Paying for help.
Typically clubs pay for the things that they consider matter (and they do), things like more footballs, coaching talent, training equipment or more drink bottles. Unfortunately there seems to be no desire to get better at the administration things that matter. A long day at work usually sours our desire for administration at the club. We tend to avoid another meeting, reading more notes and dealing with other overheads.
Now consider how much better it would be to get better at:
Recording the numbers
How to hold a meeting
Giving a presentation
Recording minutes
Short-cutting membership registration
Merchandise
Canteen management
How to attract and retain volunteers
How to raise money
Recruiting sponsors
But for most of us we need to wing it. We stumble over the same hurdles as the person before us. Paying for tools to make your job, and the job of the person that comes after you is something worth doing and will allow you to recruit and retain volunteers around you.
Take a step back, I know you don’t want to, I know that this makes up your weekend, and the success of the club depends on you being there, but set up and empower people, make them and the rest of your club understand each others roles, and then move away. They will stand up, they have no choice, or others around will tell you otherwise anyway, in which case you take alternative actions.
By having others stand up around you, and take off most of the burden from your shoulders, you are producing a stronger club that will be more inclined to be better, to come up with their own ideas, and it won’t all fall in a heap when you do eventually resign… which you will do… one day.
Social media takes over.
I probably don’t need to tell you this, as you’re already reading this and fairly aware of the social networking tools and systems out there, but whether you like it or not, whether you’re personally registered with them or not, you need to understand that your members are more than likely involved, and you should be utilising it.
Register a Page with Facebook and Twitter, setup a group with LinkedIn, and regardless of whether you think you might use it or not setup other accounts with things such as Youtube. There is a reason these tools have been so successful and that’s because they’re very good at what they do, so utilise them. If you’re unsure about it, get someone who is keen with it to set it up for your club.
In addition, sign up to use TidyClub’s communication feature which, allows you to keep your members and supporters up to date, regardless of your preferred medium. Communication needs to be easy, and we’ve reduced the hassle with our simple platform. And best of all, it’s free to use.
Introducing our newest segment, Club Talk.
We spoke with Genevieve Faulkner about the in’s and out’s of running a club. Genevieve is the Head Coach of the Australian Representative Ice Skating Team. Each month we’ll speak club to club presidents, leaders, or anyone involved with running clubs and not-for-profit organisations.
At TidyClub we believe feedback is essential in crafting our platform to meet the needs of clubs. A club that is like a well-oiled machine is easier to take places with the additional benefits of attracting more members and volunteers. If you haven’t already, sign up for free and see what TidyClub can do for your club.
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the next Club Talk!
Transparency is good business.
Transparency is good business. If the people involved in the club know and understand why the sponsorship drive is so important, or why a club can’t give away free t-shirts, they may be more likely to give you a hand.
A few suggestions to increase the transparency could be;
- Produce an organisational chart, insert the names of those in the positions, and print it out into a poster size document and put it on the wall in your club rooms.
- Give them an idea of costs, by advertising how much insurance costs are, how much the canteen costs to run, or the new equipment is to purchase.
- Start including other non-committee members on committee like actions, get more people involved. The more involved, albeit in a third party fashion the more awareness there will be of the sheer quantity of effort involved.
Say Thank You.
Thanking people for their efforts is a great way to start a conversation, it leads with the right foot, it gets them on side, it gets them on your side.
They will be more understanding of the small critiscm you may follow up with, and they will be more likely to help you again into the future. You can’t do it by yourself.
