Families will invest in their child’s development in sailing if a Club can offer value
Sailing Clubs have lost their connection with young families, their children & busy lives. If Clubs are to re-establish themselves in the community families must have good reason to be involved, a solid foundation from which to engage:
1. SLM is nested in a most basic human instinct to provide for the next generation using dinghy sailing to help children navigate challenges to adulthood. Not only can children become competent sailors, active-learning builds upon the construct of child, youth and leadership development.
2. SLM’s organisational behavioural model makes it “possible” to deliver value to stakeholders in a long term Training Program. Success is predicated on delivering value to sailing families on the expectation that long term relationships will occur. If the Club is able to put the SLM pieces in place families will respond, growth and retention becomes possible.
A leadership group forms to prepare an SLM Training Program proposal to Club Management including budget documents forecasting activities for 5 years. The Program uses scales of economy to deliver an operating surplus in accordance with operating standards. Program leaders become participants within the system, are part of the process and most committed to success. Joint success by design is in everyone’s interest, aligned with that of the Club, the coach, families, sailors, volunteers (stakeholders).
The more the program is empowered, the more successful it will be. There can be no half measures, Clubs must decide whether SLM is the way forward, assure the program has the people, resources and capability & authority to act autonomously
SLM Training Programs is a limited placements, high retention model. A quite manageable 30 placements limit per year will compound to become a large and active sailing program for most Clubs. A natural rate of attrition is forecast below which optimum class sizes and education quality will become eroded. Not every family is suited or want to commit. The control of intake process is a means to match families committed to supporting their child, buying a boat, participating in the Program. Age limits and education of families provide the best opportunity for clubs to sustain limited placements.
Goodwill is established with care taken to assure the program schedule is dependable and sailors are developing. While commitments are in place balance is maintained to satisfy stakeholders. It then becomes the role of the leadership group to maintain that balance, assure resources are available and functional. The start point is to assure intake of children aged 7-10 are fully subscribed, that new membership, boat acquisition and retention numbers are to forecast. Deviations from forecast are identifiable and may require procedural change or adjustment. Volunteers and families are encouraged and become increasingly interested in program success.
External governance disrupts that process, is not helpful and not required. Club managements role steps back from running the Program to preserving the operating environment from external interference. Performance is measured by membership intake, engagement of sailors in training activities is a key to retention that will take time to instate and build. The Training Program is a sustainable cornerstone strategy to sailing memberships, the Club meanwhile has an opportunity to engage older children and parents in activities.
This is a start point from which Sailors and families begin to participate & contribute, the start of an active sailing program.
SLM Dinghy Program Development 