Voluntary Sports Clubs

The voluntary club that I have chosen to use is Croygas FC. The role of Croygas FC is the following:

* Provide people the opportunity to play football, cricket, bowls and trampoline. As well as cricket, they are opportunities for younger people to play junior cricket or Kwick cricket.

* There is a bar area and a dance hall at Croygas, so it provides social gatherings for the community. As well as the pub, Croygas organises social events such as quizzes and competitions for people to enjoy.

* There are also televisions that show things such as football match on sky sports. This would allow football fans to go to the pub together and enjoy the game. It creates a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. This gives people the chance to make new friends and gives them a sense of belonging.

Playing structure- Croygas FC provides many sporting opportunities for people of all ages including football teams from the ages of 7-17. There are also usually 2 teams to every age group. And that’s not all, when you get to the age of 17 there is a men’s team which is called the 1st team. These teams are all based in the Epsom and Ewell League which isn’t the best league so the standards are that high.

The Croygas Cricket Club also provides teams for all ages. There are youth teams and adult teams which again are known as the 1st team. There are professional coaches that help out with the younger teams. The 1st team are in the Division 5 of the Surrey Championship League and they are near to promotion.

Facilities- The facilities at Croygas FC are average. The club house includes a bar area with seating and a wide screen television which show live football matches. The bar area however is small. There is a dance hall which is of reasonable size can hold about 150 people in it. There are facilities for teams like changing rooms and showers that they can use but the teams usually turn up already in kit so they aren’t really used.

There are 2 junior sized football pitches and one adult sized football pitch at Croygas. The problem with this is when I played for Croygas we always played on the junior pitches and they were too small for teams of our ages. The first team gets priority over the main pitch which is the largest and in the best condition. There are also netball pitches which can be converted into tennis courts. In the middle of the field is the cricket pitch which is very well looked after but it is usually sealed off so that no one goes on it. There is a bowls pitch which is secluded the reason being so that nobody can get onto the pitch. Again the pitch is really well looked after which is why it is sealed off.

Location- Croygas FC is situated in Roundshaw near the Roundshaw estate which isn’t the nicest area to live in. However, it is right next to Wilson’s school and there are many local houses around the area so many people could go to Croygas and have a drink or join a club. It is also not too far from Croydon and very close to Wallington which are big towns so it could attract a lot of people as it is local for them. People who are already members of the club will encourage their friends to join and play for the teams so this will make more people join the club from local areas. There are many job opportunities for people that live around the area.

M1- Compare the range of provision for voluntary sector sports clubs in the UK

The two voluntary sports clubs that I have chosen are Croygas FC and Purley Sports Club. The differences between the two clubs are:

Croygas Sports Club

Purley Sports Club

Facilities- Croygas only has one tennis court which is usually used as a netball court. It has a bowls green, a cricket pitch and 3 football pitches. The football pitches however are all cramped up and there is only 1 good size football pitch.

Facilities- they have 18 tennis courts, 6 of which are on grass and 5 of these tennis courts are floodlight all year round. They have 5 glass-back squash courts which have their own changing rooms. An excellent well looked after lacrosse pitch, 2 senior netball courts and 1 indoor court. A cricket pitch and bowls green in superb condition.

Location- this club is near Wallington, Croydon and Wilson’s school. This will offer a lot of opportunities to the locals that which to use the club.

Location- the location of this club is better than Croygas. It has more towns closer to it such as Wallington, Croydon, Banstead, Coulsdon, and Sanderstead. This therefore offers many more people the opportunity to use the club as it is local to more towns.

Playing Structure- they offer many different teams for many ages which is good because it gives people of all ages the opportunity to play. This includes cricket, football, bowls and trampoline.

Playing structure- this club doesn’t have a football team at all, which might not appeal to many people because football is the most popular sport in this country and many people play it. However it does offer a variety of sports for both boys and girls who want to play sport e.g. lacrosse for girls, tennis for boys and girls etc.

Roles of the club- Croygas has a bar area, a dance hall with music, a television to show sporting events, and they organise social events such as quizzes and competitions. This is to gather a sense of belongingness for the local community, offer people the chance to make new friends.

Roles of the club- Purley Sports Club has a bar also, which is privately owned. It has a function room hire, which has been used for wedding receptions, parties, dinners, conferences and social meetings. This also allows the community to mix with each other and socialise in a friendly environment.

This club is in the public sector, it is funded by the government.

This is club is in the voluntary sector, people give up their spare time to work at this club, only the secretary gets paid to work here.

D1- Critically evaluate the impact and success of voluntary sector sports clubs in the UK.

Voluntary sports clubs have a big impact on the local community. There are about 150,000 voluntary sports clubs in the UK, 46% of which have been in existence for 30+ years. Between 12.5-14% of the population are members of a voluntary sports club. Voluntary sports clubs like Croygas make a substantial contribution to the community by providing the opportunities for social interaction both for volunteers and participants. They allow people in the local area to get together and socialize with each other which can have a successful impact on the community because people can make new friends and go out and enjoy themselves. This creates a friendly atmosphere within the voluntary clubs which is important because it will attract more people to come and play sports at the club.

Croygas Sports Club has a massive impact on the community in that they believe in having the correct ethics and values that will allow everyone from all age, sex, and race to join the club. Voluntary sports clubs encourage members to show respect for each other, fair play, equal opportunity and they encourage members to enjoy themselves. This will have a positive impact on the community because people will be more encouraged to come and join these clubs that have equal opportunity for everyone. This could have a successful impact on the children that get bullied because of their race, religion etc. Croygas will give them the same opportunity as anyone else because they believe that it is important to give everyone equal opportunity to enjoy playing the sport that they love.

Croygas is a very successful club and it has a very high reputation for the level of football that is played. There are around about 40-50 adult members at the club, all of which play for the football and cricket teams at the club. Of these adult, a large majority of them use the bar area after matches to have a drink and socialise with other team members of the squads, and some of the squads arrange meals after the matches where they invite the players and their wives to come and dine with each other. More than half of these players have good access to the facility because they all live in the local area.

Therefore they can get to the facility easily and they can use the facility as often as possible. Also because of the clubs friendly environment, they will come more often than not to meet new people and socialise. The club benefit financially from the amount of people using the bar. They will take in a lot of money from the public using the bar especially on match days when the bar area will be more packed out with players and their families. Also the amount of money that they receive from sponsorship and membership fees all adds up. This money believe it or not is of great benefit to the community, because with this money the club can refurbish parts of the club and improve the clubs grounds, changing rooms etc. The community will benefit from using a highly developed club and they will enjoy a club that is better decorated and looked after.

Croygas is a very successful club, the football teams are doing very well in the top leagues at all age groups. And due to this success, parents have recognised this and feel that they should send their child to this club and therefore the Croygas now has a big youth setup. The improvement in the grounds and equipment and qualified coaches has been beneficial to the club, because it has seen an increase in the amount of players in the youth teams wanting to develop at the club. There are around 80-90 junior players currently playing football, cricket and badminton at this club. That’s about 160 parents that will some time visit the club and socialise. The fact that the parents come to the club and take their children is beneficial because it gives the parents an opportunity to meet the other parents of the squad. Also the children will develop new friends also and they too can learn to socialise as well as playing football.

Part 2

P2- Identify the funding, procedures and systems that are successfully used in voluntary sector sports clubs.

Voluntary sports clubs are funded in a number of ways. They receive annual subscription fees from players from the teams which help massively with the teams buying the equipment that they need. When I was a member at the club, because the pitches at Croygas aren’t not a good standard we had to hire pitches else where. Also we had to rent out the training facilities, pitches, buy corner flags and linesmen flags, and goal nets, kit and tracksuits.

Match fees- People that play in the team matches have to pay a match fees, this is usually 5-10 depending on the importance of the match or the club. The club will make a lot of money through this because they might have a lot of teams in the club like cricket teams, football teams etc and these teams are usually about a 15 man squad.

Grants from governing body such as F.A. will give money to these voluntary sports clubs in order to help the clubs with the funding. Because the government believes in giving opportunity to these clubs, they want to help them create the right conditions for people to use and enjoy using the clubs so the government is giving there full trust to these clubs to use the money wisely.

The clubs will get sponsorship deals and the sponsorship companies in return will get advertisement from these clubs. Also lottery funding will help a club with major projects such as flood lighting on pitches, refurbish changing rooms etc. Also clubs set up fund raising events to help the club to raise money e.g. race nights, dinner dance, BBQs, quiz nights, fete, and club days such as 5-a-side football tournaments. These are to help out for projects that the club wants to do.

The government gives money to these voluntary sports clubs e.g. loans, grants. A club might decide to take out a loan from the government in order to cover for the costs of running the club, buying all the equipment, keeping the place neat and tidy etc. the club however will have to pay the government back and they can do this by paying it monthly or annually.

Part 3

Croygas Sports club has many roles and responsibilities that people have to fill. Here is a list of these roles and responsibilities of the personnel involved in the club:

President

A president is the title given to a person who is head of an organisation or company. The president at Croygas Sports Club is a figure head for the club, and shows up at different functions to represent the club.

Chairman

The chairman takes a more hands on role in the sport clubs day to day management. The chairman is the presiding officer of meetings, organisations and committee.

Secretary

The secretary of this club performs routine and personal task tasks for a superior. The secretary performs duties such as typing, making tea, sending letters etc. The secretary will have to be very organised making sure that all the files and paperwork are kept neat and tidy.

Social Secretary

The social secretary organises and handles the personal details of clients; they are very similar to a personal assistant. This person will require strong communication skills because they will be communicating with people a lot and basic computer literacy because all there work is based on the computer.

Treasurer

The treasurer is responsible for running the treasury. They are employed by organisations to look after the funds. The treasurer would oversee how the money is spent, making sure that they don’t over or under spend.

Publicity Officer

The publicity officer is the key person in charge of publicising events and activities run by Croygas. This person is also responsible for the clubs policies and procedures e.g. the clubs policy on the welfare of children.

The most important member of the club is the president. He is the founder of the club and has the biggest responsibility of looking after Croygas and making sure that everyone is doing their jobs properly. He also chooses to hire and fire staff, it is his decision how to use the money that the club raises and what to spend it on. He has a big impact on the club, because he has helped it to develop the club into a family orientated club that is currently highly successful in the football and cricket leagues.

The chairman of Croygas has a more hands on role at the club. He has a big influence on the club and is always ever present in meetings and committees. He will be informed and up-to-date on all the information that is happening at the club and it his job to keep the president informed with this information. He will work with the president, deciding on future plans together and ways of improving the club.

The secretary is just as important to the club as the president or the chairman. She has to sort out all the paper wok into files making sure that it is all organised and easy to access. A lot of the work the secretary does doesn’t get seen, they do things like answering the phones, writing and sending out letters, organise things such as quiz nights and fixtures etc. The secretary is the main organiser at the club and plays a vital role in making the club successful, without the secretary, there would be nobody to organise paper work and keep files etc.

The treasurer deals with the financial side of the business. They have a lot of control over the money and how the money is pumped into the club. The treasurer has a lot of work to do with things like organising fund raising activities, sponsorship, match and sub fees etc. There is a lot of organising to do and the president relies on the treasurer’s advice to decide what to spend the clubs money on.

The social secretary and the publicity officer both play similar roles as the secretary; they deal more with organising events to help raise money, and not so much paper work as the secretary.

Part 4

There are a number of problems that a club faces, and they would have to devise an action plan to improve the operation of the club. These problems include relegation. If a team is relegated from the Premier League to the Championship, then they will lose money in a number of different ways. Firstly the stadium won’t have as many fans coming to watch the games because they are of lower standard and they want to see the best teams play, therefore they will lose money because they aren’t getting the same gate receipts as the previous season. Some of the best players in the relegated team might attract interest from bigger teams, and the chances are that these players will want a move away from the relegated team because they want to play at the highest standard possible.

Also teams will find it hard to reject a respectable offer for their best player, because they need the money to help with the finances, and because of the loss of money due to relegation, the club might not be able to afford the wages that these players are earning, so they might be forced to leave the club that can pay the wages of the players. Relegation can give clubs a problem regarding money from television companies such as Sky Sports and the BBC, the teams won’t be shown on the television and will lose money because of this. Teams that are in the Premier League receive a lot of money from these companies so that they can go television.

Date

Action Plan

By Whom

Completion

November 06′

Refurbish Club house

The clubhouse will need refurbishing so that they can hold events such as quiz nights, dinner and dance etc. Firstly a plan will have to be made to see how much it will cost to redevelop the club house. Expenses will include new tables and chairs, decoration, wages for decorators. The planning needs to be clear and precise so that the refurbishments can be made in quick time and in the cheapest way. The club however could ask its members to see if they have expertise in decorating and they could give a quote as to how much it will cost. If not, they can start to look at local companies, which will lead to sponsorship and grants through the National governing body like Sport England. Croygas can set up fund raising events such as quiz nights, raffles, club days in order to raise money for the refurbishment.

Chairman, President and Club Captain will further these ideas.

2 Years

November 06′

Relay the pitches

Currently the club only has one decent pitch that the players enjoy playing on. The other two pitches are far too small and it is more like a mud bath because all the turf has been worn away over the years. Also the lines on the pitch need to be made clearer because they are starting to fade. I also think that we should include new goal posts and nets with the pitches, because the current goal posts are starting to rust away and they don’t look very safe as they are tilting slightly due to the strong winds. Again ways to raise money would be to organise fund raising event, use sponsorship money that the club has received, grants from the government and player/parent donations.

Club Captain, Players, Grounds man

New season

November 06′

Gain Sponsorship

The board need to organise a sponsorship group where members of the board and even players can volunteer to organise sponsorship for the club. One person from the group will be elected, and their job will be to maximise their sponsorship deals and chances of getting sponsorship. When this has been arranged, they can organise sponsorship packages e.g.

Class A- The sponsorship company can donate 5000+ to clubs, and in return the clubs will use the sponsorship logos on their kit, training wear, include banners and boards around the pitches, they will be mentioned in the newsletter, the club will generally promote this sponsorship company. In return the club will benefit greatly from this because they will benefit massively from these extra funds. Included are Class B and C packages.

Class B- The sponsorship companies will give clubs 3000 if clubs can guarantee promotion of their company, including banners and boards around the pitches, being mentioned in the newsletter and leaflets, also their logo on the team shirts and training wear.

Class C- Very basic however very beneficial to both club and company. The sponsorship companies will give club 1000 if they can have boards around the pitches.

Sponsorship groups, member of the board.

All year round

D3- Critically evaluate the constitution, methods of finance, structure, procedures and systems for a selected voluntary sector sports club, drawing valid conclusions.

Croygas is funded in many ways including lottery funding, national grants, sponsorship, membership fees, match fees, fund raising nights etc. We can see the effectiveness of the clubs finance just by taking a look at the club. Croygas is obviously financially successful because the club has recently refurbished the changing rooms and bar area. The club now looks smarter and cleaner it obviously a project like that would’ve cost the club quite a lot of money. The club relied on many resources of finances including money from donations given by parents which was 2000. This helped a lot and the donations were an effective way of making money, and it shows that the parents were willing to help out to improve their club for their child to use.

As well as the donations, the club set up fund raising events such as the quiz nights and fun days where the club managed to receive 300. The club charges 12 a ticket to the quiz event and about 150 people turned up to this dinner and dance quiz night. As well as the money from the tickets, the bar area would be able to raise at least 200 from the people wanting to buy drinks and snacks. Other events such as Saturday Night Dance Fever would raise money from people wanting to go to the event, there are BBQ days during the summer that appeal to many of the parents because they can chill out with all the other parents and enjoy themselves in the lovely weather. The club would again raise about 300 through tickets being sold for parents etc. Another good fun raising event is the Fantasy Football League, where every summer there would be a 5-a-side tournament where teams can enter a team but they have to pay and entry fee to play. The competition and the chance of winning a prize appeals to many people and the club raises a lot of money through this aswell.

When I was playing for Croyags, we had to pay a yearly membership fee that would enable each player to get registered and be allowed to play. We had to pay 120 each season and the club would therefore raise about 3000-4000 because there are many different football teams at the club.