Creating pathways for you and your community
About us
We have been assisting NZ sports clubs, RST’s and Councils to develop “hubs” since 2001.
Our research, relationships, personal experience and pragmatic approach, bring value to the process of establishing Hubs.
Sport NZ recognised this expertise, by asking Peter to be the lead author of the Sport and Recreation Hub Guide in 2018.
Both Ross and Peter are also lead contributors to the Hub Collective, an initiative of Recreation Aotearoa, enabling hubs to come together to share experiences and insights.
This site would have been a standard replacement of three old tennis courts instead, working in partnership with Christchurch City Council, Eastern Community Sport and Recreation Hub built this innovative sprung multi-use Easter Canopy.
Hubs multi-use space
Our approach
We apply a very simple, easy to understand and follow approach.
We assess and scope the potential opportunity, to ensure it is viable (based on our experience and your desired outcomes).
We provide a full proposal, with detailed quote (and advice on how to potentially have that funded).
We schedule 3 – 4 in-person “working party” meetings (representing all stakeholders), which educate, then collaboratively prepare, position and implement your Hub project (see step by step approach).
We guide the process, shaping (with you) your structure and governance model, based on your desired outcomes, sharing latest best practice examples and templates from hubs that we have helped establish before.
We ensure all stakeholders, and your local community, remain engaged and informed at all times.
Step by step approach
WORKSHOP 1
Opportunities
Vision, Objects and Values
WORKSHOP 2
Member Club Engagement & MOU preparation
Hub Governance Structure, Ownership & Formation
WORKSHOP 3
Governance Implementation
Constitution
Board Selection Process
FOLLOW UP
New Board planning & mentoring session
Sport Guidance have been significant contributors to establishing successful Hubs right across Aotearoa
Our people
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Peter has 40 years of experience in the Sport and Recreation Sector including early years in Local Government in a variety of senior roles including Park and Recreation Manager – Whangarei District Council, Manager QE2 and Senior Recreation Advisor – Wellington City Council. He researched and published work on Sport and Recreation Partnership models in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and was the lead author of the Sport and Recreation Hub Guide for Sport NZ in 2018.
As an educator he lectured at CPIT in the 1990’s to 2000’s and has been a part-time lecturer at Lincoln University since 2002. From 2001 to 2018 he was co-owner of Eventing the Future (ETF) the national conference for Event Professionals.
As the Sport Hub governance expert for GLG Ltd, via his own company Sport Guidance Ltd, he undertook many hubs needs analyses, feasibility studies, entity and governance formation, and fund-raising projects over a two-decade period.
His practical understanding of sport club-based hubs developed as Chair of the highly successful Eastern Community Sport and Recreation Inc (ECSR). for 12 years from 2012.
His combination of academic research and practical experience, in helping develop shared spaces (for club sport and community programmes) is unrivalled in New Zealand.
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Ross is bit of a sport nut, having played, coached, administered, innovated for, or governed sport for the last 52 years. He played rugby for 30 years, reaching Premier level for Upper Hutt, before coaching and convening his local Junior Rugby Club at Poneke RFC. He has recently completed 6 years on the Boards of both the Wellington Rugby Football Union and the Hurricanes Professional Rugby team.
He has also been a member of PK Softball, Capital Sports Performance, Lyall Bay Surf Life Saving, Upper Hutt Squash and various other clubs, also playing competitive tennis and badminton. He represented NZ in age group triathlon in both London and Chicago, and is also a keen golfer.
Through 2011-2017 Ross initiated and drove the facility development, governance and ultimate establishment of the Toitu Poneke Community & Sports Centre Inc. – home to 6 vibrant sporting clubs (with 1,500 members, including Poneke Rugby) and now the welcoming space to over 30 different and diverse community groups. Ross still chairs Toitu Poneke (which is considered by Sport NZ as one of the exemplar models in this country) so he offers a nice balance of best practice theory, combined with pragmatic daily hub operational delivery.
Ross was made a life-member of Poneke Rugby Club in 2018.
As a qualified accountant, Ross has a keen eye for the numbers, operating to the mantra “put your members and the community at the heart of every decision you make, but run it like a business”.
Ross was a former owner of Williment Sports Travel and is now an owner / director of BCD Travel, leading their sports travel and event management teams.
He also recently successfully managed the Sport NZ delivery of legacy gender-neutral training and match facilities for the three Women’s World Cups recently played in NZ – Cricket, Rugby and Football.
What is a Hub
Sport Hub Guide Definition:
“A partnership where organisations collaborate and share expertise, programmes, facilities and/or services strategically, sometimes via an independently governed group, within a defined geographical area, to provide sustainable, quality sport and recreation experiences.”
Hubs are any group of sports clubs or organisations that decide they want to work together.
Hubs can be based on one or many sites, they can be defined as groups working together, they can be organisations wanting to build a ‘hub’ building where they all gather. They can also be spread across several facilities on a park, or in a defined community. They can be about sharing resources and supporting existing clubs in their endeavours, and they can be about creating new opportunities and increased utilisation of people, resources and facilities.
Eastern
Community Sport and Recreation Inc
Toitū Pōneke Community & Sports Centre Inc.
Whakaraupō
Recreation Inc.
Successful hubs we completed the governance modelling for:
Waiora Hub Sports & Community Centre Inc. Wellington
Eastern Community Sport and Recreation Inc. Christchurch
Hauraki Plains Community Hub Inc. Hauraki Plains
Toitu Poneke Community & Sports Centre Inc. Wellington
Northwest Sport and Recreation Hub Inc. Christchurch
Waverley Hub Inc. Invercargill
Southwest Sports Hub Inc. Christchurch
Whakarapo Recreation Inc. Christchurch
Hawkes Bay Regional Sports Park. Hastings
Lincoln Sports Hub Inc. Christchurch
Kotahi Hub Incorporated. Morrinsville
Takahanga Sport and Recreation Inc. Kaikoura
Rotorua Golf Collective Inc. Rotorua
Sport Guidance Ltd have reviewed and contributed to the development of:
Moutere Hills Community Centre Motueka
North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust Rangiora
Murchison Sport, Recreation and Cultural Centre Murchison
Te Puru Community Centre Auckland (Beachlands)
Pukeko Centre Sport and Recreation Christchurch
Whakatipu Community Sport Inc. Queenstown
Alex Moore Park Hub Inc. Wellington
Te Puawaitanga Sport and Recreation Inc. (pending) Kerikeri