As a member of my sons club committee I had the joyful experience of being involved in a registration day to try and ensure that everyone is ready for the 2008 season.
We decided to fix 1 day and try and turn it into an event. Rather than just settle on the usual table and chairs we invited players from our premier state team, The Waratahs, to run training sessions, setup a BBQ, arranged to have ID photos and jersey sizing done and had every committee member and most of the coaches on hand to answer any questions from players and parents.
To ensure we had a good turn out we sent 3 emails to our player base from last year, put up posters and banners around the suburb and ran advertisements in 5 of the local newspapers.
Doing our math we expected to get around 180 plus from our junior ranks and 60 or more from our seniors. After 5 hours we had 75 registered players and a pile of food left over.
Those that did turn up had a good run and got to learn some new skills those that didn't, well, who knows?
I write this as one of those - what the? thoughts.
We have a good size club and plenty of motivated players but despite all that we have less than 1/3rd of the club turn up for the day, and that makes the management process just that much harder. Now we have to call or email those that didn't turn up and arrange the entire process in another way, what a pain.
At SportCard we built Payment Manager to try and solve a few of these issues, certainly the payment and tracking process and those little reminders for everyone who hasn't paid yet, but when there is a need for physical intervention, like trying on jerseys, these days are a necessity.
My experience from today and previous years is that the hardest thing to do is create passion for the club and team, from all involved. Without it how do you make anything work? Every player and to a greater degree their parents need to share it just like the coach and committee members.
So what motivates everyone?
I wish I knew...........
We decided to fix 1 day and try and turn it into an event. Rather than just settle on the usual table and chairs we invited players from our premier state team, The Waratahs, to run training sessions, setup a BBQ, arranged to have ID photos and jersey sizing done and had every committee member and most of the coaches on hand to answer any questions from players and parents.
To ensure we had a good turn out we sent 3 emails to our player base from last year, put up posters and banners around the suburb and ran advertisements in 5 of the local newspapers.
Doing our math we expected to get around 180 plus from our junior ranks and 60 or more from our seniors. After 5 hours we had 75 registered players and a pile of food left over.
Those that did turn up had a good run and got to learn some new skills those that didn't, well, who knows?
I write this as one of those - what the? thoughts.
We have a good size club and plenty of motivated players but despite all that we have less than 1/3rd of the club turn up for the day, and that makes the management process just that much harder. Now we have to call or email those that didn't turn up and arrange the entire process in another way, what a pain.
At SportCard we built Payment Manager to try and solve a few of these issues, certainly the payment and tracking process and those little reminders for everyone who hasn't paid yet, but when there is a need for physical intervention, like trying on jerseys, these days are a necessity.
My experience from today and previous years is that the hardest thing to do is create passion for the club and team, from all involved. Without it how do you make anything work? Every player and to a greater degree their parents need to share it just like the coach and committee members.
So what motivates everyone?
I wish I knew...........
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