Canterbury RFC are being held up as a leading example of how clubs can benefit from using the free internet services offered by the Rugby Football Union.
The Kent outfit – who run six senior sides and 10 junior ones – are already a success on the field and preparing to launch the new season in the Powergen Cup against Hadleigh this weekend.
And off the pitch, the volunteers who run the club have embraced new technology by using the RFU’s information technology resources to speed up the way they run their club.
The Black and Ambers have registered all 795 playing and social members on the www.rfu.com club pages to create their own membership database
After uploading one spread sheet they can now effectively manage subscriptions, set up address labels, phone-lists and email mailing lists.
Groups within the clubs can discuss the issues of the day, inform teams of their selection or even email all playing members by position if they need to find an elusive extra third team hooker at short notice.
“Canterbury are to be applauded for the way they’ve embraced the tools. They offer a great opportunity for all clubs throughout the country to run their affairs more efficiently, aiding club and county communications ,” said RFU Online Manager Keith Trigwell.
“They’ve demonstrated how easy it is to take a large amount of information and place it in an appropriate environment where it can be used for the benefit of the members and the county. It could also help the Canterbury club secretary, treasurer, coaches and players communicate more effectively in a whole raft of ways .
“The rfu.com online resources are free , secure, safe and improving all the time, and we’re delighted with the increasing number of clubs who are taking advantage of this option to help administration and to build their own free sites.”
Canterbury’s webmaster Andy Pratt said: ”We wanted a central point on a single server to organise all the information and the rfu.com club pages are a good way of doing it.
"Our new membership secretary Mike Ashford wanted to be on top of the membership issues and he found out about the facility offered by the club pages and what it offered, so we were able to upload it all from an excel spreadsheet.”
Clubs can contact Gareth Lewis at activityforum@rfu.com for more information regarding about membership databases and other club pages tools. |
