I have seen many things in my time as the proud Chief Executive Officer of Netball NSW but never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined a situation quite like that in which we find ourselves today.
This should be one of the busiest times of the year as grassroots Clubs and Associations across New South Wales ramp up for the traditional season, our Underage State Teams look to impress at Nationals and our professional sides – the NSW Swifts and GIANTS Netball – finalise preparations for Suncorp Super Netball.
Instead it is eerily quiet.
Covid-19 has created a horrible situation for everyone across Australia. Members of our netball community at all levels are already very aware of this, and I would like to thank them again for their efforts in pulling together for the greater good at this time of national crisis.
Unfortunately, there is more pain to come. As of close of business today Netball NSW is significantly scaling back its operations due to the impact of Covid-19.
In simple terms, this means a large proportion of the Netball NSW workforce has now been stood down. At present a skeleton staff remains in place across the business to assist our netball community, however, it may mean that response times are slightly longer in some instances.
These are unprecedented times and we are all impacted. It has been an incredibly difficult decision to make.
It was heartbreaking to give the bad news to so many dedicated, hard-working staff who consistently go above and beyond to put netball in a better place – be that in schools, at local courts, in events and the high-performance space. This response was necessary, but that didn’t make it any easier.
Our sport, like every other walk of life, has been hit by a Covid-19 whirlwind that was going to make decisions like these unavoidable. We sincerely hope to see many of these people at the other side, when the madness has ended. Unfortunately, given we’ll be in recovery mode once Covid-19 passes, some roles had to be made redundant.
Today’s action means we are in better position to remain sustainable and bounce back when the Coronavirus passes. It won’t ease the immediate pain and stress but I would thank our affected staff for their professionalism and understanding, without which we couldn’t take definitive action to protect our future.
As we move into this holding pattern I would like our Clubs and Associations to rest assured that Netball NSW continues to work on critical items, none more important than that of financial matters, of which we have already sent correspondence to nominated recipients.
Email addresses throughout the business will include auto-reply information on how to address enquiries, however the general Netball NSW phone number of 9951 5000 will continue to answered in order to direct your enquiry to the relevant person.
As the CEO of this organisation for over 15 years there have been so many moments to smile about. Today is not one of them, but there is comfort in the knowledge we're doing what's best for the long-term.
We will be playing netball again, it will just take some time.
Best wishes and stay safe,
Carolyn Campbell, CEO Netball NSW
