Sallie Barker has been appointed as the Interim Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, succeeding Tim Lamb who last week stepped down from the role after eight years.
Sallie, who has been with the organisation for ten years as its Head of Services, immediately takes the Alliance in a new direction, having spent the last year working with the Alliance's board to set a new mission and vision.
"Our aim is to be at the heart of sport and recreation in the UK for the good of our members, so my immediate priority is to strike up good, open, working relationships with our partners.
"I want to build trust and to talk to our stakeholders about how we can work together towards some common objectives.
"We've been working on our new mission and vision for almost a year and we're almost there with it. It's my job to get out there in the sector and tell people how we are changing, how we are progressing and how we will be acting differently in the future.
"Every organisation has to evolve but what we're hoping to achieve in the next few months is a stepchange in the quality of our relationships – with members, with government and with other sporting organisations.
"We'll be going about our business in a different way and I hope that people will start to notice a difference very quickly."
Amongst the changes the Alliance is making is the appointment of named, individual liaisons for its members and and stakeholders with a view to improving cohesion within the sector.
The system for member meetings is also being radically overhauled to make gatherings more representative, more topical and more outcome oriented.
Sallie is hopeful that the changes will make an immediate impact.
"We've written to our members this week about some of the changes. We've got a busy year ahead of us but I think the difference we will make will be worth it."
For more information about the changes at the Sport and Recreation Alliance contact Sallie Barker.
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