FHC Newsletter - Ian Baggot Explains FHC Basics

Since it hasn't been posted as of yet to FHC's website, I thought I'd post the entirety of FHC board member Ian Baggot's open letter to the FHC membership "explaining the basics of FHC", or under it's alternate subtitle, "The Government Keeps Cutting Our Funding So That's Why We're $120,000 In Debt."

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July 08, 2008

From the sidelines – “FHC Basics explained”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the conclusion of our AGM in Ottawa on June 8th, I volunteered to write this article in the hope that you, our members, might understand some of the very tough decisions that your FHC Board has had to make over the last year. Until I became a board member, I had no idea of some of the problems confronting our National Sport Organization, so I therefore feel it to be my responsibility to clear some of this “fog” for you as well.

For as long as I can remember, FHC has seemed to be a far removed body from what we, as hockey players and supporters, are trying to achieve within our smaller club and provincial groups. I think you need to understand that we, your FHC representatives, are trying to do the best we can to promote and benefit our sport. If you think we are “missing” or unaware of something, call one of us and let’s talk about it, please.

There is no doubt that after the huge success of the World Hockey Olympic Qualifier in Victoria in June, there is every belief in the mind of everyone who attended or participated in the event, that Field Hockey is “alive-and-well” in Canada! Albeit that our Women’s National Team were only able to uphold their expected 4th place finish, the organizing committee have had nothing but praise from FIH and the other participating countries as to the success of the event. FIH have already expressed their hope that we will host more international events in the near future and Malaysia has extended an open invitation to host our Canadian Women’s team in a return event. Our greatest handicap as an FIH participant is that we are seen from outside Canada as a “have” nation (as in ‘rich’ financial resources) where the reality is that we are much more challenged than the “have not” countries of the 3rd World. The government of Canada is unaware of this, of course.

It is important that you understand some of the financial constraints and mechanisms under which FHC operates. This is common knowledge to older board members (not to us newer members until recently) but it is something that you, as members, need to be privy to as well: you are, after all, taxpayers and entitled to know where your dollars go and where they don’t go!

•   FHC receives its funding from 2 sources, Sport Canada (SC) and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC).

•   The basic yearly grant from Sport Canada has been $425,000 since 2006, down from $870,000 prior to that. Why? Partly due to funding cuts to most Canadian team sports as well as our international team ranking, presently 16th for the Men, 23rd for our Women’s team (Yes, believe it or not, the worse our ranking, the less funding we get – kind of reverse psychology to the rest of the civilized world, but it’s not a Board decision!). Were our Men’s Team to succeed in Beijing in a “top 8” finish, SC funding may increase for next year. So keep up your support for them, OK!?!

•    The COC performance and achievement (Excellence) funding was not increased due to the men’s qualification for Beijing. The money we have received via the COC is due to our applications for Olympic Solidarity grants that come via the IOC and PASO…we received two of these - one prior to RIO and one following RIO. FHC does not receive funding from Road to Excellence (Podium), again we are not a “target” sport .

•   Until 2006, FHC HP programs received $40,000 from the Canadian Sport Centers but as we are not a target sport this was also cut regardless of the fact we had the highest number of carded athletes in the Vancouver Center.

•   We’re not clear as to how Canada expects us to raise our ranking, since competing at the international level is much more costly than 5 years ago. As an example: the recognized average cost of a 2-week international tour for any 20-person team (16 players and 4 support staff) is today $50,000. To successfully compete at today’s international level, a team requires 8-10 tours or international events per year. That’s $500,000 per team, $1 million to run our 2 National Teams, plus coach, staff and practice costs. FHC total income for 2007/2008 is just $1.1 million, which includes all money for required elements e.g. LTAD, AWAD etc.

•   There are additional blocks of funding from SC for specific programs – languages, National School Program, Olympic preparation, LTAD – but dollars not used for those purposes must be returned.

•   Your membership fees account for only 8% of FHC income, not much when compared to other National Sport Organizations (NSO) or what you pay for a round of golf.

•   Yes, our staffing costs, including our 2 National Coaches, are 25% of expenses, but with staff cuts, they are the same percentage as when our income was 50% greater (we have 2 full-time staff and 1 part-time, plus national coaches).

•   Where fully half of FHC efforts are focused on the “visible” area (ie the National teams), there are obvious responsibilities / obligations as an NSO that account for much of our staff’s time: 4-year SFAF report (Sport Funding Accountability Framework – who thought of that name?!), continuous update reports on NCCP, LTAD, NSP, AWAD programs to keep SC, Coaching Association Canada, COC, FIH and PAHF all happy. Who wants this but we have to comply, ok!?

From a wider financial perspective, we would also admit to a “hedging stance” taken some 18 months ago, ratified last December and taken with considerable trepidation by most of us:

-   Despite only an outside chance of success and restricted funding, it was felt that both our National Teams deserved the chance to (a) take part in the 2007 Pan Am Games and (b) to continue with the Victoria Olympic Qualifier.

-   Our Women’s NT had a disappointing 5th place finish at the Pan Am’s,

-   Our Men’s NT defeated the World 5th-ranked Argentina to gain qualification to Beijing.

This strategy has therefore resulted in: “Yes”, a $120,000 deficit for the financial year, but a balanced budget for 2008/9 and cash-in-bank in the long-term accounts. In light of the success of the Victoria OQ and the enthusiasm for our team going to Beijing, we believe that “hedging” was the correct course to take.

Looking ahead and knowing what our financial model looks like, you will appreciate the on-going dilemma we face with decisions about our Junior National players. We don’t have the luxury of being able to afford Junior National coaches, support staff and tour budgets as in the past, hence our move to “development” squads and coaches who work as part of the National Team program. How we move forward with our National Teams and our Junior National players will be determined soon after the Beijing Olympics, when we will gather as many of our expert players, coaches, managers and administrators for a weekend workshop sometime in early September.

In closing, I have a minor request of you, our member: if you have any questions about the workings of FHC, please pick-up the ‘phone or send an e-mail to the office or one of us Board members. ‘Phoning is better, we can talk faster than type – for me anyway – and I bet we can cover more ground! We always hear ‘murmurings’ that we all live in containment cells – not true, but we cannot answer a ‘beef’ that isn’t voiced. FHC and we Board members are not “management” or “hierarchy”, we are simply your reps to ensure our common aims for the good of field hockey. Hopefully, you will be as excited about our Olympic prospects as we are. E-mail the team with your encouragement – all the e-mails are posted to the team. Our National Women were simply “blown away” with the enthusiastic support they received at the Olympic Qualifier: they just didn’t think that many people really cared!

Respectfully submitted, Ian Baggott, FHC Board Member.

Discussion?