Starting a Volleyball Club
What do I need to do first?
Read through the information below, hopefully most if not all of your questions will be answered and if you still have any questions contact the National Club Development Officer.
How should my club be structured?
Every club needs to be well organised to be successful. In order to have a smoothly operated and well-run club we would suggest looking at your club in 4 key areas:
Club Management
Playing Programme
Duty of Care and Child Protection
Sports Equity and Ethics
Your questions answered……
Club Management
Do I need a Club Committee?
YES, the minimum committee positions your club will need are a chairperson, secretary and a treasurer. Job role templates can be found in the resource section.
How can I find information and help for my club volunteers?
Visit the club volunteer section of this website. This will provide you with lots of information on recruiting volunteers, young volunteers, volunteer co-ordinators and much more!
Playing Programme
How can I find a coach for my club?
The first thing to do is check out the wanted section on the website, you may find a coach that is looking for a club in your area.
Alternatively you can post an advert free of charge in the wanted section to publicise your need for a coach.
A third option is to enrol on a Volleyball England Level 1 coaching award. Details of how to do this are located in the coaching section of the website.
How can I recruit players?
Local schools are a good place to start and quite often will give you access to facilities and start good relations within the school.
You can also post an advert on the wanted section of our website free of charge. Putting an advertisement in local leisure centres is a good way to recruit adult members.
How can I find a venue?
Try your local leisure centre as they will have times when the sports hall can be booked out for private hire. Alternatively you can look to contact local schools to see if they offer after school sports hall hire, this is also a good way of getting local juniors involved.
If you are not aware of any places local to you Sport England have a website where you can search for leisure centres etc. near you. www.activeplaces.com
Where can my club compete? Is there a local league in my area?
The best way to find this out is to contact your local area or regional secretary. Links to each regional website are located on the Volleyball England website.
Where can I get equipment from?
If you find a school or leisure centre that will let you hire their Sports Hall they will quite often have equipment that you can use.
Alternatively try searching the internet for online suppliers of volleyball equipment.
You can apply to Barclays Spaces for sports to get some generic kit free of charge i.e. cones, first aid kit etc. (visit the funding section for further information)
Duty of Care and Child Protection
Do I need to be aware of child protection issues?
It is advisable to have a fair idea if your club is going to have juniors, we would suggest you read through the child protection section and welfare section on our website. If there will be any teachers involved with your club then they should have had appropriate training. There are also courses available that go into Child Protection in further detail and information is available in the Child Protection section of our website.
Sports Equity and Ethics
What equity issues do I need to be aware of?
When you first start up your club the minimum that you should look to do would be to have a club constitution. A template for this is located in the resource section and will not take long to adapt for your club.
Where do I go from here?
Affiliation
We would recommend that now your club is up and running and established that you affiliate to Volleyball England and make use of the benefits. If you wish to compete in any Volleyball England events or competitions you must be affiliated to enter. You also receive free 3Touch magazines, insurance and event discounts, plus more!
Check out the affiliation section of the website
Club Accreditation
Once you have your main club structure in place you can look to embark upon Volley 123 Club Accreditation. Volley 123 is designed to have every aspect of club development in mind and will help you develop your club into a quality club that is member friendly, equitable, inclusive and most importantly fun!
By achieving a Volley 1 award your club will also receive many benefits such as having access to grants schemes designed specifically for accredited clubs.
