2007 Club Development Workshop

April 20 to 22 - Kingston, Jamaica

PAHF Development Committee proposed Jamaica NHA administrators to organize a Club Development workshop lectured by Mrs. Ana M Vinue de Romanelli in the first quarter of year 2007. JHA's President Mr. Victor Tomlinson and vice-president Miss Dana Mae Crawford agreed on this and promoted it within clubs and schools. Mrs. Valerie Hall also helped in the organization preparing all needed materials and room for it.

Participants were: Dana Mae Crawford, Ebony McLean, Michelle Thomas, Alicia Lee, Chantel Russell, Denise Wisdom, Valerie Hall, Christine Bartley, Kemari Adams, Kimani Airey, Nicole Grant-Brown, Ann-Marie Smith, Patrice Clarke, Richard Shaw, Larklin Christie, Aubyn Ferguson, Glen Patrick, O'Dien Williams, Evol Powell, Kenniel Muschette, Kevin Falloon, Adrian Cross and Raymond Leveridge. There were 24 participants, and 16 were present at all times during the workshop.

The workshop began on Friday 20th at 5:30 p.m. The program consisted of:

• General club presentation program, synergy, goals and proactivity.
• How to create a club, a club structure, club planning.

Each club assistant representative presented a general view of their club and its needs. Examples:

• Tropics Hockey Club: very good on paper-executive, non functional though, senior and junior training apart, trying to develop youth on a whole.
• Munro Old Boys: has a long tradition of hockey, ineffective structure, no retainment, recruitment or development of youth, high school is 3 hours drive from turf, have funding.
• Sharpes Rebels HC: president, captain and secretary. Lack of volunteers, more coaches, struggling with young players, national players, umpires & judges.
• Circus Circle: President, club captain, secretary. Defunct executive, been very competitive, 20 non playing members, trying to get U21 team. Lack of organization (rely a lot on volunteering) no training, no succession planning, no feeder school.
• Raiders United HC: over 50 registered members, have a female team, 1973 formed in, past players in from Wolmer's HS. Objectives: good competitive & friendly rivalry, overall development along members, excellence on and of the field, dedicated to raising the level of play. Problems: lack of funding, honesty/transparency, facility.
• St Andrew HC: SAJHC-Lack of facilities, 50 students, 30 beginners, coaches & managers are the same person, stressful to manage teenagers, have small amount of funding, international exposure, have a Board of Directors. Senior -Defunct executive.
• Jamaica Defense Force HT: Established 1980.1 team (17 male players), playing from adulthood, Sports board of the army governs the team. Needs: training facilities have to travel to the turf by train. Objectives: to enhance the impact that the sport has on the wider society, maintain high level of discipline, attract the attention of players to the game.
• Excelsior HC: made up of mostly high school students, no open facilities, lack of management only one executive. Objective: to improve players physically.

After the coffee break we started with:

• Junior Development ideas, Parents orientation sessions, junior recruitment sessions and examples. Hockey 4 kids. Recruiting and retaining players and staff. Partnerships and links.

Saturday April 21 at 10 am we began with a practical activity: six comparative situations "I agree/I disagree"

1. Own facilities or rent them - Agree: can have trainings on own time, schedule, frame time, fundraising to buy own, commitment to the sport. Disagree: cost, country climate, number of persons involved, volunteerism, overheads.
2. Grass surface close to club facilities/synthetic pitch away form club facilities: Sport about socializing, gives opportunity for club building, sense of belonging, gives advantages on developing skills, depends on you needs development or high performance. Synthetic pitch takes away social aspect, needed for high performance.
3. Without good school-club links clubs will not recruit enough members to exist. Schools have been own source, market is in the schools. Other markets to explore persons walking, doing exercise .E.g.: Emancipation Park. Going to the gymnasium
4. A Multi sports club is to be preferred to a just hockey club. Disagree: make hockey number one priority. Segregate. Agree: Could play different sports, the sports interrelate, exposure is good, if well organized with funding, have good skills form cricket, football and running, can utilize funding from other sports.
5. Young leaders need an "old Leader". Leaders are born not made, they need guidance. Need a role model, mentor.
6. Without sponsoring a club cannot exist. Disagree: can functionally exist without it. Fundraising, is still a form of sponsoring. Agree: has been the mainframe from the past. Needed, can't cover everything.

Practical session: on the pitch; was organized on the parking lot of the complex. (see photos) Participants were divided into 2 teams (2 coaches, 6 players, 1 timer and whistle, 2 ball girls, 2 helpers for drills records). Two different circuits during 7 minutes each and at the end of each they change into the other. At the end of this activity "Events Management" was presented, with a complete view of what is needed to perform a well organized event. Examples and exchange of opinions were made.

After lunch, participants listened to Board Structure- Roles and responsibilities of Board, Meetings (Board, Committees, AGM ). Next was a practical workshop on Club Board Structures. They were divided into Red Group, Blue Group and Yellow Group. The groups were requested to organize a Board structure, define a Mission Statement, vision for the club plus an organizational club structure.

Board Cases:

1. A club-"(propose name)"/300 members/men & women hockey players/baseball 200 members/no social club/ county owns facilities.
2. A club "(propose name)"/200 members/100 hockey players all cathegories/20 veterans non active in sport (social)/280 cricket players/club owns facilities out of town.
3. A club "(propose name)"/300 members/junior men / women hockey players/club facilities school campus (sport playing field) /3 schools made a foundation to support the club.

Red Group - Board case a) "Red Code Club"

Yellow Group -Board case b)"P.M.N.G. Sports Club"

Blue Group - Board case c) "V.M.A.R.K Hockey Club"

All groups presented their opinions on each case making an enthusiastic and challenging discussion. Different perceptions and context made everyone think and propose tips on this matter. They never been proposed to work on big structures like the cases, so was a great fun to allow their ideas on club structure, board structure and mission statement arise and be shared by everyone.

• Next consideration was: Recruiting and retaining young staff.
• Fundraising and Sponsoring
• Marketing
• Promotion

Red Group, Blue and Yellow got their Club Cases after this and were allowed to work on them during informal time, before they left.

Club Development Planning Cases

1. Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers
   1. Club "……." 100 members
   2. Basic facilities
   3. 2 men hockey team/3 women hockey team (U18/U16)
   4. 3 board members (old age)
   5. 1 international umpire
   6. Close to town-to church
   Task: Two year plan to recruit volunteers and start adult hockey. SWOT + action plan

2. Financial/Sponsorship/Club Management
   1. Club "….." 150 members
   2. Owns facilities
   3. Women & men hockey
   4. Women team 2006 champions
   5. Board hired a full time Dutch coach for 2008
   Task: One year plan to achieve an even budget. Diagnosis-SWOT- Action plan

3. Creating a Club
   1. Club "……"
   2. 3 neighbor schools
   3. Strong sport spirit
   4. 90 primary pupils
   5. Supporting the project -county mayor-1 headmaster-NHA
   6. 1 PhE teacher in each school is a hockey player
   Task: Five year plan to create a club. Mission-vision-structure-SWOT-action plan-budget

On Sunday April 22nd during morning hours, groups gathered and worked on their presentation. All groups worked and presented material on flip chart and budget information was in Excel sheet.

After lunch final comments on how to keep working in each special club case, and the way everybody can get support by the NHA, local authorities, NOC and PAHF.

Most of the participants agreed on the fact that the workshop allow them to know each club needs and as a whole hockey community work towards a mutual benefit.

Final questionnaire was handed to be filled up by participants giving their opinion on the workshop. Certificates to participants were presented by Mr. Victor Tomlinson and myself.

Ana M Vinue de Romanelli, PAHF Development & Coaching Committee