CHESHIRE CLUBS CRICKET COMMITTEE

Writing a Club Development Plan

1.  How can a Development plan benefit your Club?

In a world which is dominated by financial considerations, forward planning can be the key to achieving success, be it in business or in the competitive world of sport.

Fund holders and Grant Aid agencies have strict criteria and terms of reference against which they distribute their limited funds.

Local councils have begun to expect forward planning by Clubs if they are to qualify for maximum rate rebates.

A simple club development plan will go a long way to demonstrate how your plans meet the respective criteria of various funding agencies and/or potential sponsors. This will give your Club every opportunity of obtaining the funds needed to put plans into action.

Also your Development Plan will demonstrate to local schools and community groups what your Club has to offer for potential new players and members. Your Club's Development Plan can be used to inform local press of your intentions and to help your Club to gain regular and widespread publicity.

2.  What is a Development Plan

A Development Plan is nothing more than a statement of your club's plans and ambitions over a stated period of time. There are no wrong or right ways to produce your club's Development Plan, the key to a successful plan lies in its relevance to your club and its future plans.

3.  How should your Club decide on its Future Development?

This page of the website has been produced to help your Club think about its future goals and offers a clear framework  within which to decide on your future development.

The Club should begin by first considering eight core areas of club organisation. These are essential to the future planning and well being of a cricket club and are therefore central to any Development Plan. They are:

The following sections will suggest simple questions, requiring an answer of Yes or No, which your Club can first consider in each of the eight core areas. By completing these your Club will not only have a broad picture of the provisions it currently makes, but will find some suggestions as to different ideas it may wish to incorporate in its plans.

3.1  Club Structure

It is important that your Club's constitution and committee structure will allow you to put into action any future plans you may consider. The following questions will help you to assess your current structure.

(i)	Is your Club affiliated to ECB through the Cheshire Cricket Board?	Y	N
(ii)	Does your Club have an "open door" membership policy?	Y	N
(iii)	Does your committee(s) represent the views of:
	All playing members(including juniors and their parents)?	Y	N
	All non-playing members?	Y	N
	Coaches, Umpires and Scorers?	Y	N
	Local schools and community groups?	Y	N
(iv)	Does your committee(s) take into account:
	Financial matters?	Y	N
	Ground matters?	Y	N
	Facility matters?	Y	N
	Have you read the ECB model club constitution?*	Y	N

* A copy of the model club constitution is available by following the hyperlink below:

Model Club Constitution

Having answered these questions, your Club should discuss what changes it would like to make to its structure and how to go about introducing them. 

In each area consider four aspects should be considered:

A.  What do we have now?

B.  What would we like to have?

C.  What do we need to do?

	D.  What will it cost?

A summary of decisions taken can be made on a single sheet as follows:

A similar sheet should be used to summarise your plans after discussing each of the following seven core areas.

3.2  Junior Section

Your Club's junior section is the key to a successful future, it will usually be a core element in any grant aid apllication and will keep your senior teams supplied with players, umpires, groundsmen, scorers, coaches and administrators. The following questions will help you to assess your current provisions for juniors.

A model Club Child Protection Policy for club use, can be seen by following the hyperlink below:

Model Child Protection Policy

The publication "Junior Cricket - Your Future in Their Hands" should be consulted when considering your plans for a Junior Section.

3.3  Teaching / Coaching.

In order to ensure that the cricket played at your Club is both safe and of a high standard, it is vital that the teaching/coaching of the game is undertaken at the appropriate level. This section will help your Club to look at the teaching/ coaching on offer and make sure that it is right for your Club's needs.

(i)	Does your Club have at least one coach per 15 playing members?	Y	N
(ii)	Does each team have a coach?	Y	N
(iii)	Do any od your coaches have the following qualifications:
	CCPR Community Leadersgip Award?	Y	N
	ECB Teaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Coaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Senior Coaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Advanced Coaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Level 1 Coaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Level 2 Coaching Award?	Y	N
	ECB Level 3 Coaching Award?	Y	N
(iv)	Are all your Club's coaches aware of legislation protecting children?	Y	N
(v)	Has your Club appropriate insurance to cover coaches and their activities?	Y	N
(vi)	Do you encourage your Club's coaches to join the Cheshire Coaches Association?	Y	N

3.4  Membership

Each of your Club members will have something to offer in terms of professional qualifications and/or vocational/recreational skills. These should be utilised to ensure your Club is run effectively and as efficiently as possible. These questions will highlight any problem areas.

(i)	Does your Club have:
	Qualified Coaches?	Y	N
	Qualified Umpires?	Y	N
	Qualified Scorers?	Y	N
	Qualified Groundsmen?	Y	N
	Dedicated social organiser?	Y	N
	Dedicated fund raising event organiser?	Y	N
	Other dedicated officials?	Y	N
(ii)	Are any of your members:
	Accountants, Teachers, Bar Staff, Administrators, Builders, etc.?	Y	N
(iii)	Has your Club any membership recruitment plans?	Y	N

A summary table should be used to plan out how the respective skills and knowledge of your Club's members can most effectively be used to run the Club and how you can obtain skills of which your membership is short.

3.5  Facilities

A Club cannot expect to move forward without suitable facilities in which to play and enjoy cricket. A simple assessment of your Club's facilities will make forward planning much easier. The following questions will help with your assessment.

(i)	Does your Club own its ground?	Y	N
(ii)	If not, do you have a tenure agreement?	Y	N
(iii)	If so, how long is it for?	Y	N
(iv)	Is your pavilion secure?	Y	N
(v)	Does your Club provide satisfactory changing and catering facilities?	Y	N
(vi)	Are both the square and outfield safe and well maintained?	Y	N
(vii)	Does your Club have a safe Non Turf Match and/or Practice Pitch?	Y	N
(viii)	Is there a safe, well maintained practice facility with nets?	Y	N
(ix)	Are there safe, well maintained covers, sight screens and scoring facilities?	Y	N
(x)	Does your Club have a comprehensive insurance policy?	Y	N
(xi)	Does your Club have a First Aid Kit as required by Law?	Y	N
(xii)	Are you aware of Health & Safety Act requirements?	Y	N
	Have you read relevant Sports Council Guidance Notes for Pavilion/ Changing Areas?(Available from the English Sports Council)	Y	N
	Have you read the ECB Pitch preparation and maintenance card series?(Available from ECB)	Y	N

This short assessment will have identified any short comings in your Club's facilities.

3.6  Equipment

The equipment used throughout your Club, from bats to boundary ropes to mowers, must be maintained to a safe and satisfactory standard. The following questions provide some guidelines:

(i)	Does your Club possess Kwik cricket equipment?	Y	N
(ii)	Do you provide safe and well maintained playing equipment?:Bats, pads, gloves(batting & wicketkeeping), other protective equipment(boxes etc.), practice/match balls, stumps/bails, bowling markers etc.	Y	N
(iii)	Does your Club have access to:
	A roller(s) for the square and/or outfield?	Y	N
	A mower(s) for the square and/or the outfield?	Y	N
	Other pitch preparation equipment?	Y	N
(iv)	Items such as umpires coats, boundary markers, scorebooks, etc.?	Y	N

Ownership of the above items of equipment is not necessary, but access to, and the use of such equipment, will prove vital in the successful activities within your Club.

3.7  Fixtures

It is vital that all players have the opportunity to play cricket at the level their ability allows. This section should help you to assess your current fixtures and identify any areas for change.

(i)	Does your Club enter a team in:
	A local/county league or cup competition?	Y	N
	The national U13 Club Cricket championship?	Y	N
	The national U15 Club Cricket chanpionship?	Y	N
	The national Club Cricket championship?	Y	N
	Any other national Knockout Competition?	Y	N
	The national Indoor Six-a-side Competition?	Y	N
(ii)	Do your Club's junior members play senior cricket when appropriate?	Y	N
(iii)	Does your Club encourage players to be considered for the:
	The ECB U17 County Championship?	Y	N
	The Recreational County Championship?	Y	N
	The ECB Over 50s County Championship?	Y	N
	Womens competitions?	Y	N
	Competitions for people with disabilities?	Y	N
(iv)	Do you enter/organise a Kwik Cricket event?	Y	N

Every cricketer plays the game for different reasons. Your Club should tailor its fixture list to reflect the wishes of its members.

3.8  Local Community

The most successful club development programmes usually have strong links with the local community. Links with schools and activity groups are vital and this section sets out to help you identify potential partners.

Links with local community groups are a good way of attracting more members, interest and in some cases finance.

4.  How should your Club write its Development Plan?

The summary sheets from your Club's discussions on each of its eight core areas, can now be used to write a Development Plan. This plan should first prioritize each goal that the Club wishes to achieve. Then taking into account the skills available at the Club to help achieve it and ways in which the expense could be met, each goal should be given a timescale for completion.

Each goal can then be inserted into the plan, under a general heading of its core area, giving the following information:

	the aim,
	the action to be taken to achieve it,
	the estimated cost,
	the source of funding,
	who is responsible to the Club for the action to be taken,
	the date by which the aim is to be achieved  and
	a measurement criteria which will show that the aim has been successfully reached.

This information can be entered on a form, as in the diagram below, which gives a couple of examples of the likely aims for clubs.

5.  How should your Club use its Development Plan?

Now that your Club has written its Development Plan it should give an accurate picture of the facilities your Club currently provides and plans to add over the period of the Plan.

As such the Plan should form a major part of any applications your Club makes for grants. It can also be sent to the Council with an application for a rent rebate and to the Cheshire Cricket Development Officer for information and for fitting into overall plans for facilities in Cheshire.

The Plan can also be used as a basis for discussions on sponsorship, links with local schools and attracting new players from the local community.

Finally the Plan will provide the items on Club Devcelopment which need to be discussed at future Committee meetings and should be kept up to date and rolled over from year to year.

6.  Assistance

Should your Club wish to seek assistance with the drawing up of its Development Plan, this can be obtained by contacting:

Peter Hancock, Cheshire Cricket Development Officer,  Tel: 01606-871872

or

Bob Cunningham, Cheshire Clubs' Cricket Committee,  Tel: 01928-731388.

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