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Officials Recruitment & Retention Strategy

Athletics Victoria is proud to release its 2025-27 Officials Recruitment & Retention Strategy.

Led by Sports Consultant Nikki Burger of ‘Life Sport Journey’ and aided by a specialist Working Group, the Officials Recruitment & Retention Strategy is the first of six sub-strategies identified within Athletics Victoria’s 2023-26 Strategic Plan to be released, and is the sole published Senior Athletics Officiating Strategy of its kind in Australia.

Athletics Victoria CEO Matthew Duck welcomed the release of the Strategy.

“Events & competitions are the lifeblood of our sport, and our incredible community of Officials are the lifeblood of our events & competitions, so suffice to say our Officials are vitally important to our sport, and to our aspirations for the sport.”

Duck said the independently led Strategy identified many positive components to Officiating in Victoria.

“While the Strategy identifies 50 initiatives, which might seem like a lot, the majority of these initiatives are not new – the Strategy encourages us to keep going with those things, but to complement that work through other means of bolstering our recruitment and retention processes.”

Duck commended the work of ‘Life Sport Journey’ and the Working Group that aided the development of the Strategy, noting the Working Group would continue to assist in its delivery.

“I thank Nikki for her great work in developing this Strategy, as well as the near-on 1,000 survey respondents who helped inform it, and I also thank the Officials Working Group, whose insights helped fill in any blanks in the data and further shaped the Strategy.”

The 2025-27 Officials Recruitment & Retention Strategy can be viewed here.