2007 Secretary's Report

Secretary's Report 2006-07

Membership

At the end of this season we have 27 members. I know that some of them are 'dormant' and we are unlikely to see them again. I put the active membership of the club at 21.

I made the same estimate at the end of last season, when I put the active membership at 19.  On this measure the club has expended this season. 

I intend to use the same process next year.

Recruitment and Publicity

The club web site now ranks number three in Google for a search on Volleyball Swindon.  The number one hit is a site that links to us.  We are the top two hits in Microsoft Live Search.  I am satisfied that anyone in the Swindon, who wants to play, can find us via the Internet.

In April I changed the technology behind the club web site to make it much easier to maintain.  It is now possible to provide individual login accounts and to pass responsibility for pages out to members.  The forums are slowly increasing their take up and traffic.

The site is getting about 400 visits per month(130 last year). I expect most of that will be from the members and our huge fan base.

We get about 20 visits per month from other sites that link to us (15 last year), and about 100 from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN)(20 last year). I consider these visits to be of highest value in terms of recruiting new members. They are more likely to be people who have not heard of us already.

I get a steady trickle of emails, via the web site, from people expressing interest in playing.  I estimate about half of those turn into real faces.

The Wednesday evening sessions at Lydiard/Coate Water are popular. Personally I have only been to one but I have seen new faces there.

Our recent involvement in the Challenge Swindon initiative at Coate Water has brought the club useful publicity; a new place to play; and might bring us some new members.

Wiltshire Leagues

We registered six players for the Premier League - the minimum we can get away with. We registered 24 (17 last year) players for the Division 2. Again we were able to run the 'B' team (substantially) without sharing players with the 'A' team. However we did have some surprising instances when we struggled to get a team we did not have to concede any matches.

Communication

The email list is a significant contributor to communication within the club. The email list was started in Jan 2004. In the first six months it carried 7 messages. In the first full year it carried 86. In the second full year it carried 260. In the third full year 466. In the last 12 month it has carried 633. The list currently has 39 (34 last year) members.  It's my intention to turn off the mailing list in favour of the web site forums to bring club communication under one centre.  The main barrier to this is that so far only 14  people are registered on the web site.  If you have not done so please register.

We get three copies of the Volleyball England official magazine '3-touch' I pass these round the members with a circulation list on the front. Please make every effort to read it quickly and pass it on to another member as quickly as you can.

Richard Howells - Secretary June 2007