4 February 2021 | Tennis Victoria

East Ringwood Tennis Club jumped on to the new ClubSpark system in the middle of 2020 and have been ‘loving life’ ever since!

The Club had many volunteers, including President Joan
Carter who completed the daily administration for the club. But
when Jacob Mutton, the Club Coach at East Ringwood suggested
that the Club try the new system and give it a go after implementing at
Parkwood Tennis Club, Carter was all for it. 

“I was busy doing other things, but then Jake
suggested it, and I thought, we can only say we don’t want it anymore, but
we were really happy” said Carter.  

Carter was the first person at the club to personally benefit
from ClubSpark, noting the amount of administration that had been lifted by
simply switching over to the new system. 

“A good 50% of my administration load has
been taken off my shoulders, I was using an excel spreadsheet and now everything
is automatically updated. It’s also helping us when we go
through a financial year, I don’t have to go through all the invoices because people
will get one automatically through ClubSpark” explained Carter.  

“There’s also a lot less personal contact needed,
so when you have a small committee like ours, you don’t have to ask anyone to
come down and open up the courts, as it’s all done for you.” 

“The membership part is so easy too, you can merge
profiles, delete them or archive them it’s all nice and easy, it’s got the
membership, the website, the contacts all in one, that’s handy as well” Mutton
added. 

The system has supported off-court activities
at the club, but East Ringwood Tennis Club has also benefited
on-court as well, having boosted participation just by onboarding to ClubSpark. 

“People are willing to come down, have their hit, and
sometimes we have three courts for social hitting and we never used to have that.” 

It’s a routine and a system that social
players have adapted to, but this has also filtered through to
the club’s general membership.  
 
“Sometimes members ring
me up and say, can I go and have a hit, and I say yes definitely, go
to book a court and go on the website, it’ll do it all for you” Carter
explains. 

“It’s a routine that people will need to get used to,
but it makes things easy, you get a confirmation email with a gate key code and have access to
the court and have a wonderful time.” 

“And it caters for everyone too, there’s some people
that want to come and have a hit and then go straight home, then there’s others
that see it as a more social time.” 

Although there are 196 Tennis
Clubs around Victoria that have made the transition to ClubSpark, there
are some yet to make the journey across – we asked Joan & Jake if
they had any advice to Clubs looking to get onboard in the future? 

Joan: “Do it! It’s mint! I’m using it and reaping the benefits as an administrator, so I’m going to be singing it’s praises.” 
 
Having already implemented the system at Parkwood Tennis Club, Mutton also mentioned to start small with the Book a court system as clubs begin to implement it into their communities:

Jake: “Even if you’re not comfortable with doing all
the courts (through Book a court), just start with one entry point. The
other thing is to point people to your best courts, don’t force people to
have a court that’s not your best, you want them to have a good
experience when they come.” 

To find out how to get your Club on
board the new ClubSpark system, contact your local Club
Development Officer here: https://www.tennis.com.au/vic/about/staff