Club Development Plans

The best route for a club to reach its full potential is for it to be involved with a planning process, that lays out its path for the future. Club development plans are a fantastic way to plan for the future, and to bring your club together to work towards the same vision and aims. They can help to improve on activities you currently offer and will prepare you for the activities you wish to introduce.

What is a Club Development Plan?

A club development plan is a short written document that lays out the clubs vision for the future, its aims, how it plans to get there and by when. This document should be concise and easy to understand so all club members will read it and can help move the club to a better future. Most importantly a club development plan is a ‘living document’ which is kept up to date, as the club develops and reaches its aims then new improvements and aims can be made as an ongoing process, to be the best the club can be.  

Why should you have a Club Development Plan?

There are many reasons for planning: for survival, to attract new members, to support and grow your club volunteers, to increase the number of instructors/coaches or race officials.

The benefits from planning are endless and support the saying, failing to plan is planning to fail. Below is a short list of benefits you could encounter from writing a development plan for your club.  

• Demonstrate how your club is meeting the criteria for funding agencies and potential sponsors. Possibly making you more successful within this area.
• Provide a clear direction for your clubs growth, helping to bring your club together as one body.
• Helps the club cope with change.
• Use your clubs resources more effectively.
• Help members understand and support the direction in which the club is going.
• Identify goals within certain sections of the club
• Increase your club's confidence by visibly meeting aims and succeeding.
• Assist with the recruitment of new members.
• Assist with the development of your volunteers.
• Can potentially attract outside support. By using it to inform local, regional and national sport development networks of your work and future directions.

Use the below link to view the Snowsport England Writing a Club Development Plan step by step document.  

Writing a Club Development Plan

It’s simple and you will wonder why your club hasn’t written one before.