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Talk the Talk Sport

Talk the Talk Sport is solutions-oriented and offers a range of services in governance and governance training.  It also provides sport specific mediation and dispute resolution services.

Governance services and advice

for sports organisations of any size (on or offsite) which are required to deal with a variety of matters, some pressing and some not, including

  • The Board
    • foundation of culture and ethics
    • deciding why the organisation exists
    • roles, responsibilities and duties of board members
    • composition of board & skills analysis
    • effectiveness reviews
    • term limits & succession planning
    • behaviour & confidentiality
    • stakeholder relationships
  • The Chairman
    • role
    • leading and communicating strategies
  • Conflict of interest
    • identifying conflicts, perceived or actual
    • appropriate policies
  • Board committees
    • standing vs ad hoc committees
    • role and reporting requirements
    • ensuring productivity & effectiveness
  • The CEO
    • role, accountability & review
  • Board and staff/talent
    • establishing a working relationship
    • board members knowing their place
    • talent intelligence including board oversight
  • Board Meetings
    • time effective meetings
    • agenda setting 
    • structure and content of board papers
    • structure and content of Minutes
    • circular meetings
    • remote meetings
    • essentiality of strategic plan in meeting agenda
    • AGMs
  • Risk
    • risk intelligence, risk culture, risk appetite and risk strategy
    • risk matrix
  • Documentation in jargon-free plain English
    • board papers and submissions
    • board Constitution and policies including but not limited to
      • Grievance and Discipline - including mediation and tribunal options
      • Member protection
      • Nominations
      • Selection
      • Code of Conduct
    • other sport-specific essential documents
  • Financial advice is provided in conjunction with Not for Profit Training.

Dispute resolution and mediation

for sporting organisations is an essential component of the services offered given the tensions that often arise between people who are volunteers and, in their own ways, only want to do the best they can for their sports body or indeed, sporting entities with differing expectations

  • conducting mediations in the initial stages of complaint resolution - see the MEDIATION section in this website
  • investigation of claims and grievances, for example, between
    • athletes and clubs
    • clubs and SSAs
    • SSAs and NFs
  • conducting tribunal hearings pursuant to grievance and discipline policies
  • advising on appropriate dispute resolution practice and procedures

About Talk the Talk Sport & Margot Foster

Margot Foster AM is a mediator, governance expert, former lawyer and former elite athlete.  She has combined all her skills and experiences in these various areas of endeavour to create and establish Talk the Talk Sport and Talk the Talk Mediation.

TALK THE TALK SPORT

is solutions-oriented and provides services, including on-site, in dispute resolution and governance advice and training for sports organisations.  

Margot Foster

Margot Foster is uniquely placed to assist sports organisations meet their governance and dispute resolution needs.  She has spent 34 years in private legal practice and an almost similar amount of time on numerous sport boards and committees from local clubs to national bodies, both government and private, and international federations.  This experience, and her strong background in corporate governance, follows a successful career as an elite athlete winning  a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and a gold medal at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.

Margot is a  natural problem-solver. She is analytical and has the ability to see what is required from many angles.  Her diverse and extensive experience enables her to offer practical governance and dispute resolution solutions to sports bodies and to speak and write in jargon-free plain English.

Margot is well regarded as an adviser in all her areas of endeavour and her inquiring mind, finely tuned business acumen and natural leadership abilities serve to enable any person or organisation with which she works to seek and obtain optimal outcomes.

Margot has also been involved in numerous sports dispute and discipline tribunals dealing with selection, doping and behaviour issues. She has conducted investigations into disputes arising within sporting organisations whether between the organisation and an athlete, an athlete and a coach or between organisations amongst other combinations and scenarios.  Her board experience aids her dispute resolution skills as many a board meeting can have its fractiousness.

Her background in elite and excellent performance informs whatever she undertakes.

Margot's cv can be found at au.linkedin.com.in/margotfosteram

In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours Margot was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant services to the governance and administration of sport, as an elite athlete and for services to women's sport. 

Sport Services & Fees

Margot's years of experience as a lawyer and the many roles she has had on numerous boards and committees (both sport and non-sport) fit her well to guide and assist sports organisations in dealing with their governance challenges. She has an extensive background in dispute resolution in sports organisations having sat as a tribunal adjudicating on doping, discipline and selection disputes.  In her legal practice she was involved in many court-ordered mediations as well as informal dispute resolution cases. 

She continues to regularly serve on the Football Federation Victoria Discipline and Appeals Tribunal hearing a range of cases involving players, officials, parents and spectators.

Fees

Governance services     

Fees will be charged by agreement

  • on a whole of project or issue basis
    • or
  • at the rate of $330.00 per hour inclusive of gst

 

Presenting                      

Margot is an accomplished public speaker who can speak on and to a range of topics.  

Her particular focus when speaking on governance and dispute resolution is to ensure the presentation is not didactic or formulaic as either can lead to a boring and uninspiring session.

Instead she brings myriad examples from the variety of her experiences to enliven and illuminate discussion thereby engaging the audience in such a way that the information imparted can be remembered and, most importantly, applied.

Everyone has a different background in or understanding of governance and Margot recognises that a one sized lecture does not fit all.

Margot is also a great MC bringing confidence and panache to any occasion.

Fees will be charged by agreement

  • on a whole of project basis
    • or
  • for a specific event
    • or
  • at the rate of $330.00 per hour inclusive of gst

Dispute Resolution & Mediation

Fees will be charged by agreement

  • on a whole of project or issue basis
    • or
  • at the rate of $330.00 per hour inclusive of gst

Contact

You can contact Margot for any sports related enquires on mf@talk-the-talk.com.au or 0414 230 213.

Or simply fill in the form below and we will get back to you shortly.

 

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