
October 2012
On behalf of the Northern BC Winter Games Society, I am posting this letter to
outline the future of the Northern BC Winter Games and how sport delivery in the
North is changing.
The changes in the Games hosting landscape prompted the Society to examine our
sport delivery model to ensure it was meeting the needs of sport in Northern BC.
After thorough, in depth discussion over the course of the last two years, we
realized that Games were no longer viable and the Board made the difficult
decision to move away from hosting Games.
Past Northern BC Winter Games provided an opportunity for athletes to compete in
what would likely be "their Olympic games” and the Board is saddened that this
opportunity will no longer be available. The reality is that you cannot run the
Games without the volunteer base, and as we discovered, the core group of
community volunteers are exhausted and new volunteers aren’t coming forward.
Statistics also showed that in recent years larger communities were actually
sending fewer athletes to the Games as their sports have access to more events
and competition.
As part of the discussions on the future of the Games, we identified that there
was still a need for development opportunities for coaches, officials and
volunteers in the North. The Society knew that with our history, resources and
established contacts throughout the North we could deliver these needed
development opportunities.
With government’s endorsement, we have pursued an alternate delivery model for
sport development. Instead of hosting Games, we will work with northern
communities to build sport by training community coaches and officials,
volunteer enhancement, and athlete development. In 2011, we offered coaching
development sessions in Fort St. John, Smithers and Prince George. In 2012, we
offered similar sessions in four communities - Fort Nelson, Fort St John, 100
Mile House and Smithers. These highly successful sessions will become a
springboard for future events.
As a result of these changes, the society name will be changed to mirror our new
our sport delivery model. Our society will become the ‘Northern BC Community
Sport Development Society’.
The purposes of the Society are:
(a) To promote awareness of good health, physical fitness,
individual achievement, community pride, and sport in the northern communities
of British Columbia.
(b) To encourage grassroots sport development programs
involving the greatest number of people possible participating in their own
community.
(c) To provide a stimulating opportunity for officials and
coaches to receive further training and experience.
Please feel free to contact me by email
president@northernbcwintergames.org if you need any further information on
this topic. As we transition our sport delivery model, we look forward to
working with northern communities in our future endeavors.
Yours Truly,
Wade Loukes
President
Northern BC Winter Games Society