Water Ski

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Water Ski Wakeboard CanadaMembers Review on
Strategic Direction

• 2008 Congress

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Purpose
To more widely educate congress members and seek
feedback and gain consensus on the key issues
facing towed water sports and what we should do
about them

• Introduction, background emerging trends
• Strategic questions
• WSWC Strategic Plan
• Rationale behind objectives
• Questions Discussion

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Introduction Background

• Change is having a profound impact on towed water
  sports
• Social, economic, technical, environmental,
  demographic and political trends are having a
  profound impact on towed water sports.
• Executive Board (EB) began a strategic planning
  process in 2007 to anticipate and recommend new
  practices to better manage these changes
• Retained services of a strategic organization
  design consultant
• Bring new strategic objectives to this Congress
• Ensure broad stakeholder input
• Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO)
• Sponsor/donors
• Members and other stakeholders
• We need to validate issues, ensure support for
  the strategic objectives and seek feedback, ideas
  and a consensus for how best to put them into
  effective and permanent practice

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Thoughts for Congress to consider

• Is there anything that we cannot/must not change
  as we develop our strategic plan or plan its
  implementation?
• What are the emerging trends that are critical to
  our sport today and how do we address these
  within the strategic plan?
• Are there other issues for the Executive Board to
  address first? How should priorities be set?
  Resources allocated?
• Who do we serve i.e., who is our customer?
  provincial associations, participants, spectators
  or athletes?

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Conclusions of Executive Board

• WSWC must evolve or it will become irrelevant
• Emerging trends are threatening towed water sport
  in general
• Organizations value proposition needs to be
  clarified and refined
• New goals may require a new delivery model. What
  structure is needed for implementation?
• Limited resources live within our means or grow
  the revenue to acquire the resources
• WSWC must bring forward a new strategic plan
• Significant organization, culture and strategy
  change is possible
• WSWC community needs to participate actively in
  the discussion to ensure alignment

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Emerging Trends

• Demographics
• Very small slice of sport population participate
  in WSWC
• Insurance membership continues to grow
• Registration is dominated by families
• In the last 15 years membership has declined
• Ontario from 1,200 to less than 700
• NL from 352 to 0 this year
• NB from 110 to 0
• Competitive memberships declined in 2008
• Recently become accessible to adaptive
  participants
• Water ski population is aging
• Wakeboarding is generally a younger Wakeskating
  is younger again
• Sport generally attracts affluent people

• General
• Volunteerism declining
• Sport is evolving
• Rate of change exceeds organizational capability
  to respond
• Sports facilities are not publicly supported
• Less government funding available
• Fewer people are participating
• Economic
• Impact of current economic downturn
• Few athletes can make a living at the sport
• Expensive becoming more so
• Most clubs ski. Most schools ride
• Industry economics/profit demands move to
  wakeboarding
• Technology
• Ski boat production is dropping. Has wakeboard
  boat production peaked? Will some manufacturers
  fail?
• Water skiing has an insatiable desire to add
  technology which may improve objectivity but adds
  strain to
• Cost / Complexity / Knowledge

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Emerging Trends

• Environmental
• More competition for waterways
• Negative perception of power boat noise /
  pollution
• Eco concerns
• Shutting down lakes
• Requirements to put in equipment
• Green movement
• Moving toward private lakes skiers
• Industry suppliers are fragmented
• Too many
• Not enough for research and sport development

• Political
• Sport Canada funding declining transitioning to
  special interest groups/social agenda (i.e.
  disabled / women / aboriginal, etc.)
• Lack of cohesiveness between our sports
  disciplines we versus they
• Gaps, conflicts, frustration and mistrust between
  National Sport Organization (NSO) and
  Provincial Sport Organizations

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Emerging Trends
WSWC Annual Revenues, 1996 to 2008
WSWC revenue growth derived from targeted Sport
Canada programs and past success of the classic
discipline. Federal funding will decline due to
non-Olympic status
PSO total revenues declining to levels of 10
years ago reflecting declining provincial
government support for sport
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Strategic Questions

• Is our Funding model stable or adequate?
• Why is membership such a small fraction of towed
  water sport participants?
• Is WSWC organization management and governance
  efficient and effective in meeting stakeholder
  needs?

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Is our Funding model stable or adequate?

• Current Revenue Model WSWC
• Government and agencies 70
• Community 15
• Sponsor/donors 15
• Revenue 1,000,000
• High dependence upon government support is
  inherently risky
• Shift toward Olympic sport and specific social
  agendas are not consistent with our sports
  priorities
• Inflexible formula-based funding model
• Penalizes new sport development
• Can have resources invested in initiatives
  inconsistent with our sports priorities
• Declining provincial government funding
• Membership appears unwilling to pay full cost for
  services
• Small proportion of participants are members or
  competitors
• Minimal participation in value offerings e.g.,
  insurance, RipnRide, competitions
• Volunteer officials, membership competitors are
  declining while the number of disciplines expands

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Is our Funding model stable or adequate?

• Sponsorship support inadequate
• Uneconomic ROI for advertisers
• Inadequate resource allocated to generating
  incremental revenues
• Poor spectator appeal location, pace of
  competition, complex scoring systems, etc.
• Charitable Donations accepted but not pursued
• No grass roots or corporate programs to develop a
  sustaining revenue model
• No resources dedicated to development

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Is our Funding model stable or adequate?

• As a result, our broader sport is witnessing
• Declining revenues
• Scarce resources sometimes being spent on
  non-value added services
• Inadequate investment in growth opportunities
• Reactive management to government priorities
• An independent funding model is needed
• Requires greater community support and
  participation
• Service offerings valued and used by membership
• Broaden revenue base with donor fund raising
  models and organization
• Grass roots and corporate giving
• Entertaining competitions that attract, retain
  and grow sponsorship

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Why is membership such a small fraction of towed
water sport participants?

• Vast majority of WSWC membership are at the
  Active level for insurance benefit
• Pay only nominal amount for a highly attractive
  product offering
• Do not appear to derive any additional benefit
  from membership
• Why is our boat owner market share so low
  relative to the value of product?
• Competitive license holders are flat to declining
• Participation down competitive licensing (13)
  and national championship participation (25)
  down in 2008
• Wakeboard membership very small relative to the
  growth in the sport
• Linkage to grass roots is poor
• Are the competition formats conducive to
  beginners?

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Why is membership such a small fraction of towed
water sport participants?
Membership 1993 - 2007
MEMBERSHIP and COMPETITIVE LICENSE HOLDER growth
stagnant over the last 15 years
vs. growth in the towed water sport industry
generally and wakeboard, wakeskate and other new
disciplines specifically
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Why is membership such a small fraction of towed
water sport participants?

• WSWC culture has been historically focused on
  elite athlete development vs. increased
  participation
• Perceived service offerings of little value
  What do I gain from joining if I dont compete?
• We cant effectively market to membership due to
  incomplete and inaccurate information
• Do majority of participants know we exist?
• Valid question for all our associations

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Is WSWC organization, management and governance
efficient and effective in meeting stakeholder
needs?

• Existing structure continues to largely reflect a
  historic water ski membership funding base
• 2007 Congress ratified creation of Wakeboard
  position on the executive board and for the
  creation of up to 3 more board members to reduce
  this bias
• WSWC has difficulty providing
• Providing newer disciplines with the attention
  and resources needed
• Integration or sharing of resources across
  disciplines
• Understanding to Sport Canada to accept newer
  disciplines
• Consistent execution of strategic initiatives
  across disciplines and geography
• Executive Board (EB) serves two conflicting
  roles
• Management Specific responsibilities for all
  board positions
• Oversight - Development and execution of strategy
• Inherent conflict
• WSWC staff serve in administrative, not
  management roles
• Staff do not have the mandate to set and manage
  the agenda
• Insufficient resources to manage the agenda even
  if they were given mandate
• Staff have historically had a difficult time
  receiving commitment from volunteer base

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Administrative Organizational Structure
Congress (Voting delegates of member provincial
associations)
Executive Board
Finance Director Paul Melnuk
Sport Dev Director Michael Collins
Director at Large B. March-Burwell
Technical Director Matt Rini
Wakeboard Shawn Gratzfield
High Perform. Director Todd Johnson
Athlete Representative Richard Gray
Past President Peter Person
National Team (WS) Marketing
Communication Major Events
Technical (WS) Officials (WS) Coaching Waterway
s Safety
IWSF COC Nominating By-Laws
Awards Hall of Fame PSO Liaison Women
Fundraising Official Languages
LTAD Rip n Ride Barefoot Adaptive Marathon
WSWC Staff
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Is WSWC organization, management and governance
efficient and effective in meeting stakeholder
needs?

• Is Congress effective for governance oversight?
• Is an annual meeting sufficient enough to
  evaluate the performance of the board?
• Does rotating representation dilute understanding
  and knowledge of issues, trends, provincial
  strengths weaknesses
• WSWC effectiveness dependent on PSO execution
• Can you commit your province?
• Exceptionally long lead times to effect change
  since some items require a vote of Congress which
  only meets annually

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Why is membership such a small fraction of towed
water sport participants?

• Vast majority are associate members for insurance
  benefit
• Our boat owner market share suggests skiers,
  riders and skaters see no additional benefit in
  belonging to the national or any provincial
  association
• Grassroots is disconnected from much of what we
  are all trying to do
• Number of Competitive license holders is trending
  down
• Wakeboard membership very small relative to the
  growth in the sport
• No consistent way to provide linkage from
  grassroots to competitive streams
• Are the competition formats conducive to
  beginners?
• Culture focused on elite athlete development vs.
  increased participation
• What do I gain from joining if I dont compete?
• We cant effectively market to membership due to
  incomplete and inaccurate membership information
• Do majority of participants know we exist? How
  would they find out about the PSO or NSO?

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Strategic Goals

• Mission Statement
• To organize, develop and promote water skiing,
  wakeboarding and other towed water sports from
  beginner to pro.

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Strategic Goals

• To organize, develop and promote water skiing,
  wakeboarding and other towed water sports from
  beginner to pro.
• Grow membership of Provincial Sport Organizations
• Increase organizational effectiveness for towed
  water sports in Canada
• Organizational structure
• Capacity
• Communication
• Culture
• Implement our Long Term Athlete Development
  program
• Deliver a sustainable revenue model
• Superb technical, well-attended and profitable
  2009 World Water Ski Championship Festival
• Permanent structure for fundraising charitable
  giving

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Goal 1 Grow Membership of Provincial Sport
Organizations

• Growth in our sport has to be reflected in growth
  in membership of PSO bodies
• WSWC members are limited to competitive athletes
  insurance policy holders
• Create deliver programs and services that PSOs
  want and are committed to delivering
• Rip n Ride
• SkiAbility
• TowSmart
• Policy growth has increase dramatically in last
  year
• Form committee to create new methods for
  delivering insurance
• Improve communication so that membership benefits
  are more broadly communicated, understood
  utilized
• Expanded reach for WSWC property and program
  availability
• Magazine / Website / LTAD / Ripn Ride
• Critical for government funding membership
  renewal rates

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Goal 2 Increase organizational effectiveness
for towed water sports in Canada

• Communication
• Discussion and agreement on priorities
• Improve existing and add new channels
• Culture
• Improve co-operation, openness support
  exchange across boundaries
• Discipline, NSO-PSO,
• Develop better alignment, ownership and
  accountability towards items of common value and
  interest
• Capacity
• Improve program delivery through better (earlier)
  engagement of PSOs.
• Better priority management to best use limited
  resources available
• Leadership by capacity management

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Goal 2 Increase organizational effectiveness
for towed water sports in Canada

• Review Water Ski Wakeboard Canadas
• Governance to ensure better alignment with
  strategic objectives
• Congress, executive board, WSWC staff volunteer
  committees
• Organizational design so that current gaps are
  improved
• Marketing Communications
• Fundraising Sponsorship
• Provincial representation
• Separation of duties and roles
• Executive board oversight vs. management
• Accountability
• Management of association by staff

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Goal 3 Implement LTAD
LTAD is the over-arching framework upon which
on-water programs, competitive structures, high
performance results and athlete management is
linked
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Goal 3 Implement LTAD

• Improvement of the understanding of LTAD to
  increase advocacy and support
• Integration of WSWC on-water programs inside
  LTAD model
• Coaching / Rip n Ride / SkiAbility
• Improve our already outstanding elite results
• Achieve podium placements at world titled events
• All Disciplines, All Levels (Junior, Adaptive
  Elite)

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Goal 4 Deliver a sustainable revenue model

• Optimize Sport Canada Provincial sources
• Share best practices information for PSOs to
  pursue
• Access to funding to support deployment of LTAD
• Review current Sport Canada funding and scoring
  of WSWC to optimize dollars
• Provide leadership to create major events
• 2009 World Water Ski championships
• Develop follow-on opportunities
• Local, Regional, National International
• Leverage database to create profitable service
  offerings
• Insurance
• Discounting of products from participating
  vendors
• Other
• Develop Charitable giving model
• Measure profitability of each revenue source

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Conclusions of Executive Board

• Are we on track?
• Are there other emerging trends that are critical
  to our sport today that should be considered
  inside our strategic plan?
• Are these the right issues for the EB to address
  first? If not, what issues would be more
  important to you?
• Is there anything that we cannot/must not change
  as we implement our strategic plan?
• Who do we serve i.e., who is our customer?
  participants, spectators or athletes?
• This afternoons sessions will focus on 3 of the
  4 strategic goals
• Grow membership of Provincial Sport Organizations
• Increase organizational effectiveness for towed
  water sports in Canada
• Deliver a sustainable revenue model
• LTAD will be discussed at next Saturdays session

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Questions?
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Discussion Group Topics

• Grow Membership of PSOs
• Moderators Richard Gray / Barb March-Burwell
• Goal To discuss and promote some ideas about
  delivering sustained membership growth
  provincially
• Questions to consider
• Does your Province have goal and a plan to grow
  membership?
• What is the percentage of membership retention
  within your province? If more or less than 80,
  what do you attribute this success or less than
  desirable result to?
• How can provinces better reach and attract the
  mass majority of towed water sports participants
  who do not join and often do not even know our
  sport organizations exist?
• What membership recruitment, retention and
  management functions could be better served and
  with better economies of scale if coordinated
  nationally?
• Do you have the capacity to grow your membership?

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Discussion Group Topics

• Increase Organizational Effectiveness of WSWC
• Moderators Todd Johnson / Peter Person
• Goal Discuss the roles of each stakeholder
  inside WSWC and determine what organizational
  changes can be made to assist in the delivery of
  the strategic plan
• Questions to consider
• What is the role of Congress? Where should
  accountability and authority lie within the
  sports organizational structure?
• What should be the management structure for this
  sport organization? Consider staff, volunteers
  and PSOs.
• What should be the Boards role and structure?
• What are some key elements within an ideal
  organization structure?

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Discussion Group Topics

• Deliver a sustainable revenue model
• Moderators Shawn Gratzfield / Paul Melnuk
• Goal Determine some next steps to reduce our
  dependency on government funding
• Questions to consider
• Do you believe the assertion that Sport Canada
  funding is likely to decline materially in the
  next few years? Should we build a new revenue
  model or simply cut back on services and cost?
• What services can WSWC provide members that are
  valuable and members would be willing to pay for?
  
• How can we make the sport more attractive to
  non-industry sponsors? Is the vision of the 2008
  Wakeboard Nationals and the 2009 World Water Ski
  Championship Festival a viable solution?
• Is the charitable tax donation status a valuable
  asset of the Association and if so, how can we
  exploit it effectively? Why do our members not
  participate in the few programs we have launched?
  
• What are you willing to do to help?

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Questions?
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Thank You!