The Administrator

Where Have All The Volunteers Gone?

Running a volunteer soccer organization today can be very challenging.  The old 80/20 rule where 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work seems to have slid to the 90/10 rule today.  It seems that people running these organization are doing more today than ever before.  The result is many good people get burned out faster, step down from their positions sooner, and the club has a revolving door of volunteers wearing multiple hats.

We hear it all the time “you just cannot find volunteers anymore” or “people are too busy to volunteer”.  While those statements have some validity, your club may need to make a few changes to attract more volunteers.  What if you could create an atmosphere where volunteering for your soccer club is enjoyable & rewarding even if I can only give a few hours a week.  As an administrator can you change the perception that you must spend hours and hours in order to be a part of your organization?  Here are a few suggestions:

The Almighty Board of Directors

• Sometimes referred to as the “club” or the “untouchables”.  Times have changed and so should your board.  Out with the old ways and in with the new ideas from the new people.  Do you have a clear entry and exit policy in place for your potential and current board members, or is the guy/gal saying “whenever the next sucker comes along I will step down”.   There maybe people that want to get involved but they have no idea how to break into the “club”.  Change that perception and become a friendly inviting group with clear policies.  Include detailed descriptions of the available positions and the expected time commitment. (Be realistic with this in order to attract good people).

Various Duties

• Fields, uniforms, creating teams, website updating and the list goes on.  Take a look at your club and you probably have people covering multiple duties.  Many of these things can be handled by competent volunteers who don’t have to be on the board.  List some of the lower level things (maybe once a season jobs) with complete descriptions and estimated time involved.  Send an email to your membership that conveys the message of community support, whether one can spend an hour a week or 5 hours a week, you are looking for all types.  You will be amazed at the response. 

Last but not least- The Coach

• This is your front line which sometimes can look like a beaten and battered group that is being held together with duck tape.  This group really demonstrates how well you are doing at the top (the board).  You will not attract volunteers without a clear, easy to understand, plan in place to guide these coaches.  It all starts with the first year they jump on board to coach (many for the first time) the youngest age group.  Why is there such a decline in volunteers after the first year of coaching? I think the main reason is that they are frustrated by the lack of information, training and/or support that they receive.   Common sense would tell you that if coaches are provided with a well supported curriculum that is easy to follow and translates into fun effective practices from the start they may be more inclined to volunteer again next year!  If your coaches are not returning to coach next year, they probably did not have that type of experience. 

I don’t suggest getting each recreation a team a full time trainer which can be very costly.  Start with recommending to them the US Youth Soccer website along with your State Association for information.  There are also a number of affordable on-line tools available, although most are concerned with the high level travel programs; there are a few good ones for recreation coaches.  Make sure you get references before you purchase any program.

Attracting volunteers is not easy but it can be done.  With some good planning and delegating many of the lower level (once per season) duties, it can relieve some of the pressure that is currently put on existing board members who work extremely hard.   Take the initiative and come to your next board meeting and call it project “Spring Cleaning”, and take the load off your 10 percenters!

Guest Author: Tyler Isaacson is a club president, travel coach, recreation coach, youth player, college player and dad. He has 30 years of playing and coaching experience and is founder of youthsoccer101 a coaching development tool used by over 10,000 coaches.

 

Managing Volunteer Turnover (Part II in a 2 part series)

As we continue to explore Volunteer Turnover, we’re going to focus on how to set your club up for success, encourage and reward your volunteers, and what to do when a volunteer leaves.

In the first blog, we focused on defining volunteer positions and best practices for recruiting. So let’s jump right in and explore some operational tips to set your club up for success.

Operations 101:

Important info should be accessible and stored in a safe and organized way on club property.  Too many times we see really important things like website domains, bank records, articles of incorporation, etc. that are stored in the President’s, or worse, former President’s name and not on club property and in the club’s name.  Keeping all important club info on club property and in the club’s name will prevent data loss, headaches and that awkward phone call to a disgruntled, former volunteer!  Here are a few things to keep safe and secure on club grounds:

• Bank Info (account names, numbers, statements, signature cards)
• Articles of Incorporation
• Accounting and Legal Contacts
• Federal Tax ID
• Website Domain (where it was registered, the username and password of the account)

Create Operational Standards:

Technology can help with creating clear and easy to follow operational standards.  Here are a few areas where technology can really make a difference in increasing the efficiency of your club, making your volunteer’s jobs easier and finally, making the transition and training of new volunteers seamless.

• Online Registration- Safe, secure and reliable, your online registration should be easy to use, flexible enough to include all data collection AND payment collection.
• Email- Having an easy way to blast out emails to your entire club, age divisions, teams, volunteers, etc. is essential to smooth operations.
• Team Building & Game Schedules- Creating all of the teams is one thing, but communicating rosters, contact info and schedules can be a huge burden.

If your club isn’t using an online registration and club management system, this is the time to adopt one!

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket:

Too many times we see clubs relying on one person to handle almost all the club’s operations.  It’s the President, Registrar, Treasurer, Webmaster and Scheduler all wrapped into one.  There are lots of reasons why this strategy can put your club at risk:

• One single point of failure.  If that key person leaves, moves or has a falling out, then your entire club’s brain trust is gone.
• Checks and Balances are important in any organization.  We’ve seen some really sad cases of fraud and theft in the youth sports industry.  Having one person, and one person only, responsible for club finances, record keeping and check signing is putting your club at risk.
• Burn Out- there’s no easier way to burn out a volunteer than to burden them with all your club’s operations.

Creating a Club Timeline:

An Operations Calendar can help keep your club on track, create consistency for your membership and transition in new volunteers to take over.  We recommend that you create a master calendar for your club.  Here are some items to consider adding:

• Set up registration by xx/xx/xxxx
• Open Registration on xx/xx/xxxx
• Close Registration by xx/xx/xxxx
• Post Rosters by xx/xx/xxxx
• Submit player data to State Association by xx/xx/xxxx
• Place Uniform Order by xx/xx/xxxx
• Set Tournament Dates by xx/xx/xxxx
• Send out Fundraising info by xx/xx/xxxx

A Few Registration Basics to Follow:

As an online registration provider to thousands of groups across the country, we have seen it all, from the simplest, most Spartan pricing and registration forms to some of the most complex and difficult to fill out.  Our advice, keep it simple!  Here are some solid guidelines to follow:

• Keep your pricing simple!  Discounts and fees should be kept to a minimum.  It will make your set up easier, your accounting easier, AND it will be easier for your membership to understand.  Early bird discounts and late fees are easy to understand and administer.  Complicated volume and family discounts are not!
• Beware of special requests!  You can only accommodate so much for your membership.  We’ve seen all sorts of crazy things from literally arranging every team by carpool to complicated neighborhood-based team building.  Don’t go overboard here, it can drown you.
• Simple Chart of Accounts and Financials!  Your financials should match your registration.  This will make for far less work on the accounting side.   If you have two programs, a Recreational and a Competitive, then your registration and books should be set up the same so that creating financial reports and reconciling your books is easy and matches exactly how your club operates.
• Don’t go crazy with Payment Options.  We know that the price of playing competitive soccer is getting higher and higher, but don’t fall into the trap of offering too many payment options.  If you want to offer a payment plan, then just offer one!  Don’t offer monthly, quarterly and semi-annually, it’s just too hard to keep up with.
• Create a Scholarship/Financial Aid Policy and publish it.  This will avoid conflicts, questions and confusion.  If you don’t have a policy, create one. It could even be that your policy is that you don’t offer scholarships or financial aid.  Whatever the case may be, it’s best to publish it.
• Create a checklist before you open registration.  Before you open the flood gates, do a test!  Make sure your pricing is correct, you are asking all the pertinent questions, and you have someone with a fresh set of eyes proof your forms and pricing.  Make this into a checklist and you can run through it before each registration to minimize any issues.

What to do when a volunteer leaves?

OK, so we’ve talked at great length about how to recruit, reward, and encourage your volunteers.  We’ve talked at length about how to create standards and keep your club running smoothly.  Now the dreaded moment has come and you have to replace staff.

First off, don’t panic!  You have standards in place, processes, timelines, and all your important info is easily accessible, so there shouldn’t be any balls dropped.  You’ve got a job description ready.  You’ve got a group of parents with different skill sets to recruit from.  You’ve got a culture of service and rewarding your volunteers.  And finally, you’ve got an email system that allows you to easily communicate the opening and recruit a replacement!

 

Article by CEO & Founder Erik Stadler

Increasing Brand Awareness

A large amount of clubs I speak with tell me about their inability to grow and maintain their clubs. This is a catch 22 because they want to grow, but don’t know how. The ultimate goal of any organization is to try and increase the amount of people who know who you are and what you have to offer. Take Apple for example; there isn’t a whole lot of people who haven’t heard of the iPhone or iPad, because Apple has a done a great job of informing people of who they are and what they offer. Some people might argue that brand awareness is more important to a for-profit company more so than a non-profit, but I don’t think that’s true. Take Habitat for Humanity or The United Way; two of the largest non-profit organizations in the country and people know who they are and what they do. 

So what does this mean for a youth soccer club, and why is it important? I’m glad you asked! Most of the clubs I speak with in California would love to grow their club and increase the amount of returning players each season. Increasing registrations means brings in more money which can go back to the club and open up more opportunities for its members. There are two easy ways to start building your clubs brand:

1. Social Media: It has never been easier to keep up with friends and find information about a business or service. Social media has taken over the Internet and has been a free tool for people to use to market themselves. Whether it be facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, it’s very easy to get your name out there. I encourage clubs all the time to increase their social media presence. Nothing beats free marketing and advertising. The more social media presence a club has the more effect they will have when people go looking for them online.


2. New Website: This is probably the easiest and best way for a club to market themselves better. Having a fresh website with up-to-date content can give outsiders great insight on how the club is doing. Blue Sombrero recently re-designed our own corporate website and launched our new Silver website package! The great thing about this new Silver package is it allows the club to switch between different themes as as often as they’d like which offers a new look and feel with the click of a button. Another great reason to have a new website is it can increase club sponsors. Sponsors are more likely to help out if they can see the club has a nice, up-to-date, website.

For more information on the Silver Themes, please feel free to register for our very first LIVE webinar on Friday, Feb. 24th at 12:15 PM EST. The first 50 people to register will get into the live webinar and be able to ask the presenter questions first hand. For those who do not register in time, the webinar, will later be posted on our corporate website and social media channels at a later date.

Feel free to check out Blue Sombrero’s facebook page (We just added the pictures of our Chili cook-off) and our Twitter. Feel free to contact me if you would like any more ideas or tips on how to increase the brand awareness of your club. 

Best Regards,

 

Shane Westerhold : Regional Sales Manager for Blue Sombrero