Recently the Ontario Soccer Association conducted an online and phone based survey through Capitis Consulting, focused entirely on the OSA Club Excellence Award. The survey was administered to all Clubs with a valid and current Club Excellence designation. The survey questions were answered by a high number of Clubs which enabled Staff to gain a greater sense of where the program sits when it comes to a Clubs priorities and pride. Feedback from Club Leaders also provided some excellent suggestions for future growth.

Survey results will be used to improve and update the Club Excellence program for 2016 and beyond as we assess the impact of a through technical component this year and a detailed rubrics to grade a Clubs current status. Positives from the survey included:

• 100% of the Clubs plan to renew their status when it expires (Club status must be renewed every two years).
• The majority of Clubs surveyed have been a part of the program for 2 years or more.
• 68% of Clubs would recommend the program to other Clubs.
• 58% of the Clubs surveyed are Gold Standard.

From the inaugural year we have heard from many Clubs that the process helped them organise the structure and operations of their Clubs and this appears to be the case for the technical component this year. The OSA will be working on increased communication to the Club Excellence Awardees in the future and assisting Clubs in using the Award as a platform to attract more volunteers, staff and coaches. Volunteer Canada has a vast amount of resources and information in regards to recruiting, training and retention of volunteers. The OSA staff can provide additional information in this area and others.

This year we markedly increased the communication and sharing of information sent to Clubs by developing and hosting a number of webinars with a wide variety of topics that relate to Club Excellence criteria and are of use to any Club. Webinars include; Concussions, Managing Discipline, FIFA 11+ and Accessible Soccer. Check out the upcoming schedule here and the archive of recent webinars here.

The staff at the OSA will continue to use the information collected from the survey to further provide its members with new resources and useful information regarding Club Excellence for 2015 and 2016.