runningsports - product development blog

Hi everyone

As promised, I have typed up the notes from the product development meeting at Loughborough Sports Park on 20th January to share with you.

Prior to the meeting NGBs had identified these headings as key issues for sports clubs and volunteers:

• income generation
• volunteers and the law
• board development
• succession planning
• club structures
• maximising income

At the meeting the group:

• identified headings which should be covered
• suggested some learning outcomes
• suggested some formats in which the product could be provided

I would like you to review the attached notes and let me know if (a) I have captured the information accurately and (b) if there is anything you would like to add. I will then update the information and keep everyone informed of the development through this blog.

This is the first time I have 'blogged' so please be patient with me while I learn how it is done! Thanks - Margaret

http://www.runningsports.org/rs/product-development

A Juggling Act

The season is well underway and this is causing the usual conflict between the administration, the work to set up the Club (OK, hopefully a one off this year!), coaching and actually doing the sport! So, training takes about 8 hours out of my week, if I do it properly (which I’m not doing at the moment!) so balancing this with work and actually spending some time with family and friends is a challenge. I don’t have a magic solution as I am sure few of you do but I do know that you need to talk to those around you so they both know what you are up to and even if it is grudgingly, agree to what you are doing.

post by Kay Adkins

Launch of the Club

The Club now has a name ‘Bolsover and Tibshelf Triathlon Club’ which will be known on a day to day basis as ‘BAT’s’. We haven’t got as far as a logo but we do have a constitution, a small committee, a bank account and a cheque book. It’s beginning to feel real.

We are hoping to officially launch the Club at the Tibshelf Festival of Sport. This event is a great opportunity for us to get at lots of local people and we have planned a series of ‘Try It’ coaching sessions for families during July. An event like this, be it a carnival, school fete is great opportunity to ‘talk’ to the local population and perhaps something we in sport don’t use nearly enough. Anyway, I will report back on our experience in a couple of weeks’ time.

post by Kay Adkins

Our Most Valuable Assets

As a fledging club, we may be running before we can walk (or swim and cycle in my case!), but we have joined a programme being supported and directed by Bolsover Community Sports Network and funded by the Community Sports Fund and called the ‘Bolsover Sports Crew’. This programme hopes to support volunteering in local clubs as well as helping those same clubs to welcome and support young volunteers.

I am a passionate believer in the premise that we should look after our volunteers. They are the most valuable asset we have and often overlooked. If we calculate in monetary terms the amount of hours volunteers put in to sport over the year in each club at minimum it will probably be over £20,000 a year and in some of the big clubs it will be over a £100,000. And yet, we often leave this very valuable group of people to ad hoc management – something we would never do when we are thinking about managing the participants and their activities.

Back to the volunteer programme, the small group of clubs involved have just started training to become even more volunteer focused by attending the ‘Role of the Volunteer Coordinator’ and we are now thinking about producing a small action plan which will guide each of us (the clubs) in how we will improve the management of the our volunteers and how we will become more welcoming of a young volunteer who will hopefully be sent on ‘placement’ later this year when we are ready to accept them.

post by Kay Adkins

On Our Way

Had a fantastic meeting with my local Partnership Development Manager, School Sport Coordinator and Triathlon England Regional Development Coach. All are very supportive of developing a school programme which then ties into developing a club.

Even better news, looks like there will be some funding for this initiative – we’re on the way…It’s all good news at the moment, I’ve passed the Level 2 Coaching Course and it looks like I have more or less got it all funded (so thank you Skills Active, Triathlon England East Midlands Region and Derbyshire Sport).

However, on the less positive side of things, since the meeting I started off telling you about and this line in my ramblings, Triathlon England have made all of their Development Coaches redundant and it was this person that was going to lead on the schools part of the programme. So, although the initiative can still go ahead, I now don’t have a coach. I guess I could use myself but the day job sometimes gets in the way! I am sure that there are other coaches out there but it has prompted a small rethink so a delay in getting started has been put in place. Still smiling though…it will happen!

post by Kay Adkins

Making Friends

It’s nearly always a good idea to make friends. I guess in fancy speak we develop partnerships. Well I have decided that if the club thing is ever going to get off the ground I need friends both inside the club (by definition I can’t really have a club just for me!) and outside of the club.

I have made friends with the local athletics/running club, the BADYS (Blackwell and District Young Striders), who are a development club for 8-13 year olds and with Bolsover & District Cycling Club. Still trying to find a friend (or should that be phone a friend!) in swimming but I am sure it will come just as soon as they have finished rebuilding the local swimming pool and the clubs return out of their two year exile to Ripley.

What experiences have you had in forming alliances with other clubs - has it helped, hindered? Do you think you should but haven’t yet bothered? It takes valuable time after all. I appreciate as my sport has three individual disciplines it is kinda appropriate for me to look to specialist clubs for advice, swap of members, somewhere to pass people who decide they want to concentrate on one discipline.

post by Kay Adkins

Starting to Count the Cost

Okay, I’ll let you into a secret I started on this journey a few months ago and I did leap into the Coaching Pathway and booked on to both the Level 1 and Level 2 UKCC Triathlon Coaching Awards. I passed the Level 1 and I am currently battling my way through Level 2.

I managed to get some funding towards the Coaching Awards but I still have to pay out first and then claim it back…after I have completed the course. This means at least a 4 month gap between paying out for each course and claiming the money back. I know of at least one other potential Level 2 coach who can’t even book on a Level 2 as he can’t afford to wait that long for a return of his money…even if he finds funding.

Enjoying the coaching and the courses but it feels a little prohibitive to some. Having said that the Level 2 course I am doing is full so market forces and all that…

post by Kay Adkins