Thoughtful Tuesdays once again.
I've been exposed to some email over the last few months about Ultimate Clubs trying to make decisions and arguing and playing and pondering "What makes a Club?"
I often think its a bit sad that so much energy gets expended revisiting things. When you've been around for a bit you see some Clubs melt down over the same things, over and over again (instead of putting their energy into growing and improving).
Isn't the essence of being a Club that you've made some decisions and are willing to stick to them?
If your Club is in the cycle of confusion, I suggest you get a group of people (including past members if you can), and try to write down what are the essential things to your Club.
You won't necessary get everyone to agree to everything on the list, but if most people can agree to most of it, then you can and should enshrine this and agree not to revisit it unless there's some sort of *externally driven* need for change.
Here's what I think you need:
NAME - what is the name of the Club? Is there a reason/story behind this name? If the Club has multiple teams, do these teams have different names? (I suggest you only have different names if there are two or more teams in the same competition).
COLOURS - what are your Club's colours? Is there a reason/story behind these colours (in particular, is this a 'local' colour, or the colour of your Uni or is it a colour that your main opposition is not)? (I suggest two colours - a light one and a dark one, plus also maybe mention a third 'highlight' colour, like white, black, silver or gold). Some clubs have major meltdowns over colours each time they order new gear - sort it out once and for all and resist people wanting to be trendy.
MASCOT/LOGO - what goes on your Club's mascot or logo? Remember, your logo can change its appearance, but it saves lots of arguments if you're agreed that the logo always has to have a Rooster on it.
UNIFORM - Ideally, shirt design changes minimally from season to season, to maximise a)promotion of the Club and b) the long term utility of any shirt purchased by a Club member - a player should need to purchase no more than two playing shirts (a second provides an alternate strip) for their *entire career playing for the Club*. I suggest shorts and socks default to one colour across the Club for similar budgetary reasons.
MEMBERSHIP: How do you define a current member of the Club? (Some words could be: "A player who registers to play in either a League organised by the Club, or on a Club team that plays in another league or tournament, is considered a current member of the Club. Currency continues for six months after league or tournament.")
FINANCE: What is the financial objective of the Club? (Some words could be: "The financial objective of the Club is to make Ultimate a cheap sport to play. The Club does not charge a specific membership fee. The Club raises money through fees on Leagues and Tournaments run by the Club, and through other grants and Club-wide fundraising. Specific teams may make their own financial arrangements, including fundraising using the Club's name and resources.")
ADMINISTRATION: What positions does the Club have, and how are those positions filled? (Some words could be: "The Club has an AGM at which it elects a President, Secretary and Treasurer, [other positions] . The Executive ensures each Club team has two organisers (a combination of manager, captain, vice-captain or whatever), and if necessary because teams can't sort that out themselves, appoints someone.")
REPRESENTATIVE TEAMS: What do you do in cases where there are more Club members seeking to play in a competition than that competition will allow? Articulating a typical selection process saves having to make it up afresh each time, and helps people to be able to rely on it.
OTHER POLICIES: Where can you direct people to other work? It can be that something happens that the Club lacks a precedent or policy for, so its useful to have a link to some other policy making body (eg AFDA, or your state or local association, or your wider sporting body (eg your Uni Sport). There's a huge frickin list of things that can happen - harrassment, selection appeals, drug use, who knows - and believe me it helps heaps to have something written down somewhere that you can use.
Anything I've missed?
No comments:
Post a Comment