Starting a Volleyball Club

If you are looking to start a volleyball club in your area, then we hope the below information will be useful. These steps are just the initial steps in getting your new club up and running - for more information on developing further, please visit our Club Development pages.

When starting a volleyball club, it's important to make sure that you have the right organisational structure in place and your club is insured:

• Create a club committee with a chairperson, secretary and treasurer. These people should ideally not be related to eachother.
• Open a club bank account.
• Create a club constitution and a club mission statement.
• Register your club as a new club with Volleyball England. This entitles you to £5 million Public Liability Insurance along with a host of other membership benefits.

Approach your local leisure centres and schools to see if they have volleyball facilities and spare hall time that your club could use. Setting up a school - club link early on could help your club to become successful. If you aren't sure where your nearest facilties are visit www.activeplaces.com.

There are several ways in which you can attract players to your club:

• One of the best places to advertise your sessions is at the venue itself; you can print flyers and leaflets to leave on noticeboards or hand out to other sports centre users.
• Your local County Sports Partnership will have a website with listings of all the local sports clubs. Make sure you get in contact with them and get your sessions listed online.
• You may then want to set up a club website or create a social networking page to attract more members to your club. Visit our Promoting your club pages to find out more.

• There are several online sports equipment and volleyball specialist suppliers where you can purchase reasonable volleyball equipment. You may find that your sports hall already has some, or you can also contact your Regional Association who may be able to help you source equipment.
• The Club Funding pages detail more information on how to obtain external funding to set up your club; why not apply for a Sport England Small Grants bid to set up a new club or Sportivate funding to buy new equipment and set up a block of volleyball sessions.

As well as the Volleyball England Development team, there are several other contacts who can help you with your new club, including funding, finding players and joining leagues:

• Local authority sports departments: Find out if your council has a sports department, they may be able to help you set up your club and have local funding available.
• County Sports Partnership: There are 49 CSPs, 1 per county staffed by professional sports officers. Thye may have their own sources of funding and may be able to support your project with advice, guidance and marketing.
• Regional Volleyball Association: There are 9 Regional Associations, staffed entirely by volunteers. They can help with finding equipment locally and how to enter local competitions anfd leagues.