IS your club on the net?

[watatoad]

Often I read posts asking for the name of a local club, sure we all know some tackle shops do have contact details but not all do and not for all local clubs.

Most people today first search on the net.

Some club committee members speak of falling membership numbers and from what I see there are falling numbers of river anglers.

Anglers who might fish a match never hear of many matches until someone on an angling forum complains of poor turnout.

You want more members make certain you are easy to find and contact.

You want more anglers fishing in your matches make certain you are easy to find and contact.

You want to encourage more youngsters becoming members and fishing on club waters make certain you are easy to find and contact.

So to ask again is your club on the net are you easy to find and contact.

 

[904_cannon]

Deed not cost a single penny either. There is lots free design software about and even free hosting. To buy a common .uk.co domain site only costs in the region of £7-£8 for two years, register then just re direct to a free host such as Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads
Serif.com does a free web design programme, (just like using a Word or DTP programme) and other free software, then your not stuck with a basic template design

Then join the Angling Trust and get it linked from its site

 

[Colin Brett]

3 clubs I belong to are on the internet

http://www.waterbeachac.co.uk

http://www.gwffa-grafham.co.uk

http://www.welneyanglingclub.co.uk

Give them a look sometime

 

[Will Barnard]

Watatoad, you have highlighted perfectly the apathy of some.

At Reading and District AA, we are made up of 33 affiliates, of which Courage/SE I am chairman, I also lead the junior development and coaching and have secured funding for volunteers to sit their level 1's and 2's and am constantly calling for volunteers.

I have stood during delegate meetings and pleaded for clubs to call out to their members to absolutely stunned faces who in the next breath complain of falling membership....My club however is up...why, because I do the coaching and if the juniors want to join then it's through my club.

I sit around the RDAA EC table every month and I am by far the youngest on the committee and it worries me that there will be a time where I'm having to do it all.
Without embracing the future, many more clubs will die.

As far as your intended question, only a handful of the 33 clubs have a website, generally relying on the RDAA site to point people toward them.

 

[Colin Brett]

from what I see there are falling numbers of river anglers.

You're not wrong there! Waterbeach AC has a cracking stretch of river but no matches are ever held on it! Why? because it's a long walk, that's why.

---------- Post added at 13:52 ---------- Previous post was at 13:48 ----------

I sit around the RDAA EC table every month and I am by far the youngest on the committee and it worries me that there will be a time where I'm having to do it all. Without embracing the future, many more clubs will die.

Exactly the same situation exists at WAC, it's run by old gits like me, there are one or two younger guys on the committee but mostly they can't do much because of family or work commitments. Funny how they can make the matches on the puddle ok?
That said some of the old gits are up for it and do a brilliant job!

 

[watatoad]

I made my own website within an hour or two all for free at what was Synthasite but is now Yola - Make a free website with our free website builder. So if I can do it without any knowledge or experience of making websites anyone can,maybe its worth some giving them a look.

 

[904_cannon]

Unfortunately apathy rules.

I recently posted out about 140 notices to members/member clubs of the Angling Trust who are not on the Trusts e-mail circulation list advising of the AT North East Freshwater Forum meeting held last week, just two made the effort, and they were both in their 70's, and in poor health.

A web presence does work though; almost all new members joining my own club came via the web site, and it saved us the cost of sending out renewals as application forms can be downloaded from the site. I've not got round to on-line payment as I do not want the responsibility of covering/causing any losses.

As for matches, the Wear match on the 25th September will probably be a sell out, but the reason for that is that the EA puts in £2500 by way of prize money, plus no doubt there will be the pools. Sadly 90% of those fishing will not even see the river again 'till next year. Personally I would scrap the EA payment. All the match means to me is that the trout lads have to give up their last Sunday of their season