This Year Must Be Different

By Dave Sharp

In the past we have only really got stuck into recruiting new members when it is too late; season a couple of weeks away and hard fixtures from day 1. This year we should do something different. The best time to make the decision to start, or resume, playing rugby is now at the beginning of the closed season. That way, new players have the whole summer to learn the game and returnees have time to get fit.

This Summer I would like to see the club operating an ongoing recruitment drive for ALL sections of the club. The PR team can help with telling the local community about the playing opportunities on offer but we heed help from the sections within the club. We will need members to help with specific recruiting activities but much more important we need to be able to welcome potential new members when they arrive and to get them involved from day one. From each section in the club we need:

A contact person: Someone who can offer a phone number, preferably with voice mail, and an email address that is checked regularly.  This information will be included in all PR material; the press, the web, leaflets, posters etc. The person concerned must be reliable, if somebody does not get a response they will not try again. Worse still they will go elsewhere...

Summer activities: If we attract people down we must have something going on for them to join in straight away. That means that all sections must have some form of summer training going on and we on the PR team must know about it so we can include it in our publicity.

We intend to make a start by doing a major re-vamp of the Play rugby for Harlow section of the club web site. We can't do so however until we have contact persons in place and we know what your summer plans are; tell us now. Secondly we want to maintain a press presence during the summer. It is much harder with no matches to report but please tell us everything that is going on. Anything which allows us to include the words “Harlow Rugby Club” is helpful. If a junior member does a sponsored swim for charity, tell us. If a section gets a surge of members tell us, the publicity will attract even more. Give us progress reviews on summer training; anything that is an excuse for a press release. If something is coming up where there is a photo opportunity tell us, a story has three times the chance of getting used if it includes a good photo.

I have already spoken to Tasha and the minis are committed to the idea I hope the other sections will come on board. The points in this letter are really the basics to get us started. If your section ahs ideas for specific initiatives come and discuss them with us and we will help to publicise them. Remember however your members have got to be willing to do some of the work.

Please contact Dave Sharp for more details

d.c.sharp@ntlworld.com

Phone: 01279 420154/Mobile: 07802 197995

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