When you think of the future for your club is that next week, next month, next year or 10 years time? Think about your club in the last season, and as a percentage of club meeting time – how much time was given to immediate issues, as opposed to forward thinking that will help secure the future of the club? If that ratio was 75/25 or worse, you could well be looking at the prospect of your club not existing at some point in the future.
 
To help identify any area of the club’s operations that may need attention, work through the following three sets of questions noting down concerns and issues to be followed up:
 
How do you look after your key assets – your people?
 
Officers
How long do you want/expect officers to serve?
Do you provide any training and support?
How big is the job you expect them to do?
How do officers communicate with each other and with other groups?
 
Members
What do your members expect and want from the club?
Do you provide regular information to members?
How do you provide that information (newsletters, website, noticeboard)?
How do you attract new members?
 
Volunteers, Coaches, Officials
Have you assessed how much time all volunteers contribute – and its worth?
How much do you invest in volunteers in return (training, support, reward)?
Do you have a position on the committee for a volunteers’ representative?
How do you recruit volunteers – do they have to be cricketers?
 
Juniors
The future of the club?
How do you promote your club to other juniors in the local community?
Do you offer appropriate opportunities for juniors?
How do you support talented young players?
Do you have appropriate Child Welfare procedures in place?
Do you have enough qualified coaches at the right levels?
Is the junior section integrated with the rest of the club?
 
Is your house in order?
 
Constitution
Is it up to date and relevant?
Is your membership open to all?
Do you have a disciplinary and appeals procedure?
Are all sections of the club represented within the committee structure?
How is committee work communicated within the club and between committees?
Do you have a dissolution clause – which doesn’t distribute assets to members if the club folds?
 
Policies
Have you adopted ECB recommended policies for Equity, Child Welfare, Volunteers?
Do you have any working Codes of Conduct for members, coaches, parents?
Are your policies working documents or token statements?
Health and Safety
Do you have a person responsible for health and safety?
Do you have people qualified as First Aiders?
Is your First Aid equipment appropriate, accessible, checked regularly?
Do you have an accident book and incident report forms?
Do you have appropriate risk assessment procedures?
 
Insurance
What cover have you got?
Is it current?
Does it reflect all your club operations: buildings, contents, equipment?
Is there provision for cover of officers, members, coaches, volunteers?
 
Membership Records
Do you know who your members are?
What sort of records do you keep regarding juniors and their parents or guardians?
How do you keep your records?
Do you need to register with the Data Protection authorities?
 
Bar/Catering
Is your licence current?
How do you organise stock control?
Do you have a bar committee?
Do you manage the accounts separately?
Do your staffing arrangements work?
Do you provide training?
Do you comply with Health and Safety regulations?
 
Does the money stack up?
 
Bookkeeping
Is your system easy to understand?
Can someone else pick it up when the Treasurer is not around?
Do you have a filing system for all records (receipts, invoices)?
How do officers log and claim their expenses?
Do you have a system for petty cash?
 
Banking
Are your current, savings, deposit accounts working for you?
Do you have more than one signatory for cheques?
Have you investigated credit and debit card acceptance within the club?
 
Accounts/Budgets
Are your records up to date?
How do you prepare accounts for the year?
Do you account for money owed by or to you in the accounts?
Do you budget for one year or longer?
Who contributes to the budget production?
Do you have any plans for savings?
What are your capital expenditure plans?
 
If the committee has positive answers to all the above questions, then the club is certainly in good hands with all the characteristics of a well-managed organisation.
 
 
Recommendations and Support:
Establishing good financial habits can help make the most of whatever money a cricket club generates, whatever its size. The role of the Treasurer is crucial, from day-to-day cash handling and banking to annual budgets and long-term financial planning. The NatWest Cricket Club Guide issued in August 2010 takes a detailed look at the responsibilities of this post, and shows practical examples of the operational differences of what it means to be a Treasurer of both a small and a large cricket club.
 
Any volunteer should be given a clear idea of what responsibilities are expected in a role, how much time it is envisaged needs to be spent, and for how long the commitment should last. A definition of all possible roles in a club can be found in the Clubmark section of the ECB website.


Develop a skills register for the club listing members’ business connections and practical experience that could be used on the club’s behalf.
 
Appoint a volunteer co-ordinator, preferably also with a younger assistant who can relate to juniors and playing members. Recruit understudies as assistants to the principal officers of the club. See ECB website for details of national volunteer support, and contact Devon Cricket here for assistance.
 
Develop a long-term plan setting out the club’s vision and goals, with 3-5 year objectives and issues to be addressed, from which a rolling 12 month action plan can be developed. Review all levels of the plan annually.
 
Register here for NatWest CricketForce  to take advantage of supplier discounts.
Make use of the dedicated ECB play-cricket site for your club, free to all Devon Cricket member clubs.
Regularly review all insurance policies to achieve best competitive rates. ECB’s official insurance scheme ExtraCover  and Marshall Wooldridge Insurance Club Cricket Cover, as recommended by the CCC, can provide benchmarks.
 
NB: Failing to plan is planning to fail... Look after the pennies and...