 20-step process which took a full year and was checked by through legal experts a total of six times before delivery to the membership. It is important that we are compliant with the Non-Profit Act of 2009, in addition to providing the PSOs a document they can follow as an example for future By-Law reform.

The overhaul of our Board-Executive Governance policy was an important piece as it allows for Board members to work with the staff on specific projects on the basis of consensus between the President and the Executive Director. We needed to ensure transparency and communication to allow for Board members to bring experience and assets to the staff level, while still maintaining the primary function of being a policy board. This will allow Board members to actively engage on specific projects until our organization has the resources to fully manage projects at the executive level on their own.

In a break from the past we have welcomed non-Board members onto our main committees. In the case of GC, Lisa Harlow has served and given informed and trustworthy direction to the policy and Human Resources discussion. Steve Figner from the BCPFA will assist Finance in 2020-21.

I have been very active in the management of Football Canada, meeting with Shannon Donovan twice a week. My belief is that areas of COMMUNICATION and areas on the external side of our organization have started to turn in the right direction. Through the pandemic, I have done just under twenty interviews on various, TV, radio, print and digital platforms to push the Football Canada brand into the public discourse. It’s a small contribution and much more needs to be done.

Still on communication, working with communications coordinator Vanisha Mistry, we will be focused on launching a new website platform in 2020-21.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT is a discussion best detailed in a BDC report. However, I would like to thank the members of the BDC for leading the discussion with thoughtful consultation on the Five-year Strategic Plan which is in front of the membership this AGM. This will be a foundational document, even with the challenges we collectively face working through the issues of the pandemic.

This will enable us to establish new workflows with direction while also capitalizing on already developed projects and programming for export and monetization, such as the Football Canada app. My thanks to Mark Harrison, Greg Dick, Wendy Drake and all the BDC on this document.

One item of teamwork which requires a timely from the PSOs is when our national office asks for data. Jamie Geisler followed up with all the PSOs on a discussion from our semi-annual meeting about sponsorship and membership numbers to assist the BDC. At deadline only 50% of the PSOs replied to the membership form and 40% responded to the sponsorship form. If ‘we’ are all Football Canada, ‘we’ need to be better on compliance on communication pieces.

In regard to the upcoming DISCUSSION ON DIVERSITY within football in Canada, we need to understand what we want to achieve and how we set the discussion based on data, personal stories and regional realities.

As detailed in our Strategic Plan, the centre of our focus is the athlete. How do we create opportunities and illustrate a path to engagement within the game for BIPOC athletes beyond that of playing? How do we connect with low-engagement communities like First Nations, East and South Asian and other new and first-generation Canadian communities? What policy examples from federal agencies exist which could be adopted and incorporated in short order? All of these points are worth a researched, thoughtful and structured discussion.

I know this group isn’t accustomed to four pages from a President in a report. I actually left out a few parts along the way like Bid Books, a new relationship with USA Football, presence at Grey Cup and launch of CFL Futures, an improved relationship with the CFL, and a revised style guide but I thought it was important that I share as much as possible with you.

As always, if you have any questions my line is open for discussion.

Yours in Football,

Jim Mullin
President,
Football Canada

This post is also available in: French