Page 4 - skaters connect issue 4 Feb_April_17

Club and Individual

Community sporting groups need to recognise the strength and
relevance of retaining members when members may be experiencing
difficulty from any number of factors. Factors that may affect a club
member’s interaction are wide and varied as each individual member.
A member may experience a difficult time from injury and withdraw
from the social aspect of interacting with the club and other members.
Other issues maybe personal relationships that are directly affecting
the member to commit to the time required by the club to be an active
member.

In most cases a non-confronting conversation with the member in
question, may reveal to the club management, coaches and support
staff, underlying issues with the club that may not be directly evident to
those that hold a committee positon or a place on a coaching roster. If
a clubs membership base reduces due to an unsustainable level, the
club faces the very real prospect of closing operations, due to the fact
of interaction of members is lacking.

What can clubs do about retaining membership? Be proactive in the
interaction with injured members or volunteers. Quite often an injured
player makes a great and valued asset to a volunteer role until the
injury heals and the player is cleared to resume training and playing.
People join community sporting groups for social interaction as much
as the sporting contest. Make the club a welcoming environment and
members will stick by the club in challenging times as an individual
member and as part of bigger entity of the club structure.

What can individuals do? If injured, continue to attend training and
observe drills and practice. Often the best time to learn team strategy
and tactics is from the sidelines observing as an ankle or wrist injury is
healing. It gives time to process and objectively view what the team
ambition is and the goals that the team and the club aim to achieve.
Volunteer for roles within the club (injury permitting), it takes many
people to operate a community sporting group. From taking ticket sales
at the door of an event, to fundraising, to volunteering as an official
where appropriate, being involved across a wider spectrum of the club,
gives opportunity to engage with more members than an individual
member would most likely come into contact with.

If your club is slowly losing members change the management focus
of the club to retain members. An injured player will heal and return to
playing for the team and the club if given time. Shutout the volunteer
base or injured players and those individual will fell undervalued and
leave your club or the sport all together.

Be creative about how to retain members for your specific club. Your
demographic of membership may require child minding services to
encourage those with children to return to training. Your particular area
may be challenged by distance. Look at car-pooling to get multiple
people to attend training. An injured player may become the
designated driver for a few months while the injury heals. Or
alternatively offer a ride to an injured player or volunteer to remain
involved in the training/game/fundraising event of your club.

Remember a strong club is as strong as its members. A club that
engages with all of its members will be a strong club for a long period
of time and have positive outcomes for all of its members within the
sporting community. As in that a successful business engages with its
employees on all levels, so to do community sporting clubs need to
engage with its members across all of the aspects of the organisation
including injured players and its volunteer base.