Priorities

The benefits of an intramural program are many. However, in the intramural community, it is impossible to satisfy as many participants as possible. It cannot be all things to all people. Nor can one program do everything. It must have priorities and focus. The best way to facilitate the priorities is making a mission for the community. Because for the leaders of the community, without the focus, they perhaps could somehow get somewhere, but neither they nor the community members will know how to get there again.

The mission statement tells what our community wants its intramural program to be and provides direction. The first thing we need to decide for our mission is to define a central theme that explains what our intramural programs are and how they can be great benefits for the members. We will try our best to make the mission realistic and incorporate fun and interesting activities.

The next step is to get others’ input. We will ask fro ideas from all program staff and participants, including coaches, referees, officials, volunteers, supervisors, and students. It’s also a good idea to look at other institutions’ intramural missions and priorities. We will make sure our priorities reflect the common intentions of everyone involved in the program, which require us to take the time to understand everyone’s thoughts, goals, and plans for the program.

Another important action that needs to be taken for the healthy development of our intramural programs is saving costs. Charging enrolment fees for exciting events or activities might be a good idea since the participants are usually willing to pay a fair price to take part. Also, shopping for the lowest price is also a good idea, but saving on expense should never threaten the safety of participants. There is other ways t save money too. These involve on-campus partnership with various departments such as art, graphic design, marketing, and off-campus partnership with organizations and companies.

Finally, as with any plan, the priorities should be evaluated from time to time and adjusted as necessary, either to improve the message or to reflect more closely the purpose and values of the program.

My Community - Intramural Sports

As an official coordinator of University of Calgary intramural sports, I supervise and organize intramural volleyball, basketball and ball hockey teams. Intramurals division provides a great platform for students to participate in various sports, and also it let people play at a more competitive level than a pick-up game without the pressure or work of more organized sport. My goal for the job is to oversee and manage a safe and pleasant atmosphere for intramural participants by enforcing all intramural sports policies and procedures. I try to provide all participants with exceptional service through displaying a strong knowledge of the intramural sport rules and policies, excellence in professionalism, maintaining a positive attitude, and always communicating in a courteous consistent manner.

Intramural program is a great way to keep students physically active and lower the chance of obesity. However, there are several issues that could adversely affect it. For example, many teachers and coaches have little support of a viable intramural. The number of teachers who are involved in intramural activities has been dropping over the years. Also, problems in securing have become overwhelming. The number of demands on existing space, combined with legal and liability issues, have made the gym time for intramural sports difficult to reserve. As a society, we appear to be at the two extremes of athletic participation. The youngsters are either playing on numerous competitive sport teams, or they are physically doing as little as possible away from the television or computer. On top of all those, schools usually charge a participation fees for playing in the intramural programs. Some schools’ fees are pretty high and it has become one of the reason that keep students from joining the program.

I believe that all students should have the opportunity to participate in school-sponsored activities at some level. There is a definite need for intramural sports, for social as well as physical reasons. As a society we need to value the importance of physical activity and promote healthy social activities for our youth.

"Invictus" Community

As a universal language, sports bring people of different race and background together and cure discrimination. Based on true historical events, the movie “Invictus” tells us an inspiring and compassionate story about how Nelson Mandela, who became the President of South Africa after his release from the prison, has made great efforts to help the national rugby team win the 1995 world cup. Through the movie, we learned when people put aside their differences and unify together as a true community, they can achieve great victory.

The movie focuses on Mandela’s determination to unite South Africa using the national Rugby team Springboks as leverage to bring the white Afrikaner and the black natives together. The important of a united community is manifested through the story - it brings out the best of everyone to benefit the community as a whole and win. The movie shows us the key ingredient of establishing a united community – skillful leadership with genuine care.  In the movie, the President Mandela and the Captain of the Rugby team Francois join forces to lead a divided team to come together.  The President demonstrated his strong will of getting rid of the apartheid by keeping the staff who worked for the ex-president, hiring white Afrikaners as his bodyguard, and requesting more black players on the rugby team.  Although things didn’t go well initially due to the racial hung-ups, it is through the essential decision and the effort of the leaders that they are forced to work together and gradually see past their differences and find common ground between them – win for their country.  

During the process of building a united team, the President keeps it his responsibility to follow up on the team even when he is ill. Not only he is dedicated to the task himself, he also knows the importance for the players to connect with each other. He orders the players to take occasional breaks from Rugby to go out into the poorer areas and teach rugby to the natives. Through the common interest in sports, soon enough the entire team is out there helping children to learn rugby and install national pride, regardless of race. Playing rugby together makes them feel connected and identified as one community. From here we can see that engaging in activities together effectively brings a sense of togetherness and makes the members of community to bond easily.

Sport is an amazing event through which united community could be built with effective leadership.  As for the movie’s ending, the rugby team's victory is a triumph for the South Africa, and a metaphor for racial harmony.

Benefiting from Community Recreation

According to Beauvais's analysis in the report of "Literature Review on Learning through Recreation", it is stated that "there is virtually unanimous agreement on the importance of recreation in developing the physical, psychological and social abilities of children and youth".

As the report's evidence points out, physical activity is an important impact of growth and maturation for youth. There are many positive impacts of recreational activities: it increases muscle strength, motor fitness and aerobic capacity and declines in the risk of coronary disease for youth at risk; it helps kids to establish self-esteem, acceptance with peers, and brings about less boredom and results in fewer school drop outs. There even are psychosocial implications that kids who engage in recreational activities in their early years tend to keep their activity level up through life, and become more willing to get involved in organizations and communities.

After reviewing and evaluating various statistics and graphs, it is observed that the amount of good parks and play spaces in the neighbourhood obviously increased rates of participation in recreational activities, sports and the arts. Outdoor playground is very important to the well-being of children and our community. It promotes spiritual, moral and character development of children. Playing in playground not only helps with children's physical activities but also develop their cooperation and self-confident. Outdoor playground is also a complex social network for kids to learn relationship-building skills. They learn self-control, compromise and tolerating others.

Overall, Leisure activities and parks contribute to youth’s health, mental well-being, and overall physical fitness. It is essential to the holistic development of our children and youth. Therefore, it is important for our communities to support the upgrades and expansion of recreational facilities. Canadian government also emphasizes on the needs and impacts of recreational development. “Our government knows the investment made to improve these local playgrounds reflects the importance these facilities have on the community’s quality of life,” said Ashfield, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Improvements will increase the accessibility to valuable community recreational facilities while generating additional local economic activity. Promoting more recreational activities will greatly benefit our youth and the community as a whole.