Membership increase - causes

[SeanC]

OK - this is a good news, positive thread. Please. Please......

In 2015 British Orienteering membership increased from 10,328 to 10,939 a 6% increase. Why? What's working in your area?

The Board Minutes at https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/ ... 0(00000003).pdf has a monitoring table with some statistics.

[canol]

I haven't checked but has there been an increase in Level D events and Activities as the more chances to orienteer locally increases the profile and might encourage non-members to join?

I note some clubs incentivise this by running a series of events that are cheaper to enter if you are a member. This might be a good idea because I recall BOF insurance limiting the number of events a non-member used to be able to attend before cover was invalid.

I certainly find many more clashes of events I would like to attend than there used to be; good that so many tempting events are offered but also slightly frustrating that I have to choose!

[andypat]

The recent SOA mag gave an SOA membership increase of something around 16% from memory.
I think thats a lot down to the WOC effect and more importantly the regional development officer work.
I suspect theres a bit of a regioanl effect to an extent. I know my clubs membership is down a little this year.

[SeanC]

It would be interesting if BO could provide a breakdown of membership increase by club.

Any possibilities?

If the RDO effect is significant then that's a route other clubs/associations might want to go down.

[Big Jon]

Some of SOAs growth might also be due to CDOs (as well as the RDOs).

[Electrocuted]

From memory, as I don't have the figures to hand, the SOA overall last year showed a 22% increase in membership with the clubs who have either an RDO or CDO working with them showing an overall increase of 38%.

Membership is very important to the SOA as their grants from Sportscotland are based on membership and not on participation.

[andypat]

Some of SOAs growth might also be due to CDOs (as well as the RDOs).

Sorry yes - my error of omission.

[graeme]

Some of SOAs growth might also be due to...

WOC?

[SeanC]

Has Scotland also shown an increase in participation BTW, and if so how much?

[Freefall]

We were targeted with a 2.5% increase on participation for activities and events on 2013 (a Scottish 6 Days year). For activities our target was 10,159 and we achieved 11,753. For events our target was 41,609 and we achieved 53,075. Not a bad year really.

[Gross]

For activities our target was 10,159 and we achieved 11,753. For events our target was 41,609 and we achieved 53,075. Not a bad year really.

Canyou strip out the 'WOC effect' ? That'd give a more accurate picture. If WOC resulted in an extra 2000 entrants at the 6D then approx 12000 additional participants... so the 'real' figure could be about on target....

Although maybe the SOA has discovered the secret of the 10000 entry urban event

[Electrocuted]

For activities our target was 10,159 and we achieved 11,753. For events our target was 41,609 and we achieved 53,075. Not a bad year really.

Canyou strip out the 'WOC effect' ? That'd give a more accurate picture. If WOC resulted in an extra 2000 entrants at the 6D then approx 12000 additional participants... so the 'real' figure could be about on target....

Although maybe the SOA has discovered the secret of the 10000 entry urban event

How would you quantify the "WOC effect"? It's not as straight forward as extra participants at the 6 days. Moray 2013 also benefitted from the WOC effect so our starting point already had that built in.

Most Scottish orienteers also being heavily involved in WOC and the 6 days probably also meant fewer other events and activities being put on during the year so that has an effect too.

WOC coming to Scotland was used successfully to build membership and participation in the sport in Scotland by the SOA, its RDOs and CDOs and other staff and its members. Now the effort will be in maintaining membership, and hopefully maintaining a modest increase in membership and participation.

[greywolf]

Moravian membership has been growing steadily for at least 7 years. I don't have figures for every year but it was 60 at the end of 2008, 104 at end-2010 and 260 at end-2015.

WOC has had an effect but it came on top of a sustained effort by the club and then the RDO: the recipe, as noted in another thread, has been lots of development work in schools, ensuring that our monthly saturday league events are designed to be sociable and newcomer friendly, and plenty of publicity. Geting lots of new, accessible areas mapped (and kept up-to-date) and a coaching programme for newcomers and improvers has helped too.

In the last few years the club has had national success and International representation, but Inevitably most of the growth has been families with young children, I would guess that more than half the membership are juniors. Some of the newcomers are starting to go further afield, but a fair number of the adults are level D only (MOR currently has less than 70 ranked runners).

Any prospect of maintaining, never mind growing, this level of membership will vanish if the fee hike is approved at the AGM. A capitation fee would be even worse (because when the membership fell those remaining would have to pay even more).

[SeanC]

With capitation wouldn't you just bank enough from events and/or club membership (events in MOR's case) to pay for next year's capitation?

[Scott]

A capitation fee would be even worse (because when the membership fell those remaining would have to pay even more).

Eh? The capitation fee would be payable on the current year's membership figure, not on the previous year's. Someone joins or renews their club membership, and a capitation fee for that individual becomes due from the club to BOF. At least that's how a lot of other NGBs manage to work it.

This should be fairly straightforward for orienteering to administer in practice: someone joins or renews their club membership via the BOF website, BOF take the club membership fee from the individual and pass it on to the club. The club could opt to have the capitation fee deducted at source if their membership fees are high enough, but if not (and the club is subsidising the capitation fee from entries or wherever) BOF would send the club a monthly invoice for capitation fees due on memberships/renewals that month.