ITSportsConnector

So, you have purchased on line registration (OLR) either for the first time, or have been using it for some time. Maybe you are thinking about how to increase the number of people using OLR, or just how to better use and manage it. Well, here are some ideas and tips!

Plan ahead

Each year it will be important to ensure that everyone involved in the OLR process is included in the planning and on side for the implementation. Your treasurer, registrar and webmaster (and possibly others depending on how you are organized) will have a role to play in the process. From budgeting for OLR expenses and setting fees to deciding the who, what, where and when of communication regarding OLR availability to your membership - there are numerous important decisions to be made and implemented by your organization. Also, another important party in the planning group is your OLR provider! Involving them at the outset could save you many headaches down the road. There are some decisions to be made as you setup your OLR, in particular in the first year as your organization becomes familiar with the process, so starting the setup process early is always a good idea.

Budget for OLR Fees

OLR generally has two fee components: the cost of the software and the cost of the credit card transaction. Make sure you understand the fees for your system as it is important to budget for these costs before you start your season.

What will your OLR provider need to know from you?

To effectively setup your OLR forms, etc. your OLR provider will need to know the following information from you: age categories, fees per age categories, estimated start and end dates for OLR, discounts offered, your governing body, number of seasons you run and season run dates as well as the person they should work with from your organization for the setup process. Ideally, you should contact your provider early in your planning process so you are aware of the information that needs to be passed on.

Make sure you membership knows OLR is available!

Every year it is imperative to make sure you inform your membership that OLR is available and what the advantages are to them in using it. Some examples of how this can be accomplished are as follows: e-mail your membership list and inform them they can register on line this year and direct them to the link where they can register. Clearly mark on your website that OLR is available. Then, clearly indicate the link to OLR on your website. Ensure that OLR is mentioned in all meetings you have so your entire membership can spread the word. When registration time comes around, and if you put up billboards or use other advertising mediums for your club’s registration, ensure that the advertisement indicates OLR as available and that your website address is clearly indicated on the advertising medium. Finally, throughout the year take advantage of any other advertising or communications you do for any purpose (either through e-mail or otherwise) to mention that OLR is available for the next registration season. Also, consider a link to your Facebook or Twitter accounts and any other social media software you use.

ITSportsNet has found that, on average, in the first year, if the membership has been well informed of OLR, an adoption rate of about 50% of the membership is a reasonable expectation. In the second year we often see an increase to 70% and higher, if the membership has been well informed. Some organizations have made it mandatory that registration is done on line - this saves organizations a significant amount of time. Remember, since your membership is always changing, it is important to inform your membership of this registration option every year so all new members are informed also.

Recurring Pre-Authorized Payments

ITSportsNet offers a recurring payments option. For organizations with larger fees this can be attractive to registrants. Registrants that want a payment plan vs. paying for large fees all at once will like this option. Administrators of organizations that offer payment plans will like this option also as it significantly reduces the work involved in collection of payment plan type fees. Collecting cheques and dealing with NSF cheques become a thing of the past.

The process is as follows: when a person registers they choose to either pay the entire fee at once or pay via payment plan. If the payment plan option is chosen then pre-determined amounts and payment times are selected and when the next payment cycle arrives the system automatically processes payments on the credit card of the holder. After this occurs the organization’s administrator goes through the payment list, comparing to the payments received, and ensures all payments were successfully processed. Invoices are not cleared until this process is completed (this is a control to ensure the organization is aware of any payments that are declined).

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Processing Returns and Voids, Managing Credits, Reconciliations, etc.

Have you ever wondered why so many successful elite athletes become consultants, motivational speakers, writers and successful business people?  The elite sports environment is an almost perfect laboratory for what goes on in the rest of the world.  What elite athletes learn in their athletic career is directly applicable to success in all other aspects of life.  One of the many important skills they learn is to Plan for Success.

There are many elements involved with success but there are just two that are the ultimate starting point. The first is the desire to succeed and the second is putting together a plan for that success. With the exception of lottery winners, nobody ever succeeds by accident.

“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.” Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant

Bear’s quote captures the idea that it is not enough to have the will or desire to win, but rather you have to have the will to be prepared to win or succeed.

This series of articles looks at how you can chart your organization or team’s path to success.

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.” Seneca

Hector Vergara, Executive Director of Manitoba Soccer is the only Canadian Referee Official at the World Cup 2010.  He’s there as an Assistant Referee and this is his 2^nd trip to the World Cup which is almost impossible to get the second call.

Here’s the official FIFA list: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/referees/index.html

Here’s a link to his profile: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/referees/referee=37427/index.html

Information on some of what it takes to get to the World Cup as an Official: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1166086/index.html#crunch+time+referees

Announcement that he was named to the World Cup: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifaworldcup/news/story/2010/02/05/sp-ref.html?ref=rss

Another article with interesting info in it: http://www.cansoc.org/showthread.php?28158-Canadian-official-selected-for-World-Cup&p=148841&viewfull=1

ITSportsNet would like to congratulate Hector for representing Canada at the World Cup.  Well done!

The proliferation of personal computers and easy access to the Internet have brought astounding opportunities and conveniences. Auction sites, relationship match making, effortless financial transactions, you can do just about anything you need to do without leaving your home.

And with these advances in technology and mass communication, opportunities for criminals to separate you from your money have exploded.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2009 Internet Crime Report, complaints of Internet related crime rose 22.3% to 336,655 submissions compared to 275,284 complaints in 2008.

Let’s review some examples of scams the tech-savvy crooks use and tips that will help you avoid being a victim.

Tom receives an email that appears to be from his bank. It has the bank’s logo; it has his name in the greeting; it has a link that contains the bank’s name. The email states that there is a problem with Tom’s account, and they need him to verify his account information at the provided link.

However, the website that the link goes to is a fake owned by a scammer. It may appear exactly like the actual bank website, but its only purpose is to get Tom’s account information and steal his money.

Legitimate organizations will rarely ask for personal information in this manner.

Bobby, a struggling college student, needs to sublet his apartment. He advertises the apartment on his college’s student housing website. He quickly gets an email from Joey. Joey says the apartment is perfect, and his uncle will send a check for the $500 deposit.

A week later, Bobby receives a cashier’s check for $1500. Bobby then receives an email from Joey telling him that there was a miscommunication with the uncle, and Joey asks that Bobby deposit the check and send back the extra difference by cashier’s check or money order.

Bobby is glad to have someone in the apartment and has trust in the college provided housing list so he deposits the uncle’s check and immediately withdraws the difference and mails it. Five days later, the bank contacts Bobby and informs him that the check he deposited was counterfeit. Now Bobby has no tenant, has lost $1,000, and “Joey” is enjoying a shopping spree.

If you are involved in a similar situation, make sure the check clears first.

George receives an email informing him that he has offended a gang or terrorist organization. The sender claims to be the hitman hired to “take care of” George and his family.

However, according to the hitman, one of the gang members is a friend of a distant relative of George’s and has begged for leniency. So, the email states that George will be left alone if he coughs up $6,000.

Threats of violence and murder are powerful emotional triggers. These emails are lies using fear to steal.

Cindy has just received wonderful news; her email address was randomly selected, and she has won a foreign lottery. According to the email, she just needs to send a processing fee of $1,000 to begin the transfer of her $500,000 lottery winnings.

Unfortunately, Cindy will never see the $500,000 or her $1000 again. And she may continue to receive email requests for taxes, additional fees, and as much as she will continue to send.

The golden rule to avoiding becoming the victim of a con artist: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Howard is a lonely man. He just cannot seem to find the right lady. After visiting some dating websites, he begins an email correspondence with a lovely girl in a foreign country. She shares pictures, is committed to advancing the relationship, and seems legitimate.

Then she starts requesting money. She at first claims to need money for a plane ticket to come visit Howard. Then there is a snag, and she needs more money for a visa or for another mishap that keeps her from travelling. Howard is now lonely AND broke.

Criminals have no regard or sympathy for their victims. They will target any emotion or difficult situation to get what they want. Consider all of the recent Haiti earthquake relief scams.

What if It Is Too Late?
If you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime, please file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center:
www.ic3.gov

Article Compliments of RackSpace Hosted Email

It has been great to see that most of the media coverage of baseball umpire Jim Joyce’s bad call has been so positive. If you happened to miss it, first base umpire Jim Joyce called a batter safe when replays showed he was clearly out (although I think you clearly needed the replay to see it). However, the impact of that call was huge as it would have been the final out of a perfect game for rookie pitcher Armando Galarraga.

NBC had one of the best coverages of the story and its impact on sport:

Shamed ump: ‘No one feels worse than I do’

It is not hard to imagine this scenario playing out quite differently. Galarraga challenging Joyce, the kicking of dirt, Detroit’s coach storming out of the dug out… you get the picture. However, Galarraga was quick to shake it off with an ironic smile of disbelief that he was within one catch of a perfect game and the on field activities ended there. However, right after the game (which ended one pitch later) Joyce was very quick to admit his mistake publicly and tearfully apologize to Galarraga. Galarraga was equally gracious in his acceptance and forgiveness.

The real positive irony is that this game will likely live longer in history because of the mistake and both men’s exemplary response to it than if it had been officially a perfect game. Although, I think my previous post from the Washington State Softball game still remains the high-water mark of sportsmanship this one is not too far behind it.

At the 2010 Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA) AGM they showed the following video and I was reminded of one of the greatest stories of sportsmanship that I have ever heard.

In a College level Washington State Softball Conference playoff game Sara Tucholsky hit her first ever home run with two runners on the bases. In the excitement of hitting her first home run she forgot to tag first base, however, when she turned to go back to tag it she tore her ACL. It was all she could do to crawl back to first. However, the umpire ruled it would be only a 2 run single if a runner was substituted or worse she would be ruled out if any of her teammates helped her.

The video below does a great job of explaining what happened next.

This video is one of the best examples of someone stepping up to the plate and showing what true sportsmanship is all about. And on the surface it adds fuel to the argument on how important sport is in providing the opportunity for youth to learn about teamwork and sportsmanship.

HOWEVER, sport in and of itself does not actually provide any learning on how to be a good team player or how to demonstrate sportsmanship. This can only be learned from our coaches, parents and league officials. In fact, I would suggest that sport provides just as many good opportunities to learn about sportsmanship as it provides bad opportunities (or based on a lot of the negative stuff in the media I would even bend to the argument that sport provides more bad opportunities).

Since this is a forum for the organizers and administrators of sport we should focus on the aspect of what administrators and organizers can do to promote sportsmanship. The most obvious is that we must first promote and reward the characteristic of sportsmanship. Quite a few organizations do award a ‘Most Sportsman-like Player’ trophy, but I wonder how well it is understood and promoted within our youth programs. I think sometimes we promote competitiveness over sportsmanship or worse we sometimes sacrifice sportsmanship to be more competitive.

In a typical sport organizations these are usually our priorities:

1. Competition
2. Discipline
3. Sportsmanship

We make it very clear how to win and what the rules are for winning. We also make it clear what we are not allowed to do and award penalties and discipline for those behaviors. However, we do not measure and thus it is not as clear what we mean by sportsmanship and thus hard to promote.

I have seen some leagues that actually do measure sportsmanship and award points in the standings for sportsmanlike play, but those are rare exceptions. And I suspect those organizations actually have way less discipline than those leagues that do not measure or reward sportsmanship.

We would love to hear of your examples of how your organization is promoting Sportsmanship.

Computing with “Software as a Service”

A buzz word you will hear often today is “software as a service (SaaS).  Many of you may already know that when you use ITSportsNet’s software you are using a SaaS system. However, you may not be aware of all of the characteristics, benefits and differences of this type of software over more traditional forms. Following is a discussion of the advantages that you have with ITSportsNet given our use of the SaaS model.

What is “Software as a Service”?

Software as a Service (Saas) is a method of delivering software solutions over the internet, as a service. With SaaS, you do not have to install or maintain software, you simply access it via the internet. With SaaS you do not have to deal with complex software and hardware management. With SaaS you have access to your data anytime and anywhere there is a web browser available. Implementation of SaaS is quick and efficient because the software architecture is already developed and can easily be customized to fit your organization’s needs. You can be up and running in no time.

With SaaS the software runs on the provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, which includes items such as security, performance, and availability.

Characteristics of an SaaS

End-Tier Multi-tenant Architecture

This architecture results when all users and their applications share the same code base and infrastructure that is maintained centrally by the SaaS provider. Because of this sharing the provider can provide innovations much more quickly and with minimal effect on users. This also results in costs savings as the provider does not have to maintain many versions of old code.

Examples of other very successful companies using the SaaS model are Salesforce.com and Quicktax.

Easy Customization

Each user can easily customize the software to fit their own processes within the parameters of the architecture. The SaaS architecture ensures that these customizations are maintained even when upgrades are done. This results in the provider being able to initiate more innovations and implement them more quickly while reducing the risk to customers and reducing the cost of adoption.

Better Access

Access to data is improved and can be accessed from any networked device. Monitoring of data and privileges is easier in this environment and you have continuity of data because everyone sees and uses the same data.

SaaS Uses the Power of the Web

If you are familiar with Amazon.com or eBay then you understand the type of interface of most SaaS applications. The ease with which these applications can be used is typical of SaaS applications and because most people are familiar with how these applications work learning SaaS systems is much easier than learning traditional software.

Why is SaaS of Benefit?

With SaaS there is no software or server hardware to buy, upgrade, administer or maintain. Accessing your application is easy - all you need is an internet connection.

In the past organizations have had to buy, build and maintain their technology infrastructure - as costs escalated! With SaaS, organizations can plug in to services built in a shared infrastructure through the internet. The SaaS model has become increasingly popular because of the many benefits that it offers to organizations of all sizes. Following are some of the benefits of using SaaS:

Easy to Learn and Easily Accessible

SaaS applications can be accessed anywhere, anytime, from any internet connected device (even your iPhone). Since most people are already familiar with the internet and how to find what they need SaaS applications tend towards higher adoption rates as well as lower learning curves.

Lower Start-up Costs

Since SaaS are subscription, not license-based, costs to start-up are much lower than traditional models. When you have a SaaS provider managing the technology infrastructure this means your costs are much lower for not only hardware and software but you do not need to hire people to manage the system.

Easy Upgrades

All upgrade are handled by the SaaS provider so there are is no software to download or patches to install. Since the provider also handles the availability of the application there is no need to be concerned with adding hardware, software and bandwidth as your organization grows. This is all handled by the SaaS provider.

Innovation

Many SaaS providers continue to upgrade their software. Since ITSportsNet knows innovation is important to our customers we make innovation a continued focus - to add features, efficiencies and new products, based on our knowledge of what our customers need and want. With ITSportsNet as your SaaS provider you know that the software you are currently using and the range of products available for your use will continue to improve significantly over time.

Scalability and Integration

Although most SaaS systems are more scalable than traditional software, not all SaaS providers have the same level of scalability and integration. ITSportsNet knows how important this is to organizations and thus has made this a focal point of its software. With ITSportsNet’s scalable, end-tier, multi-tenant architecture, all sizes of organizations can access the software seamlessly. And software can be customized for the needs of different sized organizations.

Better and Reliable System Performance

With SaaS you do not have to worry about managing the performance of your IT System - the SaaS provider does this for you. Performance issues (such as slow systems and systems that crash frequently) are often issues that traditional systems have. Costs can escalate quickly if you have to pay for system administration costs related to fixing these problems - you need both hardware and software specialists to ensure the integration of systems is optimal and this is costly and time consuming. Also, this is another area where it is important to know that not all SaaS providers are equal - ITSportsNet understands the importance of your being able to get your data when you need it so we have devised a robust, reliable and secure system.  ITSportsNet takes care of system administration for you while ensuring optimum performance.

Support

With SaaS your provider is better able to provide user support for their products as everyone uses the same basic platform. Although each user has customization for their own processes the features are the same across users and therefore more easily supported. This results in your SaaS provider being able to reliably support more frequent innovations in the product. ITSportsNet believes customer support is essential to the success of our customer’s experience and therefore our goal is to provide timely, effective and efficient support through various methods of delivery.

Why is SaaS Popular?

SaaS is popular because it simplifies the start-up of a solution and significantly reduces customer acquisition costs. With SaaS developers can support many customers with a single version of a product. This approach is called multitenancy - it allows organizations to change the scale of their application, as and when they need to, without adding to infrastructure.

How does SaaS Differ from Traditional Models?

The SaaS solution, business model and architecture differ from the traditional model in the following ways:

Reduced Vendor Risk

Since SaaS providers are subscription based a customer can always decide not to renew their subscription if they are not satisfied with the system. Setup and implementation costs are minimal compared to the traditional models.

Reduced Start-up Costs and No Maintenance Headaches

With traditional software, organziations must have a great knowledge of system administration - which comes at great cost. System maintenance, data backup, performance management, security, software upgrades and support must be managed by the organization with traditional software. Since ITSportsNet uses the SaaS model, all of the complex, time-consuming and expensive tasks are managed for you.

ITSportsNet - Service with Software

So, when you think of ITSportsNet, your SaaS provider, think of software AND SERVICE.

ITSportsNet is not just about software. Best of all, ITSportsNet ensures that all of the functions of your sports management solution happen automatically - so you can focus on improving your sport and managing your organization- not managing technology.

Communication is paramount in any relationship. What are the essentials to good communication for sports organizations?

1. Have a web presence, update it often (new information), assume membership keeps coming back.
   1. Issue - passive you rely on your membership to come to the information.
   2. Value - Web sites ubiquitous and every organization needs one.

1. Direct communication? Email is effective as it finds you. Nearly everyone has an email address and we’re all exposed to direct email marketing in some form.  It is hard to beat direct Emails or Broadcast Emailing for the simple purpose of actively engaging your membership.

Directly emailing your membership is much more of an active form of communication.  There’s a good chance that your email will end up in their inbox and hopefully not the spam filter, but after that, there’s no guarantees.  The subject line is critical. Capture their attention, it might be enough to hold off on the Delete button.  Give them a reason to read the whole thing.  Keep your messages short and only include enough information to elicit a follow-up action - perhaps a reply or a click-through to your web site if you’re lucky.  Random broadcasts that lack interesting or pertinent content will eventually lead your membership to ignore all your emails.

ITSportsNet  provides you with several tools to manage email lists.  One, of course, is the Email Notification tool that allows administrators to target certain groups within your membership and filter recipients by role or age group.  You have options to send from the system, in which case it’ll be sent through our mail host’s outgoing server.  In order to avoid the server from being marked as a spam source, the system will dispatch limited numbers of emails but his may result in a delay in sending all emails out.

You can use Outlook too.  Choosing this option will pull up an open email in Outlook and insert up to 90 addresses into the BCC field.  You might have to send multiple times.

The final option is the Email Export.  This can be a very useful option because you can use whatever email tool that I want.  There are some very good commercial platforms such as Vertical Response and Constant Contact where you can import your emails to create a mailing list.  The downside is having to update your list every season and cost, but they do cool things like track who opens your email and what they click through and allow recipients to opt out of future mailings.  Not sure yet if that’s a good or bad thing!

Google has built tools and I’ve mentioned them in previous articles, but probably not Gmail (Google’s free email product).  I personally use Gmail this way:

Central repository -  In my work account, I simply have set Gmail to forward a copy of all incoming mail to my Gmail account.  This allows me to make use of Gmail’s powerful search engine to find any email going back to the day I started.  It also allows me to keep my Outlook inbox nice and small so it runs faster and doesn’t get bogged down with thousands of emails.  I currently have about 4.5 GB worth of emails and I’m only at 60% of my quota.  It’s saved me numerous times when I had to dig up an old email from 4 or 5 years ago.  Doing this in Outlook might not have been as efficient.

So what does Gmail have to do with communicating to your membership?  What you might not know is that Gmail allows you to send emails to 500 recipients at once.  It also allows you to set up an Outgoing mail account so that you can specify where the email is coming from.  Using your personal email to send out broadcasts is never a good idea, so make sure to have a generic one with your organization’s domain, like info@ or registration@, for example.  Gmail verifies that you actually own that address so don’t try this unless you have access to that email address.  For our soccer club, I use Gmail to do our email broadcasts.  It’s fast and easy to export emails from v2.1 and copy/paste into the BCC field in Gmail.  I choose to send from our info@ account, type in the message, and away it goes.  Simple, fast, and free.

If you’re not using email to get information to your membership, hopefully some of the information here can move you in the right direction.  Please feel free to add your own tips and tricks in the comments section.

Creating Slideshows

Players and parents generally love seeing pictures of their team on the club’s web site, but it’s quite a chore having to upload pictures and set them on the web site, even with the help of an editor.  Slideshows are cool because they don’t take up too much space, but not every webmaster knows how to create slideshows using  javascript or flash.  Google’s online photo tool, Picasa, makes this super easy.  Once you’ve uploaded your photo album to Picasa from your camera or computer, it takes only minutes to end up with something like this on your web site:

Here’s instructions from Google’s help page (link here):

You can embed a Flash slideshow of any web album. It’ll be automatically updated when you make changes to your album. Follow these steps to embed a slideshow:

1. On the My Photos page, click your album.
2. Click Link to this album on the right-hand side.
3. Click Embed Slideshow.
4. Choose your slideshow settings, such as image size, captions, and autoplay.
5. Once you’ve chosen your settings, copy the resulting HTML code (Ctrl-C).
6. Paste the HTML in the source code for your site (Ctrl-V).

Once the slideshow is embedded in your site, people who click your slideshow will be taken to view your album in Picasa Web Albums.

The slideshow is also a link to your online gallery so parents and players can view individual photos and download them for printing.  Another cool thing is that you can update your photo album with new pictures and the slideshow will automatically update as well.   All you need is a Google account and you’re on your way.  Adding slideshows is a great way to bring more visual appeal to your web site and making it more fun.  Your web site doesn’t have to be just a source of registration and schedule info, but drawing in your membership with a nice photo slideshow is an easy way to increase page views!

Embedding Videos

Everyone who uses a computer knows what Youtube is.  Not only can you find videos relating to just about anything, but it’s also a free online video hosting tool that you can use to post videos of your games, tournaments, coaching clinics, etc.  Youtube is owned by Google, which means it’s easy to use.  If you have a Youtube account, you can upload video clips.   I believe there’s a size limit to what you can post on Youtube, but there is also Google Video available for free which has a bigger file size limit.

Embedding a video is pretty much the same as embedding a slideshow.  After uploading your video clip, copy the embed code on the right side of the video window and paste it into the HTML code.  You end up with something like this:

Posting video clips of tournament highlights would definitely drive traffic to your web site as players would want to share their fame with friends.  Give it a try and see what effect it has on your web stats!

It’s disheartening to see such a bad grade for our kids’ physical activity, but not surprising considering the amount of  TV-watching and video gaming our kids do these days.  The good news is the positive connection between physical activity and learning shown by the report card, which can be downloaded at http://www.activehealthykids.ca/.  We’re passionate about getting more kids into sports so hopefully we can help spread the word about how important it is for all of us, as parents and role models, to keep our children active.  Lead by example, folks.  If you’re lazy and out of shape, there’s a greater chance your children will grow up to be  just like you!

EDMONTON (ALBERTA) JUNE 2, 2009 – The Alberta Centre for Active Living applauds the 2009 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, released today by Active Healthy Kids Canada and its strategic partners, ParticipACTION and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute – Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO).

According to the Report Card, children who are physically active perform better in school than those who are not active. Interestingly, academic performance improves even when academic learning time is reduced to allow time for physical activity.

“The Report Card confirms that physical activity helps kids to develop not just healthy bodies, but also healthy minds. Healthy students are better able to learn, so it is very important that schools ensure that our kids are physically active on a daily basis,” says Judith Down, director of the Alberta Centre for Active Living.

In Alberta, students are encouraged to develop positive daily physical activity habits through the Daily Physical Activity Initiative. School authorities are required by Alberta Education to ensure that kids in Grades 1 to 9 are physically active for a minimum of 30 minutes daily.

Another important Alberta program is Ever Active Schools, which fosters social and physical environments that encourage students, teachers and parents to lead healthy, active lifestyles in their school communities.

“Schools and parents who replace children’s physical activity time with academic study to improve their academic performance should think again,” says Dr. Mark Tremblay, Chief Scientific Officer, Active Healthy Kids Canada, and director at CHEO-HALO. “Time spent getting active in school, on the playground or in a park can improve learning in the classroom.”

The Report Card notes that by improving memory, concentration and attention span, physical activity positively impacts children’s achievement in math, reading, grades, perceptual skill and overall academic readiness. Physical activity has also been shown to increase a child’s self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image and connection to school.

Ontario children who participated in a comprehensive school health initiative that included physical activity as a key element showed a 36 per cent increase in reading and a 24 per cent increase in math scores over a two-year period.* Similar findings are mirrored in various international, national and regional studies.

Disturbingly, despite the academic and health benefits of physical activity, for the third consecutive year, the 2009 Report Card assigned an F for Physical Activity Levels. Only 13 per cent of Canadian children and youth are meeting the minimum recommendation of 90 minutes of physical activity a day.

“The health benefits of physical activity are understood,” says Michelle Brownrigg, Chief Executive Officer, Active Healthy Kids Canada (Toronto). “Now, with growing evidence that physical activity enhances academic performance, there’s another important reason to get Canadian children to turn off the screens and get moving. Governments, schools, communities and parents need to work together to ensure Canada’s youth get the physical activity they desperately need.”

Again this year, the Report Card assigned an F for Screen Time, as 90 per cent of Canadian children and youth are spending far too much time in front of television, computer and video screens. Although the rise in popularity of active video games means screen time is no longer a completely sedentary activity, active gaming is not a replacement for physical activity. It does not require the same levels of energy expenditure, nor does it offer the same opportunities for outdoor play or social interaction.

“There are plenty of simple ways to add more movement into our children’s lives,” says Kelly Murumets, President and CEO, ParticipACTION. “Make physical activity a part of your family routine by encouraging free play, walking or biking to school and trading in the screen time for active time.”

Physical activity builds strong, smart kids. Strong, smart kids are the foundation of a strong, smart society that we need in tough times—and will lead us to better times. This year’s Report Card reveals that we have a toe-hold on change and that Canada is slowly moving in the right direction. However, increased and continued commitment is required at all levels of government, communities, schools and within families to ensure this movement continues, and positive and measurable change is achieved.

Among the 19 grades assigned in the Report Card, key findings include:

· “D” for Usage of Facilities, Programs, Parks and Playgrounds

· “B” for School Infrastructure and Equipment

· “C-” for Physical Education in Schools

· “B+” for Community Programming

· “C+” for Provincial Government Strategies and Investment

· “D” for Municipal Policies and Regulations

The Alberta Centre for Active Living is a non-profit organization that provides physical activity research and education for people who promote physical activity in their work. The centre is affiliated with the University of Alberta and is supported by the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks & Wildlife Foundation.

* Guertin, M. (2007). An examination of the effect of a comprehensive school health model on academic achievement: The effect of living school on EQAO test scores. Toronto: University of Toronto.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Angela Torry, Education Coordinator
Alberta Centre for Active Living
Phone: 780-415-8885 | angela.torry@ualberta.ca

Judith Down, Director
Alberta Centre for Active Living
780-427-8008  | judith.down@ualberta.ca