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As part of the registration process, we require each parent to pay a subscription fee each, this money goes towards, equipment, facilities and insurances etc.

It is agreed at the start of the season how much the 'subs' are, this is based of many factors and what has happened the year previous.

At the start of the season, a letter is constructed to send out to all parents to inform them of any changes and how they access the forms and where they need to make payments.

As a result of needing to be able to accept payments, the junior section have a business bank account which is set up with the chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer.

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As a club there is need to manage the players we have and how those players pay membership to be able to fundraise and promote the club, we use online forms to collect registration information, this includes personal details, medical information and details of age group they are attached to.

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I am the Chairman of the junior section at a local sports club where we have a committee of around 12 members and we use agendas and minutes of regular meetings to keep things going on in the junior section organised and transparent, we aim to schedule a meeting quarterly unless there are major developments or issues that need discussing. The junior section has over 200 children and around 40 coaches and managers.

Communication with committee members is essential to allow for planning of the relevant time and date - which sometimes can be difficult as all members are volunteers and have full time jobs on top of this commitment. I utilise a poll with a variety of dates/times in order to find the best time for the meeting to take place.

Before each meeting, I work with the club secretary to build an agenda, this is done by utilising shared documents on google and discussions by talking on the phone as well as messaging via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.

Topics that need to be discussed at a meeting are documented and any actions that were spoken about in any previous meetings. The reason this is completed is to ensure the meeting is kept focused and relevant. These agendas are sent out via email and WhatsApp prior to the meeting, which allows committee members to prepare any questions or matters arising beforehand and ensure important matters are addressed.

Whilst at the meeting, interestingly, I ask for a verbal proposal and seconder to reflect that the minutes from the last meeting were a true record, this is something that is used in government and many other deliberative bodies. This was something I learnt from being a part of various committees, this was not a literacy practice that you learn in a education setting. Mace (2005) reflects on this and how different literacy practices are used in social practices.

During the meeting, I use pen and paper to take notes, I find this is somewhat easier to write out notes whilst talking at the same time. I have considered other means of doing this in the past such as using dictation facilities or typing notes on to an app like OneNote, but for me it works better with pen and paper - what I do like to do to help this, is print off the agenda and take it with me, which I then write on.

After the meeting I write up minutes of what was discussed, this is completed and sent out for review by others in the committee before it is shared wider with all other coaches or volunteers.

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Free Sports Team Management App | Download Spond

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The management of money and a business account is crucial, it involves a combination of careful budgeting, transparent record-keeping, and regular reviews.

Through communication with the treasurer, by means of meetings, telephone conversations, messaging and email, we have identified income sources which include - membership fees, fundraising events and sponsorships. Likewise, what the expenses are, such as equipment and coaching courses.

To manage this, the junior section has a dedicated bank account where money is kept and all incomings and outgoings are documented. It is important that there is more than one person responsible for this as there is the need for transparency and also to check with one another for accuracy of payments. There is communication required between committee members with bank payments in that each payment that is made must be counter-authorised by someone who has access to the accounts. There is no need to actually speak to another committee member for this process as they can just authorise themselves as long as someone has initially set up the payment, but in the interest of clarity we have a separate WhatsApp group set up to speak with one another regarding any payments so that we are all working together and know what is going on.

An element of the funds we have, is that each of the age groups have their own fundraising pots of money, this all goes in to the main bank account but there is a spreadsheet to keep this information so that we know which age group has what money.

An example of how this works is; A particular age group will do a tuck shop on matchdays, this means this age group will recruit some of the parents to provide tea, coffee and snacks to sell on a morning of rugby, a percentage of any takings is shared with that age group.

To organise this we have a Facebook messenger group with a Single Point of Contact from each age group in so we can organise who is doing these. The use of digital literacies has really brought on the effectiveness of organising things like this.

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Another crucial tool is a mobile application called 'Spond', this helps sports team managers and coaches stay organised and connected with their players and their parents about the logistics and availability for training and games, whilst letting coaches register attendance and also export this data when needed.

With parents being so busy, it is important to keep communication limited, within the Spond app it requires the parent to set up an account, this is done by the manager sending a sign up link. As a coach, I send this set up link at the start of the season to the parents via email or WhatsApp. Once all parents are set up I am able to then create events and manage who is attending, all the parents needs to do is click attend/decline which saves having to speak with them or message them.

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Llangennech RFC Juniors Registration form

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Llangennech RFC Juniors Registration form

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Llangennech RFC 24/25 Player Registration Form

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Please complete the below form to register your child for the 2024/2025 season

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Another form of communication we use Facebook as a junior section, this helps us to connect with teams, parents and others in the local community. A Facebook page has been set up prior to me taking on the role in the junior section. This meant that I had to gain access to the page in order to manage it, I spoke with the previous chairman in order to do this, once I was set up with the right access, the previous person was then removed as they were no longer volunteering.

The literacies use on a Facebook page ranges, from writing and creating posts, to responding to comments or messages and creating events for fundraisers etc.

Overall there are many positives to using Facebook but there are drawbacks to using it too, for example, some people do not use Facebook, what I try and do, when sharing something on Facebook is to also share it as a screenshot on to WhatsApp too so that it will benefit more people than just the Facebook users.

The Facebook page is used to promote the community impact the club has on people locally. We connect with local businesses for sponsorship, promote the selling of items via our online shop and post videos of gameday footage that is sent in from various coaches or the different age groups. Years ago, when the likes of Facebook wasn't about, this would simply not have been possible and has opened up much more opportunity.

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Between myself, the vice chairperson and secretary we utislise a shared document to obtain the information. Prior to the use of computers, we had to rely on paper forms being completed, this would have been too big a job for a couple of people as there are 11 different age groups - we would have to rely on the coaches of each age group to obtain this information and send it somehow for it to be collated all together. Thankfully, we can now use online forms which can be created once and sent out en masse and data collected and documented as soon as the parent or guardian completes the form.

There were many considerations for what to use for this, such as Microsoft Forms, Google Forms and Zoho Forms - these tools all had benefits such as the functionality and accessibility within them but there were also some drawbacks such as financial implications or data protection. There is also a concern that some parents are not efficient in use of technology and this goes back to (White 2011) and (Prenksy 2001) where we may assume that people can use the internet by merely being in a category of age or ability for example. It was important to ensure the forms created were simple in order to give accessibility to all.

As a not for profit organisation, we opted to keep cost down; We used Google Forms this last season as the forms are easy to build and the results can automatically be transferred to a spreadsheet.

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Recently, we undertook a raffle for two local charities, but were doing it as a club (not just the junior section). The raffle tickets were set to be sold on a Boxing Day event which was due to take place. I approached the organisers and told them that the junior section had a banking app that could create a payment link to take raffle ticket sales; After explaining how it works verbally on the phone, I set up the link. The link was then able to tell me live time who had purchased tickets and how many, which i then used Excel to create a spreadsheet of how many tickets were sold, by who and what the final takings were for the raffle tickets sales. We shared the link with our Facebook page and the juniors Facebook messenger groups. We ended up raising over £200 just online, which we wouldn't have by doing things by just the traditional means. The organisers of the event, were and still are very much stuck in the ways of doing things traditionally (in this case, selling raffle tickets with pen and a raffle book), it is important to try and use a mixture of both elements in my opinion in order to progress and develop certain practises like this example.

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Please pay [ ] to Llangennech RFC Juniors section

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Llangennech RFC Boxing Day Raffle 🎁🌲 £2 a ticket🎅 (Please include your name and number on the payment screen so we can contact you if you are the lucky winner)!!

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David S. White and Alison Le Cornu (2011) Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement.

First Monday, Volume 16

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