conversation 2015 +

I have just spent the last four days totally immersed in the topic of women and sport in Canada, and it's been amazing. Mostly. There are some serious humdrum doldrum statistics on girls and physical activity, women in coaching, women in positions of leadership and decision-making and more, but this conference (The 2015 Conversation on Women in Sport) was so innovative - at least to me! - in it's structure and format that every delegate left with at least one thing that he or she has promised to take action on.

Day one (or night one I suppose) began with a big welcome and speeches from Hayley Wickenheiser, and Chantal Petticlerc, both of which were riveting and inspirational. Day two was presentation day, and after a brief meeting with our group we were ready to go; my 8 minute portion of the presentation on Girls' participation in sport went well, though I'd make a few changes now with that 20/20 hindsight thing that I have going on. I moved over to the women in coaching stream in the afternoon, and that's where I stayed for the remainder of the conference. Thursday saw some brainstorming and problem solving, and on Friday delegates made commitments to make change happen! Hurray. My two resolutions are to 1) join a board and 2) write a plan to get more elite athletes into coaching.

I met some fabulous people from all over the country and was lucky enough to collaborate with some real experts in the field - and I'm teaming up with women from other sports (rowing, beach volleyball) to get some mini projects off the ground (I hope). We were reminded a few times by Marion Lay of Margaret Mead's words: "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." Yes!

And now I'm on my way home - mega yes! I'm so excited to see the kids, and I have to say that train travel is really quite lovely. It's been a planes, trains and automobiles kind of journey from Quebec City to Toronto to London. As we (airplane passengers) were shuttled off on a Porter bus from the airport to the city centre, streams of naked riders rolled on by, prompting laughter and photos aplenty; apparently the World Naked Bike Ride ("put the fun between your legs" and "more ass less gas" are among the slogans of choice - !!!) is an annual thing, and there just might be an event in your city... you'll just have to (or not!) wait another year to partake.

On a completely different note, there was a Canadian Sport Film festival last weekend in Toronto that had some interesting films - one of which is about a master's basketball tourney held annually somewhere south of the border. Wouldn't it be fun to play forever? I hope I can and I hope I do.



To cap things off here I just want to say a big thanks to Steve for supporting me in going to this amazing conference, and to my mom and dad for giving me the ideas  - of equity for girls in sport, of the equal abilities and the need for equal opportunities for girls in anything and everything they may choose to do - by living them.