Future & Strategic Planning

A strategic plan provides guidance and direction for the future of your club. 

As committees change, a strategic plan should be one that is easily transferable from one committee to the next and is updated each year.

It is important that it reflects the vision of your club and meets with any strategic/master plans that your State Sporting Association or Local Government implements.

Many State Sporting Associations offer assistance for the development of a club’s strategic plan and it can be as simple a document as your club requires.

All clubs have a vision for the future, whether it be to increase their membership, provide new equipment, increase volunteers or provide new clubrooms or other associated infrastructure. 

These are all elements that can be captured in a strategic plan over a 5 year or longer period along with how the club intends to address and implement

Strategic Planning for sporting clubs or organisations is also:

• a way to gain consensus – sharing and working towards a vision for the future which can develop cohesion amongst members
• a tool which enables club members to focus on specific outcomes
• a tool that allows and encourages an opportunity for ownership by the club
• an opportunity for development of the club’s purpose and autonomy
• a dynamic and ongoing process where goals are ‘time framed’ to ensure a sense of achievement
• an avenue for the club to define its challenges and prepare to address them
• a management tool to be used for effective interaction with external bodies.
  

BUT Strategic Planning is not:

• an unrealistic ‘wish-list’ which are beyond the capabilities of the club to achieve in the timeframe
• considered to be the solution for the problems of the club.

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply the strategy to achieve the ‘business’ objectives of the organisation.  

A business plan prepared for the club will need to include evidence of potential income generation.  The business plan should clearly identify all the important facts about the organisation, its history, the current financial position, the objectives and the ‘business’ activities to be undertaken. 

A club may undertake a business plan for a range of purposes.  For example:

• to raise funds towards facility development
• to ensure it remains financially stable over a specified period of time, or
• to ensure it can host a special event without falling into financial trouble.