A review of LSV Sport in 2018 identified challenges and solutions and set a series of recommendations from the participating membership, including the overarching goal of ‘better before bigger’.
One of the five key recommendations from the report was ‘Improving evaluation: A focus on better analysis and evidence for decision making, with a greater emphasis on feedback, while providing more timely and relevant information for stakeholders.’
The subsequent evaluation project includes the development and implementation of a Sport M&E plan for 2018/19 focussed on the summer beach lifesaving competition.
Background Information
Aquatic Sport (Sport) plays a vital role in keeping active members fit and active while enhancing their lifesaving skills, known as ‘active training’. Each year in Victoria, thousands of members compete in lifesaving events. In addition, Sport participation engages hundreds of volunteer officials and coaches across the beach, pool and IRB disciplines. Initiated by the LSV Board, an internal review of Sport was conducted by the department from October 2017 to July 2018. Extensive feedback was obtained from the review including: 156 informal interviews at carnivals and events; 54 formal interviews and 18 written responses received. One of the five key recommendations from the report was ‘Improving evaluation: A focus on better analysis and evidence for decision making, with a greater emphasis on feedback, while providing more timely and relevant information for stakeholders.’ A key challenge identified in the review was a lack of clear goals and objectives for Sport in Victoria (LSV, 2018). Subsequently, the Aquatic Sport Executive identified that the solution to this challenge was to develop a strategic plan underpinned by an evaluation plan, commissioned to LSV Risk & Research.
Project Aim
The overall project aim is to determine, develop and implement a Sport monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan for 2018/19. Given the focus on ‘Better before bigger’, the 2018/19 plan focussed on the summer beach lifesaving competition. Future M&E plans will expand to IRB and pool disciplines, however these are out of scope of the current project.
Specific project objectives are to
- Design a Sport M&E plan relating to summer beach events.
- Implement the Sport M&E plan relating to summer beach (beach and surf) lifesaving events, including:
– Data collection, and coordination of data collection.
– Analysing data, interpreting findings, and establishing potential measurable KPIs for subsequent evaluations.
– Preparing a report for dissemination.
Specific objectives within the Sport M&E plan for the 2018/19 summer season are to determine:
- The level of participation in Sport.
- The level of satisfaction with Sport as an indicator of retention.
- The overall experience with Sport including potential barriers and enablers to participation.
