Coaching minutes

[The Loofa]

1) I've been awake enough to know that there are Sport England targets. "contracted to deliver" however sounds a whole lot heavier than having a target, and that prompted me to start this thread

2) I was also awake enough at the time when the Regional Development plans went on the website. I read the Southern one (then no way was I going to read the others) and I thought it so way out of touch that I printed it out and took it to my club committee meeting that evening for comment. One member there said she'd seen a draft several months earlier and submitted corrections to it - none of which had been made. So I suggested to the committee that we had 2 options. Either tell BOF we were ignoring it as a load of rubbish or just ignore it as a load of rubbish. I think apathy prevailed and option 2 happened by default.

3) Strangely enough 2 meetings later one club member comes along to a committee meeting and says he wants to start one of these Community thingies. The committee's reaction seemed to be "well OK then". We seemed to be well aware of Awk's point that we mustn't let it detract from things we consider more important.

4) If the target and the funding are for the same thing, and its something you're not bothered about, don't get distracted by it. If you fail to reach the target and the funding is withdrawn the only way you're worse off is if it distracted you away from something more useful.

[awk]

And even if you do, it need not have any negative impact on your other activity, as there's no pull on volunteer resourcing unless you want it to do so.

But surely if the local club is not involed to some extent bridges will not be built and those newcomers who turn up (if any) will not know where to go when that Community O project comes to an end of its funding. Hardly the best way to retain them in the sport and grow numbers.
To than extent clubs may be "forced" to choose between supporting these initiatives and some of their other activities, as there is a limit to volunteer time available.

That involvement doesn't necessarily mean any pull on volunteer resourcing. They will obviously have to choose at some point further down the line, but then it is up to the club whether they direct their volunteer resources into further developing the community-O project or into ploughing their own furrow. They still don't have to expend finances or volunteer resourcing unless they want to, and the BOF money will at least have put them in a position where that decision can be much better informed.

[SeanC]

The theory is that there won't need to be a choice to be made down the line because the club nights become self sustaining without impact on the rest of the club.

There seems to be two ways of using the start up money (up to 4K in year 1, 2K in year 2, something less in year 3).

a) High cost/professional model. Charge participants a higher fee - say £5 +. Over time build up numbers so that they reach say 15-20 per night. If cheaper halls are used (we've found a school in Bexley that is charging us only £30 an evening) and areas with no access fees this is a reasonable part time income.

b) A low cost/volunteer model. Charge a very low fee and aim to recruit lots of newcomers. Over time persuade a few of the newcomers to do the coaching course then they take over the coaching.

For option b the coaching money could be used to employ a coach for the start up period. I'm not sure if the coach could be paid and then the money be simply be donated to the club?

That's the theory but it's all new so we'll see.

Even when club nights rather a bolt on to club's development strategies (as suggested by Loofa/MIE examples) there are opportunities. Could those SLOW club nights do some extra SLOW street O's or park O's? Maybe the MV club night people will go for a meal/drink afterwards so that gives some extra MV socialising opportunities?

Agreed - the danger is that clubs see this as a panacea and don't address other aspects of club development.