Australian University Games update

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Dear Australian University Games sports personnel,

Welcome to the fourth and final edition of the sport e-newsletter. This newsletter goes out to our competition management team, sport venues and State Sporting Organisations to keep everyone up to date with the latest Australian University Games (AUG) news. We are now only weeks away from the 2011 Australian University Games and the excitement is certainly building. This issue provides information on the final competition management training session, what’s happening in the world of AUG sport and operations and the latest required information from you as we finalise the finishing touches to the event. As we roll into September it means we are only three weeks out from the start of the event. For the most up to date count down check out the AUG countdown wiget on the website.


SPORT UPDATE

Entries have now closed and draw production is under way. As the draws near completion we will be in communication with competition managers to finalise the draw before publishing. It will also be sent to technical officers to assist with officials rostering. The number of registrations at present are: 6700
Sport number breakdown

Men Women Open Mixed
Athletics 328
Australian Rules Football 18 8
Badminton 16 11
Baseball 10
Basketball 17 17
Beach volleyball 20 20 25
Cycling 47
Fencing 70
Airtrain Football 18 13
Golf 74
Handball 20
Brooks Hockey 17 17
Judo 45
Kendo 80
Lawn bowls 23
Brooks Netball 18 18
Rugby union 7s 10
Sailing 40
Softball 7
Squash 8 5
Swimming 195
Table tennis 10 4
Taekwondo 137
Tennis 16 11
Tenpin bowling 17
Touch 15 16 18
Ultimate 26
Volleyball 20 18
Water polo 18 16

Each sport has been allocated a sport liaison officer (SLO). These are an Australian University Sport (AUS) staff member and they will oversee a hand full of sports in close proximity to your venue. They are there to help assist the comeptition management team and venues with any problems that may arise and the general running of the sport. Your SLO can usually be at your venue within 15 minutes of your phone call or radio call to assist with any issues or problems. The following people are SLO’s:

Staff Member Precinct Sports
Ben King – AUS Regional Development Officer, South Runaway Bay BROOKS Netball
Ultimate
Squash
Sailing
Rob Sheekey – AUS Regional Development Officer, East Cararra Tenpin bowling
Badminton
Table tennis
Basketball
Kendo
Judo
Teakwondo
Jess Brown – AUS Regional Development Officer, North South Water polo
Softball
Tennis
Golf
Fencing
Handball
Tony Jermyn – AUS General Manager
Sophie Curtis – AUG Sport Intern
Southport Swimming
Touch
Rugby 7s
Volleyball
Dan Tackenberg – AUS National Development Manager Musgrave Athletics
Australian Rules Football
Airtrain Football
BROOKS Hockey
Donna Spethman – AUS National Programs Manager Central Beach volleyball
Lawn bowls
Baseball
Cycling

To acknowledge, recognise and reward outstanding sporting performances at an AUS event, AUS selects athletes to be part of a merit team where they receive a green and gold medal. The AUG is one of the national events that selects green and gold athletes. To do this we require a committee for each sport to identify and select worthy recipents based on green and gold selection guidelines. Along with the competition manager and/or techinal officer we are looking for other committee members to assist with this process. If you are interested or have a suitable representative from your sport to join the committee please contact Dan or by phone on 07 5564 0476

Want to know where the sports are being played on the Gold Coast? Check out our google map.


COMPETITION MANAGEMENT

As September arrives the majority of the competition management training sessions have taken place. Session two and three were online training sessions which involved answering questions based on AUS policies and procedures from the competition management manual and we hope you found these training sessions useful as these are policies that you will implement throughout the Games. Training session four is our last session and it is imperative that all competition management team members attend as this is where we will cover any questions based on your quiz and forms from training session two and three as well as a chance to meet your SLO, meet key volunteers, other AUS staff, sports trainers and where you will pick up all other resources to run your competition including sports equipment (balls), sport box (operational/stationary equipment) and competition management uniform.

Training session four:
Venue: Gold Coast Hockey Association
Address: Corner Musgrave Ave and Hockey Lane, Labrador, Gold Coast
Date: Monday 19th September 2011
Time: 6pm for a 6.30pm start
A BBQ dinner will be supplied and will follow the training session. You must RSVP to Dan for catering purposes. Please ensure you have space in your car as you will be collecting your sport box and sport equipment. All big items will be delivered to your sports venue by our operations team.

Whats coming to your inbox soon?

  • Draws are being produced at present  by AUS staff members. Competition Managers will recieve a copy of their draw to look over and check before they are published live on the AUS website and the A1 sized draws are printed and laminated.
  • A list of all sports equipment that you will be requiring for your sport was sent by Kelly in the last couple of days. The equipment is what AUG, venues or competition managers will supply. Please make sure all nesacery equipment to run your sport is on the list and that what equipment you are required to supply you can and will provide it.

All sports will recieve a sport box and a sport folder. What are these?

  • A sport folder is your communication folder containing all blank or necessery forms to run your sport. Copies of all forms will be supplied in the sport folder for competition managers to run their sport daily. This folder is then returned daily to the Games centre where Kelly or Dan will greet you and take all necessary forms and replenish what is running low.
  • A sport box is where all stationary, materials and operational equipment are stored for you to run your sport. You will keep possesion of this for the whole week. If you run out of forms in your sport folder you will need to complete the operations requirement form, like a shopping list in your sport folder and it will be supplied to you on return to the games centre. Additional equipment can also be included on this form and will be sourced overnight or if on hand when you return to the Games centre daily.

Still to come for your competition management folders is the risk management documents and the sports evaluation meeting agenda. The risk management documents are very important and you must read these and understand the requirements of these sections. They are a crutial document to refer to in the event of an incident, accident, inclement weather or unsuitable playing conditions.

A reminder to all technical officers to attempt to roster your most experienced and highest qualified officials onto the majority of the division one matches and medal matches where possible. This is to ensure the higher quality games will have the highest quality referees or officials. For those sports that need payments in advance, an invoice must be sent to Kelly as soon as possible for processing.

Also please ensure you are aware of the total amount of games in your competition (across all divisions) to ensure you have referee’s or officials for all games throughout the week (if they are needed for your sport). Contact Dan on 07 5564 0476 if you require a schedule of games to help with rostering officials.

We require the number of officials you have or require for your sport. We will provide each official with an officials pack which will include sports rules, a participation agreement, green and gold guidlines, payment information and an event fact sheet. To print the required amount we need to know the amount of officials from each sport that requires officials. It is advised that you hold an officials briefing at some point prior to the competition to brief them on the competition as well as hand out these officials packs, sort out any payment forms and get all participation agreement forms completed. The participation agreement form must be completed before that official takes part in the games. Please assist us with this by getting your numbers (even estimated numbers) through before Thursday 15 September to allow time for printing for delivery at the final training session.
Reminder:
1. A copy of each sports score sheet is requested. Please email to Dan
2. A list of officials or numbers is required ASAP to be supplied to Dan


OTHER INFORMATION

Volunteer recruitment is almost complete with 190 recruited so far. Training of volunteers took place on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 September. Volunteers that have been recruited through your sport must register through the offical AUG volunteer recruitment process. This can be found on our website. The roster is also being finalised according to the number of Volunteers you requested. Their contact details will be in your event rider. They will be given your contact details when they collect their uniform (20-25 September).

The 2011 AUG is excited to have a number of sampling sponsors on board, who will have a large presence at sport venues. Whilst free product will be given out, infrastructure will also be present in the form of marquees and signage.

Key sponsors to look out for include:

  • Red Bull energy drink
  • Powerade
  • Ice Break
  • Nova
  • Brooks
  • JanSport

For detailed information on when sponsors will be at your sport, please refer to your event rider. Official event sponsors have been advised to check in with the competition manager upon arrival. They may require your assistance with access to the venue and the exact set-up location. Please be aware that some of these ‘activations’ can increase the rubbish at a sport venue. Staff and volunteers may need to remind students to clean up after themselves and provide more bins if possible.

If you see a company ambushing the event, please alert AUS sponsorship coordinator, Elecia Douglas on 0421 327 610, or your SLO immediately. In particular, this could include other energy drinks sampling or night clubs and pubs handing out promotional flyers.

The competition management team will be recognisable by their RED shirts. The volunteer workforce will be in BLUE. An example of the 2010 shirt:

Important dates for the diary:
Training session four - 6:30pm – 8pm Monday 19 September, Gold Coast Hockey Association, Corner Musgrave Ave and Hockey Lane, Labrador.

University Team Managers (UTM) meeting – 3pm Sunday 25 September, Surfers Paradise RSL, 9 Beach Road, Surfers Paradise. (All competition management team welcome to attend but it is not compulsory)

Australian University Games Opening Ceremony – 6:30pm – 11pm, Sunday 25 September 2011, Dreamworld, Gold Coast. This is a ticketed event. Please contact Dan for details.

Australian University Games – Sunday 25 to Friday 30 September 2011 (competition runs from Monday 26 to Friday 30 September).

Australian University Games Closing Presentation – Friday 30 September 2011, Circle on Cavil, Surfers Paradise.


DID YOU KNOW

The games will be coming back to the Gold Coast in 2013 and 2015. To all venues please pencil us in in your booking system for these years.

The Australian University Games is the largest annual multi sports event in Australia.

The Australian University Games is the flagship event on the national university sporting calendar . AUS also run Regional University Games (northern, eastern, southern and central) as well as championship events in the following sports, triathlon, distance running, snow sports, twenty20 cricket, surfing, dragon boating, orienteering and rowing.


CONTACTS

Kelly Featherston
0418 974 139
kelly.featherston@unisport.com.au\

Dan Rodden
0424 245 929
dan.rodden@unisport.com.au

Suite 4
42 Nerang St
Southport
(07) 5564 0476
Kelly – ext 204

Dan – ext 205
Please add both Kelly and Dan’s mobile numbers to your phones now. They will be very handy during the games.

For all sports related questions or queries please don’t hesitate to contact Kelly or Dan at the AUG Games office.

THE COUNTDOWN
Only 18 days to go