A club's success is often down to its committee.
The committee represents all the members and acts on their behalf. It should be made up of a diverse mix of people with different skills and experiences.
Follow the advice here, to set up a committee that meets your members' needs...
If you're a new club, one of the first jobs is to elect a committee. This is normally done at the first meeting.
Electing a committee may sound rather official and off-putting but is actually relatively straightforward.
You will need to:
Ilkley Cycling Club has grown rapidly, since starting up in 2011, to become the biggest cycling club in the country.
The Yorkshire based group held their first meeting in a packed pub. Interested people, with the right skills, diversity and experience, were selected for the committee.
Within three months, the club had over 400 paid up members.
Picture credit: Ilkley Cycling Club
A committee will normally have the following, as a minimum:
Beyond that, it depends upon your club. You'll need to find a structure that works for you.
To do this, you could:
Keep your committee a manageable size. If it seems too big, then create sub-committees for areas such as finance or fund raising.
Once you've decided on your structure, and the roles you'll need, then it's good practice to write descriptions for each role.
Try to:
When appointing new committee members, it's important to check that their skills and experience are a good fit for the role.
You may need to recruit externally, rather than relying on your current volunteer base.
Ask everyone in your group what their skills are and what they enjoy doing.
Compile a list of skills. This help you identify your club's strengths. You will also see gaps and can then try to fill them when you're appointing new committee members.
When anyone joins you, ask for their skills and experience too.
You should aim for a diverse committee. Having a variety of viewpoints will push your committee to challenge each other and reach the best decisions for everyone.
If all your committee members share the same demographic profile (for example, age, gender, race) they're more likely to share viewpoints. This may not reflect your club in its entirety.
The upshot is that people who don't fit that profile could feel excluded at a decision level.
Welcoming people from a variety of backgrounds creates a more sustainable organisation that's fit for the future.
To follow good governance practices, at least three of your club's committee members should be 'independent'. This means not related or living together.
This reduces the risk of decisions being made or swayed by a group that may not reflect the club's best interests.
Consider what training your volunteers will need to improve or maintain their skills or boost their confidence.
Buddle has a range of workshops, online modules and toolkits that could support your group.
It's good practice for your committee members to declare any potential conflicts of interest which might affect their role.
Your club should regularly elect new committee members, and ask existing members to stand for re-election. This gives you the opportunity to develop or bring in new skills, experiences and perspectives.
Although there is no mandatory requirement, it's advisable that committee members serve no more than nine years in total.
New committee members are typically elected at your club's Annual General Meeting (AGM). Refer to your constitution, as most AGMs require a proposer and a seconder for each nomination.
You might look for new blood if:
Has one of your members declared a conflict of interest? Here's what you need to do.
Learn about protected characteristics and how the Equality Act impacts on what you do as an organisation.
Worried about waffling? Anxious about agendas?
You need to read this!