FUTURE PLANS: CLUB SCENE

We now have 24 members, but we would like to move towards doubling that number over the next one or two seasons. Its a tall order, but we feel it can be done -but we do need to be better at mobilising the available (see updates on News Page) resources (finance / publicity / equipment )that could help us. They are out there somewhere...and we need to find them. Can anyone help us with this?

Also, we do need more 'big' matches (see updates on News Page) for them now, of both competitive and friendly variety, and when we get that, I think the youngsters will be able to give us some extra help with recruitment. It is our conviction that if we get big enough, the youngsters themselves will bring in new members. That is where we are trying to get to at some point in the not too distant future. Let us hope we reach that point and that the youngsters come through for us.

In the meantime, we will certainly try our third free bowling promotion in September, but we intend to change the formula this time and as an experiment we have programmed one or two junior sessions every day (two saturdays with music - bring your own -non explicit- CD) over a two week period commencing on 06.09.04.

We are trying this because we have not had the greatest success with our open week-ends and we think we must be doing something wrong somewhere. Anyway, we will see how this goes.

If anyone out there has any constructive suggestions regarding open days or on any recruitment or retention ideas... no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to you at this moment, please do get in touch as it will be most appreciated. After all it is a bit of a jigsaw we are all putting together and every piece helps.

We also wish to ensure that all of the parents of our junior's are encouraged to continue to play a part in the development of the club...in fact we want them to be part of the club. All parents have been excellent throughout, but not all, due to varying personal circumstances, are in a position to give the amount of support that is ideal, so we need to pay very special attention to this aspect of our junior club... the vital and indispensable importance of parents to the success of the clubs activities.

For example, as we take on more matches, and therefore more traveling and expense, parents can be a tremendous help with transport and food arrangements etc. How much we can achieve as a club will very much depend on the goodwill and support from parents -and also what time and resources they can devote to bowls. Parents are both crucial and critical to the success of the section.

This season, for the first time, we played our first inter-club junior match -and this is the area that we wish to do more of in future. Rugby have offered to combine with us to provide 6 rink junior matches and should any club(s) wish to have such a match please get in touch. We would also be interested in playing against your normal club week-end club side and you may feel, if appropriate, that this could be an opportunity for you to give a game to any junior's you may have. In agreed cases, as mentioned, we would put out a combined team from our two clubs to mix and match with the strength required. Also, we would be happy to consider matches where coaches and or adults, skip or play within a rink with their own junior's if this is what it takes to 'get the match on.'

As you see, we are happy and prepared to be flexible.

Still on press coverage. Here again at Club level we have great problems getting any press coverage. In fact we find it impossible to get any coverage at all at the moment. Traveling around on bowls tours and on other occasions, we have become very envious indeed of the media coverage that we see elsewhere in some parts of the country.

We believe publicity is very important-and we intend to keep on trying to achieve the higher profile that bowls, so richly, deserves. But in Birmingham, it is very hard to get any publicity whatsoever...the local press in particular seem to always have been impervious to any approaches from our 'great and good' over very many years.

For our press here it is either...the end or the beginning of the football season...or the end or the beginning of the cricket season etc...they have no space...they are on holiday...they may get it in one quiet Wednesday... they will do it later on... etc etc. Yes! we have had this and more. They actually put all this in one solitary Emailed reply to us... and it is as bare faced as that...all of that rather than give bowls even a small coverage...and we have had some good stories too...often far better than much of the facile reporting that you see in today's press anyway.

Its a shame! After all, as we all know, bowls is such a wonderful, all year round, superb non contact sport -and unlike many sports, does not depend on how big you are or how fast you can run it is equal for all everyone has the same chance.(For example...there is not a 'ladies tee' in bowls).

In terms of participation Bowls comes third in this country -only being beaten by Football and then Fishing- (this from the official Government Household Survey) Therefore , whatever the prejudices of the media, bowls must surely be in the top "half-a- dozen" sports in this country.

Interestingly, it is the only one that we know of that has the quality of infrastructure and data base etc. already in place to attract, introduce (and coach) mass sport to our communities AND with the capacity to take in AND train those thousands of new sports persons, regardless of age or gender (there is total age and gender equivelance in Bowls)---and this is the thing...both in summer and winter. Also, it is a sport with a great social life to it...it is good exercise...and only mildly aerobic...which just what many people want.

'Sack cloth and ashes' and shame on the 'trendies' in the media for rubbishing our sport...rather than positively promoting participation in our sport. This is particularly inexplicable and frustrating, as obviously, if the press were more positive towards us, the press would be acting in line with recommendations from health experts and, as we have said, although our sport is not exactly 'aerobic' it is good solid exercise and keeps you (very) interested competitively and or socially. It is exactly in line with the what 'health experts' are trying to encourage the population as a whole to do ...'get into exercise and sport'. It would be a difficult challenge to name a sport that is better able to cater for this task than bowls.

Perhaps our time is coming. There is a good opportunity out there for us, if we can just get our act together. What better moment in time. How about advertising? How about regular press releases and or conference(s) around the country to try and launch our sport. How about a National Press Officer/consultant/agency? (see our comments in Future/Inter-County). We think this would be money well spent even if it meant a little less going to the top echelon's (this should be lottery funded anyway) of the game. The slogan we would like to see promoted at any press launch is "GIVE BOWLS A TRY?

Therefore a real 'BIGGY' for us is "Can anyone help us with publicity in the Birmingham area? Are you a bowls friendly reporter? Does anyone know of a 'bowls friendly' reporter? If so, please make contact with us as for some reason, we always seem to have a worthy story, ready for print.

This coming season, due to demand, we are increasing the rink space available to the junior's from two separate sessions over two days of coaching at 1615 hours to four junior sessions over three days involving leagues and coaching. Three of the sessions are still at 1615 hours and one session at 1815 hours. Advanced Coaching and a Beginners Coaching Course is available throughout the season.

Our coaches so enjoyed last season that three of them have given up their adult games, to give priority to the junior's. We think this will catch on with other members also...but possibly not for another season or so, as some seniors are still wary of youngsters. By and large juniors will have to force their own way through that invisible 'barrier' ...and we are sure they will... given time and given the opportunity. (see updates on News page)

As mentioned elsewhere, we have noted that our Junior's are warmly welcomed wherever they go and are given much encouragement by team mates and opposition alike. They have often filled in as last minute subs in both league games and week-end games, which I'm sure has been appreciated by members.

Recently, the club was asked at short notice, by the County, to put out two rinks for a Heart fund-raising event at Tamworth. It seemed that the adults could only raise one team but the junior's came to the rescue and provided the other rink and were a credit to the club throughout...even playing an extra two hour session. The junior's are now coming through 'that learning curve' and are rightfully taking their place within the Club structure, filling in as subs, entering leagues and competitions, and of course by doing so, they are also bringing in revenue to the club.

Still on the club scene may we mention Junior Membership Fees. We ourselves have had suffered two successive annual increases -and none of the coaches or parents can see what it achieves financially...maybe £30 tops for the club. The club could of course actually lose money and members and rink income if parents/junior's get 'steamed up' and lose interest, give up etc. It has happened to us like that before. The successive increases have caused a lot of comment in the section, so much so that some Junior's may not join the club next year...one saying "I thought you said we were the future of bowls." Two -who said they may not be able to join next season... have since joined...but only because two Club Committee members have recently realised the genuine difficulty involved and have very generously paid their membership fees for them.

Although we have not particularly looked around we have nevertheless come across two 'forward looking' clubs who do not charge a junior membership fee at all, and subsequently, they have actually gained members and rink fees. So since this discovery, we have considered the whole subject of free membership in more depth and at this moment in time with the youngsters just beginning to come on stream, it seems to us (4 votes to 1) that this is VERY MUCH an enterprising and correct thing to do...and it follows the national guidelines of clubs doing everything they can to let the young bowler's 'take root'.

We have had the debate at our club...is it SUBSIDY the junior's want from Committee ... -or are we looking at an INVESTMENT opportunity for the future of the club and bowls. On which one it is, the feeling is that many committee's are still reluctant to 'bite the bullet' ...therefore 'the jury is still out'. Our view is that it is like computers years ago...as one company introduced them, so another one followed on...similarly smoking. We think (hopefully) that this will happen with junior's ...when enlightened members -who can see what is happening elsewhere- will bring forward their concerns themselves. Of course, every club must act in a manner that is best for their club, but, in the meantime, the message to all committee's from members must surely be: "Bowls is expensive for kids/parents -both in committing lots of time and hard earned money...particularly with initial purchases of equipment...so why not help the juniors out out with free membership fees?

For us in Birmingham, a strong Crown Green area, there are rather too many obstacles to taking up flat Green Bowls...as opposed to Crown, where all you need is an old set of woods for a 'fiver' and a pair of trainers...and club membership fees are extremely low.

For us here, when recruiting juniors, one problem you soon have to face is blazers.
While we totally support our dress code, this is in actual fact just another 'obstacle' to taking up flat Green Bowls -as opposed to Crown...which as mentioned is totally dominant in our area. However, while blazers are an obstacle which our Crown Green competitor's do not have to deal with...and yes, lots of blazers together can also be a bit 'intimidating' to youngsters too, we do very much like blazers as a dress code -and we always fully support and encourage junior's to like them too.
It has ocurred to us that other flat green clubs in Crown areas will be having similar problems, so if you have any ideas on promoting Flat viz Crown, please get in touch.
So! A job for Coaches. Coaches who already have to be so generous 'cash wise' with junior's, also have to be very innovative too...and if the dress code for youngsters is enforced in your County, may we sugest something for your consideration. One example we could pass on is that to initiate junior's into blazers (without incurring too much 'resistance') and then on into the wonderful world of junior bowls' and further, to overcome yet another expense for the parents...our Coaches came up with this idea. Acquiring a supply of small and medium sized blazers -from local charity shops and club members, or wherever. These are then made available to the junior's as and when required on a match basis or for purchase as appropriate.

As mentioned previously, there is no doubt that, financially, it is definitely uphill to get started. So our point is, that if the cost of membership is likely to be an obstacle too far, why not think about removing it! If it is within your power to do this...why not? It surely is not a 'make or break' financial matter. At any rate, we do respectfully suggest that you go out of your way to encourage the junior's -and make it as easy and as inexpensive as possible for junior's to play bowls. (see updates in News Page)

We are very much in favour of the notion of 'Accreditation' as envisaged by the joint bodies forming the EBYDS. This is exactly the sort of thing that will encourage clubs to strive to reach the excellent standards that we would all like to see. The first wave of 'Active Sports' have the accreditation scheme in place and that seems to be moving them along fine.

So! What is it with Bowls? When clubs were first requested to apply for this, the feedback was that it seemed that some delays/problems had been encountered -but it was hoped that these would be resolved before too long. It was intimated that 'partial accreditation was a possibility for the time being.
We did not mind this...after all it was a start! Since then we have been in telephone contact and understand that while we do comply fully with the original 'twenty point' criteria, the experience gained since, from Sport England, means there will probably be some additional criteria to assimilate. So watch this space.

It is fairly obvious that there is a problem with the scheme somewhere -and it is a fair bet, that there are some 'delays/beaurocracy' going on somewhere -but we understand that these are mainly due to the re-structuring of Sport England...rather than the EBYDS. We will just have to be patient while the details are sorted out. We understand our joint body (EBYDS) are working very hard indeed, and as this is a sound idea, something good will surely come out of it in due course. Rumour has it that, in the very near future, EBYDS will be producing a guidance manual and some notes, as an interim measure to help clubs. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. English Bowls Association website Note: From EBA Home page select "News and useful documents" then select "EBYDS".
Excellent, we are making progress and will get there in the end.