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Promoting Sailing Clubs

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turnturtle View Drop Down
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    Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 4:04pm
has Getafix just won 'post of 2015' already....  
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getafix View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote getafix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 4:00pm
I have posted before, I will again, IMO there are too many clubs and it's diluting the racing available.  We have sailors continuing at clubs with crappy little sailing waters, trees, poor access, mixed up fleets (no fleets at all), bad landlords etc... when there are perfectly good clubs within 20-30 minutes drive offering far better sailing, facilities and potential for growth. I applaud anyone getting stuck in and volunteering to help, just wish there was some slightly more long-termed view and/or some route/guidance coming from above that would help the bigger clubs flourish, the medium clubs expand and the small clubs, die off - but crucially, die off gracefully so no one is lost who wants to participate.

I've often thought that if sailing clubs sold off the land taken up by boats which never moved in boat parks and invested that back into the sport, we would be looking at a very healthy, most probably >£50m injection, into our sport!
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Post Options Post Options   Quote winging it Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 3:42pm
What works best is word of mouth.  If you're going to leaflet anyone, restrict your mailshots to targeted groups such as Scouts, Guides, WI, U3A and offer Taster Sessions (ours are a fiver a head).  Push the Boat out is an RYA backed open day scheme where they will produce a lot of decent PR material for you, definitely a bandwagon to be jumped on.

Have a Family  and Friends day where members bring along mates and take them for a sail.

For communication use Facebook, Twitter, the website, email.

Our membership is healthy and stable if not growing, we made money last year but we work our backsides off too.  From April to October members can sail five days a week with safety cover, many of our sessions are free and our youth scene is the best in the area.

You just have to want it and to work for it.
the same, but different...

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Post Options Post Options   Quote gordon1277 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 3:39pm
Hi Moo
We offered a much reduced rate for the first year for those undertaking a training course and in the second year the jump to full cost lost us a few in the following year the loss was nowhere near as great. By offering courses at well under the local pro centres we have certainly stopped the rot and are starting to grow again with some starting to come through to racing and joining in with work parties etc. Aiming at Adults works better than juniors as they seem to stick at it longer once the very first drop outs happen.
The next challenge we tried to address was helping them gain confidence to just go sailing when rescue cover was in place and just some confidence giving coaching/ refresher courses.
We have been involved with the local councils passport scheme to get bored kids off the streets and Gosport afloat giving taster sessions.
To our club members we created a monthly newsletter and what coming up emails every couple of weeks covering all aspects of the club.
All this involves a lot of volunteer time so good luck and as is always the case the few do so much for the many.

Gordon
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Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 3:31pm
leafleting would be a waste of money imho.... we're talking about a part of the world not synonymous with sailing or water sports, nor indeed 'yachting' as the name of the club implies.  

Far better to focus on word of mouth, peer-to-peer selling.  And diversification.... does it really matter if your club has a secondary social membership who come along for Yoga on a Tuesday night?  Come the summer a few might, just might, venture out in the boats....

or Paddleboards.



Edited by turnturtle - 07 Jan 15 at 3:34pm
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davidyacht View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 3:26pm
I assume that the underlined communicating was implying that the thread was not going in the direction that you had hoped!  

It might be worth talking to the RYA about leaflet drops, I remember attending a talk at the Dinghy Show where they said that you can identify socio economic groups by postcode, and using this info you can carry out a targeted mailshot.

Perhaps you could get each of your members to commit to introducing someone to sailing at the club for a day ... tie this in with low cost membership and see what happens, I suspect this would be more effective.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote The Moo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 1:53pm
Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions. We are currently working up a revised plan of what we want to offer prospective new members but for now trying to establish the best ways or new ways of communicating what it is we will have to offer.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 12:50pm
I have no idea if there is any supporting data, but when dinghy sailing grew in the 70's on small gravel pits and on rivers, along came the big lakes, such as Queen Mary and Datchet, these creamed off many prospective members of the smaller clubs, and in my experience these little clubs had a better social atmosphere than the big places.  Yet I don't see that these clubs have gone to the wall, many stagger on with a handful of perhaps ageing members.

Now I know that this is heresy, but in most commercial situations there would be some consolidation.  Have clubs combined to create more sustainable clubs, with more on the water activity, is this an option that gets considered?  Because if I were a punter, I think that I would be more inclined to join a thriving club with more members and activity, than one that is hanging or plodding on.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote iiiitick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 11:14am
A problem we all face, keeping the numbers up. On the whole our membership remains stable, we have core members then members who come and go. Our problem is that our catchment area is not very well populated and we are not in an area where one would expect to go sailing. Every year we have an Open Day which normally produces a couple of family memberships who seldom stick round for more than a couple of years....but we get the money! This year in spite of a busy sunny day no one joined even though I spent the day patting kids on the head and helping mums into boats. We also rent the water out to the YHA who canoe with children from Manchester, and Derby University who use it for training canoeists as part of a degree course. You would think that some of those degree kids would show an interest in sailing, but never.
Our local 'one school takes all' secondary school have been down for a splash around sometimes but all that produced was some minor vandalism. We also have Britain's worst local paper where the grasp of the English language is rudimentary and the 'Sports Desk' is obsessed with under 12's darts.....or whatever.

So we plod on, twelve to twenty five boats out, a good core of members plus the comers and goers. Tell you what though we have one of those visiting families, Otterlie and Noah, dad a Doctor, mum beautiful, will we keep them? Nah....they are doing cricket next...then horse riding.....etc. etc.

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Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan 15 at 10:24am
I like that Ladies that Launch idea, trying to get our lot to run an evening maybe back it up with a creche rota so Mums can take a break and get out on the water whilst we torment their kids.

We've been bashing our Facebook page like there's no tomorrow, our problem at Hythe is a very small boat park, over the years flat developments have moved in either side, so there is nowhere else to go, the beach on occasion gets completely washed away despite replenishment so we can't store boats even in the summer, so we have had no alternative but to go multi sport, a lot of us do other stuff anyway so we consider ourselves more a sail or seaport club. With the growth in SUP as well as Kite to supplement Windsurfing it keeps our numbers stable without too much pressure on storage. We tried to encourage some kayakers last season, but they're a bit like divers in a weird psycho serial killer style way so nobody really spoke to them and we think they might go away, shame, but it is funny how the different sports attract different personalities.

We've also tried for the sea swimming/triathlon lot but they're a bit roadie thousand yard stare weird, you try to talk to them but unless you have a wet fish handy to keep slapping them round the face with, to get their attention they just drift off to the horizon.

But we persevere, we've had a couple of new members moved down with their work, but then we get some of ours drift off out of orbit and get sucked into black holes like Downs. We're just about to get the events calendar sorted then published so folk get to see what is going on next season, hoping for more demo days, come try sailing days, teaching kids to sail and windsurf down the lake, work closer with Redoubt who have even worse troubles with a fish murdering fascist warden doing his best to scare anyone who comes along away by sheer force of rude personality issues.

It is tough, the world has changed so, there are lots and lots of diversions and calls on folks spare time, not to mention cash, the social aspect of the club just has to be part of it, folk who laugh and drink together as well as sail or ride together tend to suck more to the flame, so that's how we roll, make it fun, as well as exciting and competitive and keep it visible, always something going on.

Then report it, and there, like it or not, Facebook is your friend these days.

Edited by iGRF - 07 Jan 15 at 10:33am
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