Help for Clubs provides Sports Clubs with practical advice about how to manage and develop your activities. It contains guidance on running an effective sports club, simple template documents for many administrative functions, case examples of how other clubs have organised their affairs, suggestions for increasing club income, and links to other useful sources of help (including sports development officers employed by local authorities and sports national governing bodies). To stay fully informed, you can register to receive the periodic Clubs Update newsletter by email. An archive of all issues of Clubs Update is now available in the Resource Library.
Who's it for?
Help for Clubs is for the officers and committee members of any sports club. Your club might be concerned with bowling, swimming, climbing, gymnastics, football - or any of a hundred other sports. You might have five members or five thousand. You might serve a local housing estate, or a town, or the whole of Scotland. Your total annual income might be as low as £50 or as high as one million pounds. Whatever type of club you are, you'll find information in these pages to help you develop your sporting activities.
Some clubs are large enough to employ staff and we hope that these professional men and women will find Help for Clubs useful. Much of the material has been contributed by Sports Development Officers whose job it is to provide clubs like yours with practical help. One section of Help for Clubs provides these sports development officers with a library of more complex resources.
A quick guide to the topics
In the leftside column of every page you'll find navigation to each of the following areas of the Help for Clubs website:
- Accreditation is concerned with the various schemes for gaining wider national recognition and approval
- Admin and Management provides help and advice about the administration of your club including structures, constitutions, rules and policies
- Child Protection brings together all the advice on this important issue
- Club Development shows you how to organise your programme of activities and plan for the growth of your club's activities
- Coaching is aimed at all club coaches and anyone involved in player development and coaching
- Communications shows you how to keep in touch with your members through both printed and online means
- Equity considers how clubs can ensure that they operate with fairness, justice, equality, inclusion and respect for all members.
- Facilities explores the various ways of operating premises including a centre, track or range
- Funding covers all aspects of raising money from subscriptions, grants and sponsorship
- Juniors offers guidance about involving children and young people in your club - the next generation of members
- Membership is all about attracting and retaining your club members
- Staff deals with the recruitment, employment and support of paid staff
- Officers explores the key roles of chair, secretary, treasurer and other officials
- Volunteers looks at how a club can make the very best use of its members and volunteers in running the club
At the top of the page you'll find links to pages that enable you to browse the full downloadable resources library, contact us by email, and find other helpful national sports bodies.
