On 13 July 2009, 173 members of state level sport and recreation organisations, local governments, clubs and industry stakeholders attended the Q150 Community Sport Symposium at Parliament House.

The Department of Communities (Sport and Recreation Policy and Programs) and QSport jointly hosted the event to generate ideas about how government can work with industry across a range of issues facing community sport including:

• attracting, training and retaining volunteers in community sport;
• new approaches to meet the facility needs of community sport; and
• initiatives for industry and government to reduce the cost of participation in junior sport.

Presentations and handouts

View a copy of the Agenda (PDF, 189 KB)

View a copy of the Workshop discussion (PDF, 168 KB) handouts

• PEOPLE 'Grass Roots Participation'
  Ben Millbourne (PDF, 619 KB), AFL Qld
  Lia Weston (PDF, 365 KB), Gymnastic Qld

• PLACES 'Community Facilities'
  Cr Melva Hobson (PDF, 72 KB), Redland City Council
  Cr David Morrison (PDF, 4.3 MB), Ipswich City Council 

• COST 'Survival of the fittest'
  Prof. Myles McGregor-Lowndes (PDF, 667 KB), QUT
  Graham Dixon (PDF, 17 KB) Queensland Cricket

Symposium outcomes

At the conclusion of the Symposium, the Minister for Sport agreed to work with industry to explore six initiatives:

• Developing a new suite of resources that will be available online through an industry portal for clubs and associations to attract, develop and retain volunteers and club officials;
• Establishing a linkage service which connects people who are looking to volunteer with relevant sporting clubs in their local community;
• Conducting an audit of state owned sport and recreation facilities (including school sporting facilities) to determine what's available where and the opportunities for better utilisation by community sporting organisations;
• Investigating opportunities with state sporting organisations to establish sport wide maintenance strategies for community facilities;
• Exploring whether core participation equipment should be eligible for funding as part of the review of our funding programs - where this will reduce the club participation costs, particularly for families in disadvantaged communities; and
• Supporting the establishment of equipment libraries/equipment share schemes on a regional or district basis.

Read more about the Symposium outcomes (PDF, 37 KB)

What's happening now?

The Department of Communities is working with the industry to progress the agreed initiatives. Progress includes:

• publication of a new suite of resources relating to volunteering on the Sport and Recreation website
• commencement of an audit of sport and recreation facilities at all State schools and TAFEs
• development of a pilot program to see how best practice maintenance programs can be applied throughout the State
• research of sport and recreation funding programs throughout Australia to determine the type of funding available for core participation equipment
• research into viable models of operation for sport equipment libraries

Read more about the progress of the Symposium initatives (PDF, 121 KB)

More information

More information about this Symposium is available by phoning the Department of Communities on (07) 3237 1287.