The EuroHockey Solidarity through Great Governance (SGG) project continued as Finland came on board as part of the initial two-year pilot programme.
Tom Pedersen-Smith said of his visit “It was a fantastic insight in Finland as relationships with ministers and NOCs continue to grow for our members.”
The SGG project is a two-year pilot programme for developing organisational strategies of member national associations linked to their national Olympic committee and ministry of sport strategic objectives.
Through this initial phase of the Erasmus+ supported project, EuroHockey will focus on the future development of the SGG strategy with the target to create a pilot scheme to enable clear, costed and scheduled plans for the strategies of each national association.
Via these visits, EuroHockey Head of Strategy and Development Tom Pedersen-Smith Head of National Associations and Oaks Consultancy’s Phil Taylor are collecting key information on the state of play of member national associations and their approach to delivering data-backed strategies and decisions/outcomes.
This will, in turn, be analysed to collate into a research report to form six pilot programmes for national associations, to attain an understanding of needs and the complexities of attaining strategic resources in their country.
Tom was delighted at the response from the Federation, ministry and national olympic committee, as his visit included all the necessary stakeholders to get great outcomes for Finnish Hockey
Andrew Scholfield (Performance Director), Klaus Saijonkivi (General Secretary), Otto-Petteri Ventelä (President), Mika Rihtilä and Minna Mäkelä represented Finnish hockey.
Kari Niemi-Nikkola (Senior Director and Advisor) attended on behalf of the ministry for sport and the NOC was represented by Niina Toroi (Manager of International Relations & Education and Competence Expert at the Finnish Olympic Committee)
Pictured above (l-r): Phil Taylor, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport Kari Niemi-Nikkola (Senior Director and Advisor) and Niina Toroi (Manager of International Relations & Education and Competence Expert at Finnish Olympic Committee), Tom Pedersen-Smith
