Welfare and Development Officer at Buxton Sub-Aqua Club, Dawn Urwin, shares the secrets behind the the club’s success recruiting and retaining young members.
At present we are a club of 53 members (mostly active) with nearly a third being junior members (10-18 year olds). We also have a number of 18-25 year olds which makes up approximately 13% of our club demographic. This has taken a number of years to achieve and hard work, but we are reaping the rewards now in terms of the diversity of the club and longer term sustainability and a complete family feel.
So here’s how we did it…
How to start
Offering opportunities for young people can be daunting to clubs and needs some pre-work to ensure the club feels confident and competent to drive forward.
- First ensure this is something you feel passionate about as a club – you need to ensure that your instructors are on board. Look at other clubs in your area (not just scuba) and talk to them about the benefits and challenges.
- The importance of networking cannot be underestimated.
- Talk to BSAC in the first instance but then search out who are the organisations who can help locally – there should be a school sports partnership based in your area and they’re responsible for ensuring children and young people have more diverse opportunities locally.
- Has the local council got a sports development officer who could support instructor development – further child specific training etc?
- Have you a volunteer centre or council for the voluntary sector (CVS) locally – they can offer invaluable advice and support.
- Get yourself known within these networks.
- Ensure you have a Welfare Officer on the club’s committee. Plus ensure your safeguarding and welfare policies and plans are up to date and your instructors all DBS checked. Sport England can help too - Health Check Tool (buddle.co)
Buxton SAC
How we recruit new young members
- Social media presence and professional looking website – look at the membership of your club – what skills do they possess? How can they support the club without having to be a committee member?
- Offer group Try Dive sessions – we generally work with the uniformed bodies in the winter months to provide opportunities for them to come and ‘have a go’. These can be the local cadets, scouts, local colleges running outdoor courses etc – this has two benefits:
- Income generation
- Increases coverage locally – we’re seen as a key partner to support young people having new experiences.
- Work with the local school sport partnership – we offer support at swimming galas and have attended their school-to-community awareness days. This all serves to raise the profile of the club locally.
- We’ve supported charity events – the local carnival - where we dress up and parade around with the club boat! Great fun and the coverage has been widespread – through social media and online newspaper reporting.
- Word of mouth too has impacted on the club recruitment drive and we use that to encourage our young members to talk to their friends and wider networks.
- When someone comes to the club, we’re very welcoming - there are processes in place to ensure whoever the potential new recruit talks, to the messages are clear and transparent. We want to ensure try dives are informative, safe and fun. We talk to parents so they know who the relevant people are within the club that they might need support from. Plus, on joining they’re included in the club WhatsApp group and information on the social calendar. We find that the parents often join too as they feel they’re in a safe and nurturing environment.
Teaching
- Visual props for young learners - As a club we found delivering the lectures could be a challenge so we looked at how to develop the visual aids – have a look at our blog on the BSAC website and we’re always keen to support other clubs so do get in touch if you’d like some support - Scuba instructor’s props help visual learners and young divers - British Sub-Aqua Club (bsac.com)
- Use Zoom/Teams to support learning – extra lectures/revision can be delivered online and is something we are doing on occasions. However, nothing is better than face-to-face with young people.
Buxton SAC
Listening to our young members
- This is an important part of why our club has been successful in recruiting – we listen to their needs, desires and aspirations.
- Older/longer serving instructors and members can have a set way of doing things but it’s important that we’re flexible and understand we all learn differently. It’s important that we hear the young voices to ensure we are being inclusive and not just doing what we’ve always done.
- To ensure we have that young voice we have a representative on the committee – this is in the initial stages but already the young people felt confident to put views forward.
- The insight we gain from our young members is ensuring we deliver a better service long term.
Retention of young members
- It’s important not to be disheartened if, after qualifying or not even qualifying, young people don’t continue. This happens in all sports clubs. There are so many different opportunities on offer out there, along with homework and socialising with their friends that sometimes something has to give.
- Generally speaking our retention rate has been good but again we accept that life can get in the way and that for those aged 18 they might be looking to go off to university. In the last 5/6 years we’ve had three students going off to Bangor University to study marine biology and they’re a great role models for our younger members. One in particular is still a member of the club and comes back whenever she can.
- We also note that young people want to feel they’ve achieved – so it’s imperative that our REAP at the end of every session is full of positivity so they’re motivated to continue. It’s very easy to put off a young person in the language you use.
- The social scene is also important – we’ve done abseiling for the RNLI, had games nights and generally don’t take ourselves too seriously. There’s nothing better than seeing our club laughing together.
Buxton SAC / Stuart Corbett
Challenges (10-18 year olds)
- Communications with our young members has been challenging re safeguarding etc and they can’t be on WhatsApp groups either.
- Communication has had to be with parents which again young people want to feel ownership of what they’re doing so can be problematic as it feels that sometimes the parents are deciding on things rather than the young person.
Benefits of focusing on young people
- The list is endless! Here are just a few:
- Reinvigorated the club – the young people has created a buzz and this has rubbed off on other members.
- More organisations want to work with us and share our best practice.
- Greater presence locally.
- Seen as a safe and inclusive club.
- Access to funding – off the back of our youth development programmes so far, since April 2023 we’ve gained £22,500 funding - £20k toward our new RIB and £2,500 for smaller kit.
Buxton SAC / Stuart Corbett
What next
- Initial stages of a leadership programme – this has happened in an ad hoc fashion so far with 16-18 year olds acting as role models and supporting those younger members.
- We’d like to create a leadership academy within the club giving those young people the confidence, motivation, self-esteem, sense of belonging, feeling of value, confidence to develop relationships and support networks. This will support them going forward in life and being good citizens.
- Family diving excursions during school holidays. Aim to give the young members an opportunity to dive abroad but so it can be incorporated in a family holiday too. They’re always included in weekend excursions based on their experience and depth of the diving.
Hopefully this information is useful but if you’d like to talk further to me or anyone else in the club please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Dawn Urwin
Welfare and Development Officer
Buxton Sub-Aqua Club
