Wellington Floorball Club Strategic Plan

Wellington Floorball Club Strategic plan 1. Vision To introduce, promote and develop floorball as a sport for players of all ages and abilities in the Wellington Region and to establish floorball as a popular team sport. Establish Wellington Floorball Club as one of the leading floorball clubs in New Zealand with regards to performance, number of active members, involvement in running school and community floorball programmes and international relationships and representatives.

2. Goals Wellington Floorball Club strives to create a solid member base to ensure the future sustainability of the club. This includes setting up teams at high performance level for men, women and juniors along with social teams for players of all ages and skill levels. The club wants to provide high class coaching for all levels and provide certified referees for games and tournaments. Promoting floorball at primary and secondary school level to attract interested players and potentially start up school leagues as seen in other sports is seen as a key element to develop and grow the sport. At the same time it offers a great opportunity for schools to take up a safe, fun and easy to learn sport as an alternative to existing team sports. Wellington Floorball Club wants to be actively involved in setting up a NZ Floorball Federation and to help bring the sport to all regions of New Zealand.

3. Brief History of the club In May 2008 a group of players started playing floorball in Wellington on a regular basis. The group met once a week and slowly grew to about 10 players per night. Equipment was the main challenge and initially sticks were borrowed from Wellington City Council to enable the group to play. A set of basic sticks was purchased by Christian Bertschinger and a set of proper IFF regulation goals was made. In October 2008 the very first Wellington Floorball Open Tournament took place at the Recreation Centre in Kilbirnie. Two teams from the Wellington group plus a team from Blenheim competed for the Wellington Open shield, which was won by the team from Blenheim. Numbers slowely started to increase and in April 2009, the Wellington Floorball Club was established as an incorporated society with 17 members attending the inaugural meeting. Currently the club runs a weekly session in Thorndon and a fortnightly session in Kilbirnie with a regular attendance of between 10 - 17 players.

4. Current development

Weekly sessions will continue and potentially extra sessions will be introduced to accommodate growing numbers. As the level and intensity of play has steadily increased amongst the main part of the group, it is envisaged to set up a second group for beginners and offer a workshops as an introduction to the sport. Wellington Floorball Club is committed to provide quality floorball equipment and it is envisaged to provide proper goalie equipment, team dresses, additional sets of goals and eventually a demountable full size regulation floorball rink for training, games and tournaments. The IFF has agreed to send proper equipment to Wellington to support the club in his efforts which means a 100 quality sticks and 200 balls will be available to both the club and for floorball programmes with schools. Wellington Floorball Club uses email and the internet to stay in contact with all members and to send out information to interested people. Recently a facebook group has been set up and this has been popular with players. Setting up a Wellington Floorball Club website which will be updated regularly and keep members and interested people informed will be a further step to promote floorball in the Wellington Region. Recent press articles in local newspapers have helped to raise public awareness of this sport and have triggered interest from various people and also from schools. It is intended to keep promoting the sport through further press notices, especially in connection with any of the upcoming special events.

5. Special projects

5.1 IFF Floorball Development Seminar, Wellington 11. - 13. September 09 The International Floorball Federation (IFF) has agreed to hold a Floorball Development Seminar in New Zealand to provide training for coaches and referees. Wellington Floorball Club is hosting this first ever Floorball Seminar in New Zealand. International speakers and lecturers are coming to Wellington to provide first class training for both coaches and future referees. Wellington Floorball club is responsible to organise venues, accommodation, the seminar dinner, transport and help in organising course materials. Besides organising this seminar together with the IFF, Wellington Floorball Club will also have eight club members participating in both the coaching and refereeing part of the seminar. This will ensure that in the future a good number of well trained coaches and certified referees are available in Wellington.

5.2 Second Wellington Open Floorball Tournament, 10. - 11. October 09 Building on the successful first Wellington Open Floorball Tournament in 2008, Wellington Floorball Club is hosting this event for the second time. For the first time, games will be played on two days and interest from groups in Auckland, Blenheim and Dunedin should ensure that more teams will take part in this tournament this year. The tournament will be played at the Wellington Council Recreation Centre in Kilbirnie which offers a proper full size rink. Certified referees from Wellington Floorball Club will be available to referee the games. This tournament will be a regular yearly event and will have a set place in the floorball calendar. It is envisaged that the tournament has got the potential to attract teams from overseas in the future and relations with IFF and AOFC will help to further establish it.

5.3 School workshops, primary and secondary schools in Wellington Region Floorball is an easy to learn sport and can be played at all age levels. It is very popular as a school sport overseas and it is in that area that the sport originally started up. Wellington Floorball Club is starting to promote floorball at primary and secondary school level in the Wellington Region through collaborating with Sport Wellington and College Sport Wellington. To support this initiative the IFF has agreed to supply free equipment to the club. Through training at the seminar, qualified coaches will be available to run school workshops for both students and PE teachers. Promoting the sport at school levels is seen as the key element to grow numbers of players and ensure a sustainable growth of the sport.

5.4. First Secondary School Floorball Tournament Wellington, 31. October 09 Together with promoting school workshops for interested secondary schools, the first secondary school tournament will provide a unique opportunity for young people to get to know the sport and participate in a fun event. Wellington Floorball Club intends to make this a regular yearly event and create a competition that gains further attention over the next few years. The first tournament will be played on a single day at the Welllington Council Recreation Centre in Kilbirnie and 4 - 6 teams are expected to take part. Interest from several high schools has already been received. Wellington Floorball Club will provide sticks, balls and goalie equipment for the participating teams and will also supply qualified referees.

5.5 After school league for primary and intermediate schools in Wellington It is planned to start up an after school floorball league for primary and intermediate kids at the Wellington Council Recreation Centre in Kilbirnie in term 4. Wellington Floorball Club will supply sticks and balls for kids to use (through the equipment supplied by IFF) and will also supply referees for the games. The league will be promoted through Sport Wellington and is open for school teams and private teams alike. If the league proves successful it will be offered again in term 1 in 2010 and further activities and training sessions are then considered for junior groups.

5.6 Working towards establishing the NZ Floorball Federation The IFF development seminar will bring floorball enthusiasts from across New Zealand together for the first time. At the same time representatives from the IFF and the Asia and Oceania Floorball Confederation will be in Wellington. This creates a unique opportunity to discuss the required steps to properly establish the NZ Floorball Federation. Wellington Floorball Club is committed to play an active and key role in this process.

Wellington, 18.8.09