LOCAL governing body for netball, the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), is planning to register as a corporate entity, known as Netball Jamaica, as part of its ongoing restructuring programme aimed at taking the sports forward in a professional manner.

President of the organisation Marva Bernard and her team outlined their company’s mission at the Jamaica Observer’s Monday Exchange with editors and reporters at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue head office yesterday.

“Before now, the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) was just a loose association, so we will be now incorporating and we will be known as Netball Jamaica,” Bernard revealed.

“Already we have been operating in a professional manner, which I assure you that our annual reports are tabled at our annual general meetings and our books are audited by professional audit firm,” she added.

“So that’s one aspect of our operating like a business… we have been doing this forever as an association. As a business, it is how we are going to be run, it is the products that we have to sell,” said Bernard.

The organisation is responsible for four national teams and, in this year of the Under-21 championship, is currently in a bind, as it will cost them $8 million to prepare and send that team to the World Youth Netball Championship in Glasgow, Scotland, set for August.

With a $65-million budget, with a guarantee $43 million income inflow, there is a $25 million shortfall, and the JNA will have to find creative ways of overcoming that deficit.

But under the new structure, Netball Jamaica will be more viable and transparent as its principals plan to develop the sport and attract more investment.

“So in terms of a business, it is how we conduct our affairs. We have people investing money in our business, so we have to give them returns on these investments.

“We have to report to them on how we have spent their dollars, and that’s what we are doing, but we will also have to be held to a higher order of governance when reporting now, because we will be an incorporated entity operating under the laws and falling under the laws of the country as it relates to companies,” Bernard said.

“So we do pay our PAYE taxes. We do have a TCC, and we are tax compliant in all of our affairs. So in that regard we have been operating professionally,” she reiterated.

Bernard, who replaced Sharon Donaldson as netball president in 2005, said the re-organisation and governance actually started in 2012, and she believes the re-organisation will also help to propel Jamaica to the top of the world ranking.

“What does it take for Jamaica to be the best netball playing country on the planet?” In this context we are considering world ranking, local participation, reach and an organisation that can sustain itself and its players,” noted Bernard.

To do this, the organisation is required to be incorporated, set up parish associations for bringing all netball under the ambit of the the new organisation, restructure the existing secretariat under a Board that will set policy and provide corporate governance and oversee significant financial arrangements.

The JNA has outlined four pillars to build the successful transformation of netball in Jamaica in branding opportunities; technical competence outreach and expansion; business development; and streamlining of governance.

To date, 11 parish associations have been formed with Kingston and St Andrew and St Ann lagging behind.

The official launches for Portland and Trelawny are scheduled for this month.