INTO her final year as president of Americas Netball (AN), Jamaican Marva Bernard says she is ramping up the roll-out of regional development programmes before her tenure ends.

As her administration began the final stretch in its four-year run, the regional body was able to host a second edition of a governance and leadership training programme toward the latter part of last year.

“Good governance and administration translate into quality teams, not just with netball but in sport administration in general. Effective governance is critical to moving our teams up the world rankings. Furthermore, it is critical that our administrators appreciate the importance of succession planning,” she told the Jamaica Observer during a telephone interview.

“Succession planning is important and sport is a business. And if we do not prepare the leaders of tomorrow to run the business then it will not be a successful business. The sport of netball is important to us and we see it as a business.

“We’ve had similar initiatives, but this time a decision was made to elevate the training to a certificate course. The topics covered included financial reporting, developing business plans and strategic planning, planning for and during crises, including natural disasters and pandemics,” added Bernard, while noting that support for the certification programme came from The University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Sport and the International Netball Federation

Bernard, a former president of Netball Jamaica, said 70 administrators and potential leaders from across the region graduated with certificates of achievement and participation.

She said the organisation’s agenda is not limited to improving its efficiency, transparency, accountability and adherence to governance guidelines.

“Umpiring and coaching are also part of our focus this year. Because a lot of the teams are still not playing because of the pandemic, the students are hampered in terms of being able to go out and get practice. Instead of sitting around doing nothing we’ve had practical training sessions online and used videos to engage the student umpires.

“We are working to help AN members establish high-performance structures within their organisations. This relates to succession planning on court in terms of players, coaches and everything. Just knowing that we made a difference with umpiring in terms of the numbers we qualified and with the number of coaches, and helping members to establish structures, is a major achievement,” Bernard, who confirmed she will not be seeking re-election as Americas Netball boss, said.

With regional netball teams to be represented at the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) Games in July in Guadeloupe and the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games next year in El Salvador, in addition to Jamaica’s staging of the Americas qualifiers for the 2023 Netball World Cup in World Cup in South Africa, Bernard said there is a lot on the plate.

She added she is even optimistic of organisers turning around a profit — through sponsorship deals, broadcast rights and shrewd spending — from the qualifiers set for later this year.

“I would like to have a very successful Americas championship hosted by Jamaica in October. That championship, if successful, will bring in funds for everybody to benefit, including all the countries who participate, the host nation and Americas Netball. I know a championship in Jamaica can make money, so I would really like to be able to make a substantial profit,” Bernard said.

She admitted that time is running out but told the Observer she remains committed to the cause.

“If you don’t have good structures and good administrations you’re not going to have the success you need on court, or it will not be sustained. It’s a lot of chew off in the months we have left but we will do whatever it takes. We’ve had many hiccups along the road, but hopefully it will happen in 2022,” she said.