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Most volunteers have limited time that can be devoted to the club web presence. Have you allocated priorities to your online tasks so that you decide which are critical to the operation of your club and which are nice, but not necessary?
One of the main purposes of this guide is to provide ways to use the Internet to help to improve club efficiencies and reduce the time that club processes take to complete.
Here are some aspects about the use of volunteer time and the Internet that you or other volunteers may relate to:
Many people involved in managing the web presence of the club are also involved in running the club (secretary, president; chairperson, etc). Usually running the club (quite correctly!) takes precedence.
Many club volunteers also have busy, full time jobs or other commitments which take up their time. This can limit the amount of time they can devote to club tasks.
A number of volunteers (for instance, retirees) do have a bit of extra time, but it is not unlimited.
One of the challenges facing volunteers managing the web presence is balancing the amount of time available to them with the amount of things that they wish to achieve online.
One way to assist volunteers to manage which particular web functions they tackle is to prioritise them. This can be done in a number of ways, but here is a suggestion:
HIGH PRIORITY: those web functions that are required for compliance - either legally or to comply with league, association or major sporting body mandates. For instance, if a club is required to carry out certain regular checks and record them online to maintain its insurance, then this needs to be done. Many cricket clubs are required to enter match scores online by a certain date. If this doesn't occur then they may receive a fine from the league or association, which is to be avoided.
MEDIUM PRIORITY: those web functions that may not be required, but their implementation will reduce the amount of time taken by volunteers to carry out a particular task. An example of this is where social media may be used to announce team selections. If this is replacing having to make telephone calls to individual players then it certainly saves time. However, it should be noted that some initial effort is usually required to set these sites up. In the case of the team selection example, it may take some effort to get everyone signed up on (and using) the particular platform being used. How will clubs manage members who are not online or refuse to sign up?
Note also that some online tasks may receive medium priority because they are important within the club. Maybe they provide excellent value for sponsors or members and supporters - or help to attract new members. A particular online task may even be worthwhile if it can help to lift club spirits or improve camaradarie (eg running a club social media page).
LOW PRIORITY: this priority level is reserved for those online tasks that may add some value, but are lower priority due the small amount of value that they provide or the amount of time that they take to complete. One example of this is the preparation of match reports or regular news items. These often take a great deal of time for volunteers to prepare as the content has to be written and often linked with pictures. Where clubs do this (and it is quite common), it is very important for them to determine if they are getting the corresponding readership from members, supporters and/or sponsors to match the effort made to produce it (see measuring web presence success). If such tasks are seen as being vital for club success or morale then they can allocated a 'medium' priority.
One of the other time-related challenges facing volunteers regarding the club web presence is that many aspects require technical skills for them to be carried out, or some technical knowledge that needs to be looked up to complete the task. This often acts as a deterrent to the tasks being carried out and results in them being assigned a low priority. An example of this is website design. Sometimes clubs know that their website design is not ideal, but the effort needed to change it means that they put off making any alterations.
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