Administration
Planning
Where is your Club now? There are many clubs and associations that are not functioning effectively. Is your club one of these?:
- Membership
is dropping for obvious reasons
- The club
is struggling to keep a stable committee
- You have
difficulty attracting sponsors
- Your committee
does not have the skills to complete their tasks
- You don’t
have a development plan
- You never
know where the club’s money goes
- You don’t
know how to go about evaluating where you are now
- You don’t
provide training for your committee members
- Your members
never know what is going on
Club
Health Checklist
Complete
the checklist below to see how your club shapes up in the areas of administration,
membership, education, meetings and in general. Once you have completed
the checklist, discuss the responses with other members of your club and
see if there may be areas where changes are indicated.
- Does your
Club have a development plan for the next 5 years?
- Is volunteer
management included in your plan?
- Does your
Club have a Club newsletter?
- Are members
encouraged to attend meeting of your Club?
- Do Club
members get plenty of notice when payment of fees are due?
- Do office
bearers fully understand their duties and carry them out?
- Do you
have enough people in the running of the Club?
- Does each
person assisting in the Club have a job description?
- Do you
have a Club sponsor?
- Do you
have a Club prospectus?
- Is the
Club promoted regularly through the local media?
- Do you
have a volunteer co-ordinator?
Planning
Whilst an
increasing number of organisations are employing professional officers
to assist with their development, the bulk of the work at club level depends
on the efforts of volunteers.
For the optimum
development of any organisation it is necessary for these efforts to be
coordinated and channelled towards a series of common goals.
The most
effective method by which an organisation can establish its goals and
identify the best means of working towards them is through being involved
in a planning process, which sets them on the path to a better future.
Planning can help your club to:
- Cope with
change in your environment
- Clarify
its purpose
- Look where
it has come from and where it is now
- Decide
where it wants to be in the future
- Work out
how to get there
- Develop
teamwork off the field
- Use your
resources effectively
- Check
out your progress
It is important
to remember that plans, once written, are "living" documents. They are
no use sitting on a shelf collecting dust. A plan becomes a guide for
the organisation – and it will no doubt go through changes.
A planning
process will help you to identify:
- The tasks
you need to perform to make your organisation work more effectively
- What people
you need to run your organisation
- How to
best utilise the resources you have in terms of facilities/equipment,
finance and people
- How well
you have provided the services that you exist for
A plan can
be utilised to develop a club prospectus, which might include some of
the following information:
- Role and
function of the club for its members
- Role and
function of the club within the community
- What services
the club provides
- Who the
services are provided for
- How to
access the club services
- Roles
and tasks of club members
- Future
direction of the club
- Rights
and obligations of members
A prospectus
can then be used to market the club for future members, sponsors and funding
agencies.
Although
planning can be a time consuming process it is one that a wide variety
of successful organisations have been using for decades. It is an investment
in the club's future.
Management
Planning
The same
management principles that apply to running a club apply whether the club
is run by one person – a manager or a management committee.
- Make the
club a positive place – it is very important members see the club as
a positive place to be. They go there for recreation, it absorbs their
vital leisure time. If they are unhappy at the club they will go somewhere
else.
- Have a
future direction – the club must have a concept of its direction and
future. All resources should be geared towards these aims and goals.
The club structure should be geared towards fulfilling those goals.
Quality officials – a plan to educate and encourage officials is important.
The better the administration, the stronger the club. Organisation is
the key to success.
- Set excellence
as the example – if the club is a well-run quality organisation, it
follows that members will be inspired to replicate the efforts being
made on their behalf at the top. Remember that no matter how a club
is managed the most important thing is to remember that whatever is
done, its is done with the aim of improving the club for its members.
The Club
Prospectus
Basically,
a prospectus outlines what the club does and whom it does it for. This
can be a useful marketing document whether it is to potential members,
sponsors or the media. A prospectus may also outline the rights and obligations
of its members.
Some questions
that might be asked in writing a prospectus include:
- Section
1 Why/Who does the club exist for?
- Section
2 What services does the club provide?
- Section
3 How is the club structured?
- Section
4 How can those services be accessed?
Answering
each of the questions will give a broad outline of the club. You might
like to further broaden the prospectus by adding in some further details
under each of the sections, including:
Section
1
- A brief
history of the club
- Types
of membership (individual, family, group, associate, school)
- How much
are membership fees?
- Do your
programs cater for all community members?
- What is
the future direction of the club (refer to your club's plan, if one
is developed)
Section
2
- What services
does the club provide?
- What are
the benefits of being a member?
- What participation
opportunities are there, including social/competitive/non-competitive?
- What skill
development opportunities are there? How can they be accessed?
- How wide-ranging
are the activities? Do they cater for children, older adults, and people
with disabilities? How do they cater for each of the groups?
- What resources
are available? Does the club have any access to books, videos, kits
or pamphlets? What facilities exist?
- What education/training
opportunities exist and in what format?
- What support
services (such as child-minding) are available?
- What social
events/opportunities does the club offer?
- Outline
your risk management (safety) practices and procedures.
Section
3
- How/when
is the committee elected?
- Who is
on the committee? What roles do they fulfil?
- What support
roles are there?
- How to
volunteer your services
- What support
is provided to volunteers? (eg. Training, reimbursement of expenses,
incentives and recognition).
- What linkages
exist with other associations, including local government/state organisation
of the regional, associations/other, clubs/community, groups/schools.
Finally,
it is important to relate:
- How the
club operates financially
- Where
funds/grants are obtained
- What sponsorship
does the club have? How are these acknowledged?
- What assets
does the club have? (including facilities)
Section
4
- How can
the services be accessed?
- How, when
and cost of services should be included?
Writing
a prospectus takes time, but will provide your club with a valuable tool
for its development
