Lessons learned on the soccer pitch

September 4, 2009

By Mark Ferguson

As an expert in Canadian foreign policy and governance, Don Story, associate professor of political studies, knows a thing or two about organizational structures, including those for non-profit groups outside of the world of academia.

After years of volunteer work with the YMCA and with local soccer associations, Story is now helping the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) renew their organization.

“At the most fundamental level for any organization, you must separate the board from operations to ensure accountability and transparency,” he said. “The challenge is that most boards are involved in both the corporate and operational function and there’s a lot of pressure to have expertise where you might not have any in a non-profit situation.”

Story began working with the board of directors of the YMCA of Saskatoon in 1997 and he says it was that exercise that got him interested in helping non-profits. Then, after several years of leadership with a local soccer association, he was recruited to the board of the Saskatchewan Soccer Association (SSA) about three years ago.

“Among all the provincial soccer organizations in Canada, we were the first to look at renewal at the board level to develop a modern governance framework. It took three years, but we managed to create a new structure that made sure there was separation between the board and the volunteers. ”

One of the biggest problems he observed with the SSA was that the organization was full of athletes, coaches and parents who knew plenty about soccer but much less about governance and the financial and legal issues involved with being a non-profit. 

Much work went into rolling out the new governance structure for the SSA, “but we didn’t impose it, rather we educated people as to why we did what we did with the organization. There was a lot of ground to cover, but there was eventually buy-in from all involved.”

Today, the structure of the SSA is the envy of sports organizations across the country, so much so that the national body of Canadian soccer came knocking on Story’s door to help advise their board on governance change.

“We’ve just begun helping our national organization move through a period of renewal and I am providing leadership where I can. But it’s difficult. The situation is delicate, but I think the CSA has come to a realization that the time has come to engage in renewal at the top level. But these are issues that all sports organizations deal with.”

Story emphasizes that this work is most compelling because it represents an instructive and rewarding convergence of his outreach, research and teaching activities at the U of S, including an undergraduate seminar in January 2010 on governance in the nonprofit sector.

Some colleagues are also asking him to lend support on even larger and more complicated subjects like aboriginal governance for northern communities, school and health systems and governance issues related to ecology and technology .

“My colleagues have been so supportive throughout my work. There are some basic structural similarities between governance and non-profit groups, but the political dimensions are enormous.”