Oh Wise Denizens of F.net......

[Zelda]

I need your advise. As of 7pm this evening I am the president of the Tasmanian Uni Fencing Club - a club run under the uspices of the the Sport and Activities office of the University of Tasmania.

We are a very very very small club, and facing major funding cuts due to the federal government making student unionism voluntary.
I think we have a good executive together but I need advice.

We are potentially facing closure. I dont want to sound self centred but I need this club to stay open - so that I can at least fence someone on a semi regular basis. We are the only sports fencing club in the South of the state.

Currently we have 4 kids under 10 attending regularly - all of whom are taking lessons from my coach and participating in a 45 minute skill session with me.
We also have 2 full time foilists (myself and the ex president) who also have lessons, a 3 weaponist who has lessons and approximately 4 or so others who dont take lessons but do fence at varying levels of generally epee.
We have one electric box on the old timings gathering dust, very few working electric weapons - but lots of lames.

I want this club to prosper and start turning out good competitve fencers - for purly selfish reasons (so I have someone to give me a run for my money besides the ex-president). We dont have a state association...

So please enlighten me, how am I supposed to pull this club up by its bootstraps and turn it from a hack and slash into a strong competitive club???

So far my only idea is 10 minutes mandatory footwork at the beginning of each club night...of which we only have one a week at the moment.

[esskreemr]

Do you have any other equipment? Jackets, masks, gloves, and foils?

[ThatReallyHurt]

If it's possible to have more than one club night a week, you may be able to get more people there... those whose schedule conflicts with your current night.

Do many people know about your club? That's one of the biggest problems my club's having, and it's difficult to get out and advertise for cheap (or, preferably free) without being drowned out by everything else.

Good luck - I think it's great you're working to keep the club up and running!

[Zelda]

We have jackets, gloves and masks up the wazoo. Lots of steam foils as well. Its finding the people to use them!!!

Advertising - this is something we are looking at. Unfortunately being a Uni club means our membership technically has to be predominately University students - which at the moment it isnt.

We apparently have a tuesday night avaliable as well, but not many people know about it or can make it.....

[bmcfencer]

I had a lot of success at attracting members with fliers that had witty fencing slogans on them (from fencing.net, yay!)..... they just said things like "FENCING, we taking poking to a whole new level" and then had amusing pics under that and my contact info in the bottom corner. At least 60 people have requested to join in just the last week. Some of them are even excited about fundraising.

[Fencergrl]

Someone mentioned a little while back about doing a tournament in a mall. This was great for getting people interested in fencing. I PM'd the person who posted to get the details for my club. I can forward it on if you do a search and you can't find the thread.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


This works well for our club:

Our Chairman has old business contacts with a seaside conference hotel manager. The hotel offers conference packages for groups, and the hotel can fix several different fun thing to do for the conference people - the organizer just has to look from a list (motivational speaker, corny five-event game, look at the nature around the hotel with a natue guide, music band for dance, magician, etc.) and the hotel manager gets in the specialist.

Our Chairman asked if fencing could be on the list, and it could. We go over to the hotel maybe 5 times every year, and during 2 hours we train the conference people is basic fencing, and organize a mini-competition. It is rushed, but it works. We get generally about 2000 Sw. Kr. per time, and we do not have to do any marketing or book a place to be.

We have also done it for private groups of people, and for a group where one gal was going to be married a few days later.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Chafunkta]

Yea, it's all about contacts. I find that the easiest group to get to start fencing is the young ones. If you have a local magazine/newspaper directed towards parents, that would be one way to go.

Unfortunately, you have to get all the university students to join. Ask your university if they can have fencing as some sort of leisure class. Students could be in it for free, and who knows - maybe some will even enjoy the sport. The university students are tough, though. In order to join the club they usually want some other people they know (or can meet) in the club already. This is a problem when you have a very small club.

Like Peter said, it's all about contacts. Try to use every single one you, or any of your clubmates, have. Advertise with flyers in restaurants, in gyms (if possible), and - the most successful one my club had - at a school uniform store.

Anyways, good luck

- Chaf

[Padawan]

The best way to get people involved in the sport is to do fencing demo's directly. The biggest thing that I have heard over the years is that they didn't know that there was a place to fence in the area. Here are some ideas.

1. Go into the middle and high schools directly (ages 13-17) contact the principal at the school and if that doesn't work go to the french teacher in the school the offical language of the sport is french
2. Go to any organization that has kids as there target group to serve. Here in the states we have the boy scouts and girls scouts. I don't know what you have on the other side of the pond.
3. Movie theaters. The legend of Zorro is being released soon so go to the local theater and ask if you can have people try it for free. They will be amazed that you are provided free entertainment to their customers.
4. Church youth groups. I am now in the bible belt and I am absolutely amazed at the number of churches there are down here
5. Area parks or anywhere else people gather. Find a place in town where people go on Friday or Saturday nights to "hang out".

If you need ideas on how to do the demos or what you should say or do pm me. Hope this helps.

[Zelda]

Unfortunately, you have to get all the university students to join. Ask your university if they can have fencing as some sort of leisure class.
- Chaf

Oh how I wish the Uni had a sports requirement!!!!! I will reply to everyone else later....right now I need sleep.

[Tiwaz]

masks up the wazoo.

you can get special cream for that

[Larrison]

Hmm... Zelda, it sounds like you've got a bit of a job to do to keep the club alive and prospering.

Your first priority seems to be to keep the doors open on the club, and getting an increase in members.

So first priority seems to be a) running a good club (eg, starting on time, providing a reasonable & fun environment while its open), and b) publicity/ recruiting to bring in new members.

The publicity/ recruiting is going to be the biggest part I think -- plaster the Uni with fliers. Go talk to the local parks & rec group in the local community to see if they want to "co-sponsor" an evening fencing class, to be held at the uni, which they'll publicize in their newsletter. Try to get an article in the local paper, etc. Set up a web site, if you can, and get it linked to the uni or the local parks & rec web site, etc. You might talk to the local high schools (secondary schools) about being able to post fliers there and inviting local high school students to "work out" with the uni club.

I think your key is going to be to get new faces coming in thru the door.

If you can set up a system to bring new faces in, then retaining them to stay will be your secondary priority. Part of that is going to be continuing to provide a good environment for them to work out and grow/ progress in the sport -- and part of that is going to be to provide a good environment for them to participate in the club activities.

I pulled this from a past posting I did on how to reduce turnover rates at a club from my perspective.

Offer something to keep the people coming back. While officially I've repeated the intermediate foil class at my club, the focus is on tactics and additional tools and techniques. The lesson lessons have not really been repeated, so I'm still learning new things and still working on new tactics and drills. For any club, this is having good coaching, and putting a little thought into drills and lessons, even group lessons.

The website is a key piece of marketing -- both to get your name out, and to provide key information on the club.

Encourage competition and growth in the fencers. Having "winners" in the club is a good selling point, plus by fostering a competitive spirit you get people to work on being a better fencer, which means continuing to fence and return to the club.

Consider both elite/ advanced fencers and beginning/ intermediate fencers. You want both -- since todays' beginning/ intermediate fencers are the one who will grow into the elites, but also since there are a lot more beginning/ intermediates, they are the ones who will pay the bills, show up to work activities, and sparkplug the club.

Add a little bit of social "glue" to the club. Have some socials, and have some mailings and things to keep people feeling they are part of a community. Don't focus totally on the elite fencers, but make sure everyone feels like they can contribute and enjoy being part of the club. This includes being friendly at the club, encouraging a teaching/ team spirit at the club, and encouraging folks to stay and bout or talk after lessons. One of the cool things I like with my current club, is they are trying to foster a culture where after you bout, both of the fencers then talk about what they saw in the other's fencing styles -- what worked on them and didn't, what they saw in their opponents style, etc. I'm learning a lot from that...

Try to do something to sponsor some team/ club spirit. Have a logo and a patch or at least a t-shirt with a logo on it. Sponsor inter-club competitions, where your club will host another club (such as a local university club or team) to an informal Friday night or Saturday tournament. Then take pictures and put them on the web site.. Do the same with socials. There are different things that have been suggested,

Lastly, don't forget the club can survive reasonably high turnovers, if you keep getting new students to come in. If you have 80% turnover in 5 successive classes, you still have 20% x 5 remaining... So don't forget to keep marketing and exposing the club to new potential fencers.

[jBirch]

I'll take a different approach and suggest that the first thing you do is to ensure that fencing nights are highly structured. At my Uni club (where I started) lessons were ad hoc and the nights were really loosely structured, mostly requiring me to get off my butt and find someone to fence and maybe coax someone into giving a small lesson. Why would I want to pay money to do this stuff?

After that, work towards a goal of getting 50% of your membership out to external competitions.

Make sure that you have at least one in house competition (with electric boxes and all) once a semester.

Buy more electric boxes and give up on the steam weapons. There is something pavlovian about hitting someone with a stick and watching a pretty light flash and a buzzer sound.

Build a story around your club and trace your instructional lineage as far back as you can go. Advertise this.

Charge more. People value what they pay for. I know, I know, it's against the starving university student ethos but those people are the same ones that will show up for a beginner class and drop out in the middle of the season out of boredom. It also gives the club some financial legs to be sustainable over time.

Get a good relationship going with the psych, kinise, physics and biology departments. You'd be surprised at what research is going on that would love to have athletic fencers involved in it.

Just a couple of ideas.

Hope this helps.

James.

[Schiavona]

Zelda, while in college I started or helped start two different Uni clubs. First off, do you get the space to fence in for free? Do you have any costs other than equipment? I also agree that the club time should be more structured-we used to go to the University's Pub afterwards for socializing. Try to have "group lessons" for footwork drill-try to focus on something different each time, keep it fresh. Club website, posters, student "fairs" and contacting alumnni are venues for getting new members. Sometimes you have to charge a "visitor" fee for non students. Hope this helps. If we had more information about your club's situitation we could be more specific.

Oh, by the way, keeping a club alive is a labor of love-no one ever thanks you for it!

[counter riposte]

Just a thought:

I took a sports personality test and found fencing to be one of the sports that would be most compatible with my personality type. Ironically, it was true. Fencing was mentioned twice, and I have learned how to love the sport. I also noticed that there is a certain type of person that engages in the sport of fencing, and some of the subjects and careers of many that I've met seem to match or be similar.

Back to subject, at a university, you may be able to find fencers by advertising and demonstrating the sport to certain subject areas that would lead to certain career paths. Adverstise it as a means of stress relief.

Some careers that the ISTJ/ISTP personality types are best suited for, and generally pursue:

Police and Detective Work
Forensic Pathologists
Computer Programmers, System Analysts and Computer Specialists
Engineers
Carpenters
Mechanics
Pilots, Drivers, Motorcyclists
Athletes
Entrepreneurs
Business Executives, Administrators and Managers
Accountants and Financial Officers
Judges
Lawyers
Medical Doctors / Dentists
Military Leaders

Hence the Uni subjects to be advertising to:
Engineering
Law
Business
Biology/Chemistry
Pre-Med

The computing department with the dozen guys (mostly) surrounding a dungeons & dragons game is the perfect genre to introduce real weapons instead of fantasy ones. Advertise as a way of getting out and meeting people. A conversation starter.

[broncofencer]

biggest draw for university students is a single word "FREE" make the basic lessons free after that keep club dues low we used $25 a semester for the college club I ran. Also try hooking up with some of the other sports clubs on campus for a sport demo night we always had good turn out. as to fund raisers check out doing stuff during athletic events. we passed stuff out before games or cleaned up after and the university donated/gave us a set amount for the job. these activities are usually only open to campus groups or charity organizations. Also check with other clubs that are succeful for Ideas. Also don't be afraid to join forces with a group that may not be strictly related like the film club. Put on a film on campus where students get in for like $1 and split the money between the groups you can also get around copy rights by just selling concessions and not charging for the movie.

[Jay83]

I'm the President of my Uni club, and it is a real job to keep a club running. At least you have lots of gear! I find the best time to get University students is during Orientation, when the first year students tour around and such. Does your university have a Clubs and societies fair? We also put off random acts of fencing around the campus just to get more exposure. You can also try to place an ad in your University Newspaper...

We are gradually getting more and more gear for the club, but we've found various ways of cutting costs. Engineers are really useful in a university club. We have a fencing box and reels that they made so that we can do electric fencing till we can afford real gear. We also have members that are working on a fencing practice dummy and beepers.

There are a few threads around for retaining members too. A nice social aspect of the clubs helps too. People who join the club and make friends there are probably more likely to stay with the club and try to attract their other friends to join.

[Zelda]

You guys are amazing. I will definately be going through alot of this and tyring to work out how to incorperate it into the club.

Our big threat is VSU (Voluntary Student Unionism). If this gets passed at the federal level we will lose most if not all of our funding from the Union. This means instead of having our public liability/hall hire etc covered we have to find the money ourselves. Our state association doesnt exsist, and that is NOT somehting I want to start until we can actually USE as opposed to being an institution using money but not doing anything for the fencers. Also the State assoc has been lapsed for so long that our incorporation has lapsed.....which means it would have to be reincorporated and THATS expensive.