The Hon Rod Kemp was Minister for the Arts and Sport from Friday 23 November 2001 to Tuesday 30 January 2007. This site is available for archival purposes only.

Sports Minister helps club celebrate national milestone

The Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp, joined Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Wayne Turley, at the Camberwell Central Bowls Club today to mark a significant sporting milestone.

Senator Kemp and the Australian Gold Medallist congratulated the Camberwell Central Bowls Club for becoming the 8000 th member of the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC) Club Development Network.

The Club Development Network provides a free web-based resource which supports the management and development of sporting clubs in key areas of leadership, planning, people, and members. This includes an A-Z of club management with advice on areas as diverse as how to amend a constitution, developing strategic plans, and how to run fundraising and social events.

“Local sporting clubs are vital to our communities, not only to encourage more people to remain active but they also provide a great social network for people,” Senator Kemp said.

“The changing demands of our work and leisure time and changing demographics mean many sporting clubs have to adapt and be innovative in order to survive,” Senator Kemp said.

“Many community sporting clubs are being forced to reinvent their approach to their sport and their club in a rapidly changing society.

“Australian lawn bowls has enjoyed great success by appealing to a younger group of participants in a more social setting while retaining the long-held and important traditions of the game.

“Sporting clubs need to be innovative and adopt a more business-like approach to remain effective and viable in a rapidly changing community. This means devising creative strategies to generate revenue, to attract new members and to retain existing members.

“Camberwell Central Bowls Club has achieved this. They have established links with schools and other sporting clubs in the area to strengthen its membership base and organised successful fundraising initiatives and corporate functions in order to raise funds to upgrade its facilities including new low maintenance and low water use greens.

“The Australian Government is committed to supporting clubs at the local and community level because well-managed and effective community sporting clubs are vital to providing quality sporting opportunities for all Australians,” Senator Kemp said.

Lawn bowls is one of Australia’s most popular sports with more than 265,000 registered members in the last year. More than 11,000 new members attracted to lawn bowls in 2005-06 were aged between 25 and 35.

17 NOVEMBER 2006
Media contact: Michael Christo, Minister’s Office, 03 9650 7274 or 0409 040 276 Richard Howes, ASC, 02 6214 1456 or 0408 662 123