All sporting organisations in Aotearoa - New Zealand rely largely on volunteers who give of their time and energy, to be able to deliver, administrate and run their sports. The sport of Dragon Boating is no different in that respect and whilst our awesome volunteers give of their time freely, there are still many costs involved in delivering, administrating and running any sport. Those costs are by and large met through membership affiliation fees. It is therefore very important that people wanting to participate in this wonderful sport, whether it be at a social and fun level or at an elite level contribute to the ongoing sustainability of the sport through their membership affiliation fees.
Athletes (sweeps, paddlers, callers/drummers) join and pay membership fees to a Dragon Boat team or club which provides coaching, team assets (such as paddles and uniforms), funding and the like. These teams or clubs then affiliate to a Dragon Boating Regional Sporting Organisations (RSO) which provide local racing events, training resources and collective assets at a regional level. They may also provide a Regional Championship event or co-ordinate with other nearby RSOs to run this event.
In turn, these RSOs affiliate to a peak National Sports Organisation (NSO).The NSO sets the strategy and direction for the sport at a national level. They will also work with their RSOs, other national sporting bodies (eg. Sport NZ, NZCF), international sports bodies (eg. IDBF, ICF, OceaniaDBF, AusDBF) to ensure their sport is well run and delivering to its members. In Aotearoa - NZ the NSO for Dragon Boating is the NZDBA also known as Dragon Boat NZ.