Last Monday night, representatives from all member clubs, club coach coordinators, the referees sub-committee, Hills United FC and staff attended a strategic planning session that aimed to discuss and outline the future and direction of the Hills Football Association for the next four years.
Hosted by new Hills Football CEO Jeremy Toivonen, the event brought together more than 1101 years of football experience across the Hills region to roadmap and align the future of the member clubs and associations.
“It is always great to get so many fantastic ideas from the passionate people at the forefront of our great game,” Toivonen said.
“I very much look forward to hearing from the football community and watching them strategically shape our great game going forward.”
Dividing and grouping different clubs and stakeholders allowed for a wider range of opinions and ideas to be discussed and answer some of the most pressing matters and questions that could help shape the future of the sport in the region.
The various stakeholders discussed matters such as where they want Hills Football to be in 30 years. What do they do, who do they do it for, and the internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats facing all aspects of football in the Hills.
“My opinion that I put across straight away was that I think as an association, we’re very separate. We’re very divided,” Glenhaven FC President Emma Graham said.
“I think bringing us together for things like this really helps us to see that; we all want pretty much the same things. We all have very similar values. Why are we working against each other instead of together?”
“I think putting us in the room, separating us from our people, mixing us in, was really great. I came away from that thinking, you know what, I think there’s going to be some positive change from this.”
The next steps from this evening are to consolidate and prioritise the most pressing matters and ideas highlighted throughout the night. Before publishing the findings and next steps, which could include board realignment and configurations, and financial plans put in place.
Working groups may also be established to provide specific guidance on any number of areas, including marketing, coaching, governance, commercial, technology/data, pathways, inclusion and diversity and volunteers. These Working Groups would report to the CEO and feed strategies to the Board for potential endorsement.
“I really enjoyed the evening,” Graham said.
“I think Jeremy is going to do amazing things for the Association, and this was a really great start.”
