A Friday Thread...What is the Ideal Club Model?

happygoose

It probably doesn’t exist, as different Clubs have a different ethos / make-up / demographic / focus, however I think Clubs examine their set up periodically, and can best learn from other clubs who do it well, so that’s what I’m asking…

Some general questions about your Club structure:

What structure does your Club have for adult members who run?

Do you have a sprint, middle distance, endurance and F4L section, or some different set up?

Within those sections is there a further breakdown, for example, by different levels?

Do you have an athletics subcommittee or someone who oversees this?

Does your structure fall into an overall Club development plan?

How do you manage track time, various groups on the track etc.?

Is there a generic programme rolled out for each group periodically, e.g., every six weeks, or do runners rock up to training and just do the session?

Does your Club target races periodically, and if so, how is this managed / rolled out?

Do you think it is something that AAI should have an involvement in, e.g. rolling out best practice, or is it best left to the Clubs to create a set up best suited to their specific needs?

Is your Club structure working? If not, what changes would you make? I guess a measure would be athlete participation, inclusivity, results, numbers at races, levels of engagement, etc.

Dubgal72

For me, a priority has to be open lines of communication along with an environment which is comfortable and welcoming for all members at every level.

The 'open lines of communication' bit is underpinned by committee and board structures.

The club is the members, and inversely the members are the club so the aims of both should be examined periodically- like you suggest - to ensure there is no major drift.

Timmaay

If I get a chance I'll reply proper, but happy you ask some brilliant questions, that should be raised at every club agm. Did you ever think of becoming an RDO, I'd give ya my vote if ya do

RayCun

happygoose wrote: »

What structure does your Club have for adult members who run?

Do you have a sprint, middle distance, endurance and F4L section, or some different set up?

Almost all of the adults in our club are distance runners (and almost all people who started running as adults). We don't have an official F4L section, but in practice there is a distinct equivalent group.

Within those sections is there a further breakdown, for example, by different levels?

Weekdays everyone does the same sessions, but in different pace groups. Saturday tempo run is usually just the faster runners. Long runs people organise themselves into pace groups.

Do you have an athletics subcommittee or someone who oversees this?

Training committee that decides which sessions will be done and where

Does your structure fall into an overall Club development plan?

??

How do you manage track time, various groups on the track etc.?

Mostly juveniles at the track, but anyway, track sessions are also jump sessions and throwing sessions so space is not really a problem.

Is there a generic programme rolled out for each group periodically, e.g., every six weeks, or do runners rock up to training and just do the session?

Programme is usually about 3 months long

Does your Club target races periodically, and if so, how is this managed / rolled out?

two levels of this
- we encourage a high club turnout at the big Dublin/local races - Raheny, Rathfarnham, Terenure
- club captains would target other races through the year and try to get good teams out

Do you think it is something that AAI should have an involvement in, e.g. rolling out best practice, or is it best left to the Clubs to create a set up best suited to their specific needs?

I don't think a generic best practice would help for adult training, too many variables

Is your Club structure working? If not, what changes would you make? I guess a measure would be athlete participation, inclusivity, results, numbers at races, levels of engagement, etc.

Broadly, yes. Weaning people away from road races is a never-ending struggle, and I think will only every catch on when we have more juveniles
coming through into senior competition. And the big difference between the juvenile and adult groups is that the juveniles have coaches that stand and watch them train while the adults almost all run themselves (apart from at the Saturday tempo session). (also because of the difference between distance and track runners, I guess)I don't expect that to change, its something we have to adapt to.

happygoose

It's hard to know what the right way to go about having a successful coaching / training structure (or an overall club structure) within a Club is, in order to achieve success, by whatever criteria your particular Club defines success as. I imagine most Clubs would have roughly the same criteria.

We could all do with being a bit more like St. Abban's if we could, right!?!?

The higher powers in Santry should be doing something to find out what works well and roll it out to Clubs, rather than every Club having to do it themselves, or not at all as probably happens in reality. Most people in Clubs will say that many parts work well but will also acknowledge much room for improvement exists.

I know a set structure won't fit, but a template could be utilised to strengthen what a club does well and address weaknesses.

The experience I've had recently through courses I've done is that the RDO's are fantastic, in their knowledge and administration of courses. I would kill to have some of them involved with my own Club, but their limited range of courses only address coaching, and not development, which is distinctly different. The problem is that there isn't a roll out of a higher level club structure that the material they roll out fits into, a plan with some strategic perspective, to meet Club goals.

Check out England Athletics 'Whole Club Plan' for example, it's fantastic.

If all Clubs are moving closer to their the goals in terms of participation / results / levels of engagement, etc., then that's where AAI will feel the benefit in achieving its own goals, it could take a while, but it would happen.

From the looks of the materials on their website England Athletics are on top of this, and it's not a resource issue, they just have the right minds and a bit of strategic perspective. Our own powers just look a bit gombeenish and weak on the whole development issue.

rom

One that embraces technology such as being able to pay sub online and having planned sessions online also.

happygoose

rom wrote: »

One that embraces technology such as being able to pay sub online

That's something that is ideal for roll out 'from above'. A self-registering system through the AI website. It wouldn't be much work over and above what is in place there already, the database is in place, as is the payments system. The association gets its €12 per member straight away, it fires out the €5 sub to the Co. Board and the remainder by EFT to the Club every month. It would a lot of hassle out of the hands of the Registrar and would make the Comp Sec's job easier at the start of the year too.

RayCun

rom wrote: »

One that embraces technology such as being able to pay sub online and having planned sessions online also.

We have a weekly email newsletter which includes details of the sessions.

Online subs paying would have to be done centrally on an AAI site or something. Individual clubs don't have the time or expertise to manage secure online transactions

IvoryTower

Could they not just use a club PayPal account

And some of the sub would be just for the club so they probably want it into their own account rather than aai account

happygoose

Spot all the people up early and on their way to Athlone / Ballycotton

Online Club registration is easy through service providers like myclubfinances.ie. The Club still has a small cost and the problem of drawing down these funds and registering people. A simple solution is AI providing this option, saving that horrible annual job of chasing registrations, holding multiple membership days / nights, taking and holding cash, maintaining records, making payments to Co. Boards, registering etc.

This is just one area Clubs can learn from each other, or be helped by AAI.

Ivory Tower your own Club has a model coaching set up, I bet a lot of Clubs would love to see / use / adapt it.

IvoryTower

yep i think they do have a good set up seen as it manages a few hundred members. I wouldn't be able to explain it though. All I know is they have the main groups for road A, B, C, D etc (depending on standard), a sprint group, middle distance group & Marathon group. Everyone takes part in a graded race about every 6 weeks or so (800m or 3k)to see where they're at

I doubt clubs would want to share their training plans because they're competing with each other!

average_runner

Our club doesn't identify any particular race, which is probably not a good thing.
But we do send emails out every week with the two sessions and results from the previous week.

uvox

What is the Ideal Club Model?

Rosanna Davison.

Obviously.

rom

RayCun wrote: »

We have a weekly email newsletter which includes details of the sessions.

Online subs paying would have to be done centrally on an AAI site or something. Individual clubs don't have the time or expertise to manage secure online transactions

Some do http://www.leevale.org/2015/membership-2013-2/