Your club will run loads of events besides matches and training over the course of a season. You’ll need to be on-the-ball to get these organised and get the result you want.
1. Parents’ evenings. There will be lots of information to get across to parents of your players, so you’ll need to organise your time wisely. Use senior club officials and team coaches to host the event, include all the important details but try to keep it interesting and relevant. You can provide further information in handouts and direct parents to your website for more information. You can ensure a good attendance by making it compulsory for all parents to attend. Try to keep the event as short as possible as officials and parents have a lot of demands on their time.
2. End-of-season Awards. These evenings are fun for the entire membership to celebrate the achievements of your teams, but it’s also a great time to tell people about your club and get them involved. See the Awards evenings download below for more.
3. Fundraisers are key to bringing in much-needed revenue for your club. If you have your own clubhouse, you’re in an ideal place as you have a free venue to stage events. You can run typical nights such as discos, race-nights and summer barbeques, or real money-makers like car boot sales. Click the Fundraisers download below for more suggestions.
4. Festivals and tournaments are a great way to celebrate the end of the season and give players a fun chance to play. It’s also the ideal way to bring new players into the club with a fun one-off festival. Or you could run a major tournament and invite local clubs to participate or non-affiliated business teams in order to raise money. Why not run these around a major international tournament, for example the 2008 UEFA European Championship or the 2012 Olympic football tournament, and get the teams to play as different nations? Check out our Tournament plan download below to see how to do this and see our England Football Day resources.
5. Committee meetings. If you’re starting up a new team or taking over a senior club official role, such as Secretary or Chairperson, you may have to organise committee meetings as part of your job. There should be an Annual General Meeting, as well as regular committee meetings. You’ll need to organise the venue, a time and date when everyone can make it, write and distribute an agenda and minutes afterwards.
McDonald’s are offering the chance to win an incredible visit from one of our football ambassadors, which could help support your event, whatever the size. Whether you want Sir Geoff Hurst to hand out prizes at a trophy session, Eric Harrison to coach your Under 8's, or attend a team meeting and offer some expert advice, click here to find out more.