Onward and upward!

Coming up with catchy tag lines for blog entries is a never ending challenge. After quoting Al Capone recently (guesses anyone?) I have a sneaking feeling that this one is from CS Lewis. Somewhere in the Last Battle methinks*?

Anyway - better than headlining it as "Development Plan" which would have guaranteed a readership of nil. Which would be a shame as such things are a serious business and it affects everyone so I thought it needed to be shared.

Basically we have to come up with such a Plan. Or two. Confusingly this is for two reasons and - to an extent - the results is two plans. One is related to the club's "Clubmark" status (actually its not called Clubmark is it? Seal of Approval I think. No matter.). Anyway this is a sort of Official Stamp to say we are a Good Club developing well. And all that. This requires a Plan, but clearly a Plan that is readily achievable as the clubs success is marked against that - be too ambitious and it actually counts against you.

At the same time I and Joe reckon we need come up with something that is maybe more aspirational, that we want to aim for but which we may not easily reach as - for instance - we lack the resources to do it at the moment. But it says where we want to go if we did.

Its a bit like school targets. Every school would want every pupil to get an A in every subject. But no school would ever publish this as an actual target because they'd be almost bound to fail, and failing to reach your target is a grievous sin. So chances are a school will come up with a lesser target that they know they have a reasonable chance of hitting.

The plan Joe and I are working on is therefore our attempt to go for straight As. It is therefore more interesting and, dare I say it, relevant as it says where we want to be. But - as I never tire of saying - this is your section, not ours, so you should be able to comment on all this too. And even offer help where you can (or press parents/relatives/"significant others" so to do). Basically it goes something like this...

• Funding
  Apply for any grants we can, make club-wide bids if at all possible. Over the past couple of years we have raised at least £3,000 and we should be able to do that again. The challenge is obviously ensuring that grants are spent on what they were allocated for.
  WHO: Some financial genius who loves filling in forms and can work alongside the club's existing financial team
  
• Mid Beds expansion
  There is a risk of "lebensraum" in this one - of being seen to "invade Poland" for our own ends. But truth be told that - Ampthill aside - clubs north of the border have not exactly been bending over backwards to provide for girls rugby. Meanwhile we need more players, and we know that there are players over there - so seems a reasonable idea, especially when expansion southwards is impossible. Lots that could be done, from school visits to helping with their U14 girls tag at Beds Youth games.
  WHO: We need people - and really coaches - who could visit schools. But actually teaching or supporting a tag team doesn't need that high a level of qualification.
  
• Schools Sevens
  Building on the "Emerging Schools" tournament by getting schools to enter a tournament - say a Sevens - run at the club. Need to spark interest at local schools, and organise something reasonably quickly
  WHO: Some people to take on the organisation, others to excite interest in schools.
  
• U11 girls tag
  As mentioned in an earlier post this week.
  WHO: Anyone who can help!
  
• Recruitment
  The perennial biggie. We really need to find around five girls for each age group - minimum - each season. Even with a healthy U17 squad we do lose girls through injury, family reasons (ie. moving house, joining the army, etc.), and the development of "competing interests" (from rising levels of school work to - ahem - "extracurricular activities").
  WHO: Everyone's responsibility!
  HOW: Anything you can think of short of actual kidnapping.
  
• Coaches
  We need at least three or four new coaches for girls section.
  WHO: Bearing in mind that we are asking people to give up large amounts of spare time for no reward other than spending up to about ten hours a week in your company my guess is that they either need to be a) mad or b) related to one of you. Or possibly both. Do you have a relative that qualifies under either a) or b)?

Well, there we are. Anyone think they could help with anything above? Any other ideas?

*Or was that "further up and further in"? In which case where does "Onward and upward" come from? Hmmmm...