text:
Paideia High School/How Should One Read a Book?

<Paideia Unit Plan Wikiversity Template This template is for texts of all types and works of fine art. Various categories are suitable for one type of work but not another. Irrelevant categories must be deleted in the final unit plan. It may be necessary to adapt categories to suit works science, mathematics, or fine arts.

To use this template, first click "Edit." Copy and paste all of the text below form the editor into the editor of a Wikiversity page designed for a Paideia Unit Plan. Text between markers should be replaced or deleted. All other text, except irrelevant sections, should remain. --> How Should One Read a Book? is a Paideia Unit Plan. These guidelines address teachers for the purpose of guiding instruction. See Paideia Learning Plan for the student's point of view.

Column One
Column One teaching and learning should make up about 10% to 15% of the total scheduled instructional time. It is didactic in nature and uses teacher lectures, text books or other didactic instructional materials, and questioning appropriate to this mode of education. Teaching in this mode encompasses of three facets: Exoridium, Interpretation, and Erudition.

Exordium
The Exordium is the teacher's didactic introduction to the work that is the subject of a Paideia Unit Plan. This introduction consists of both an oral and physical (or electronic) presentation of the work. For longer works, the teacher may limit the oral presentation to key parts of the work. The teacher should read texts live distinctly, accurately, and intelligently. Other works should be orally presented similarly as appropriate to the type of work. In addition, the teacher should provide high quality audio and video recordings of works if possible. Students should have a consumable print copy of the work both electronically and in hard-copy if possible.

Oral Presentation

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Written Presentation

 * Text can be found here: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91c2/chapter22.html
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Interpretation
Textual Interpretation refers to the teacher's didactic analysis of a written work in terms of the four major questions a demanding reader should ask of a text. Using the term work instead of book, these questions are: (1) What is the text about as a whole? (2) What is being said in detail, and how? (3) Is the text true, in whole or part? and (4) What of it? The Exordium begins to answer the first question because it introduces the whole text both orally and in writing (although the oral presentation may be limited in the case of longer works). It is in the Interpretation stage of Column One instruction that the teacher didactically begins to thoroughly unlock the second question. The third and fourth questions are relevant to Interpretation, but question two receives most of the teacher's attention. It is only when the student begins Column Two activities that a fuller grasp of questions three and four begins to mature in the student's mind. Consistent with the purpose of Column One instruction, the teacher is simply introducing elements of proper interpretation for the student to build on during Column Two and Column Three learning.

These questions can be appropriately modified for analysis of a work in science, mathematics, or the fine arts. Analysis of these types of works proceeds in a manner analagous to that of a text. Inasmuch as imaginative literature can be considered a work of fine art, the analogies drawn in Adler's and Van Doren's How to Read a Book can serve as a guide to other types of works too.

Interpretation of  or
In textual interpretation, the teacher didactically presents the author's key terms in the stage of Interpretation of Words and Terms. In addition, the teacher anticipates unfamiliar general vocabulary. These words and terms are given didactically, either orally or in writing, or both, but the task of interpreting is a Column Two skill of learning that the teacher must coach. Consequently, the purpose of this Column One stage is merely to point out key terms and potentially unfamiliar terms. The student must learn how to interpret. Again, this planning can be adapted to other kinds of works.

Interpretation of Key Terms
The key terms are those few words or phrases the author uses in unique, special, or important ways. . In the Column Two stage, students are coached both to find these key terms and to "unlock" them on their own. This skill is essential to analytical reading. In this Column One stage, however, the teacher points out a list of such terms. Students should understand that this listing is not necessarily exhaustive. In addition, the teacher provides students with a handful of these terms worked out in detail for consideration; it should consist of about three to five terms.
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General Vocabulary
The teacher may anticipate general unfamiliar vocabulary and point out the more difficult words either orally or in writing or both. However, defining words using context, a dictionary, or a knowlegable friend or adult (including the teacher) is a Column Two skill that must be coached. Teachers must help students build good habits of knowing the meanings of words. Dictionaries, in both electronic and book form must be available, and students must be taught how to use them. They must also be taught how to ask for definitions--a perfectly acceptible life skill commonly used by demanding readers!

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Note: If the teacher points out words in anticipation of their potential difficulty, this should be done in context by giving citations or electronically highlighting the words.

Interpretation of Sentences
One point of didactic interpretation at the level of interpreting sentences is to use grammar to get at the author's meaning. As with interpreting words and terms, this level of interpretation is also a Column Two skill that must be coached. Consequently, at the Column One didactic level, a teacher should choose a handful of the most difficult sentences in the text for demonstration. The teacher will always unlock the grammar of a few important and more difficult sentences for students independent of whether these sentences are key premeses to an argument. As appropriate to the text, a teacher should also consider demonstrating the grammar of sentences that work together as propositions in the author's most important arguments.

Another important point is to demonstrate the meter and prosody in both poetry and prose texts. This aim is in great danger of being completely overlooked or forgotten in a world where oral reading is not nearly as common as it once was. Nevertheless, great speechs often succeed in part because the author understands prosody. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and King's I Have a Dream serve as striking examples. The teacher should select sentences or versus to demonstrate both meter and rhythm.

 * :
 * :
 * <Third Sentence>: <explanation of meter and rhythm, consideration of overall prosody>
 * <Fourth Sentence>: <etc.>

Interpretation of Passages
At the level of passages, the full trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) come into play. First, a teacher should choose one or two of the author's most important arguments for a demonstration of how to use logic as a key to interpreting a text. Next, the teacher should select several passages to demonstrate how they conform (or not) to rhetorical, poetical, and sylistic rules. These rules, of course, must be didactically taught as prerequisites to interpretation of texts.

 * <Argument>: <demonstration of both the grammar of the sentences comprising premeses and of the concluding proposition along with the logic of the argument followed by an explanation of how the arguments help to unravel the author's meaning>
 * <Passage Illustrating Rhetorical Rules>: <demonstration of the rhetorical rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>
 * <Passage Illustrating Poetical Rules>: <demonstration of the poetical rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>
 * <Passage Illustration Stylistic Rules>: <demonstration of the stylistic rules and their value in the success of the author's purpose>

Erudition
Erudition refers to all manner of background information assumed by or necessary to understanding or fully appreciating the text.

<Note that these categories are presented alphabetically for ease of organization>

Anthropological References

 * <information relevant to anthropological issues and discoveries--include citations--delete if not used>

Antiquarian References

 * <information about references to things no longer commonly understood because of their situation in ages past--include citations--delete if not used>

Archaeological References

 * <information about details related to archaeological discoveries--include citations--delete if not used>

Biographical References

 * <information about the author--always include>
 * <information about other textual references to important people--include citations--delete if not used>

Cultural References

 * <information and links to cultural references--include citations--delete if not used>

Ethical References

 * <information and links to ethical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Geographical References

 * <links to relevant maps--delete if not used>
 * <information relevant to geographical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Historical References

 * <information and links to historical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Mathematical References

 * <information and links to mathematical references--include citations--delete if not used>

Political References

 * <information and links to political references--include citations--delete if not used>

Religious References

 * <information and links to religious references--include citations--delete if not used>

Scientific References

 * <information and links to scientific references--include citations--delete if not used>

Column Two
Column Two teaching consists of coaching. This mode of instruction aims at helping students to form habitual skills in the language, scientific, and fine arts. Thus, a teacher must correct students as they practice listening, speaking, reading, writing, observing with the senses unaided, observing with the aid of scientific apparatus, measuring, estimating, calculating, and exercising dexterity in the musical and visual arts. Each of these arts in turn rely upon the aquisition of fine and gross motor, imagination, and memory skills. These rules for developing Paideia Unit Plans address teachers. For their counterpart written for students, see Paideia Learning Plan.

Column Two learning comprises 65% to 75% of scheduled learning time. It's chief charactaristic is student activity. Students must be practicing some skill or skills while the teacher corrects him or her. While athletic coaching is an obvious example of this type of instruction, debate coaching, directing a drama, art instruction, and piano lessons also represent coaching. In order to coach well, a teacher must have a repertoire of activities carefully designed to exercised desired skills. Additionally, the teacher must have a clear idea of how to correct the skills as students practice them to ensure their habitual formation.

Mnuemonic Skills
<consider this category for every unit>

Listening Skills

 * <links to additional quality recordings--include citations--delete if not used>
 * <information relevant to listening for grammatical, logical, rhetorical, poetical, and stylistic elements of the work--include citations--delete if not used>

Speaking Skills

 * <imitation of quality oral readings--should be a part of every unit>
 * <recitations from memory--should be some part of every unit>
 * <oral presentations of written work--should be a part of most units>
 * <class discussions--should be a part of every unit>
 * <recitation of the rules of reading from Adler's and Van Doren's How to Read a Book or similar rules>

Reading Skills

 * <read hard-copy with a pencil in hand--always!>
 * <marking up a text both with a pencil and electronically>
 * <inspectional reading notes as taught in Adler's and Van Doren's How to Read a Book>
 * <analytical reading notes as taught in the same work>

After a first read through, using the above principals, have students answer the following comprehension questions--go over examples of complete and/or thoughtful answers in class:

1.	What reason does Woolf give for her assertion that a good reader must maintain a certain amount of independence?

2.	With the freedom to choose what we read, what responsibility do we have?

3.	According to Virginia Woolf what is the problem with dividing books into genre categories?

4.	What is the advantage of genre divisions?

5.	What does Virginia Woolf say is the advantage of biographies? (What do they give us that other types of books don’t?)

6.	What does Woolf say is the disadvantage of reading lesser works that can be avoided when reading great works?

7.	What genre does Woolf contend contains greater, “purer” truth?

8.	How does Virginia Woolf feel about poetry?

9.	According to Woolf, what is the first process we undertake when reading well?

10.	What is the second process the reader must complete?

11.	Why shouldn’t we just depend on experts and academics to tell us what value a piece of writing has?

12.	Does Virginia Woolf regard reading as something to be done for a specific reason? If you said yes, tell what that reason is. If you said no, explain why not.

Writing Skills
This writing assignment is part of the preparation for the seminar, rather than as processing after, so the rough draft should be due the day before or the day of the seminar. Hopefully, the seminar discussion will help inform editing of the essay for the second draft.

Your task—Write your reading advice to other students—how should they approach the task, what strategies should they be sure to use?

Use the following structure:

Introduction, in which you explain the purpose and value of reading. (You are expected to say what you really think here.)

Specifics on how to read to meet the purpose you lay out and get that value. (2-5 paragraphs)

Conclusion

Seminar Question Writing Guidelines
The following table serves to guide teachers in understanding the types of questions that guide good seminars and how to write them. Good seminars follow the general structure given by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren in their classic How to Read a Book published by Simon & Schuster in 1972. Column one gives the four main questions that a demanding reader should ask of any book. These questions guide the types of questions and the purpose of each type used in good seminars. The last column serves to illustrate questions that might be asked of The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, or Hamlet. This table could be easily adapted for any work of fine art like a painting or a musical score.

Specific Seminars
<Include written plans of actual seminars that have been conducted here.>


text:
User:Stewart.boyd

My name is Stewart Boyd and im writing this essay as part of an assessment for the unit Business, politics and sport at the University of Canberra.

Assignments

 * /Business, Politics and Sport – The expansion of the Australian Football League /

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Stewart.boyd


text:
User:Chris Todd/Elite Volleyball in Australia

Volleyball
Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895 in the YMCA gymnasium of Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA, where it was originally know as mintonette. In 1896 the sport was renamed volleyball before being published in July edition of "Physical Education" that year, and a year later the first official rulebook was published. Volleyball has grown since its creation to now include over 220 affiliated national federations within the FIVB, and is one of the largest international sporting organisations in the world. In 1964, at Tokyo, Volleyball was first introduced to the Olympics. 32 years later in Atlanta, beach volleyball was added to the Olympic program. Currently indoor volleyball consists of 15 different international events, as well as 7 international beach events that occur annually, biennial or quadrennially.

Indoor volleyball uses a court that is 18m long and 9m wide with a net splitting it in half separating the two teams. The net is 2.43m for men and 2.24m for women however the courst is the same size for both genders. A team consists of up to twelve players but there are only six players on court for a team at any one time and of these three are "front court" and three are "back court". There is a line 3m from the centre called the attack line which is used to distinguish players that are in the front court as opposed to the back court and only front court players are allowed to attack in front of this line. Beach volleyball is slightly different to that of indoor in that the court is 16m long and 8m wide however the net height remains the same as that of indoor volleyball. There are only 2 players on each side and there are no substitutes. Both disciplines use a ball that is 65-67cm in circumference and weighs 260-280g.

Introduction
Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world both recreationally and competitively, however it barely registers on the radar of most Australians. It is two of only thirty-six programs run by the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) however most Australians wouldn't know the name of a single national volleyballer. Volleyball is fast and entertaining requiring dynamic and agile athletes to perform at a high level. Australians love international sport and would undoubtably support volleyball on an international scene if it were organised appropriately and effectively.

Since the release of govenment initiatives to improve Australian sport (The Crawford Report, Pathway to Success) Volleyball Australia has recently been looking at ways to improve the future of the high performance programs it runs. This would require improved international results and an increased participation base. A number of controversial issues have arisen since the initial high performance review has been undertaken and volleyball in Australia is preparing for some significant changes.

Australian Volleyball
Volleyball in Australia has had its greatest success on the beach with Nat Cook and Kerri Potharst winning Bronze in Atlanta in 1996 and Gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The indoor programmes have not had the same success with only 2000 and 2004 representation at the Olympics. Currently there are two AIS programmes, beach held in Adelaide at SASI (South Australian Sports Institute), and indoor (mens only) in Canberra at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport). The AIS Volleyball program was established in 1990 when a men's program commenced in Sydney. Both the men's and women's programs were relocated to the main campus of the AIS in Canberra in 1997 and the men’s AIS program is still vital to the National team program providing the financial and human resources as well as the sport science and sports medicine expertise required to compete at the international level. Currently the viability and support for this program is under threat due to lack in high performance results in recent years.

Every state (and territory) in Australia has a Volleyball Association that runs competitions and events, with over 83 officially recognised clubs around Australia. There are also numerous clubs and associations not registered with Australian Volleyball which run social competitions and recreational leagues. In each state there are differing levels of involvement of clubs with their associated state body. Victoria, South Australia and Queensland have state run acadamy programs, New South Wales, ACT and Western Australia have developing programs that incorporate national competitions, while Tasmania and NT just run individual teams and when possible enter them into competitions in other states.

In most cases the people that play volleyball at a club level have done so since playing at school, and these competitions are often dominated by school age participants. The vast majority of the sport in Australia is between 14 and 20 years of age, with the two largest national events on the calendar being Australian Volleyball Schools Cup and Australian Junior Volleyball Championship both targeting school age athletes. Beyond school there is a big gap between the level of competitions available. Recreational and Representative competitions often are far removed from one another as there is such a gap between the leveles of ability. This means that the clubs that are able to incorporate both recreational and competitive events together are typically the most successful as they have a more sustainable financial base. These clubs are often the same ones that receive sponsorship and are able to compete in national tournaments.

At an elite national level around Australia, volleyball is dominated by the universities. This is due to the vastly superior funding they have available over other clubs and often these are the organisations that gain the greatest number of school leavers, simply due to the nature of their being. This has led to State organisations looking to them to represent the state in AVL seeing as many as half of the teams being university run.

Crawford and The Pathway to Success
In 2008 Kate Ellis (Minister of Sport at the time) appointed an independant sport panel "to make recommendations on the specific structures, programs and reform required to ensure the continuing robustness of the Australian sport system." This has since come to be known as The Crawford Report, which produced 39 recommendations to “address the ‘must do’ initiatives and…include issues relating to continuing success at the elite and participatory level, social inclusion, preventative health, pathways [and] funding.” Following the release of the findings by the Independant Sport Panel the Government released Australian Sport - The Pathway to Success which was the new sporting vision for all sports nationwide.

AVF High Performance Review
A Sustainable Future for Elite Volleyball in Australia 2011

The Impact of the High Performance Review
Since the Volleyball High Performance review Volleyball Australia has made some minor changes to their organisational structure, and where there are any drastic changes that have been suggested there has been significant consultation with the executive directors of each state as well as the AVF board to determine whether they will be actioned. Coaching and athlete pathway plans have started to be developed, however at this stage they are only plans and have not had any significant impact on the running of volleyball within Australia. The only exception to this is that there have been changes made to the national team selection policies. With regards to the AVL competition, it describes the Women's competition as successful, and claims that the mens competition is not of the same benefit.

National Team Selection Policy Changes
Beach Volleyball in Australia has a new process for selecting international competitors for events throughout the world. It is a brand new system in 2011, and involves a selection panel and a list of requirements for athlete selection. There will be a much more regulated selection process for national representation of beach volleyball due to this new policy in paricular requiring athletes to be involved in a Volleyball Australia institute program before they are eligible for selection as an Australian representative. There is the potential for a number of talented and experienced athletes to be ineligible for selection due to the new criteria, and it makes it much more difficult for athletes outside of the national pathway to gain selection. Although there will be an increased justification for the athletes that do get selected, it may cause a number of potential athletes to be disregarded for reasons that may not have been previously an issue with representing Australia at beach volleyball, and this may result in less competitive teams being entered into international events.

AVL vs V-League
With the suggestions made by the High Performance Review is has been made evident that AVL is not a priority for the AVF and will not be made any more significant within the current elite pathways than it already is. With this in mind there have been a number of organisations that have decided to part ways with the AVF organised competition and run their own league. Thiss competition has been branded V-League and kicked off in October 2011.

The Australian Volleyball League (AVL) has been the premier volleyball competition in australia since 1999, however it has had fluctuating support over this time with a vast number of structural changes and number of clubs involved. In 2011 the competition completely collapsed with all teams withdrawing from the competition. This lack of support for the national competition has come about due to unsustainable costings for the competition as well as a lack of flexibility within the AVF to support the requests of the organisations involved.

The Australian Volleyball League, the national indoor league for men and women, has developed in format over the past few years, servicing the various demands of elite men's and women's volleyball, drawn largely from club/state volleyball players. The League was established in 1999 and has seen many different formats being utilised over the period (AVF website). The last few years have seen the league change from having a licensing system for up to 12 teams change into a single team per state competition. This change also saw an increase in cost for the competition due to the associated costs being distributed amongst a smaller number of teams, and consequently some of the orgnanisations have been unable to afford to continue.

In 2011 [V-League] has been created in direct competition with AVL. V-League has been desigened for clubs to have significant involvement in the organisation and planning of the competition and was formed due to clubs being unsatisfied with the organisation of AVL. With this new competition there have been a number of AVL clubs that have moved over to this new league and thus have caused the collapse of AVL for 2011. With AVL not being held in 2011 and V-League being established, the Volleyball Australia have endorsed the new competition as the national league. The decision of whether or not AVL will occur again in 2012 or if V-Legue will continue to be the highest level of competition in Australia is still to be determined.

After only half of the first year of V-League, it is clear that the clubs involved are happier with the competition than has been the case with AVL for the last few years. This has meant that more clubs have been keen to enter the competition in 2012 and the inclusion of a womens competition is being planned as well. If a women's V-League is established, it is likely that the WAVL will collapse in the same way as MAVL in 2011, and as this is currently a vital component of the womens national program it could lead to further issues with the current Elite Volleyball pathways and potentially require an additional review of Volleyball Australia's organisational structure.

Club Volleyball
Throughout the world, cost is the biggest limiting factor for sports clubs. In Australia this is increased due to the large area that people often have to travel to compete in competitions. These along with a number of other issues are no different for volleyball than they are for all other sports. What has often occured to support the sport in this case has been the involvement of schools and universities within the club structure to increase the funding potential of the club. Many clubs will utilise schools as opporunities for their coaches to gain additional work, to increase the number of participants they have involved in competitions and as is often the case to obtain direct funding to support their teams. This can often lead to other issues however as the clubs then need to adhere to strict conditions that are often involved in school and university constitutions.

In most states there are two types of volleyball clubs, those that agree with the State Association and those that do not. Typically what occurs is the university clubs fall on the latter side of the fence, being the clubs that cause controvery and disharmony. In most cases this is only over trivial matters and often is simply due to the high turnover of administrators that are utilised in these clubs. When this becomes an issue is when the two organisations are unwilling to cooperate. This is potentially one of the reasons that AVL was not able to continue in 2011, as the universities had a bigger stake in the teams involved than the state associations.

What to Expect in the Future
In 2011 VTAM came 4th at the Asian Volleyball Championships gaining them entry into the Olympic qualification tournament for London 2012. Although they will have to win at the qualification tournament to get a place at London, this is the first step on the way there and creates the opportunity for further progression in international volleyball for Australia. There have only been two Olympics in which Australia has been represented in indoor volleyball, 2000 where Australia was the host, and 2004 in Athens. When the womens program did not qualify for Athens it was quickly removed from the AIS program as competing in the Olympics is one of the key areas to maintaining funding for elite level comeptitions.

A number of club and state organisations are showing increased support for the V-League competition and with its inaugural season a success more and more teams are hoping to participate in the future. It is possible that this competition will replace the official AVF national senior competition as it has vastly greater support than the recently run AVL seasons. It is uncertain at this stage whether or not AVL will make a return in 2012, however there will definitely be some form of national competition run, and at this stage V-League is the strongest candidate.

The day that there is a major financial sponsor willing to be involved in volleyball will be the day that the sport is able to progress its local national competition. Until that stage it will be necessary for the clubs involved to source their own income and this is most commonly as a user-pays system.

References and Resources
http://ozvolley.org/

http://www.v-league.net/mission

http://www.olympic.org/sports

http://www.fivb.org/en/volleyball/History.asp

Australian Government, 2010, Australian Sport: The pathway to success, Commonwealth of Australia Publication, ACT

Australian Volleyball Federation, March 2011, Beach Volleyball Selection Policy, viewed 5 March 2011, www.avf.org.au/news

Crawford, D., 2009, The Future of Sport in Australia, Independent Sports Panel, Commonwealth of Australia Publication ACT

Australian Sports Commission, n.d., AIS to take charge of high performance sport, viewed 11 March 2011, http://www.ausport.gov.au/news/releases/

Greg Doyle CEO Australian Canoeing, Open Water, 8 September 2011, University of Canberra


text:
User:KathrynB/Essay Outline

KathrynB 00:40, 15 September 2011 (UTC) Is Staging Major Sporting Events Worth It?

One of the major business and political issues facing sport not just in Australia but around the world is, ‘Is staging major sporting events worth it?’

There have been many debates arising from different stakeholder’s point of view about the financial issues that come from staging major sporting events. One of the major issues is if the host city really receives financial benefits during the sporting event as well as into the future.

With focusing on the debate of if the Olympic Games are worth hosting, I will be looking at previous cities that have hosted the Olympic Games and the benefits and impacts that have arisen pre, during and post the Games. I will be discussing the upfront costs to hosting the event, such as the initial biding to host the event, the infrastructure of the city, the security during the event, public transportation and advertising costs. I will also be discussing the financial benefits during and after the event which includes the image enhancement of the host city, media coverage of the event, the local communities’ revenue during the event and the tourism created from the hosting the event.

This will be done by looking at business’ and political views of the Olympic Games as a sporting event and how it affects the local community as well as the global community.

title: User:KathrynB/Essay Outline


text:
User:Stewart.boyd/The National expansion of the Australian Football League: Two new clubs to consider

The game of Australian Football was first founded in 1857. To chart the games journey, on August 7, 1858 the first Australian Football club (the Melbourne Football Club) was established along with the first recorded match played between scotch college and Melbourne Grammar.Since then, the game quickly blossomed with a line-up of 12 Victorian football clubs, forming the Victorian Football League, known as the VFL. From its dominance in Victoria it rapidly expanded nationally, influencing populations across other Australian states. By 1987 the VFL had again expanded to include teams from Western Australia, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. In acknowledging these teams the VFL became formally known as the Australian Football League and comprised a total of 16 clubs (Official website of the AFL: AFL.com.au Network, 2000).

More recently, In 2011 the AFL took on an ultimate challenge in continuing this historical trend spreading its influence into Rugby homeland: the Gold Coast and Sydney’s West, with the creation of  the Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney (GWS) franchised clubs. By 2012, the AFL will comprise a total of 18 clubs. With the introduction of the 18th club, the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) the lead up to the AFL’s 2012 season is much anticipated. Such expansion makes the AFL commission a unique business operating in all Australian states and territories along with development internationally.

Introduction
This essay will examine the theme of seemingly empirical building expansion by the AFL commission by analysing the AFL's 2010 annual report. In doing so, it will highlight the financial growth and expenditure, the key performance indicators of AFL clubs and the established government relations and funding for the AFL's teams. In turn, this will provide supporting evidence toward the flourishing of AFL in Queensland and GWS's successful license bid. Furthermore, it will briefly examine the AFL's profound steps towards developing the game internationally through it's exhibition matches and international cup competitions.

The AFL's Broadcasters and Government Relations Underpin Financial Performance and Growth
With the continued growth of the AFL throughout Australia the financial performance in 2010 was significant when considering the poor economic climate in Australia and on a broader scale the global financial crisis. Eleven of the sixteen AFL clubs traded profitably recording a record total revenue of $335.9 million. This was an increase of $32.4million to 2009. Furthermore, the operating surplus before grants and distributions was $230.4 million. After payments from reserves of $35.1 million, the net profit stood at $4.8 million (Anderson, I., 2010: pg. 57). This financial performance is underpinned by AFL's support from both with their broadcasters along with AFL's ability to develop and maintain strong relations with the government at the federal, state and local levels.

The broadcast rights agreements are the fundamental source of income for the game. During the premiership season, broadcasters showcased the game to an average audience of 4.16 million each week. Furthermore, digital media partner, Telstra BigPond via the AFL Telstra network attracted 3.7 million unique browsers per month. The revenue generated from these broadcasters allows for the AFL to work closely with AFL clubs to ensure their financial performance and stability is maintained. This is done through direct financial support by the AFL commission to the AFL clubs in the form of special annual distributions, strategic partnership funding and grants. In 2010, this form of financial support totaled $190.4 million and of this amount $142 million was provided to clubs. The AFL also invested nearly $24 million into the Gold Coast and GWS regions, resulting in additional revenue from these two new priority growth markets. The 2010 Grand Final replay contributed a further $16 million in revenue (Anderson, I., 2010: pg. 59).

Government relationships have been fundamental in developing world-class venues for AFL matches, training and administration facilities, along with the provision of grounds and club rooms at a local level. 2010 saw substantial progress with the construction of the $140 million Gold Coast stadium. Along with this, many state governments assisted the AFL. The NSW government agreeing to contribute $45 million and the Royal Agricultural Society $5 million for the redevelopment of the RAS show grounds at Sydney Olympic Park, becoming home to the GWS Giants AFL club. The ACT government made a 10 year agreement for the GWS giants to play 4 games per year at Manuka Oval, The South Australian government agreed to provide $535 million to redevelop Adelaide Oval and the Victorian government agreeing to contribute $30 million to the redevelopment of the great southern stand at the Melbourne cricket ground. In total funds invested by all parties including the federal, state and local governments to facility redevelopments exceeded $100 million. To ensure AFL continues financial growth, it was decided between both the Federal Government and Football Federation of Australia, that if Australia’s bid for the 2022 World Cup was successful the AFL season would continue (Anderson, I., 2010: pg. 58).


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User:MitchellS

Introducing Mitchell Simpson, Student NO# u3036393

I am studying the subject Business, Politics and Sport,as a part of my course B. Sport Management at the University of Canberra.

/BPS2011 Essay/

title: User:MitchellS


text:
User:MitchellS/BPS2011 Essay

Here is a link to my presentation on Junior Sport and the Relationships with Local Council and The Australian Sports Commission. (Junior Sport on Business, Politics and Sport)

This essay will talk about the relationship between local sport, in particular junior sport, and the relationship it has with local councils and the Australian Sports Commission, and the varying policies and objectives in place within the jurisdiction of the council or councils, the sporting associations and clubs. It will look into funding and grants from local council and government, both for clubs and public facilities including equipment, playing and training facilities, spectating and hospitality facilities. I will also look into the interaction of local sporting associations where their region or competition lies over multiple council boundaries, where conflicting policies, rules and regulations are apparent. The essay will also cover the Crawford Report, and how the Australian Sports Commission is applying the report’s objectives of improving ‘grass root sport’, and how it is interacting with local councils and sporting clubs and associations in doing so. Another point this essay will cover is the use of multiple sporting facilities, such as cricket and football grounds, and how the local councils and respective associations interact and come to mutual agreements on the terms and conditions of use. Overall this essay will aim to show the impacts that council and government has on local junior sport, and how crucial this relationship is to the greater Australian sporting population.

Introduction
Community sport, in particular junior sport, is the building block and the foundation of professional sports people in Australia and an integral part of the elite sporting community as all sporting stars begin their careers in junior sport. A focus of this essay will be on the revealing of the 2009 Crawford Report and how it has changed the administration of Australian sport and what the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) needs to do in order to fully implement the Crawford Reports findings. Another focus will be on how local councils interact with local and junior sport stakeholders and how successful these relationships are and the results and impacts this is having on future stars of Australian sport. Finally this essay will cover the crossover of local councils in local sporting competitions and how the sports are impacted by varying policies, funding and political games associated with local government. .

The Crawford Report and Junior Sport
Findings of the 2009 Crawford Report (2009 Crawford report: Investing in the future of sport) on ‘investing in the future of sport’, stated that “there is significant capacity for improved co-ordination and the allocation of government funds between agencies and levels of government”. This basically means that the federal government, in particular the ASC, needs to work and coordinate better with local council to improve junior sport, which in turn will improve Australia’s elite sporting success. Another one of the findings of the Crawford report (2009) was that previous government support to sport was mainly focused on funding to the elite level and a clear focus was on winning medals in Olympic and Commonwealth games. This ultimately led to sport being underfunded and neglected at a community level, which I have stated above as being an integral part to professional sport in Australia(Crawford Report 2009). The statement that “There is a strong correlation between international sporting success and public funding for sport” (Crawford Report 2009) is an important finding of the report as it clearly shows the importance that local sport has within the professional sporting community. The report found that countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom and many others all have large populations, and are putting in large contributions towards their elite sporting programs, yet smaller countries, such as Jamaica, are taking more medals in elite competitions. There is obviously a clear need for a national program in which all tiers of government as well as independent agencies and community stakeholders have the same views, goals and motives regarding the handling and development of junior sport in Australia. Although the Australian Sports Commission, post Crawford Report, has clear objectives to improve junior sport to ultimately improve Australia’s elite ‘talent pool’, there is an apparent break down at the bottom, or local sport level, which I will explain in depth later in this paper. The Crawford Report (Crawford Report 2.1: National Sport Policy Framework 2009) presents the idea that although the Australian Sports Commission, and all state and territory departments of sport and recreation have the basic same objectives, “perform well at an elite level and increase participation”, “there is however no overarching strategy and very little coordination” and this is the reason there is a breakdown of national objectives at a local and junior level. The Crawford Report (2009) suggests that because a national sport framework would require coordination of all tiers of government, “it will be advantageous for the Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments, to include local government membership in the Sport and recreation minister’s council”. This would create a key link and feedback avenue between the national policies and the implementation of them at the bottom level.

Local Council and Junior Sport
As stated above, junior sport is the key foundation of success at the highest level, as all professional sports people begin their careers as junior athletes. Local councils play an active role in the delivery and development of local sport in their jurisdiction and thus play a key part in the infrastructural chain that is Australian sport. An interview with Mark Simpson, a key stakeholder of local sport in the Shellharbour City Council district in NSW, as a long term coach of junior and senior sport, as well as a board member of a local club, clearly laid out the relationship of junior sport and the local council in his area. As the head coach of the Illawarra Academy of Sport’s (IAS) cricket program he had quite a direct view on the inflow and outflow of funding received by local council, with the IAS drawing funding from the Shellharbour, Wollongong, Shoalhaven and Wingecarribee district councils. As the chairman of the IAS, was also the general manager for the Shellharbour District council, much lobbying was done by the chairman in order to receive continued funding from local councils, and he was able to ensure continued support to the various IAS elite junior sporting programs. The IAS also receives funding from bodies such as Cricket NSW, and the Department of Sport and Recreation. This, along with council funding enables the IAS to provide a program for talented juniors from the region to participate in elite training and offers a key stepping stone from junior sport to senior elite levels of competition. Another key aspect of the interview saw Simpson talk about the struggles of the Shellharbour City Council to provide consistent funding across the whole region across a wide range of sports and facilities. As the Shellharbour region has a huge range of sports and an ever growing population, the need for extended sporting facilities is difficult for the council and community to agree on a suitable course of action. Simpson says that “with lack of council funding being an issue in the expansion of sporting facilities, the onus will be put back on the clubs for funding and support and will ultimately filter down to the families participating in the respective sports”. This shows a glaring gap in the ASC’s priority of support in junior sport post Crawford report, and the reality of its execution. Clubs and the community alike are turning towards funding from independent sources, like the Oak Flats Cricket Club, whom Simpson is club coach and secretary of, who received a $42,000 grant to upgrade their turf wicket facilities off the Community Building Partnership Program, which is a private sector of the NSW government. Simpson explains that the harsh reality of the current situation of local sport in the Shellharbour region is, “that sport is becoming a ‘user pay scheme, where families are being forced to pay more and more for their kids to participate in junior sport”. This is ultimately causing the sports to suffer as participation numbers are dropping, and will eventually cause Australian sport at an elite level to suffer. This small interview clearly shows how the federal government needs to use the Crawford Report’s (Crawford Report2009) findings and suggestions in order to take control of sport infrastructure at all levels in Australia to allow a coordinated and ultimately successful junior sport program this country needs to excel at the top level.

Crossover of Local Councils and Effects on Junior Sport
Quite often junior sporting competitions extend over the borders, or jurisdictions of neighbouring councils, and the clubs or competitors, although in the same competition can have quite varying backgrounds to their sport. I will use an example, from a guest lecture by Greg Doyle at the University of Canberra on the 8th of September 2011 (Greg Doyle on Business Politics and Sport), about the Central Coast Surf Life Saving competitions and how its overlaps between the Wyong Council and the Gosford City Council. Many Surf Life Saving clubhouse and/or facilities were quite dilapidated and where in obvious need of an upgrade and as the Terrigal Surf Club had recently undergone an upgrade to a multi-purpose facility it shined as the benchmark of the community. Doyle explained how, as he was part of the central coast’s ‘beach management group’, he helped lobby and look into getting more clubs in the region being built. It resulted in the Gosford City Council creating a needs assessment plan for club facility upgrades along the coast and eventually a $10 million surf club upgrade package for the region was passed. As the Central Coast region is an area that is highly contested by Labour and Liberal political parties and quite often investment local sport in the area was seen as a good opportunity to win votes and support. However, Wyong council, who shares a comparatively lower socio-economic status that Gosford, did not support Doyle’s idea and plan to do a similar needs assessment plan of the surf clubs in their council region. Doyle then explained how he used the idea of political popularity to persuade the Wyong Council to do a needs assessment plan of the area and as Doyle explained “the rest became history” with the Wyong council developing plans to upgrade the regions Surf Life Saving facilities. Now after this all boils down, this political game that councils play is ultimately a ploy for votes and support, and on this occasion junior sport in the area became a beneficiary of the outcome. Yet if not for political pressure placed on the Wyong Council, the Central Coast Surf Life saving competition may have seen a large gap in the opportunities for junior athletes between the two council regions.

Conclusion
Overall this paper aimed to show how local council plays a huge role in the development and delivery of junior sport at a local level, and how this can positively or negatively affect certain clubs or sports. It also showed how the Australian Sports Commission is changing its priorities towards improved support towards junior sport in Australia, yet after the 2009 Crawford Reports (2009 Crawford Report) Findings and real life case studies, it showed how there is still a long way in the developing of a national junior sport framework in Australia.

title: User:MitchellS/BPS2011 Essay


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User talk:PBergman/The Conflict In Modern Day Combat Sport

An interesting selection of topic PBergman. I look forward to seeing it expand. Careful that you cover the local to international scale and implications for these sports hey. Also, you appear to be taking a position here, that you think boxing is withering, and MMA is rising. Its fine to do that, but by making your position obvious, you'll have to work extra hard at supporting factual claims with references, as anyone out there who might disagree with you, will be reading your essay with an extra eye out for any weaknesses in that regard. An alternative is to not give away what your position might be, and to simply describe what you see without using loaded and colourful words. But that would be compromising on your writing style, which uses a nice array of puns and one liners, so stick with the position. Just be careful to support everything with good references, and make sure you cover local to international issues and/or examples. Leighblackall 04:15, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

I like the choice of topic. The governance of combat sports has been an issue in many cultures. I am keen to discuss this if you have time. Postillion 23:15, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Mchappo/Basketball in Australia compared to the USA

You have a lot to cover in here. Comparing the status of Basketball, from a local to international scale, of Australia and the USA, in itself could well make up a 2000 word essay. Simply describing the experience of the sport for children in both countries, the prospects of playing both socially and competitively, that marketing targets different age groups - not to mention cultural groups.. then the professionalisation of the sport nationally in each country, and the status of their national teams in the Olympics and Paralympics. That's a lot.. which could be squeezed in, being careful to describe the intersections of business and politics at every stage. Leighblackall 04:32, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

I thought today's news about insuring Bogut to play in NBL during an NBA lockout was informative about the difference! Postillion 23:09, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Swimmer1964

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Meeting in Perth
Hi Elizabeth, sorry, I edit-conflicted you at The History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia/Meetings/Perth 18 Sept! I was just about to add your name and that of another instructor to the list. Graham87 04:34, 13 September 2011 (UTC) hi i just had fun trying to add my name to the list!

title: User talk:Swimmer1964


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User talk:PhillipaDickens/Gymnastics, a sport once every four years?

Good topic. I hope you will also talk about the role business plays, and cover the intersection of business and politics around the sport, from the local (what you have already) through to the international (what you haven't mentioned yet). Perhaps you might talk to someone who has experience of the sport in another country, and make comparisons? You could do this by first coming to understand the ACT experience, then formulating a list of questions to ask someone from another country, and either ask them in person, or conduct the interview online by email. Leighblackall 04:38, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

I think this is an excellent choice of topic and like the idea of a case study. Postillion 23:17, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. I have decided to do some research and send out some questions to various organizations across the A.C.T, Australia and the U.S.A. I am currently compiling a list of questions to send out and will hopefully get sent and returned soon. PhillipaDickens 23:02, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

This is the list of questions I have sent out to various organizations in Australia and America. I had different questions for clubs and organizations.

CLUBS ORGANIZATIONS PhillipaDickens 00:50, 12 October 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) What is the size of your organization? Small, medium or large?
 * 2) What level of competition do you participate in?
 * 3) How does the local governing body affect the way you run your business?
 * 4) How does the national governing body affect the way you run your business?
 * 5) Are members of your club on the governing board, either local or national?
 * 6) How does this affect the way the club runs?
 * 7) Any other comments on how you feel business and politics interact with gymnastics?
 * 1) What area do you govern, local (state) or national?
 * 2) Is your association more concerned with a recreational, national or international level of gymnastics?
 * 3) What sort of decisions does your association make?
 * 4) How do they affect clubs in the area you govern?
 * 5) Are members also members of clubs?
 * 6) How do you find this affects the decisions made by the organization?
 * 7) Any other comments on how you feel business and politics interact with gymnastics?

I realize it is very close to the due date, but due to a lack of responses to my questions, I have decided to change the topic of my essay. I will now be looking at why gymnastics is only seen every 4 years (in the Olympic year) through the media, despite its popularity during this time. This will involve looking at the popularity of the sport through number of participants in comparison to other sports, as well as other factors. PhillipaDickens 22:49, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

I will be handing in the presentation a week after the due date (as decided through email correspondence with Leigh) PhillipaDickens 22:44, 1 November 2011 (UTC)


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User:Brennan.McDonald/A look into Free Agency and the Australian Football League

Here is a link to my presentation. I had problems uploading it up to my Wiki so just click on the link and it should be on the left hand side of the page. Thank you!

Free Agency and the Australian Football League

Business, Politics and Sport: Free Agency and the Australian Football League

This essay will examine the introduction of various components of free agency to the Australian Football League at the end of 2012, and also look at the implications that this will have on the different stakeholders within the AFL. This free agency concept is the result of a recent Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the AFL and the AFL Players Association (AFLPA).

Free agency is aimed at allowing more player movement and should ease draft and trade restrictions on the professional teams operating within the AFL. This makes it easier for players to be able to leave clubs and join the team that offers them a more lucrative contract or have a higher level of success. This model of free agency is capped however so a Premier League-style division between the wealthy and poor clubs should not exist, however most critics point out that that could still happen. People like Mick Malthouse and Jeff Kennett who are well know AFL personalities have spoken out against free agency.

This essay will also make a comparison between the National Football League’s free agency model and the AFL version, and how the National Football League Players Association has managed through collective bargaining to get the best working conditions and pay for its players. Freedom of movement and restriction of trade will be discussed, referring to the Bosman case in Europe in 1995.

Introduction

In early 2010, the Australian Football League (AFL) and the Australian Football League Players Association (AFLPA) reached an agreement that will introduce free agency into the AFL following 2012. All parties involved with the AFL in some way will be affected by this concept when it is implemented into Australia’s premier football league which includes: players, coaches, agents, sponsors, members, fans, and various other stakeholders.

This ‘free agency’ model is aimed at allowing more player movement and should ease draft and trade restrictions on the professional teams operating within the AFL. This should make it easier for players to be able to leave clubs and join the team that offers them a more lucrative contract, and footballers who have served a certain period of time with one club will be able to leave for a higher pay check or be compensated for their service. This model of free agency is capped however so a Premier League-style division between the wealthy and poor clubs should not exist (which is known as the Big 4). However, some critics of free agency are concerned that the AFL could become much like the National Football League or the Premier League where players chase the biggest contracts with little loyalty for their teams.

Free Agency
A free agent is any player who is not under contract to any team and thus has free right to negotiate with any other team for new contract terms. Under the AFL’s current proposal, a player will have to serve 8 years with the one team before they can be classed as a free agent.

-	A restricted free agent is a player who is off contract and can negotiate with other teams for his services; however his current team can match any offer to retain that player.

-	An unrestricted free agent is a player who can negotiate with any team but his current team has no guarantee to match outside offers. From the end of 2012 free agency will be implemented into the AFL, paving the way for larger playing contracts especially for the top players in the league.

Proposed Model
According to the AFL, this is the basic layout that will be introduced:

•	Players who are not in the top 25% of salaries at their clubs will be eligible for unrestricted free agency if they have served 8 years on the clubs primary list.

•	Players who are in the top 25% of salaries at their club will be eligible for restricted free agency for their first new contract after they have served eight years on the primary list of the club.

•	Compensation in the form of draft picks will be allocated to teams with a net loss of free agents, and this will be determined by the AFL.

•	If a player refuses to accept the matched offer from their current team, they can choose to be traded or be nominated for the AFL Draft.

Comparison with the National Football League
America has a long history of battles fought and won through their various labour union movements, and the NFLPA is no different. Formed in 1956 and receiving NFL recognition in 1968, the NFLPA ‘represents the players in matters concerning wages, hours, working conditions, to protect players' rights as professional athletes, to ensure the terms of a collective bargaining agreement are met, to negotiate and monitor retirement and insurance benefits, to provide assistance to charitable and community organizations, and to enhance and defend the image of players and their profession on and off the field.’

Just this year, from March 11 to July 25, the NFL imposed a lockout of all players over a labour dispute with the NFLPA in which the NFL owners unanimously voted in 2006 to not to extend a CBA past 2010. Speculation surrounded the league that would be no football for the 2011 season; however on August 5 the lockout was officially ended when a new CBA was signed by the NFLA and the NFLPA. This shows the power that the NFLPA has in American Football.

Free agency as it is today has existed in the NFL since 1993, and is technically known as ‘Plan A Free Agency’. It is similar to that of the model that the AFL will introduce, however a player who has only played 3 years at a club (instead of 5) and their contract expires is free to sign with any team unless the original team matches it. Another difference between the AFL and NFL is of course the amount in which the players are paid, although this is to be expected with the NFL’s larger salary cap ($8,212,500 for the AFL and $120,000,000 for the NFL).

Reactions
Different AFL personalities and people in the media have had mixed reviews of the AFL’s plan to implement free agency after 2012. The main talking point of free agency is the general opinion from critics is that players will always choose to join a successful club over a large pay cheque, thus creating a Premier League-style division.

Mick Malthouse (Former coach, Collingwood Magpies)
Malthouse, recently retired coach of AFL powerhouse the Collingwood Magpies, has stated that ‘that the introduction of free agency would lead to big clubs dominating the league.’ He also said ‘If we had free agency …would we start to get back to what we were in the '60s and '70s where four clubs dominated the competition because they had the money and all the clout?’ Malthouse believes that players will only want to join clubs with success instead of joining a lower team for maybe even more money.

Jeff Kennett (President, Hawthorn Hawks)
Kennett shares Malthouse’s views of free agency, even going a few steps further: ‘They will play player against player, club against club, it will be uncontrollable...They have produced a bowl of spaghetti which is slippery, has no definable ends, and administrators are going to find it increasingly difficult to manage their clubs.’ However Kennett fails to note that not all players will chase success over money. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ablett,_Jr. Gary Ablett], who is a superstar of the game, left one the league’s most presently successful clubs Geelong to join the fledgling Gold Coast Suns for $10 million over a 5 year period. Geelong beat Collingwood to win the 2011 Premiership while Gold Coast won only 1 game last year.

Caroline Wilson (Journalist, The Age)
Caroline Wilson, a journalist for the newspaper The Age, echoes the thoughts of both Malthouse and Kennett’s sentiments stating that players will chase success over money. Using former St Kilda and now Collingwood player Luke Ball as an example, Wilson said: ‘the fact remains that successful clubs will always attract good players once they are free to choose’. Wilson also goes on to say that free agency will ‘further demystify that element of magic that surrounds football’.

Andrew Demetriou (AFL CEO)
Demetriou has obviously gone against both Malthouse and Kennett’s view of free agency. Reacting to Malthouse’s argument that free agency will widen the gap between the upper and lower echelon teams, Demetriou stated that there is ‘still a salary cap...if Collingwood has Dane Swan, Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury...and whoever else, they won’t be chasing six free agents will they?’ Demetriou believes that free agency will not widen the gap between different clubs, however has also said that the AFL needs to provide a ‘fair financial footing for all clubs’.

10 out of the then 16 coaches endorsed the agreement between the AFL and the AFLPA echoing the same thoughts of optimism for the introduction of free agency.

Club Loyalty
While the AFL is the premier sporting league in the league, it boasts a high expectation from the fans for players to exhibit strong loyalty to the club that they play for. Unlike the NFL where players show almost no loyalty and will usually always sign for money over success, AFL fans sit on the other end of the spectrum. When Gary Ablett joined the Gold Coast after a very successful tenure at Geelong (which his father also famously played for), and some fans were ‘angry’ at the club for not keeping such a marquee player. One reason that AFL fans desire loyalty from the players is the father-son rule that exists in the system. This rule allows clubs to select the sons of former players who have played for that club. This has been used with various players, a good example being Gary Ablett and his father [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ablett,_Sr. Gary Ablett Sr. ] who both played for Geelong. Although free agency may create a higher turnover of players throughout the clubs there is not a disproportionate amount of 8 year or more veterans in the AFL.

Freedom of Movement: the Bosman Ruling
In Europe, Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman (1995) which became known as the Bosman ruling is a European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers and freedom of association. This case is important because it made a decision that effected free movement and labour and also changed the way in which football player’s transition to other EU clubs: it allowed players to move on from their club to another once their contract had expired. Before this ruling players could only move to a club if both clubs agreed to it, and there was a setting of a transfer fee in which one club was selling the player and the other was buying. This indirectly affected all football worldwide, and helped to increase ‘player power’.

Luke Ball, currently playing for Collingwood had requested to be traded there by St Kilda before the trade week in late 2009. However the two clubs could not agree and so Ball entered the AFL Draft where Collingwood picked him with pick 30. . This is a situation where a larger degree of freedom of movement is needed in the AFL, and if a player wishes to sign with another club he should be able to.

Conclusion
After reviewing all the different aspects of the AFL’s free agency model to be introduced next year, it seems that this new implementation will help keep the league at the top of the Australian sporting tree. All parties involved with the AFL will benefit in some way. The players will have an increased chance to make more money and chase success. The AFL will have increased exposure, due to the fact of high profile or marquee players will change teams more regularly. This in turn affects other stakeholders such as sponsors and of course will draw more fans to the sport. Many critics of free agency compare it with the NFL system in America where there is no loyalty shown to any clubs, and also believe that the successful clubs gain more success and the lower teams fail to move up the ladder. However, the AFL will probably not ever reach that stage because of the strength of grassroots football and the history and tradition that clings to Australia’s biggest brand of football. Free agency will only benefit all stakeholders of the game and help it to continue to grow over time.


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Self organizing list

A self-organizing list is a list that reorders its elements based on some self-organizing heuristic to improve average access time. The aim of Self organizing list is to improve efficiency of linear search by moving more frequently accessed items towards the head of the list. Some say, the "Self Organizing List" is a poor man's Hash table (see Gwydion Dylan Library Reference Guide). By using a probabilistic strategy, it yields nearly constant time in the best case for insert/delete operations, although the worst case remains linear.

There are four ways in which the list can be self organized:
 * 1) Ordering—The list is ordered using certain criteria natural for the information under scrutiny.
 * 2) Transpose—After the desired element is located, swap it with its predecessor unless it is at the head of the list.
 * 3) Move to front—After the desired element is located, put it at the beginning of the list
 * 4) Count—Order the list by the number of times elements are being accessed.

Basic Implementation of a List
In order to efficiently use memory resources, lists are generally implemented as linked lists allowing dynamic memory allotment at runtime. The linked list consists of a sequence of nodes, each 'linked' to the node in front (for example, in C, the 'link' is in the form of a pointer to the succeeding node), with the last node storing a link to NULL. An array is generally considered to be unsuitable because of the requirement of knowing the array size beforehand (during declaration). Also, inserting elements into an array is an inefficient operation.

Linked List Traversals
As each node is 'linked' only to the node in front of it, the only way to access a particular node in the list is by accessing the node before it, this process being repeated. So, to reach the nth element in the list, we must start at the first node and move to the second, from the second move to the third, from the third to the fourth and so on till the desired element is reached (move through each node successively to reach the nth element). When compared to an array it is immediately obvious that the linked list is extremely inefficient in random access (in an array say a[], the nth element can be immediately accessed as a[n]). In big O notation, retrieving the nth element in a linked list is a O(n) operation whereas in an array, it is a O(1) operation. For a linked list, even a binary search routine is inefficient because finding the middle element as the binary search algorithm requires is exceedingly costly (due to having to traverse through all the elements before it) and a linear traversal through the list is generally adopted for random access or searches. (Binary search on an array is O(log n)).

Concept of the Self Organizing List
A self organizing list modifies the order in which the records are stored, based on their actual or expected access pattern. The basis of a self organizing list can be explained in terms of the 80-20 rule which states that 80% of the records in a list or data store are accessed 20% of the time whereas 20% of the records are accessed 80% of the time (note that this is not a strict rule but merely a characterization of typical behavior). The self organizing list aims at keeping these commonly accessed elements at the head for quicker access.

Analysis of Running Times for Access/ Search in a List
Consider a list (self organized or randomly arranged) implemented using a linked list structure containing n elements. The COST of a search is measured by the number of comparisons that must be performed to find the target record (for now we assume that the target record exists in the list). We consider the worst and average case running times of accessing a particular element by linear searching in the list as follows:

Average Case:
In the average case, suppose that N search operations are performed on the list. Suppose that the number of times the ith element was searched for is freq(i) (for example, if the third element was searched for 45 times out of N, freq(3) = 45). then
 * $$freq(1) + freq(2) + . . . + freq(n) = N$$

Now, the average running time to search for (or retrieve) the ith element is i. thus, the time spent in retrieving only the ith element is equal to
 * (number of times ith element was searched for) * (the time required to search for the ith element) = (freq(i) * i).

hence, the total time for N searches is given by:
 * $$T = freq(1) * 1 + freq(2) * 2 + . . . + freq(n) * n.$$

The average time per search operation is obtained by dividing above expression by N.
 * $$Tavg= T/N = 1 * freq(1)/N + 2 * freq(2)/N + . . . + n * freq(n)/N.$$

but now consider, for the ith element, freq(i)/N is the probability of accessing the ith element (p(i)) and thus
 * $$freq(i)/N = p(i).$$

Substituting,
 * $$Tavg = 1 * p(1) + 2 * p(2) + 3 * p(3) + . . . + n * p(n).$$

If the access probability of each element is the same (i.e p(1) = p(2) = p(3) = ... = p(n) = 1/n) then the ordering of the elements is irrelevant and the average time complexity is given by
 * $$T(n) = 1/n + 2/n + 3/n + ... + n/n = (1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n)/n = (n+1)/2$$

and T(n) does not depend on the individual access probabilities of the elements in the list in this case. however in the case of searches on lists with non uniform record access probabilities (i.e those lists in which the probability of accessing one element is different from another), the average time complexity can be reduced drastically by proper positioning of the elements contained in the list. This is done by pairing smaller i with larger access probabilities so as to reduce the overall average time complexity. Consider for example the list shown below: Given List: A(0.1), B(0.1), C(0.3), D(0.1), E(0.4) Arrangement 1 (Random order) : A(0.1), B(0.1), C(0.3), D(0.1), E(0.4) Without rearranging, average search time required is:
 * $$T(n) = 1*0.1 + 2*0.1 + 3*0.3 + 4*0.1 + 5*0.4 = 3.6$$

Now suppose the nodes are rearranged so that those nodes with highest probability of access are placed closest to the front so that the rearranged list is now: Arrangement 2 (elements with highest probability at the front) : E(0.4), C(0.3), D(0.1), A(0.1), B(0.1) Here, average search time is:
 * $$T(n) = 1*0.4 + 2*0.3 + 3*0.1 + 4*0.1 + 5*0.1 = 2.2$$

Thus the average time required for searching in an organized list is (in this case) around 40% less than the time required to search a randomly arranged list. This is the concept of the self organized list in that the average speed of data retrieval is increased by rearranging the nodes according to access frequency.

Worst Case:
In the worst case, the element to be located is at the very end of the list (for both self organized or randomly arranged lists) and thus n comparisons must be made to reach it. Therefore the worst case running time of a linear search on the list is O(n) independent of the type of list used. Note that the above argument for the average search time is a probabilistic one. Keeping the commonly accessed elements at the head of the list simply reduces the probability of the wost case occurring but does not eliminate it completely. Even in a self organizing list, if a lowest access probability element (obviously located at the end of the list) is to be accessed, the entire list must be traversed completely to retrieve it. This is the worst case search.

1. Move to Front Method
Any node or element requested is moved to the front of the list.

Pros:
1. This method is easily implemented and does not require any extra memory or storage(for counter variables say) 2. This method easily adapts to quickly changing access patterns. even if the priorities of the nodes change dynamically at runtime, the list will reorganize itself very quickly in response.

Cons:
1. This method may prioritize infrequently accessed nodes: for example, if a uncommon node is accessed even once, it is moved to the head of the list and given maximum priority even if it is not going to be accessed frequently in the future. these 'over rewarded' nodes clog up the list and lead to slower access times for commonly accessed elements. 2. This method, though easily adaptilble to changing access patterns may change too commonly. basically, this technique leads to very short memories of access patterns whereby even an optimal arrangement of the list can be disturbed immediately by accessing an infrequent node in the list.

2. Count Method:
Each node counts the number of times it was searched for i.e every node keeps a separate counter variable which is incremented every time it is called. the nodes are then rearranged according to decreasing count.

Pros:
1. Reflects more realistically the actual access pattern

Cons:
1. Must store and maintain a counter for each node, thereby increasing the amount of memory required. 2. Does not adapt quickly to rapid changes in the access patterns. for example: if the count of the head element is say A is 100 and for any node after it say B is 40. now, even if B becomes the new most commonly accessed element, it must still be accessed at least (100 - 40 = 60) times before it can become the head element.

Pros:
1. Easy to implement and requires little memory. 2. More likely to keep frequently accessed nodes at the front.

Cons:
1. More cautious than move to front. i.e it will take many accesses to move the element to the head of the list.

title: Self organizing list


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User:Egm6321.f11.team4.xxx

Kexin Ren 20 Sep. 2011 at 4:40(UTC)

title: User:Egm6321.f11.team4.xxx


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User talk:Chris Todd/Elite Volleyball in Australia

National business model
Chris, I think you have a very good assignment here. The key for me is how volleyball positions itself within a national sporting system and develops a viable business model. There are some hard questions to ask about the sustainability of volleyball in a global sport system. Postillion 10:47, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Local, regional, State, National and International
Great to see a unique topic chosen here Chris. And you're right, not enough people in Australia appreciate this incredibly good fun and accessible sport.

If you can squeeze it in, some mention of how volleyball is conducted on a local/regional/state scale. You have the national to the international covered well, and you're focusing on the political processes for that, but try and find a space for the business of it (as Keith suggests above), and talk to it from the local to the international. We're looking for how business and politics intersect around volleyball, from a local to international scale. Leighblackall 09:48, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

References and Resources
http://ozvolley.org/

http://www.v-league.net/mission

http://www.olympic.org/sports

http://www.fivb.org/en/volleyball/History.asp

Image by JMRosenfeld at http://flickr.com/photos/29650319@N06/3613648934

Australian Government, 2010, Australian Sport: The pathway to success, Commonwealth of Australia Publication, ACT

Australian Volleyball Federation, March 2011, Beach Volleyball Selection Policy, viewed 5 March 2011, www.avf.org.au/news

Crawford, D., 2009, The Future of Sport in Australia, Independent Sports Panel, Commonwealth of Australia Publication ACT

Australian Sports Commission, n.d., AIS to take charge of high performance sport, viewed 11 March 2011, http://www.ausport.gov.au/news/releases/

Greg Doyle CEO Australian Canoeing, Open Water, 8 September 2011, University of Canberra


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User talk:A Brown/FIFA WORLD CUP: the Holy Grail of Australian Football

Called by to see how the assignment is going. Postillion 10:50, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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Talk:The Development of New Technologies Surrounding Snowboarding

Alex, I wondered if you had seen Jason Harding's work with snowboards?

http://www.anarchistathlete.com/collaborators/profile

Postillion 10:53, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Amy.e.cotton/The Race in South African Sport

I would've liked to provide more links for my references, however I only realised until it was too late that the majority of the journal articles came from various databases, and therefore no links could be provided unfortunately.

--Amy.e.cotton 00:14, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Amy, I wondered if you wanted to insert some hyperlinks to your review?

Postillion 10:54, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:AshleighLowe/The politics and businesses of cricket

Ashleigh, I like the picture! It lifts the whole page. I think this is an excellent topic. Postillion 10:56, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Ash!! Like the sound of the topic. Are you going to touch on the indian premier league 20/20 at all? dunno how much academic lit has been published on it yet but it seems like its very politically and business oriented ie. ridiculous $$$ for such a short period of time and players have chosen to play in this comp and consequently have not been selected for their own country in test mathces eg. chris gayle (west indies). RB2011 - Ryan


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User talk:Atama J/Business, Politics and the London 2012 Olympic Games

I have suggested some changes (in italics) to strengthen your case. Wondered wat you thought.

Have you seen http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/sais_review/v031/31.1.torres.html ?

Postillion 11:07, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion Keith and I believe your changes will help. I have had a look at the article and will be using that within my Essay. Thanks again

Atama J 00:14, 6 October 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Brendanduffy/The revival of Australian Cricket

I think this is a great choice of topic, Brendan. I look forward to reading the full essay. Postillion 11:09, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Brennan.McDonald/A look into Free Agency and the Australian Football League

What a great choice of topic. Interesting to hear Chris Judd's points this week.

Postillion 11:10, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Crampj01/Rugby league is turning a corner.

Called by to see how you are doing. Postillion 11:15, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Daniel.Higgins/Foreign ownership and foreign players: the impact on the English Premier League and its teams

This is a fascinating topic, Daniel. Postillion 11:16, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Dhugo/Super Rugby - An Australian Context

Good choice of topic, Hugo.

I am old enough to remember Super 10! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_10_%28Southern_Hemisphere_competition%29 I think some of the issues around value proposition are linked to changes from 10 to 12 to 14 to 15. Postillion 11:19, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

 * Yes I remember the Super 10 aswell, but I tried to focus just on the professional era of super rugby - after 1995. Do you think I should include, the super 10 aswell? Would be interesting if I can find articles pre-professional

Referencing
Hi DHugo. You don't have to follow this style for referencing, but here it is if you need one. Leighblackall 01:57, 28 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Diego e/Have business and politics destroyed football?

What a fascinating choice of topic! I am looking forward to your detailed analysis. Postillion 11:20, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Just a thought while passing in RecentChanges (I did not read the page yet, just some sentences in intro):
 * But I was thinking first: not necessarily for kids who play in the neighbourhood
 * Then I thought: Well, perhaps it did really: e.g. by giving less opportunities for children to play?
 * I guess your scope is different than what I thought, Erkan Yilmaz uses the Chat + Identi.ca 11:17, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Downie/Limited News Involvement is the Best Thing for Rugby League

A tantalising title! Looking forward to the argument. Postillion 11:22, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:EdwinaElizabeth/Commercialisation of Sport

I think you have made a good start, Edwina! Delighted you have inserted the image.

It will be interesting to read how you view therelationship between commercialisation and the play spirit.

I wondered with your interest in athletics if you had considered professional races in an age of amateurism and the persistence of Gifts in Australia culture. What sustains this particular form?

Postillion 11:26, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Emmy/Sport's patriarchal hold on sport behaviour

Called by to see how you are developing your assignment. Postillion 11:27, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Gauntarchie/essay

Great choice of topic. How did the beautiful game allow simulation?

Wondered if you might look at Goffman's Stigma for an interesting theory about identity http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zuMFXuTMAqAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Stigma+Goffman&ots=R7XpKuaKQc&sig=Ujm9drcdXBRGOqka4v4EZ4wPA5o#v=onepage&q&f=false

Postillion 11:31, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:Gauntarchie/essay


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User talk:Gus gardiner/The business and politics of making cheerleading an official sport

This is a great topic. I enjoyed your writing.

I am looking forward to the full paper. Title IX is a very important part of this argument.

Postillion 11:34, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Transcript from primary research
Rosemary Sims Program Director & Events Producer - Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation(AASCF)

Questions: 1) Does AASCF think cheerleading should be classifed as an official sport in its own right, and if so why?

Cheerleading should be an official sport, and is its own sport, not an arm or leg of dance or gymnastic, as they are both only 5% of the scorecard and a style of their own.

All Star competitive cheerleading is a combination of stunting, baskets, pyramids, jumping combinations, team tumbling, and dance. It requires hours of progressive training each week. As an X athlete and X professional dancer and X world champion competitor, there are very few sports that are more intense than the training of competitive all star cheerleading. It is like the Ironman of performing arts.

The competitive score card for our sport is very intricate and the judges need to be highly experienced and knowledgeable. The coaches and choreographers have very strict rulings and guidelines to follow, otherwise as competitors they will never succeed. Extensive ongoing education for all is very necessary.

Embedding video
Hi Gus. I noticed a few edit histories back, you tried to embed a Youtube video our two. You probably realized already, that it's not possible. It's partly a copyright thing, partly a format thing. If you want to get video in your article, contact the owner of the video you want, and ask them permission to use it on the wiki. Specifically, you need to get them to write to you saying that they agree to you copying it and publishing it on Wikimedia Commons with a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike copyright license, which essentially grants everyone else permission to reuse it so long as credit is given to the author. If they agree to that, I'll show you how to get the video on the wiki. Leighblackall 09:24, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Merge outline into introduction, create abstract
Hi Gus, the outline (as a section heading) is redundant. I'm going around everyone and advising they merge the outline into the introduction, and when the essay is finished, prepare a 250 word abstract that summarises the completed essay. The outline was a pitch, or a proposal to the journal (and other publishers) to consider and indicate their support for you progressing your essay. You're pitch was accepted, and so the outline is no longer needed. The content therefore, merges into the introduction, and helps create an abstract. Leighblackall 21:52, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Comments on first draft
Excellent work Gus, I'll use this as an example of good work to the others in BPS2011. I did feel that a mention of how you will cover the business and politics from a local angle was needed earlier on, as I found myself wondering about the emphasis on the USA, without clear mention of how you would go about considering the local context. The interviews perfectly cover it, so I think just mention the interviews in the abstract and introduction.

You're about ready for a peer review then. See the course website for instructions on how to do that: http://bps.ucniss.net You may as well be our test dummy for the review template :)

Thanks for your hard work, and good communication on all this Gus Leighblackall 04:51, 12 October 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:James Bannon/Sponsorship in Basketball

James, I called by to see how you were going with the assignment.

Postillion 11:35, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Kgpoulin/Lingerie football

THeory of body
What a fascinating choice of topic! I wondered if some game forms are culture specific or have a universal appeal.

I wondered if you had considered some of the theorising about the body ...

http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/lig01450.htm http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/01/20/beyond-bourdieus-body-giving-too-much-credit/ for example

Potential collaboration
Agreed! A fascinating topic, and one that has plenty of opportunity to talk about the intersections of business and politics. I think you have it covered. There are at least a couple of others who have a similar topic to yours, that I thought you might consider getting together and swapping notes.
 * 1) http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:CHugginson/An_Olympic_Sport%3F
 * 2) http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Gus_gardiner/The_business_and_politics_of_making_cheerleading_an_official_sport

Leighblackall 11:10, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks guys really appreciate the feed back. I'll definately read that link, I think it is another angle I could look at. And I will definitely keep and eye on what the other students are doing and talk to them about the areas our topics will cross on Kgpoulin 07:41, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:Kgpoulin/Lingerie football


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User talk:Leigh.Sherman/Sports Sponsorship and Government Regulation

Leigh, I called by to see how you are going. Postillion 11:45, 13 September 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:Lilly15/The Impact Poor Role Models have on Sport

I like your choice of topic. I am keen to discuss roles, role models and status. Postillion 11:49, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Referencing
Hi Lilly15. I've done some copy editing, and added (REF) where I think you need to support a claim or statement. Some example case studies will help this a lot. You have the bare bones in here, for what is an interesting topic. I thought though, you might like to check out the work of Laura Hale, a Sport Studies PhD student, using social media to look at fandom. She looked at a few player controversies, and found they didn't have an impact on fan interest in terms of social media. This may be the first sort of evidence that the sponsors and clubs over react to the scandals. If this could be shown to be the case, then the business case may not be a strong basis to argue that player misbehaviour is damaging to role modelling. You might have to use ethical/moral augments instead of money and sponsorship. Keith might suggest references to help you with this.. its political stuff found in sociology. Leighblackall 05:31, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Alex

I do like this topic and the way your essay is developing. I think the tribunals do have a political interface: with the sport and with our culture. There is a public audit of the decisions and this leads to thresholds of repugnance that have immense political overtones ... we sometimes see Federal Ministers of Sport responding to decisions. If you have time have a look at Norbert Elias and The Civilising Process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Elias Postillion 01:19, 21 October 2011 (UTC)