Are you a sports club volunteer?
Imagine a place that you can go to get all your burning questions answered. It would have practical information about fundraising, increasing participation, sponsorship, legal compliance, sourcing quality suppliers and more.
Well, that resource has arrived!
Introducing the Sports Community – “a one-stop shop for all grassroots sports clubs where volunteers and administrators can learn, share and grow”.
Grand Slam has recently listed our business with the Sports Community supplier directory, so we decided to investigate a little more and find out what the organisation is all about.
I spoke to Managing Director, Steve Pallas, about the concept behind the Sports Community, the services they offer, and plans for the future.
It all started over a game of cricket…
The concept of the Sports Community started to evolve when Steve Pallas was the secretary of the Mt Martha Cricket Club. He struggled with the lack of information available for club volunteers and modestly believes that “I went on to be probably the world’s worst sports administrator”.
In 2007 to 2008, Pallas became CEO of the Mornington-Nepean Football League and observed that club volunteers confronted the same issues he had 20 years prior. So he and some friends got together and decided to address the lack of information for sports clubs.
“A couple of nights over red wine, we decided to create the resource we want, so effectively the concept of the Sports Community is that a president can give a job to one person who knows nothing about it. Hopefully we empower them to start that job or to really take away the unknown.”
I asked Steve what he thinks some of the major problems are for club volunteers when they first go into the role. He believes that the hardest thing is that they simply don’t know what to expect or where to look for information.
“Their major challenge is that they don’t know what’s in store for them…Say for a new pavilion manager – no one tells you what to do so you do what you think is right, and then the players are off the ground and there’s no soap in the toilets or showers. So all of the sudden the players are complaining. You’re never going to make that mistake again, but the only way you learn is through bitter experience…”
Another big problem is that people may leave the club without passing on any information about how they did their job. A new person comes into the role and has to start everything from scratch. Steve explains the importance of documenting policies and procedures to help make the job easier for the next person:
“Even explaining why they should spend some time [creating documentation]. Because everyone joins the committee thinking they’ll be spending time getting teams on the ground, and maybe a little bit of sponsorship and fundraising. But there’s so much more to it these days. They just don’t know when they come into it, so it can become pretty daunting for them.”
Filling these information gaps is what the Sport Community is striving to do. Their free online resource offers plenty of tips to get you started. If you want to expand on this information, their training sessions offer plenty of value.
Training your club (off the field)
Imagine the Sports Community as a kind of club coach. They can help out with everything from financial management to organising sausage sizzles.
The Sports Community currently offer 6 training sessions:
Session 1 – Legislative compliance and risk management
Session 2 – Creating a great club culture and participation strategies which work
Session 3 – Achieving club objectives through strategic planning and volunteer management
Session 4 –Creating strong financial processes
Session 5 –Club fundraising strategies (Beyond the sausage sizzle!!!)
Session 6 – Social media and communication strategies for sports clubs
Last year, the organisation held 50 training sessions last year and took the training sessions on a tour right around Australia. They are currently expanding their offering this year to include competencies in event management, sponsorship, grant writing and committee management.
At the moment, they are working on putting all training modules online – a great resource for rural and regional clubs who may not be able to make it to live training sessions in the city.
Match-making for sports clubs and businesses
No this doesn’t mean a sporty version of e-Harmony (although that would be an interesting concept!).
The Sports Community have discovered that volunteers often don’t know where to look if they need quality products and services for their club. Steve emphasises that:
“A really important part of what we do is linking up organisations with club volunteers because they often just don’t know who to call. For example, even the new canteen manager who’s just started have no idea where to get their pies…because the last canteen manager has gone and didn’t pass on any information. So linking up suppliers that service the clubs and educating the clubs about what they can do for them.”
Whether you need a fairy floss for your fundraiser, hot dogs for the canteen, or new sports equipment for the game – the Sports Community’s directory aims to perfectly match up sports businesses with the clubs that need them.
So if you are looking for something in particular for your club, have a browse through the Sports Community directory (and while you’re there, check out Grand Slam’s new sports equipment listing!).
We encourage everyone to get on board with the Sports Community! This is a great resource for clubs and is truly working on bringing the Australian sporting community closer as a whole.
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For more information on the Sports Community, contact Steve Pallas on 03 5973 6404 or visit www.sportscommunity.com.au.
