Following on from Asia Rugby’s annual Growing the Game conference in Fukuoka , Japan in early October, 11 delegates from 7 unions are this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the annual Leading Rugby course run by the Regional Association and World Rugby.
The course is the third in the 4 year cycle towards next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan, with the aim that, by the end of 2019, all 31 Asia Rugby member unions will have had an opportunity to attend Leading Rugby.
The gathering in KL is also being used to trial the latest version of the course, which is being revamped towards a competency-based one, underpinned by practical assessment opportunities, comprising solo and group activities.
Aimed at current and future leaders and managers of National Governing Bodies, delegates heard, imparted and discussed experiences of leading organisations; others and themselves in fast-paced, micro-learning sessions, which included developing a profile of the Rugby activity of their organisations;
identifying priority safety measures; considering various governance and personnel structures; financial resources and tools and designing annual activity timelines.
Viengsamai Souksavanh, who recently joined the Laos Rugby Federation as its Operations and Finance Director said: “One factor I take away from today is new techniques to motivate my colleagues through delegation and support to them, and goal setting for our federation.”
Asked for his reflections on the day, Course Facilitator, Berti Luca de Tena from Spain said: “I was impressed with the diversity of the unions I have seen in KL from what is a small percentage of those across the region. Today will help the team behind the project to evolve this pilot course.
There are clearly unions with different needs, as in any region, and, whilst it is not a panacea, the competency based approach is universal. I hope today’s attendees will all have at least one beneficial takeaway and, ultimately, people want to lead and manage the Game because it is a healthy environment for all involved.”
