Ridng Club Members (especially committee)

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Bert&Maud

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Just returned from RC Committee meeting. We're a very small club with only about 50 members max. Getting quite frustrated with organising instruction etc, just enough people say they want to attend, but on the day a few drop out and we're left with either having to cancel or club has to subsidise the session. Those that do attend bring a cheque made out to the Riding Club, so the person organising/taking money ends up having to pay the instructor themselves and keep a note of complicated calculations so the club can pay them back! We're thinking of having some kind of on-line or paper booking system and then asking members to pay online via BACS a few days before, but I would be really interested to find out how other clubs deal with this. Thankies!
 
We tend not to have instructors/clinics that we have to pay for, one reason being that we cannot get enough people to attend. Our biggest problem is that no-one but the committe and one or two other members ever help out. People will only attend to take part. This could come to the crunch this year, as all the committee members have horses they want to take to events this year. This is the first year that we all have an animal that is fit/old enough/ young enough etc to take to shows, if we all want to take part then i have no idea who is going to actually run the annual show! :eek:
I think you will have to have people pay up front, when they express interest. We have had to do this with coach trips, as the club ended up subsidising trips for a few members, when people pulled out at the last minute, having not put any money in.
 
The way that we organise instruction/clinics is that everyone has to complete a booking form and send it in the week before together with a cheque payable to the RC. We then pay the instructor direct - should anyone drop out at the last minute then they will still have to pay unless someone else takes their place. And yes - most of our committee compete and yes - it's a nightmare getting helpers for shows - even in a big club! But my worst gripe of all is getting judges for dressage!!!!! Especially when I need a listed judge and they do not reply to our requests for help!!!! Feel like complaining to BD!!!!
 
We do it like this... Turn up and/or cough up. Bit brutal but it has to be done or it looks like you are subsidising a few and this can't happen. Occasionally we run fixtures where the cost isn't set and the participants will just split the cost between the number taking part. However, this would be an exception and notifiable in advance.

All the rest is as it always has been. A stoic few doing the vast majority of the work.
 
What we do with our club is pay for sessions in advance. our fee is £5 per lesson and we ask the members to pay £20 (for 4 sessions). these are held every sunday and we have a booking dedline of wed before. if you book then dont turn up you loose a session (unless extreme condidtions)
 
Dropping out on the day/not turning up and not paying is not on. Might be best if you get people to book and pay in advance, no refunds if they can't come on the day unless you/they can get someone else to take their place.
 
You need to make it clearer to members about what they need to bring to the lesson. Members are easy to contact via email/facebook or website. In our club we have a policy where if you cancel less than 5 days before or do not turn up you still have to pay. We will chase people up and suspend them from the club if necessary. We also send out reminders 1 week before a lesson and have a very clear blog about who is booked into lessons. This can be updated by those organising the lesson and means people can see very easily if there are spaces available.

We are a massive club but started in humble surroundings. Our success has been in the amount of lessons we offer and the variety of things people can do. But typically we had a fun ride with over 70 booked in which was capacity and only 30 turned up! Shame as lots wanted to go.

As for judges - we actually pay our judges £10 an hour plus travel and find it makes a massive difference in whether people will come and judge for you. Its not much but if the judge is a trainer then they are turning down far more lucrative work.

Finally with regards to volunteers. I had a massive moan about it this year and we do not want to force our members to volunteer but we have found better communication asking them with emails, volunteer vouchers which can then be used on lessons and if members have team entries subsidised then they have to volunteer.

www.blackdownmendiprc.co.uk
 
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