The Scottish Sports Association is an organisation you think you may have heard of, but you're not really sure what it does.
It does a lot, it inspires and offers guidance to hundreds of thousands of people across a wide variety of sporting activities. It is positioned at the heart of Scottish sport.
The Scottish Sports Association is there to advocate for its members, which comprise 50 sports governing bodies, as well as 13,000 sports clubs, 195,000 volunteers (we should not forget the volunteering that goes on to deliver sport) and 900,000 sports club members.
It was the Scottish Sports Association that got me fired up about opening up school pitches across South Lanarkshire when I was a councillor, and it is thanks to the them that we achieved this and got local people access to these facilities.
I was appalled when I heard that the Scottish Government wanted to cut £70,000 of funding to this organisation.
The decision to remove the funding was debated in the chamber recently and it received wide cross-party support.
Speakers from different political parties condemned the cuts, whilst telling stories of how the Scottish Sports Association has played such a vital role in their constituencies.
When we want to get people into sport and we want to get people active, we need a body like the Scottish Sports Association.
The Minister for Public Health and Sport Aileen Campbell should listen to those cross-party members who spoke passionately about the importance of the Scottish Sports Association and reverse the decision to remove the £70,000 funding.
The Scottish Sports Association is a unique organisation, it is the voice of a wide variety of sports. We and the sporting bodies it represents can't afford for that voice to be silenced for such a small sum.
Here is the motion for the debate from Scottish Labour's James Kelly.
That the Parliament recognises what it sees as the contribution of the Scottish Sports Association (SSA) in raising the profile and promoting the benefits of sport, and to over 13 policy areas in the Scottish Government; considers that the role of the SSA as the independent and collective voice for sport in Glasgow and across the country is vital; is concerned that, after 18 years of core funding, there are reports of a proposed withdrawal of funding for the SSA from both the government and sportscotland; believes that this is an unacceptable situation; understands that the government funds other membership organisations across the voluntary sector to enable their voices to be heard, and notes the view that, to ensure a sustainable future for the organisation, the SSA's funding should be restored in 2018-19.
You can find out more about SSA HERE.