Guides

Practical guides for running a great club or society

Committees, volunteers, membership, money, reporting, match days and websites — written for the people who keep community clubs and student societies going.

Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026

The club software demo checklist — what to test in twenty minutes

A demo is only as useful as the questions you bring to it. This is the committee's twenty-minute test plan for any club platform — the screens to open, the buttons to press, the exports to demand — plus the difference between a guided sales demo and an open one you can drive yourself.

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Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026

How to choose club management software (without regretting it by round 3)

Most clubs choose software under time pressure, off a feature list, with the decision made by whoever volunteered to look into it. Here is a calmer way — start from the jobs your committee actually does, ask the questions that separate platforms, and never sign up to anything you have not driven yourself first.

Digital & communication · 8 min read · 8 Aug 2026

How to report a bug in your club software (and what a good process looks like)

Something broke on registration night and a volunteer is staring at it. What happens next depends on two things — whether the report is written so an engineer can act on it, and whether the vendor has a process worth reporting into. Here is how to do your half well, and how to judge theirs.

Digital & communication · 6 min read · 31 July 2026

Editing your club website with an AI assistant: a practical walkthrough

How AI website editing actually works for a club — the propose-review-apply loop, what a built-in site assistant can change (theme, navigation, pages, forms), how draft-only editing protects your public site, and the jobs where a human in the editor is still faster.

Digital & communication · 6 min read · 31 July 2026

Using AI to draft club newsletters and news (without losing your voice)

A working method for AI-drafted club communications — the facts-in, draft-out workflow, prompts that keep your club's voice, the review habits that catch AI mistakes before members see them, and why the send button should always belong to a person.

Digital & communication · 7 min read · 31 July 2026

How to connect an AI assistant to your club data (safely)

A step-by-step guide to plugging an AI assistant like Claude into your club platform over the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — what a connection token is, how scopes and expiry keep it safe, what the assistant can and cannot do once connected, and the questions to ask before you connect anything to member data.

Digital & communication · 12 min read · 5 July 2026

The best club website examples (and what makes them work)

Six archetypes of genuinely great club websites — the recruiter, the community hub, the match-day HQ, the shopfront, the sponsor magnet and the minimalist — with the specific patterns each one nails, so you can steal what fits your club.

Digital & communication · 22 min read · 21 June 2026

How to set up online club forms

Every paper form at your club is a form somebody types up on a Sunday night. Here is how to move the eight that matter most online — conditional questions, payments and consent capture, and where the responses land so nothing sits unread in a shared inbox.

Digital & communication · 8 min read · 16 June 2026

How to promote a club event (a 4-week plan)

A week-by-week plan for promoting a club event or fundraiser — website, email, social media, posters and QR codes — so you fill the room instead of hoping people show up.

Digital & communication · 10 min read · 7 June 2026

How to set up club social media accounts (page vs group, handover, safety)

Setting up social media for a sports club properly — page versus group, club-owned accounts, admin handover that survives committee changes, and the safety settings every junior club needs.

Digital & communication · 9 min read · 4 June 2026

Club email templates: 10 emails every club sends

Copy-ready email templates for the messages every club sends — welcome emails, fees due, wet weather calls, AGM notices, volunteer asks and sponsor thank-yous — plus tips on getting them delivered and read.

Digital & communication · 8 min read · 3 June 2026

How to run a member survey (questions that get answers)

How to run a club member survey people actually complete — question sets for end-of-season, new member and volunteer surveys, plus how to get responses and act on what you hear.

Digital & communication · 12 min read · 2 June 2026

Free images for club websites (without breaching copyright)

Where volunteer-run clubs can safely get free images for their website — what copyright actually means for community groups, the free-licence sources worth using, consent for member photos, and how to size images for the web.

Digital & communication · 9 min read · 27 May 2026

Club social media ideas: a season-long content plan

A social media plan for sports clubs that a volunteer can actually run — a weekly content calendar, dozens of post ideas organised by season phase, and the rules that keep it safe and sustainable.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 20 May 2026

How to get a club email address at your own domain

Why secretary@yourclub.org beats a personal address, how to set up role-based club email addresses, what they cost, and the deliverability basics (DKIM, SPF) explained in plain language.

Digital & communication · 8 min read · 10 May 2026

How to buy a domain for a club (.org.au, .com.au or .au?)

A committee-friendly guide to buying a club domain name — comparing .org.au, .com.au and .au endings, eligibility rules, who should own it, what it costs, and how to connect it to your club website and email.

Digital & communication · 10 min read · 6 May 2026

How much does a club website cost? An honest breakdown for committees

The real cost of a sports club website — domain, DIY builders, club platforms and agency builds compared in rounded figures, the hidden volunteer-hours cost nobody budgets for, and how to pick the right spend for your club's size.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 14 Apr 2026

How to make your club website accessible (WCAG basics for clubs)

A plain-English guide to website accessibility for clubs — alt text, colour contrast, headings, forms and captions — so every member and visitor can actually use your club website.

Digital & communication · 9 min read · 13 Apr 2026

How to take good club photos (match day tips for phone photographers)

Match day photography tips for volunteer club photographers — getting sharp action shots on a phone, the shots every club needs, consent done properly, and organising a shared photo library the whole committee can use.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 7 Apr 2026

Why club emails go to spam (and how to fix it)

Members swear they never got the email? A plain-language guide to club email deliverability — SPF, DKIM and DMARC without the jargon, bulk-send hygiene, and the unsubscribe rules clubs must follow.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 6 Apr 2026

30+ club website content ideas (organised by page type)

Wondering what to put on a club website? Here are more than thirty content ideas organised by page type — homepage, news, teams, events, membership, sponsors and more — with notes on which ones actually earn their upkeep.

Digital & communication · 9 min read · 24 Mar 2026

How to set up a club website for free (and what "free" really costs)

Yes, you can run a genuinely useful club website for nothing — here's how, what free tiers honestly include and leave out, the one thing worth paying for anyway, and how to upgrade later without rebuilding.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 15 Mar 2026

How to write a club newsletter people actually read

A practical guide to writing a club newsletter — the structure that works, how often to send, a big list of content ideas, and a template outline you can copy for your next issue.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 12 Mar 2026

QR codes for your club website — registration days, posters and canteen menus

How to generate a QR code for your club website and actually put it to work — registration day sign-ups, clubroom posters, canteen menus, sponsor boards — plus printable poster ideas and the mistakes that make codes go unscanned.

Digital & communication · 10 min read · 24 Feb 2026

Google Business Profile for sports clubs — get your club on Google Maps

A step-by-step walk-through of setting up and verifying a Google Business Profile for your club — the right categories, posts and reviews, linking your website, and the local SEO habits that keep you on the map.

Digital & communication · 11 min read · 16 Feb 2026

The club communication plan: who says what, where, and when

A working communication plan for sports clubs — a channel matrix for email, SMS, push, chat and the website, who speaks for the club, a pre-season comms checklist, and a wet-weather escalation ladder that actually reaches everyone.

Digital & communication · 10 min read · 5 Feb 2026

The one-page club marketing plan (plus a channel playbook that works)

A practical marketing plan any volunteer committee can write in an evening — one page, five questions — plus a channel-by-channel playbook of sports club marketing ideas that actually fill teams.

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