Rosalie Evans, EO Paddle WA

Alex Mednis & Cass Simonetti, Australian Sports Professional Association
Rosalie Evans, Paddle WA
 

Bonus content

Each CEO has bonus content available to ASPA members that is not found in the book. The philosophies below are sourced directly from the interview, however each interview contained so much great content we had to put together an excerpt. Note that the content of the interview differs than the philosophies.

Interview

Never having once sat in a boat before her first introduction to paddling, Rosalie went from club secretary to board member to CEO.
 

So how did you get into paddling?

I didn't even know paddling existed, I'd never sat in a boat. I did a six week course with one of my girlfriends who'd been paddling for a couple of years, and after our course had finished she said, "We should do the Avon Descent".

She was my best friend from when we were nine, and I said, "Don't you have to know how to paddle?", and she said "No, we'll be fine!". We were both 45 years of age at this time. We trained super, super hard with only a couple of months to the event, and in the event paddled a hundred and twenty four kilometers in 16 hours and 40 minutes.
 

You must've loved it to then want to work there!

Well, soon after the event I was advised I should join a club. I joined Ascot Kayak Club. and I was there only for about five minutes before I become secretary for nine years and became a life member there. 

And as most clubs do - we complained about our state body a lot!
 

Sure. (laughs). It’s a rite of passage, to be on a club committee and complain about the state body, isn’t it?

Yeah! I then thought one day, "I whinge about them all the time, you know if you want to make a change, you've actually got to get on and make a change."

And so I stepped onto the board, and eventually became the CEO some years later through a formal recruitment process with Sport & Recreation - I wanted to make sure that was done in the right way! Going from being on the board to a staff member needed to be done transparently. I am a stickler for following the rules.

But no - I never once thought to myself growing up: "Oh my gosh I hope one day to aspire to be an executive officer!"
 

How do you find working in a small sport environment?

It can be challenging. The hardest thing for a small sport for any executive officer with only one or two colleagues, is keeping staff for a long period of time. 

You can have some fantastic staff, and they're usually young people with a lot of intelligence - who more often than not need some developing and nurturing, but the reality is it doesn't have the same attraction as a larger sport for longevity for your staff.
 

What's the strategy to keep that buy-in for the staff while they are there?

I've always encouraged my development officers to come and sit in at our board meetings, come to meetings generally. You learn more on the job, by doing than by any other method, I believe.
 

In some ways I guess that makes it a pretty tight knit team, maybe more so than a bigger sport.

Absolutely. We all have to do a bit of everything. The thing that happens in a small office is that you can't have any kind of attitude of, "You do the dishes. That's not my job as an Executive Officer". That just doesn't happen. You're all working together on everything.
 

It sounds a bit like a crash course for younger staff in life skills!

It is, it is!

When you look at past staff who you have hired as say, development officers, but you've grown and developed as people, that is so rewarding. You never know if they'll come back to the sport one day, so you want to develop them as much as possible. That has come full circle with a previous colleague of mine who is now on our board. It's very rewarding.

You really get to shape the people they become, that's great.

You do, but you also don't have a boss, as an EO. You have a board, and they can set direction and have an expectancy, but they're not going to enforce a work life balance, or hold you to account for being 5 minutes late. I can help develop staff, but CEOs often lack that guidance from someone to personally mentor them.
 

You're almost like a small business owner, in some ways.

Yes! Most sports aren't flush with funds, and you learn to be conscious of every dollar. You are looking after the members funds and making sure they get value in what is a very limited resource pool. 

And to do that, gosh, you've got to have a lot of strings in your bow. If your accountant is busy, or book-keeper is sick - you have to pay those bills. You're hands on running the event, helping the volunteers, printing information.

Much like small business owners.
 

So where do you get that support?

Previously when we had Sports House, it was great having a co-working space with other sports. We work now in an office with another sport, and it's great to have that space to be able to bounce ideas and have that conversation around the lunch table. Those morning tea conversations allow you to apply the learnings of another sport to your own, and vica versa.

On top of that though, you need to have a great relationship with your board chairperson. That is absolutely critical for a CEO. I have been blessed with those relationships, but it's so important for a new CEO to think about how they form those bonds.

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