The National Integrity Managers Forum was held last week for members of our National Integrity Manager (NIM) network with invitations extended to other National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) and National Sporting Organisations for People with Disability (NSODs).
Celebrating their first year, the NIM network was established in July 2022 to provide support, collaboration and networking opportunities for Integrity Managers from NSOs and NSODs, with input and involvement from Sport Integrity Australia.
Originating from a grants process and funded by Sport Integrity Australia, there are currently 19 NIMs across 30 sports, with some NIMs working across more than one sport. These government-funded positions embedded in sport aim to boost sport's understanding, awareness and capability to manage threats at all levels to help keep their sport safe and fair.
This week's forum focussed on collaboration and information sharing and provided an opportunity for the NIM network and Sport Integrity Australia to spend time workshopping some challenges together.
Topics discussed included:
- Global trends in integrity threats to sport and implications to Australian sport
- Tackling eSafety, including reporting schemes and educational resources
- Social media policy and resourcing
- Sports gambling
- Assessing the sports integrity threats
- Start to Talk campaign
- AIS Respectful Behaviours program, and
- Updates from Sport Integrity Australia.
The biggest focus this year was on educating members and managing complaints, while participants also shared tricky issues they've faced.
Garry West-Bail, from the Australian Sporting Alliance for People with Disability, said the workshop was very valuable.
"The opportunity to be in the same room as all the other NIMs was great to understand their experiences, knowledge and insights," he said. "The dinner at the end of day 1 was a wonderful opportunity for relationship development and for continuing conversations started during the day."
Sport Integrity Australia's Director of Partnerships Linda Muir said the workshop agenda was designed to create a safe environment for the NIMs to share their sport-specific issues, the commonalities across sport and collectively sharing ideas and solutions.
"The workshop was enriched through the participation of NIMs from other NSOs and NSODs as they provided their unique perspectives," she said. "A key underpinning principle of the network is the NIMs leveraging the network to support each other. Working in integrity can be lonely, the matters they cover can be challenging and often participants can be unhappy with an outcome."
