St Mary's Richmond Athletics Club

When St Mary's Richmond Athletics Club moved home to share the high quality facilities at St Mary's University College at Strawberry Hill, Southwest London, it began to attract more members. Since 2006, the club has grown from 50 members to 350, and it's still growing. This is great news for the club, but Secretary Tim Gutch confesses he sometimes worries about resources. "We rely entirely on volunteers and have a fantastic team," he explains, "but if we continue to grow, which we want to do, the number of members will start to stretch them". There are 16 volunteers on the committee and the club also has seven volunteer coaches and an additional 12 volunteers who are regularly called upon during the competition season to help with officiating and recording results.

Balancing membership and voluntary resources is a challenge many sports clubs face. 1.9 million people volunteer in sport for at least an hour each week – equivalent to a full-time workforce of over 80,000 employees – and to make the most of their valuable time they need support and easy-to-use resources. Like Tim at St Mary's Richmond AC, many of them find guidance from runningsports: a portfolio created and funded by Sport England which provides free downloadable resources and low-cost tutored workshops catering specifically for volunteers like Tim working in sport who want a little help.

Changing the way clubs bid for funding
Tim, who is responsible for co-ordinating the volunteers at St Mary's, was made aware of runningsports’ resources by a colleague from the University. She knew all about the range of online, downloadable resources and practical workshops which support volunteers in sports clubs up and down the country, and she recommended several of the workshops to Tim. Volunteers from the athletics club have since attended many of them, including A Club for All and Valuing Your Sports Volunteers.

Tim explains how valuable the workshops have been: “The workshops have plenty of practical, applicable elements, of course, but one thing which runs through them, regardless of the topic, is the opportunity to meet people from other clubs who are facing similar challenges to yourself. It's so useful to exchange experiences and hear that you're not on your own!

"Funding for your Club was particularly useful to us at the time because we were actively looking for new ideas for funding sources. Like most clubs, we never have enough money and we knew we had some large items of expenditure coming up. The workshop taught me a lot: I had never heard of the Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) scheme (which many clubs are eligible for and which enables them to save money through tax benefits) or some of the grant-making organisations we were introduced to, and I came away with some concrete leads to take back to the committee. It made me think about local trusts which I'd not approached."

Since attending Funding for your Club, St Mary's Richmond AC has received almost £3,000, some of which was from England Athletics for new and replacement throws equipment (for the javelin, discus, shot and hammer events). This will enable the club to develop throws event coaching, which will particularly benefit junior club members. A development plan was required to support the club’s submission to the governing body, and Tim says he felt much more confident about writing an effective plan after attending the workshop.

Towards a stronger future
With many of the 350 members competing at high-levels in the Southern League, St Mary's Richmond AC wants to implement a more sustainable coaching strategy for the future. The club is considering a range of options, including paying professional coaches to supplement the existing volunteer coaches, but this cannot be achieved without extra funding. Tim recognises the direct impact the runningsports’ workshop has had on the club's bottom-line. "As a result of ideas the workshop gave me, we will also be able to approach sponsors and funding bodies in the local area. Not only do we have a better idea of who to approach, but we know how best to present ourselves for the best chance of success. We hope to secure enough funding to be able to strengthen our coaching system so that, as current coaches retire or move away, our talented young members still have the support they need to excel."

St Mary's Richmond Athletics Club: on the up
It’s not just in size that St Mary's Richmond AC has grown. Its performance has improved too, with the senior women in Division One of the Southern League, and the senior men in Division Two. The club also nurtures some talented youngsters with juniors making up over 60% of its membership. It's clear the club is helping grow the grassroots of athletics, but to do so it needs to continue to support its volunteers. The club has found runningsports’ workshops and resources to be a direct help as it faces the challenges which go hand-in-hand with growth. As Tim says, “The most important thing for sports club volunteers is that they feel they're appreciated and looked after. Training opportunities can help them feel supported and show that their input is truly valued. I would advise any club to send volunteers to runningsports workshops: we've been to many and will attend more in the future.”

If you’re involved in managing an expanding club and would like to learn more about making a greater success of your funding proposals, growing the grassroots of your sport or working up a club development plan, Tim Gutch at St Mary's Richmond Athletics Club shows how to make substantial changes fairly simply with a little help from runningsports.