The Malvern Hills Gymnastics Club has seen a 40 fold increase in the number of members in the past five years – a record that any major corporation would be proud of, let alone a local sports club run by volunteers. The fact that this extraordinary feat can be largely attributed to the inspirational leadership of the Club’s co-founder Lorraine Barson, who is registered partially sighted and has the chronic condition fybro-myalgia, is just one of many reasons she was recently nominated for a BBC ‘Unsung Hero’ Award.
Lorraine works tirelessly to maintain the growth in membership of the Malvern Gymnastics Club and raise funds to improve the club’s facilities. Lorraine explains, “As our membership has grown, we’ve had to expand accordingly by purchasing new equipment, finding more space and recruiting more staff. However, the club is managed by volunteers and membership fees are nominal, so we needed to find a way to run it as efficiently as possible and spend what income we raised through fundraising where it really counts. Although I was aware that clubs could get tax breaks by achieving Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) status, I didn’t know how to go about getting our club accredited until I heard about a workshop organised by runningsports that sounded perfect - ‘How to get tax breaks for your club… Achieving Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) status.”
Many volunteers like Lorraine have turned to runningsports for support in situations like this. The programme was created and is funded by Sport England and developed in consultation with sports professionals and volunteer agencies to provide skills and support as well as many resources for the some 5.8 million volunteers working in sport, of which 1.9 million regularly spend more than one hour per week supporting their sport. It works on the principle that by channelling and combining the natural enthusiasm of volunteers with the correct tools, techniques and resources, sports organisations can achieve their full potential. The runningsports portfolio includes:
- This website with free resources including Top Tips, best practice guides, volunteer case studies and a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section
- Quick Guides covering a range of topics that have an impact on sports volunteers and suggestions on how to implement solutions
- Workbooks which take a practical, hands-on approach with activities that enable volunteers to deal with issues their sports team, club or community organisation is facing
- Workshops dealing with the issues facing the volunteer workforce delivered by accredited tutors with knowledge and relevant experience in the topic areas.
Lorraine continues, “When I signed up for the runningsports workshop, I hoped that I would come away from it having learned to how to achieve CASC status for the club and consequently make a successful bid for full CASC accreditation to benefit from the associated tax concessions. What I didn’t realise was that, in addition to these benefits, the workshop would also help me on our way to the sports club quality Clubmark standard for the club and introduce me to other volunteers working in nearby clubs, with whom I can compare notes and talk about local issues.’
“I’ve since attended other runningsports workshops and encouraged some of the 48 volunteers who I manage at the club to take part in them as well. Largely thanks to this training, we have now achieved CASC and Clubmark status, improved our volunteer management processes and coaching standards, secured more members and purchased new equipment with the extra income we’ve saved in tax payments. No small achievement and all based on using runningsports. Our next big hurdle is finding a larger venue for the club!”
If you’re involved with a club that needs to know more about setting up a junior club, getting tax breaks, recruiting and keeping volunteers, being open to all members of the community or working up a club development plan, Lorraine has proved that it really is possible to make substantial changes fairly simply when you’ve got runningsports behind you.
