Boden and Bromley Honoured with Life Membership

Neil Boden and Peter Bromley have been honoured with Athletics Australia Life Membership for outstanding contributions to Australian athletics, following today’s 2024 Annual General Meeting in Melbourne.

Approaching 30 years of service across both state and national levels, Boden is described as a “quintessential volunteer”, while Bromley’s most recent role as Athletics Australia’s Chief Executive Officer was just one of many roles within the sport. 

Citations written by Brian Roe for Athletics Australia
Posted: 24/10/2024

NEIL BODEN (ACT)

Neil Boden epitomises the quintessential modern volunteer in sport – at local, state and national level.

In athletics this began in 1995, with myriad roles on ACT Masters Athletics sub-committees, after Neil, along with wife and later fellow athletics official Kerry, joined the club as athletes in 1990. In the process, he played the lead role in instigating the High Noon Meets in Canberra and took on the task of convenor for the 1999 Australian Association of Veteran Athletic Clubs Championships in Canberra.

At the same time Neil was making an impact at the other end of the athletics pathway - as competition manager with Corroboree Little Athletics Club from 1995 to 1999, during which time he initiated a three-week rotating program that included hurdles on a weekly basis. He served as president of the club from 2001 to 2003.

From 2001 to 2009, Neil was records officer for the ACT Veterans Athletic Club. Together with Kerry, he was responsible for transferring approximately 5000 hand-written records into digital formats.

As well as ongoing roles, Neil has always had a passion for putting up his hand for one-off or annual events. In athletics, this has included being a volunteer at the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic marathons in Sydney and volunteer co-ordinator for the 2003 Australian Masters Games in Canberra. Neil is not only happy just to be involved but regularly takes the next step of ensuring his fellow volunteers’ experiences are well organised, informed and enjoyable.

These volunteer co-ordinator roles Neil has taken on in Canberra represent a considerable body of work – for the 2005 International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability World Athletics Championships, the 2006 and 2013 Australian Masters Athletic Championships in Canberra, the 2010 Australian Cup and Canberra Classic.

Neil is also a national technical official – primarily in track events as an umpire and lap scorer. He has been appointed to national championship and circuit events over a more than 20-year period. At international level he was a track official at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

He was one of those who worked hard on the local organising committee for the 2021 Australian Masters Athletic Championships in Canberra only to have the event cancelled due to the pandemic.

And then there are the 30 parkruns and more than 20 marathons and half marathons in Canberra at which Neil has been a volunteer.

In 2004, Neil became a director on the Board of Athletics ACT – a role he effectively continues to fulfil, having been deeply involved in the unification of Little Athletics ACT and Athletics ACT to become the single entity as Capital Athletics.

Neil was President of ACT Athletics from 2015 to 2023, during which time he was also the ACT’s delegate to Athletics Australia – playing an always measured but an even more effective role in advocating for athletics in the ACT and the other smaller Member Associations. At the same time Neil displayed an excellent understanding of what was needed for the sport at national and international level.

He was also a member of AA’s Special Awards Committee as one of the two MA President representatives. Neil immersed himself in the Committee’s work providing many valuable contributions and ideas. 

Neil’s penchant for helping out has not been limited to athletics - amongst his extensive volunteering further afield in sport included soccer and touch football refereeing, committee roles in ACT Touch Football and Wests Squash Club, venue manager for the Kanga Cup (the largest youth soccer tournament in the southern hemisphere) and stretcher bearer and ground staff roles at other soccer competitions. Outside sport, since 2019 Neil has been the volunteer logistics team leader at the Lifeline Book Warehouse in Canberra one day every week.

Neil’s commitment to serving athletics, always as a volunteer, has been relentless and immensely valuable – displaying a perfect understanding of when it was strategic or hands-on input that was more appropriate. It is rare that someone begins their connection with the sport as a masters’ athlete and then delivers some much diverse and valuable service. Neil Boden is a most deserving nominee for Athletics Australia life membership.

PETER BROMLEY (NSW)

Peter Bromley inherited a life-long love of athletics from his father, John – a four-time New South Wales state distance running champion. It’s something that has become inter-generational as Peter’s son Nick was a five-time Australian champion and 2006 Commonwealth Games finalist and daughter Alicia a New South Wales state champion in 2016.

Growing up on the Central Coast where he attended Erina High School, Peter was a founding member and served on the executive committee of Gosford Athletics Club. He subsequently joined and played roles with Ku-ring-gai Athletics (where he spent time as president and executive committee member), Western Suburbs AC, Sydney Pacific AC and UTS Norths AC.

Peter was New South Wales state champion at 1500m in 1976. Later that year he represented NSW in the National Cross Country in Hobart where he was a member of the state’s bronze medal winning unit in the teams’ race. He also ran at the Nationals in senior 5000m events.

After graduating from the University of Technology Sydney with a bachelor's degree in marketing, finance and sales, Peter embarked on a successful business career in senior management roles in banking, real estate, mortgage brokering and data/analytics. It placed him in good stead to find the extra time to take on key voluntary roles in athletics.

Peter became a board member of Athletics NSW in July 2003, remaining in the role until November 2010. Most significantly he served as the association’s president and chair from June 2007 until his retirement from the Board. During this time he also served as the NSW delegate to Athletics Australia as well as being a member of the NSW Marketing Advisory Panel.

The principal reason for standing down was Peter’s election to the Athletics Australia Board of Directors in October 2010 were he remained in office until the compulsory stand-down after nine years mandated by the Australian Sports Commission.

During this further period of volunteer service to the sport, Peter was a member of AA’s Governance Committee (2013 - 2015), Audit and Risk/Finance and Planning Committee (2016 - 2019) and its High Performance Committee (2018 - 2019).

Peter was often outspoken on issues he felt particularly strongly about but was also willing to take on challenging tasks as a result. During a period of short-term turmoil, he was a member of the controversial review panel established to investigate Athletics performance at Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Peter was also a strong voice surrounding selection issues for the 2016 Olympics.

When further challenges confronted Athletics Australia after Peter’s retirement from Board duty, he was soon asked to return in a professional capacity initially as general manager of AA’s Run West project in Sydney and then from April 2021 until the end of the Olympic quadrennial after Paris as chief executive officer of Athletics Australia itself.

Peter’s term at the helm included significant restructuring, expansion and decentralisation of staffing operations throughout the country and the steering of the organisation through the pandemic, which saw national competition and most high-performance functions placed in abeyance for over a year.

Peter’s knowledge of the sport’s governance through his long experience at board level at state and national levels was crucial in difficult times with his mandate at the helm ending excellent results for the sport in so many areas – highlighted by its high-performance outcomes.

The initial proposal for Peter Bromley to be considered for life membership of Athletics Australia was presented when he retired from the AA Board but was deferred when he took on his two professional roles within the organisation – until now. Both then and now Peter’s enduring service to the sport, most substantially as a volunteer, provides a sound basis for his nomination for AA Life Membership.