WOB was delighted to have Stephanie Spence, the first female President of Athletics League Victoria as its guest panelist at Boards for young, aspiring and inexperienced directors in Melbourne last Wednesday.
At only 37, Stephanie’s story was inspiring. The youngest of three children she was brought up to understand that being young was never an obstacle. She shared how assuming the President's role whilst being on maternity leave has provided a welcome distraction to keep her professional mind active. Full of energy, Stephanie outlined how she juggles her President's role with her professional and personal life and what the role of President involves.
Victorian Government Sports Board Quota
In December 2015, the Minister for Sport released the final report of the independent Inquiry into Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation – A Five Year Game Plan for Victoria – and committed to implement all nine of the Inquiry’s recommendations to enhance participation by women and girls and to increase their engagement in leadership and governance roles.
VicHealth will apply this quota to State Sport Associations (SSAs), Regional Sport Assemblies (RSAs) and State Sport and Recreation Bodies from 1 July 2019.
Sports that do not comply will face sanctions and their funding will be impacted.
This presents a great opportunity for women to get involved in sports boards generally and opens the door to sports that have that typically been male dominated. Women on Boards applauds VicSport for making gender balance mandatory and will write to all sports boards letting them know of its vacancy posting service to a database of high quality female candidates.
While some states like SA are not far behind Victoria, others are lagging in this important area.
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