Tennis in Surrey 2015

programmes
The joy of taking on admin help
at Wigmore Lawn Tennis Club
While I’m sure everyone would
agree that it is marvellous to
have a popular club with a
thriving coaching programme
and growing membership,
success doesn’t come without its
challenges! In all spheres of sport,
it seems to be getting harder and
harder to find volunteers to help
run clubs, particularly on the
administrative front. Having grown
in membership from around 500
to 800 within four years and now
with a growing waiting list for
new adult members (there is no
limit on junior memberships),
Wigmore decided that the time
had finally come to invest in paying
for administrative help to ease the
admin burden on its volunteers.
We advertised for part-time
help through a specialist on-line
agency and received a large
number applications from good
candidates, so there is definitely
interest ‘out there’ in part-time
admin work! We have taken on an
Administration Manager for the
club who works for us on a selfemployed,
part-time basis. She has
the flexibility to work from her
home or at our club and chooses
the hours and days that she works
– advertising when she will be
at the club to answer members’
queries or meet prospective
members on our club website.
This doesn’t mean that the
committee are shirking from their
work in running the club – quite
the opposite; it gives us more time
to focus on the bigger picture and
the future direction of the club
rather than get bogged down
in the day to day nitty gritty of
reminding members to pay their
dues / be at the club to meet the
gasman for meter readings etc
(which is also hard when most of
the committee are at work during
the day). I know that many clubs
rely solely on volunteers, but if your
club is struggling to keep on top
of the admin work, I recommend
you pull in some outside help, it is
certainly bringing joy to Wigmore’s
management committee!
Louise McKerchar, President
Wigmore Ltc, Streatham
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