On Sunday the 14^th April Sporting Advantage held our very first full day Club Development Conference in our well-equipped conference room at 5 Hamill St! We had a fantastic audience with attendees coming from Townsville, Charters Towers, Richmond and Mackay; and representing a variety of different sports including Rugby League, Darts, Tennis, Football (Soccer), 4X4, Shooting and Golf.

Our topics included:

• Attract and Manage Volunteers
• Enhance Exposure Through Marketing and Sponsorship
• Increase Income with Successful Grant Writing
• Organise and Run a Fantastic Event

Our Volunteer topic highlighted the importance of engaging a Volunteer Coordinator whose role it is to look after the volunteers at a club including providing support, education and training; as well as planning for how many volunteers are required and what type of roles those volunteers will need to perform. We also discussed a volunteer database and the importance of gaining information from your members in regards to volunteering preferences.

Our Marketing and Sponsorship topic included the presentation of a Marketing Plan template and discussion about target markets and differentiating a club from it’s competitors. We discussed the importance of planning and the types of marketing opportunities available to sporting clubs. Sponsorship is a topic that is of interest to all sporting clubs as this financial backing can be invaluable to keeping a club running. A sponsorship proposal template was discussed in detail and a template proposal was provided to attendees.

After lunch we discussed the popular Grant Writing topic. During this session we shared all of our grant writing secrets with attendees. There was plenty of discussion during this topic with the familiar principle of planning again proving important. Proving the need and explaining the benefits of a project were also discussed in detail.

Our final topic was event management which also incorporated the important topic of risk management. Our attendees learnt about the intricacies of planning and running a successful event and received a handy event planning checklist template.

Overall the conference was a great success with a lot of interaction between participants and a lot of information shared. In the words of one of our participants it was an: “educational, informative and entertaining experience”.

Let us know if you would like to see more of these conferences in Townsville or wherever you live!

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has released new governance principles to improve the accountability of national sporting organisations. Chair of the ASC, John Wylie said recent events had confirmed that many sports needed to raise their governance standards significantly. Mr Wylie says “While good governance does not guarantee success, its absence almost certainly guarantees failure.”

Why is it important?

Good corporate governance is about planning, organisational performance and leadership. Why is it important? Because as a committee member you are responsible for the following:

• The incorporated legal entity
• Dealing with money
• Dealing with members and stakeholders rights and expectations
• Running events and sporting fixtures
• Publishing a website, social media pages and newsletters
• Owning, leasing or holding a licence to occupy property

Some questions you should be asking as a club:

• Planning – have you got a strategic plan in place? Is this plan current or does it require a review? If you require assistance with putting a strategic plan together, we can assist .

• Organisational Performance – Are you monitoring the performance of the club against performance targets to ensure the goals and objectives are achieved? You can utilise your strategic plan in order to assess where you are at with meeting your goals. It might be something you can include in each committee meeting, set aside 15 minutes per meeting to monitor the club’s progress.

• Leadership – Do all of your committee members fully understand their responsibilities, as well as the key operational aspects of their club/association? Members of the committee should ensure that they have the best interests of members and stakeholders at the core of their decision making. Ensure that you have a detailed committee election process in your constitution and make this available to all members for their information.

Do you need help with governance?

If you require assistance reviewing the governance standards at your club Sporting Advantage are available to run a one day workshop to review your current situation and assist the club with implementing a new governance structure.

Our new office itself may be compact and windowless but we have a lot of amenities in the building to keep us entertained. The facilities in our building are fantastic as we now have access to a full kitchen and a large well-equipped conference room. This means we can offer our lovely clients catering and also hold meetings in our conference room on-site after hours, during the work day and also on weekends as required.

We have already put our new kitchen and conference room to good use with a lunchtime AGM and Planning Clinic for Townsville Softball over the weekend and also an energetic breakfast meeting for the NQ Corporate Carnival Organising Committee on Wednesday.

We love to have visitors so if you are around our way please drop in and say hello!

• Website
• Newsletter
• Word of mouth
• Text message
• Social media
• Email
• Flyer
• Phone call

Email and Newsletters

• Produce a regular newsletter to be emailed and handed out
• Only forward relevant information to specific groups, to increase the likelihood that emails are read and not ignored or deleted
• Ensure the subject heading of the email is interesting to encourage the recipient to open it
• Incorporate a clear contents page so recipients can quickly browse to see what is included

Text Messaging

• Employ a similar method to distribute information via text messages, including game results, upcoming events, reminders etc.
• Research suitable phone plans that may include unlimited text messaging
• The website Bounce Back SMS www.bbsms.com.au allows you to place messages on a ‘bulletin board’ that your members can access by texting a specific keyword to a number.  The user will incur a 55c charge to access the message, however, the remainder of the service is free

Noticeboards

• Noticeboards are only useful if the content is relevant and kept up to date
• Old notices need to be removed
• Information included on the noticeboard needs to be clear

Social Media

• ALL social media postings, blogs, status updates and tweets should be appropriate to be viewed as public ‘comment’
• Postings (written, photos or videos) should be family-friendly and feature positive club news and events
• No personal information about club members should be disclosed. It is important that the sites privacy settings are set, ensuring that an outside person may not be able to make contact with a young person by first gaining access via the club’s social networking site
• Ensure that no statements are made that might bring the club into disrepute. The social network site should never be used as a medium by which to abuse or criticise club members, other clubs, governing bodies or other sports
• Abusive, discriminatory, intimidating or offensive statements should  not be tolerated. Offending posts should be removed and those responsible immediately be blocked from the site
• Coaches should NOT have players under the age of 18 as their ‘friends’ on social networking sites

Fundraising Tips and Tricks

Do you need more cash to make a splash in your sport? You are not alone. Most sport clubs operate with limited finances and need to raise additional funds through fundraising, sponsorship or grants in order to run their club. Fundraising is traditionally the generation of funds to assist with specific projects, programs and infrastructure. In this blog we will discuss some tips and tricks to assist you with club fundraising.                                                   First Steps       

• Fundraising Sub-Committee – important to ensure responsibilities are clear
• How much $$$ – Determine why the funds are required            
• Set Objectives - These should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound) objectives
• Timeline – Set a realistic timeline for reaching objectives including who is responsible
• Resources – people, equipment, facilities, money, commitment
• Budget – this establishes the limits that the organisation should operate within to secure more assistance

Some fundraising event ideas

Fundraising activities rely on participation from volunteers and generous member and community donations. The activity you choose should generate enthusiasm and motivation from your members, more importantly it needs to be attractive enough for people to buy tickets or attend an event.

Have you considered Sharing Costs?

By sharing or pooling costs, the organisation may reduce its need for additional funds. Examples of this approach include:

• sharing multipurpose facilities with other organisations in order to cover year round operational and infrastructure costs
• Junior and Senior clubs sharing costs of major items or purchasing things such as club merchandise in bulk in order to receive discounts
• Inviting other clubs to use your facility for in your off-season

Sale of Goods and Services

Finally, just because you’re a community group doesn’t mean that you can’t sell your goods and services. As long as any “profit” is put back into the organisation, you are still non-profit. Examples of products your club can sell are:

• Polo shirt (men’s and women’s)
• Dress shirt (men’s and women’s)
• Wide brim hats or caps
• Training shirt/singlet
• Water bottles
• Tubes of sunscreen
• Travel mugs
• Key rings
• Stubby coolers

 If you need some help raising funds for your club check out our Grant Writing for Sport or Sponsorship Success pages or give us a call

Volunteering has taken on a more sophisticated role in organisations, requiring a serious commitment from both the volunteers and the organisation. It is important that once you recruit volunteers that they are properly inducted into the club. The purpose of induction is to ensure that volunteers feel welcome, understand their role and how their contribution will benefit the club.

Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteers, like paid staff, require ongoing support and direction. A key factor in keeping your volunteer workforce happy and committed is the appointment of a volunteer coordinator for your club. Your Volunteer Coordinator will be the person driving Volunteer Induction Day.

Induction Day Hints and Tips

At your Induction Day it is important to:

• Properly introduce the club, its vision, mission, goals and objectives
• Introduce the Committee members and properly explain each of their positions
• Provide volunteers with a contact list of the committee member and also fellow volunteers with indications of whom they should contact for advice on specific areas of club operations
• Provide full training and documentation on all club policies and procedures
• Provide information and documentation on the club’s complaints and dispute resolution procedures
• Provide information and documentation on emergency procedures and resources
• Provide volunteers who are undertaking any job that requires specialist knowledge with hands on training and follow up support
• Encourage volunteers to get to know each other and rely on each other as a support network
• Be as enthusiastic as possible – enthusiasm and a love for your club is contagious!
• Break up the day with fun activities such as the drawing of lucky door prizes, ice-breaker activities and a catered lunch/morning or afternoon tea
• If you have supportive sponsors discuss the possibility of supplying goodies or giveaways for your new volunteers
• Contact your governing body to see if they can provide any support, materials or giveaways for your induction day

Buddy System

Consider a buddy system for new or less experienced volunteers – It can be helpful for some roles and to encourage people to come forward knowing that they have support or have an opportunity to see what the role involves before committing fully.

Share practice with governing body and other clubs

It is beneficial to share information with your governing body and other clubs so that good practice can be replicated and you can find out what works well for other clubs saving you time and energy implementing something that may not work!

If you would like more information on how to manage your volunteers please give us a call or visit our Volunteer Training page

All sport and recreation organisations undertake marketing, although they are often unaware that they are actually doing so. Informal marketing is what happens in the process of running your club, things like word of mouth, helpful committee members and the standards of your facilities. All of these things often happen naturally but it is important to compliment the informal marketing activities with some more formal activities in order to maximise the promotion of your club.

Here are some tips to assist your club with marketing and promotion for the upcoming season:

Develop an Action Plan

• Establish a budget for promotional activity and give someone in the club responsibility for marketing and promotion.
• Decide on a standard look for your promotional material. You should stick with the same fonts, logo and general appearance all marketing material.
• A general rule to follow when producing promotional material is to always talk in terms of benefits, rather than just features (example below).
• If you do not already have someone, find an individual with the technical skills to run your club website, Facebook page and twitter account.
• Keep a log of all promotional items; for example, a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings or records of the results of promotions you run.

Different strokes for different folks

You will need to take different approaches to attract different groups of new members to the club. Groups such as:

• Beginners or first timers;
• Those returning to the sport,
• Experienced sportspeople; and
• People who are interested in various levels of competition.

If you are trying to recruit into youth teams, you may find it more effective to target the young people’s parents and the young people themselves separately. To promote effectively, you will need to clearly identify the group that each specific campaign is targeted at, and tailor it to that group.

Don’t forget your current members

Many sporting clubs make the mistake of spending a lot of time and money on recruiting new members and forget about retaining current members.

• Work on improving the basic product or services the club or provides,
• Encourage positive and helpful attitudes in your volunteers,
• Ensure the facilities at your club are of the highest possible standards.

The Program aims to activate the future of sport in Australia by increasing the number of women involved in the business of sport so that they may:

• participate in the business of sport at all levels from grassroots participation to management and the boardroom, and/or
• excel in sports performance spanning from state to international level.

WHAT CAN YOU APPLY FOR?

Submissions will be accepted for projects that support individuals, teams, sporting clubs, sporting organisations (regional, state and national), schools, councils, governments, corporations and community groups who all have a common interest in growing the roles of women in the business of sport.

Sport related project types include:

• Increased Media
• Education and Training
• Venue development
• Equipment
• Team Travel
• Hosting a Major Sporting Event
• Sport Development

WHO CAN APPLY?

In order apply for funding with WiSE, an individual or organisation must:

• be a non-profit individual, club, team or organisation
• be incorporated in Australia under appropriate legislation if club or organisation
• be financially viable
• have prior experience, sound knowledge and business plan of the project activities for the grant application
• have an Australian Business Number (ABN).

HOW MUCH CAN YOU APPLY FOR?

The amount of funding available is dependent on the type of project and ranges from $5,000 and $50,000.

WHEN CAN YOU APPLY?

There are four rounds annually with no specific closing dates for applications.

HOW SPORTING ADVANTAGE CAN ASSIST?

Sporting Advantage can write a quality grant application that will give your organisation every possible chance to successfully win the WiSE Grant. Although we can’t guarantee you’ll be successful, we can commit the time to ensure we comprehensively meet all program requirements.

We can assist with many of the Sport related projects that this particular grant covers:

Visit the WiSE website for more information

Call Luke or Mel for more information

Below is a brilliant poem written by a man named Dale Wimbrow in 1934.  I first discovered it in one of Wayne Bennett’s books and find it very self motivating and will quote it regularly in leadership presentations.

Get up right now, go find a mirror and see what ‘the guy in the glass’ reckons about you!

• Organise a ‘come and try’ afternoon with a local sporting club.  Sailing, rifle shooting, broomball, outrigging, archery, bocce, the list is almost endless.  This gives people a chance to try a new sport and most clubs will probably be more than happy to fire up the BBQ and throw a few cold ones in an esky for you too.
• Hit the beach, where you can play beach cricket, have flag races, sand castle art competitions, dig for treasure scavenger hunts, beach volleyball, flipper relays and strategic water fights.
• With a bit of pre planning, organise a race around town, whereby teams are given a series of clues that will take them around a course and to a finishing rendezvous point for a few quite ones.  Incorporate some history and tall tales of your town, encourage public displays of silliness and of course, get as much photo evidence of team antics as possible.
• Head to a park, or use a decent sized air conditioned conference room to play an hour of fun team building games such as circle dodgeball, ten pass, ball tag, clap catch, noodle hockey, hit-kick-throw-go, octopus, fish net and run the gauntlet.  Everyone will have a laugh and work up a good hunger and thirst to kick on.

If you’re running out of time to organise an awesome Christmas staff party, give us a call and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out on any of the festive fun.