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President’s Report

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Club Development

Club Development

First and foremost, I would like to thank all our members - staff, coaches, athletes, clubs, sponsors, and other stakeholders for your support and contributions to Singapore Gymnastics (SG).

2020 was an unusual and challenging year for everybody. SG was not immune to these unprecedented and mounting challenges.

It was heart-warming to see our organisation and the gymnastics community uniting to work through these challenges together. As a family, we exhibited true grit and resilience.

While responding to immediate and urgent issues, we also focused on the strategic plans, with strategies and actionable steps to help SG become more stable, secure and sustainable. Throughout this time we strove to provide better support and services to our gymnastics community and society as a whole.

Responding Proactively

We are mindful that clubs are the lifeblood of SG and our sport and are constantly looking at ways to support and strengthen our clubs through these difficult times.

It is unfortunate that in the face of growing threats from Covid-19, we had no choice but to cancel the June 2020 Singapore Open in late March. With the nationwide Circuit Breaker from 7 April to 1 June 2020, clubs were forced to close, and to offer online classes so they could continue to engage their students and deliver gymnastics training.

In response, our National Office staff who had been in business continuity mode since 11 February swung into action. We rallied various parties and other resources to support the clubs by connecting to the community, providing information, responding to queries, advocating for the clubs, and delivering resources to assist the clubs during this period and beyond.

Supporting Our Clubs

The Circuit Breaker measures made strengthening SG’s engagement with clubs even more critical and urgent. My team and I have personally connected with members, visited clubs, and corresponded with various parties.

As part of their annual club affiliation, clubs were given access to the 3rd Level Consulting online tool which assists them in eight key areas - management, facilities, finance, marketing, human resources, technology, risk management and leadership.

During the Circuit Breaker, SG conducted fortnightly club forums. These forums were hosted by Frank Sahlein, 3rd Level Consulting Director, and other experts on topics of key concerns to the clubs with a focus on how to survive and thrive in the current climate.

On top of the fortnightly forums, SG also introduced a Trello Board, where up-to-date information on the Covid-19 situation and club-related matters were posted. It was a place where clubs could comment, interact, and share information amongst themselves.

With heightened concerns about staff management and retention during Circuit Breaker, SG contracted a Human Resource consultant to assist affiliated clubs in all matters relating to their staff. The clubs were able to ask questions and seek advice from the consultants for a threemonth period.

The forums and strategies implemented during Circuit Breaker provided SG and the affiliated clubs a chance to connect and at the same time, build a sustainable and supportive infrastructure to ensure that clubs remain viable. These initiatives demonstrated and reinforced SG’s relevance and value-add to the community.

Strengthening the Gymnastics Family

To help prepare gymnastics clubs for the lifting of Circuit Breaker measures, SG set up a working group in May 2020 to develop guidelines for the reopening of clubs as well as management of their operations.

The working group comprised some club managers and owners, along with SG’s Chief Medical Officer and equipment suppliers. They worked with Singapore Gymnastics on the gymnasticsspecific Safe Management Measures.

On 19 June 2020, clubs were able to deliver gymnastics training face to face, subject to limited capacity and other strict Safe Management Measures.

In April 2020, SG launched the “Start Here, Go Anywhere” marketing campaign to promote benefits of gymnastics to the wider community, as part of our efforts to drive membership and promote our affiliated clubs.

The “Welcome Back to Gym” campaign was also introduced to further promote our affiliated clubs. In the lead up to reopening of clubs after the Circuit Breaker, we featured our clubs through social media and other platforms.

Building Stronger Relationships

Throughout 2020, SG continued to reach out to clubs. We solicited their feedback through mediums such as the annual club survey, annual club visits in October and November, and the annual Club forum in December 2020.

SG continued to cultivate a culture of cooperation, collaboration and co-creation of solutions with the clubs. We endeavoured to work closely with them to grow and develop the ecosystem, and to support the growth of the gymnastics community.

We introduced quarterly coffee catch ups from the start of 2021 as an additional platform for club engagement.

Establishing Educational Foundations

While focusing on supporting the clubs during 2020, the team continued to work on the Education framework with the roll out of the Intermediate Coaching Courses for each discipline. We also developed and conducted Learning Facilitator and Mentor courses, all which will underpin the framework.

To complete the framework, we overhauled the Recognition for Prior Learning (RPL) and implemented the revised RPL in lead up to the 2021 National Championships. This is to ensure that all coaches on the field of play were accredited and registered with SG and CoachSG.

Putting Safety First

SG is fully committed to child safety and dedicated to creating a safe environment for the athletes.

In 2020, SG launched the “Committed to Child Safety” logo and require affiliated clubs to adopt a Child Safe Commitment Statement on their website. In addition, the online SG Child Safe module was also developed in December 2020, and completion of this module became a requirement for 2021 Club affiliation.

SG will continue to work in partnership with CoachSG as it drives and implements the Child Safe plan.

Growing Our Membership

Growing the membership base is a key strategic priority for SG.

In 2020, SG introduced the club incentive scheme to assist in athlete membership growth. This initiative was further enhanced and developed for 2021 club membership.

With the membership goal in mind, SG was part of the “WIAL Gives Back-CNPL Action Learning” project. This project provided the Board and National Office Staff a chance to resolve problems and look for solutions to build a strong membership culture that increases not only organisational revenue but also offer clear purpose and value to its members.

The project saw the Board and National Office team connect with Gymnastics New Zealand on their membership strategies and initiatives.

The work and outcomes from the WIAL project will be incorporated into the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan which is currently being developed.

Strengthening our Financial Position

The FY20/21 financial activities were particularly affected by the Covid 19 pandemic with many activities cancelled, such as Singapore Open. There were also no activities in the area of overseas travel to competitions and camps for the National Team in the financial year.

Despite the negative impact on SG’s financial position and our continued investment in supporting the clubs through additional initiatives, changing our support and services, and developing coaches, the financial outcome for the year saw a surplus of $158,300.

The positive financial outcome for FY 2021 can be attributed a large degree to the government’s relief initiatives to help us better respond to the pandemic as well as constructive management of outstanding debts of the organisation.

In addition, SG was able to achieve a record number of participants for the 2021 National Championships and generate a positive financial outcome from the event. This was a remarkable achievement given the difficult year preceding which saw us not being able to have spectators in the stadium.

Building Towards a Better Future

The SG Board made a strong commitment to continue with the key objective of “Leading the sport in Singapore by building a sustainable and viable organisation through the adoption of best practice” in 2020.

We continue to review and update the Constitution, the cornerstone of good governance in 2021, to ensure relevance, transparency, and alignment with the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and Sport Singapore’s National Sporting Association guiding principles.

The Board continued the work of implementing recommendations from the compliance audit with the establishment of a Governance Committee, the conduct of the Board PulseCheck, and continued Director professional development.

These and other initiatives led to a successful follow up of the Compliance Audit in February 2021. Despite tackling challenges posed by the pandemic, we were able to implement all but three of the recommendations within a short period.

The Board also initiated an internal audit into the key documents linked to SG’s financial management policies and processes. This is to ensure that fiduciary duties are being fulfilled and that we can achieve continual improvement and best practice in governance.

December 2020 saw the completion of the tenure of all the Technical Advisory Councils (TACs). We would like to thank previous TAC members for their hard work, commitment and contribution over the past two years in developing their respective disciplines. We would like to welcome the new TAC members who will work with the National Office in continuing to develop and grow the Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline disciplines. We also anticipate in 2021-2022, with a clear focus on gymnastics as the fundamental sport, the formation of the Gymnastics for All (GfA) TAC.

In February 2021, the SG Board stepped down, and on the 15 March 2021 at an Extra-ordinary General Meeting, a new Board was appointed. We would like to put on record our appreciation to the previous board members for volunteering to serve SG and for their effort and contribution.

The Board looks forward to continue serving the community.

2021 will be the last year of SG’s current 4 years Strategic Plan; and below are the key priorities for the year:

Finalising the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, while continuing to garner financial support from SportSG. A concerted effort and focus on increasing revenue through donations, sponsorship and fundraising. A continued focus on raising the profile of the sport across all gymnastics disciplines, educating the community on the benefits to all, while leveraging the fact that we have a second Olympic gymnast, Tan Sze En. Growth in membership and a review in the current structure of athlete membership. Partnering with ActiveSG on the delivery of KinderGym across the island. Development of a facilities plan for the National Training Centre.

2020 has been a challenging year, but with the united and collaborative effort of all our affiliated clubs, coaches, athletes, staff, judges, volunteers and parents, SG has been able to rise up to the challenges that Covid has presented.

Singapore Gymnastics is grateful for the ongoing invaluable support of Sport Singapore, the Singapore National Olympic Council and our sponsors. We thank everyone for their commitment and support for Singapore Gymnastics during 2020 and look forward to reaching even greater heights in 2021.

Dr Patrick Liew Singapore Gymnastics President

"Together with all of you, we can build SG into a society that we can be passionate and proud of, and one that can help build a brighter future for the gymnastics community and country as a whole.

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