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!