Why is a policy important?

One of the benefits of being a Good Sports club is that your members can see how much you care about their safety and wellbeing.

Having a club policy - and making sure people know about it – helps everyone respect the club’s values. It sets the standard for the behaviour you expect from members and guests. It also lets them know you care.

Your club works hard to create a welcoming club environment. Putting it all in writing takes it just that step further.

Creating a Good Sports policy is easy

Good Sports takes all the guesswork out of complying with legal requirements. It gives you the upper hand when it comes to attracting funding, new members and volunteers.

Your club doesn’t need to start from scratch. Good Sports take all the hard work out of getting your policy right and ticking the boxes. When you fill out your club questionnaire online, your policy will be automatically built for you, only including what’s relevant to your club.

Once you’ve completed enough of your questionnaire on the Good Sports portal to create a policy, print out or email it to the relevant committee members. You can discuss it at your next committee meeting or have people sign it online. Your Good Sports policy will be easy to read and covers all the key areas.

Once signed, your policy is now complete! Congratulations – you're a Silver Medal accredited Good Sports club. Once you’ve completed all action items possible and signed your final policy, you’ll become a Gold Medal Good Sports club. This is the highest level of the program.

Put it in writing

Just as every sport has its rules in writing, so every club needs to have policies in writing. They set out what behaviour is expected from members and guests.

Your policy will also guide the club’s decision-making process in line with its values. This makes day-to-day running go much more smoothly, so you can spend more time focusing on the players and volunteers.

You may find as you go through your questionnaire that your club already has many of the actions in place. For example, having designated smoke-free areas, or regularly promoting mental health support services so members know where to go if they need professional help.

Once it's part of your signed policy, the awesome things your club is already doing will be down in writing. Making it official shows people you're committed.

What’s the benefit of having a policy?

Having a Good Sports policy in place at your club has many benefits.

  • It sends a clear message that you care about the safety of your members and guests. This can increase community support and membership.
  • It can help you support your members to live happy and healthy lives, for example by including mental health guidelines in your policies.
  • It’s a great way to set clear expectations for your members and guests.
  • Creating a policy will prepare your club to react in a fair and calm manner to any incidents.
  • Good policies uphold the reputation of the club, which matters to sponsors and partners.

Good Sports - why it is important

PDF 1.6 MB

How do I implement a policy at my club?

  1. Join Good Sports online. Fill in a quick form with your club’s details to register for Good Sports. You’ll then get a confirmation email and be able to create your club account.
  2. Questionnaire. Start by answering a series of questions about your club.
  3. Action plan. As you complete the questionnaire, you will be building an action plan to help you prioritise your club's work. Actions and policy line items will be added automatically as you go along.
  4. Good Sports policy. Progress through questions and actions to generate your first policy to share with your club. Get the policy signed by the relevant committee members to become an accredited Silver Medal Good Sports club.
  5. Share. You can now promote your policy to your club community.
Join Good Sports to start creating your policy today

What’s included in my policy?

Each club’s policy is different. As you fill out your questionnaire, actions will be generated that are relevant for your club. For example, if your club is alcohol-free, you won't have many (if any) alcohol management components in your action plan.

Policy items