A directive from Norths Board to all coaches regarding professional conduct when dealing with children.
Norths members and parents have a real appreciation of the benefit you bring to our Club and the children you come into contact with whilst coaching within your various spheres of interest be it playing, officiating, score bench or stats. We thank you, sincerely.
As a new rep season takes shape, however, Norths President, Peter FitzSimons, has requested that we respectfully remind all coaches of the need to retain a degree of professional separation in your dealings with the children you are coaching. And whilst this directive is to do with children you coach it should be the benchmark for all your dealings with all children at Norths.
Please take a few moments to read this communication (which is only an outline and not exhaustive) and bear it in mind during your duties. In doing so, you will be protecting yourself and our Club from issues that may arise from a misunderstanding.
The majority of the advice is common sense. Nevertheless, for the record;
·Any physical contact between yourself and children should be limited to that essentially required to the imparting of a specific skill - and always delivered within the main playing or coaching area.
· Whenever possible, you should explain to the parents of the children that, inherent with coaching basketball skills, (playing or officiating) there may be the need from time to time to make adjustments of posture or position of limbs and if parents have a problem with you doing that they should advise you immediately and you will accommodate their request.
· All discussions or briefings with your charges will be conducted in the public arena and not in a secluded or private area unless the child is accompanied by their parent.
· You are to limit the occasions when you make contact with children outside the immediate requirements of your coaching brief. Transport arrangements that result in you and a child being the sole occupants of a vehicle are to be at all times avoided.
· Likewise at post activity functions you should be mindful of your role as an adult coach and not put yourself in a situation where you are the sole adult with a child or children taking refreshments outside the venue.
· E-mail correspondence must be directed to the parent in the first instance. If the parent does not have an email address then correspondence should be addressed to the parent at the child's email address. In situations where there is no team manager you should limit such correspondence to the transmission of information required to enable the child to attend the next activity and make every endeavour to ensure that e-mails are addressed to the parents. Do not use therep email listings of membersfor any other purpose, including social or commercial purposes.
· Social networking sites and communication through them is to be avoided and if you have a personal site you should not allow minors to access your site. Be very mindful of what images and content appear on your site and you should not seek to contact your charges via their social networking sites.
· Telephone communication with children should be kept to a minimum; this includes text messages, andmust be limited to game or practice logistics. It is recognized that in the fluid circumstances of games and training occasionally alterations to schedules arise which can only be communicated in a timely manner by telephone or text messaging. Every effort should be made through competent organisation and foresight to keep these instances to an absoluteminimum.
·Alcohol and drugs, no, no, NO.
In summary do not put yourself in a position where your integrity and good intentions could be misconstrued. In protecting all parties,we have a mutual obligation tomanageour child protection and privacy obligations. The Board has asked that we be rigorous in monitoring and managing these obligations and act quickly in reviewing the involvement in the programme of anyone who transgresses this directive.
To conclude, we congratulate you on your interest in the game, in seeking to improving your sports qualifications and wishing to impart knowledge to junior participants.
As a Club we can only grow through input from volunteers, people such as yourselves and this communication is intended to ensure that through the ordinary discharge of your tasks you do not unwittingly become involved in a potentially damaging situation.
Set out below are links to various documents published on Norths and the BNSW web site and we recommend them to you.
Kind Regards
Trevor N. Karsten
General Manager
For and behalf of NSBA Inc
September 2009
Norths Codes of conduct see our web site
http://www.nswbasketball.net.au/admin/documents/childprotectionphyscialcontact.pdf
http://www.nswbasketball.net.au/admin/documents/AdultBehaviour_ChildProtectionLegislationAmended_04_05.pdf
http://www.nswbasketball.net.au/admin/DutyOfCare.htm
http://www.nswbasketball.net.au/admin/documents/safecoaching.pdf |