Priorities of Baseball Calgary

Members of the Baseball Calgary community are fully committed to developing different strategies to create the best possible program.  In order for these strategies to work it will take a lot of work and group effort from all sectors of this community.  Although a majority of this communities’ success is measured upon the records of their teams, there are many ways that other sectors can contribute to this success.  I had the opportunity to talk to the former president of Baseball Calgary, who is still very much involved with the community and was able to determine what some of its top priorities are for improving the life in the community.  Probably the most vital priority for this upcoming season was to hire an Operations Director that would be able to work full time with the program in order to help with the development of both the players and coaching staff.   A few of the priorities that we had discussed have already been put into action.  For example, one of the issues brought up was that there was no off-season development camps set up to help players develop their skills and get ready for the season.  This year, Baseball Calgary decided to set up a program that runs from early January until the beginning of April when the season begins.  In this program players will have the opportunity to create a personal profile focused on setting up goals which will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. 

                Another major priority for Baseball Calgary is to continue the construction of their team facilities.  It has been a slow process for the development of the ball parks at Inland Athletic Park.  Its initial construction had finished in late 2006 and minor development has continued since then.  A way that they have dealt with the problem is by developing a partnership with the Absolute Baseball Academy to allow their teams to run their development camps and player evaluations.  There is still much work to be done and the only way to accomplish this is to bring in the help of volunteers.  With the volunteers it is possible to set up additional fundraisers and events in order to produce more money.  A small step that has taken place, is that Baseball Calgary hosted its first ever baseball tournament during last season.  Although the tournament did not run as smoothly as liked, without the help of the volunteers it would have not run at all.  Baseball Calgary has also started setting up a yearly casino fundraiser event in order to raise money to help pay for community improvements.

                Over the years, the Baseball Calgary community has been taking small steps into improving its program and I believe it has done a fantastic job.  By hiring a Operations Director to focus mainly on the success of the team it will enable the rest of the Board of Directors to turn their focus onto strengthening this community by trying to build partnerships with other organizations such as the Calgary Vipers.

Blog #3- Baseball Calgary

One community that I am involved in is with Baseball Calgary.  Last year I was brought into this community as an assistant coach to their bantam triple A team.  Baseball Calgary runs a very high competitive program.  Although Baseball Calgary does not seem like a typical community, it is built up of a variety of different members.  The first group of this community would be the team and the coaches.  New members are brought into this group every year and it is important that we as the coaches help with bringing all of the players together to create a successful team.  The next group in this community would be the Baseball Calgary Board of Directors.  Without the board, the teams would be without uniforms, equipment, there would be no fundraisers to help raise money for travel to tournaments.  Also part of this board, are members who spend time with marketing the organization, managing the facilities, etc.  Finally, the last group that is part of this community would be the parents and volunteers.  Personally I believe that this is the most important part because of all the work that they do behind the scenes.  If it were not for this group, it would not be possible for the organization to field a team.    

What brings this community together is the determination to produce a team that can generate wins and be one of the best teams in the league.  Winning would probably be the highest priority for this community but also the development of younger players entering the league and trying to make the top teams.  This community has had many successes with a few of its players being drafted by major league teams and many playing for Baseball Canada representing our country. 

                A way that this community can better itself is to try and setup a few more fundraisers during the off season.  If it is able to raise more money, it will be possible to continue development on their facility at Inland Park and potentially expand by building more facilities.  What makes this difficult is trying to get full commitment from volunteers.  If we can get volunteers helping in our community we will also be able to expand bringing in more players and coaches to develop making it even stronger.

Invictus and Community Development

The movie Invictus begins with the release and election of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who takes charge in hope of reconciliation between the whites and blacks of South Africa.  To do this, Mandela’s main strategy was to use the National Rugby team known as the Springboks which was hated by black South Africans.  He realizes that South African is to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup that is less than a year away he begins his mission.  Doing this is not so easy.  It begins with him having to convince the South African Sports committee to not change the name and colours of the Springboks.  Mandela would next invite the team captain of the Springboks Francios Pienaar (Matt Damon) for tea and discuss rugby and philosophies where Mandela gets a message through to Pienaar that he wants him to lead the team to victory at the World Cup and unite their country.

This is the beginning of how Mandela was able to use the sport of Rugby to develop community relationships that are not based on race.  Examples of using the team for community development would be how the team interacted with all of the locals by going to communities and teaching them about the sport.  I believe that Chester (the only black member of the Springboks) shows a different type of leadership by leading his team into these communities and showing his teammates that there really is no difference between the different races.  Mandela also had built a security team composed of both black and white members.  In the beginning they did not like having to be around each other which was shown having them drive in separate cars with only blacks in one and whites in another.  As time goes on they start to get more comfortable with each other and through recreation begin to like one another.  This can be seen during one of the World Cup games while Mandela is watching it on television many of the security guards, both white and black start passing a rugby ball around.      

The Springboks were not expected to do well in the tournament but once they began to win games they started getting more and more support from not only the white community but the black as well.  The crowds began to fill during their games that including both blacks and whites all cheering for their nation.  The Springboks would eventually go on to win the cup against the powerhouse All Blacks from New Zealand where South Africans everywhere united to celebrate with one another.  During the celebration Pienaar was asked if the crowd of 63,000 helped in winning the game.  Pienaar would answer saying that it was 43million South Africans united that helped the team win. 

This movie shows the importance of recreation in society and how it can be used in order to bring people together.  Mandela’s use of rugby to unite his nation proves that sport and recreation has a major impact on some of the most critical issues in society.  This movie shows how significant leaders are in communities.  Both Mandela and Pienaar used the philosophy of leading by example to show the people around them that things can be better.  Leaders in communities whether it being in sports or politics must be able to inspire others to “be better then they think they can” according to Mandela, in order to change for the better.  To lead by example Mandela shows up to the rugby matches wearing the jersey of the Springboks to try and convince his people that everyone should be united cheering for the team that represents their nation.

Aboriginal Recreation Summit

I chose to read an article from the Alberta Sweetgrass newspaper entitled “Summit provides insight for Aboriginal recreation leaders.”  This article summarizes the summit that was held for Aboriginal recreation leaders of Alberta to discuss the positives, negatives and objectives for the Aboriginal communities.  One of the major components discussed in this article is that they identified what strengths they were bringing to the Aboriginal community through recreation.  Examples of this are that they are providing the community with ways to increase health benefits and are reducing alcohol, drug and violence related problems.  Another major component from this summit was that they were able to bring up specific concerns that each was coming across in their respective communities.  Examples of these include declining volunteers, reduced resources and the lack of coaches and officials to help run activities.  This could prove to be very beneficial for all of the communities involved in this summit because they would have the opportunity to discuss different ways of resolving problems in each individual community.  This summit for the Aboriginal communities followed many steps of the community development framework discussed in class.  They were able to bring together a small group of leaders where they were able to share the strengths and successes in each of their communities, discuss priorities and develop strategies on how to take action against some of the problems.  I believe that by following the basic framework for community development, the Aboriginal communities in Alberta will be able to continue finding ways to improve their recreational programs by getting more people involved in coaching and volunteering. 

Community development can be defined as bringing a group of people together who share common cultural needs and desires working together as a whole to better their community and achieve their goals.  This Aboriginal summit shows many similarities, for example they brought many community leaders together in order discuss potential ways to improve their own respective communities and resolve problems that have turned up.  Secondly this summit shows that by following a community development framework, communities will be able to identify all of their strengths, weaknesses and ways to improve.   

The leaders of this summit had stated that they wished to have another meeting set up in the near future and I believe that this would be very benificial for recreation in their communities.  It will take time to improve on all of the weaknesses brought up in this summit but if the leaders are committed in helping their communities progress will happen. 

Brent Washenfelder



Sources: https://docs.google.com/a/aceleaders.ca/fileview?id=0B3pKQajHE5jJMjViMmRjOGUtNjliOS00ZmVjLWEzYjUtOTMzNTY2YmEyNzY1&hl=en&ndplr=1