November 02, 2012 (Ottawa, ON) – Cross Country Canada has joined other leading national sport organizations in embracing the Club Excellence Program which is helping to build a network of healthy, strong and sustainable sport clubs across Canada.

As an Associate Member, Cross Country Canada now enjoys access to a range of customized tools and resources to improve ski club programs. Targeted workshops will help their clubs become Club Excellence certified, building capacity in a number of critical areas including coaching, people management, governance, recruitment, financial accountability, marketing, and revenue generation.

“After focusing on redesigning our Athlete Development Model, Competition Model and all corresponding programs, it was time to encourage clubs to also proceed with LTAD alignment at the club level and provide tools and incentives to help us achieve the highest possible rate of engagement,” said Stéphane Barrette, Director of Coaching and Athlete Development with Cross Country Canada. “Club Excellence met every requirement we were looking for and more! And it helped that Club Excellence was highly recommended by some of the Sport Canada LTAD expert group members.”

Through the Associate Membership, the Club Excellence program will be available to ski clubs of all levels, focusing on all the characteristics of strong, sound clubs, from management to governance and program delivery. It will also allow Cross Country Canada to provide discounts to their member clubs on Club Excellence services, and gives them a voice in the stewardship of this innovative, standards-based certification program.

Founding Members of the Club Excellence Cooperative (CEC) include Swimming Canada, Speedskating Canada, CanoeKayak Canada, Athletics Canada, Gymnastics Canada, and the True Sport Foundation.

CEC Chair, John Edwards, called today’s announcement an exciting development for the program;

“We are delighted with the addition of another NSO to the Club Excellence program,” he said. “Clubs are the foundation for so many Canadian sports. It’s great to see that Cross Country Canada shares our vision of bringing long-term benefits to sport by improving the quality of community club programs.”

For more information, please visit www.clubexcellence.com