Ottawa – March 30, 2022 – The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and Sport Law are proud to announce the launch of Governance Essentials – a comprehensive new e-learning course designed to enhance the knowledge of Directors who volunteer on Boards. The three-hour self-directed course offers new and current Directors the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and feel more confident in their role as fiduciaries of a sport organization.
The sport governance landscape is complex and challenging for even the most experienced Board of Directors. This may be a barrier for enthusiastic but inexperienced volunteers who wish to serve as a Director but do not feel entirely qualified for the role. The Governance Essentials course equips learners with an understanding of their legal and fiduciary duties and provides practical tips about sport governance so they can act with confidence to bring the positive impact of sport to individuals and communities.
The CCES and Sport Law combined their expertise to develop this groundbreaking course. Sport Law provided sport-specific expertise in governance, legal matters, and leadership, which was elevated by the CCES’s knowledge of the sport sector and commitment to meaningful and technically sophisticated learning design.
“Sport needs informed and confident Directors who can make decisions knowing and respecting their roles and responsibilities, as well as complying with their fiduciary duty to make decisions in the best interests of the organization. One of the barriers to recruiting new Directors is the lack of knowledge of what is required to serve on a non-profit board. Governance Essentials was created to mitigate this risk,” said Dina Bell-Laroche, Sport Law partner and Integral Coach©. “We designed this course to elevate their knowledge, share critical information to ensure a shared understanding of key governance topics, and help to ensure that volunteers and staff are aligned on the central tenets of good governance. We believe that this course offers unparalleled training to equip Directors with critical governance information, enhancing the valuable contribution they can make to fair and ethical sport from playground to podium.”
“The CCES has long considered weak governance to be a threat to ethical sport because of the risks involved with Directors who don’t understand their responsibilities or the basics of good governance. Every sport organization needs a Board composed of competent Directors who have the skills to govern responsibly and the confidence to steer their organizations through difficult situations and towards excellence,” said Paul Melia, President and CEO of the CCES. “In my mind, making Governance Essentials required learning for all Board members could usher the Canadian sport sector into a new era where first-class governance is the standard.”
The course was piloted with several local, provincial, and national sport organizations, and hundreds of licenses have already been sold.
“In a world where Directors of sport organizations are facing increasing complexities in their roles, preparation and training is more important than ever. Bowls Canada is pleased to adopt the Governance Essentials online training course from Sport Law and the CCES,” said Kathryn MacGregor, Chair of Bowls Canada Boulingrin. “It provides a thorough overview in an easy-to-understand manner and ensures that our Directors are prepared to effectively manage risk during these challenging times. It is truly an essential part of our governance!”
The course has many features that facilitate individual learning, including:
- Self-directed learning and skill-building,
- Highly interactive learning activities,
- Self-assessments and organizational assessments, and
- A personalized, downloadable summary of the learner’s work.
Course access can be purchased in bulk. For more information, or to request a quote, please visit cces.ca/governance-essentials.
About the CCES
The CCES is an independent, national, not-for-profit organization committed to making sport better by working collaboratively to activate a values-based sport system; protecting the integrity of sport from the negative forces of doping and other unethical threats; and advocating for sport that is fair, safe, and open to everyone. The CCES acknowledges funding, in part, from the Government of Canada.
About Sport Law
Since 1992, Sport Law has been offering legal support, risk management and governance solutions, strategic planning, leadership development, human resource and financial management, communications expertise and so much more to the sport community from playground to podium. We are a diverse team of experts from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines, who are all connected by our shared passion for sport. We are here to elevate sport.