Club, society and league websites

Being a committee member

If you're reading this and you are a treasurer, secretary, chairman or some other position, you already have my sympathies!  The amount of time and effort that goes into running even a small club/organisation such as a badminton league is immense.   Most of the community just turn up and play and think that is all there is to it.   Sadly, the reality is that there are many things that need doing to keep the wheels turning such as:

  • Managing the bank account / finances
  • Sending out registration forms
  • Tracking members
  • Chasing people for membership fees and other financial bits
  • Sending out newsletters
  • Organising venues and events
  • Resolving disputes
  • Creating fixtures / divisions / teams
  • Updating results, writing match reports and updating the website
  • Attending committee meetings and trying to avoid punching people...

The painful admin

The above isn't even a comprehensive list but it's already looking quite overwhelming.   If your club/organisation/society was run as a private for-profit business, there would be a £50,000 system in place to manage all of the aspects involved to ensure that everything is kept in a database with it being kept electronically as data, and then with business processes in place to trigger things to happen automatically.

Unfortunately, being a not-for-profit volunteer organisation that was probably founded back in 1940 (BC or AD, you decide...), it's unlikely you have any of these super-systems to help with the admin and management.   Most of it is probably done by hand using pen & paper.   Whilst this is OK, it's usually because it's the way it's always been done and there isn't a viable alternative.   However it means that a huge amount of time & effort keeps getting poured into the day-to-day tasks.

Keeping it going

As time goes on, committee members grow old, weary and eventually want to retire.   This leaves big gaps in knowledge, expertise and records.   The next poor soul who takes over that position (treasurer, chairman, secretary) is probably going to be a little lost and likely is going to want to retire as soon as possible! 

If this continued, the entire organisation would collapse if nobody was willing to carry out the necessary tasks to keep things ticking over.

The key then is to get young(er) people interested and willing to take on these new roles so things can continue.    How, you might ask?

Take away the pain, make it easier

The answer is to make use of technology of course.   Yes yes, people are often scared of these 'computer things' but the fact is that they can be used to make life much easier.   (Admittedly if done badly, they can make life harder...)

The younger members of any community are more likely to be familiar with and more receptive to new technology.   The youngens are the ones who embrace Websites, Facebook, Twitter and the next big thing around the corner.   As such, it's a sensible move to make sure your organisation embraces these things to give the youngens the tools they are familiar with and try to reap the benefits of them.

Quite often people think of updating a website as yet another chore.   However a website can be so much more than just a place to grab a phone number.   These days, websites can be the entire hub of an organisation - with everything being done online.   No more paper-based forms, no more hand-written meeting minutes, lists of players.   The benefits of having everything in one place are that multiple people can access it at once, from their own computer and it is always up to date..... this is to name just a few reasons!  Not only can it save committee members time and keep them organised....but it also encourages the entire community to follow suit - and update their own contact details when they selfishly get married & change their name, change their phone number, move house etc.   Members can register for events, pay fees, update team lists and pretty much anything you like.    The more the members can do themselves, the less the committee members have to do.....and the more pleasurable the job becomes.

A case study - Solihull Badminton League Website

We have recently overhauled the SDBL website (Read our portfolio entry).   Partly this was to promote the sport better and encourage new people in the area to play the game.   But an equally big part is what is happening behind-the-scenes.   Clubs are all listed on the website with up-to-date details.   All players are all entered by the clubs themselves and kept up to date....as well as designating who is their club secretary and match secretary.    At any point the committee can see who has paid their annual fees, send an email mailshot to all of the clubs.   Currently fixtures & results are still done via a separate spreadsheet, but it's just a copy & paste job to get these onto the website - taking a few seconds at most.

The beauty is....once everything is entered once and goes electronic, it can stay that way and just be kept up to date.    You'll never need to print it all off or ask someone to enter it all again.   It also has the benefit of being backed up in the Cloud and much more secure too.

Helping to improve things

At Silver Innovation, we believe that websites should be doing more for clubs, societies and organisations.  We are constantly striving to provide features and functionality that cuts the administrative burden and overhead - and we listen to everyone for their feedback to try and solve each and every problem.  There is always resistance to change and the initial hurdles can be challenging....but take the leap of faith and you'll find the rewards are well worth it.....especially many years from now!

If you have a club, society or organisation with these problems and are looking for a website to help you organise it all, please get in touch!