Waverley Little Athletics Centre Inc.

Len Crossley

Len Crossley is a Life Member and Past President of the Waverley Little Athletics Centre Inc. He was the 13th Centre President.

13th Centre President
In office
1988 - 1990

In those days the Waverley Centre was essentially the hub for the administration of the VLAA of the surrounding municipalities which were created by using the municipalities boundaries. So the Centre was the headquarters for the region of the following clubs, Mount Waverley, Glen Waverley, Glen Heights, Syndal / Waverley North, Notting Hill, Panthers, St Leonards, Holy Family, each of whom had their own Presidents, Vice Presidents, Treasurers and so on including their own bank accounts.

They would all hold their own monthly meetings and on the second or third week in the month two delegates from each club would attend the Waverley Centre and inform the meeting of any business they each had to report, inform the centre treasurer and registrar of any new members, provide each members supporting registration details and they were supposed pass on any money collected, but that was not usually done and at the end of the season when the clubs were asked to pay their dues so that the centre registrar could forward those funds onto the VLAA (now LAVic) head office. Annually Each Club registered as an affiliate of the Waverley Centre, and subsequently when they paid their dues to the Centre Treasurer he / she would forward formal documentation to Victorian Little Athletics Association and all were covered by the incorporations act or umbrella of the VLAA. The meeting was a two way meet so anything from headquarters was also discussed and taken on board for the next meeting.

From Len:

I restructured the Waverley Centre and centralised the whole organisation from 7-8 clubs to 4 teams and got rid of all the presidents/treasurers etc. who were duplicating what could be done at the centre, so we had one treasurer and President and one bank account and so on. That was a pretty revolutionary concept in those days because all the presidents etc. didn’t want to lose their titles and authority but it was necessary for much the same reasons you have found it necessary to make more changes to make it work today. We had the same problems you might have today, no one wants to do anything. It becomes a child minding centre essentially. At one stage Waverley Centre had around 1000 little athletes and 10 clubs each with approximately 100 children in each, so it was a big centre once. When I took over the numbers had fallen to less than 300 but subsequently after the restructure it grew to around 400 in two years. By doing that it freed up a lot of people who were simply figure heads, and the centre was much the better for the restructure. The VLAA's constitution wasn't flexible enough to make such a radical change because the constitution only mentioned clubs and not teams. So I required a 2rds majority in favour of the change. I had a real fight on my hands to convince the committee it was in the Centre's best interests and fortunately I won the executive over in the end at a special meeting by two votes. They never looked back and the proposal was taken up within the VLAA as a new model which was quite an achievement when no one wanted to change.

Honour Board

• 1989/90 - Life Member

Centre Involvement

• 1987/88 - Committee - Chief Track
• 1988/89 - Representative - LAVic Annual General Meeting
• 1988/90 - Committee - President

Region Involvement

• 1991/92 - Controller of Officials - SMR Executive Committee

State Involvement

• 1990/92 - LAVic Membership Development Committee