CGP Report   18.7.2011

The report today will be based on the following question headers.

·         What is the County Golf Partnership?

·         How is it funded?

·         What does it do?

·         What is your involvement?

·         What is the way forward?

·         What is currently happening?

I shall attempt to make clarification but if you do want to ask questions do so at the end of the report.

Firstly, the partnership brings together the organizations that run men and women’s golf along with the professional coaches. So the W&HLCGA and WUGC along with the PGA formed the core working party, the CGP. This has created a ‘one voice’ structure working towards the development and future of golf within the county, which has got to be worthwhile as we work towards the merger. Under this umbrella the development framework was based on some national initiatives from the EGP (English Golf Partnership). The EWGA and EGU form the core body and work in conjunction with the English Golf Partnership (EGP).This organization is not competing against us.

• How is the CGP funded?

In order to obtain initial national funding a Development Plan was submitted to Sport England (for Lottery funding) to attract investment into the game. They were successful in their bid. These resources helped  bolster the efforts of the county and your club. Funding was then available to our county on the submission of a Development Plan over a period of 3 years. This was granted from 2007-10 but was  superseded by a four year plan from 2009-2013.

We also originally received sponsorship via Clydesdale bank of £22.5k in 2007 over a 2 year period. This was taken to Sports Match (a lottery based agency) and funds ‘matched’ became £37.5k. Grants have since been received from the EGU and EWGA (via the EGP) and also from Sport England for Club and Coach /Junior Academy Coaching. The Golf Foundation also helped with funding. Club Development Grants and Club Coaching Grants for your professionals became available upon club application. The County Partnership was also successful in obtaining a council grant of £6,000 and then took over the management of the municipal course Pitcheroak. This has been a very successful venture with an increased junior membership drawn from local schools. Also by reducing membership packages they  attracted more adult members. Recently further grants from other councils have been successfully applied for.

• What does it do?

In 2007 Warwick Holland was appointed as Development Officer. His first task was to find out from clubs the current membership situation. Many clubs were suffering with declining memberships. The plan was  to try and raise the standards in clubs and to help with the recruitment and retention of members. The CGP selected the national initiative Golf Mark as a key measure of club standards and as a competent measure of management of children in golf.

The partnership selected the training of PGA level 1 Coaches to improve the quality of coaching within your clubs. These amateur coaches would work alongside the PGA Pro to improve the output of group coaching. Recruitment and Open Days began to attract new golfers of all ages but notably juniors. Links with driving ranges and development of the website provided a potential new player with info as to how, where and when he /she could play. Pat Tattersall has done a lot of work to improve the website.

Safeguarding and Protecting Children Workshops have been provided so clubs can check if policies are in situ. National Skills Challenge tests have been set up to inspire children into competitive golf and have been successful with a national winner in the U11 age group from Wharton Park G.C. last year.

One of the most effective initiatives without a doubt has been the Academy Coaching programme. This has enabled many juniors to excel and to improve at a fast rate with regular coaching sessions throughout the year.

• What is your involvement?       

               You may ask… how can I help as a club delegate?

1. You need to be proactive with your marketing departments , your club captains and secretary.
2. Assist with Open Days, Tri Golf, Golf Extreme. Liaise with Warwick if help is required.
3. Link the above with local schools and colleges, local clubs
4. Check your club has a Child Protection Policy in situ, even if you are not Golf Mark accredited
5. Check your club has an Equity Policy. (I note Droitwich and Dudley Golf Clubs have just signed up).   see recent July Golf Initiatives update

• What is the way forward?

1. The county ladies association and men’s union need to raise funds to keep the academies going as the annual national funding will get less and less from 2012. A grant from EWGA will still be forthcoming but there will be a shortfall in funding.
2. Encourage more women into golf, with particular emphasis on introducing cheaper membership packages. Emphasis on the 19-40 year age group is to be targeted as this helps with your application for the Club Coaching Grant. Be welcoming and helpful to new members, play with them and organize days when they can join in with other members.
3. Encourage your club and pro to apply for the Club Coaching Grant £500 for 2011/12. I have a list of clubs that need to apply. Only 5 have applied so far out of a possible further 15.
4. Be aware of emails that need ‘action’. Contact myself, Warwick or Andrew for further info. if necessary.

• What is currently happening?

The latest project spearheaded by Sharon Heeley, promoted by Andrew Boyd and Warwick Holland is the launch of ‘Midlands Golf Week’.

After the Open Championship (especially with our current British and Irish success) there is always a surge of enthusiasm to get involved and try golf.  This week golf clubs and facilities across the Midlands have teamed up to offer unbeatable opportunities to ‘give golf a go’. Activities include free golf taster sessions, free coaching for all abilities, women and family coaching, free access to golf courses and driving ranges, membership and ongoing coaching opportunities.

Visit  www.midlandsgolfweek.co.uk  for local news and updates. Click on the county you live in for offers and then click on the club day to see what is on in your locality.

I trust you have received this info by email over the weekend. Please do your best to promote the flyers by distributing to local clubs, shops or suitable outlets. Do your best to promote the golf activity within your club. It is not too late to register.

If you have any unused golf clubs or equipment take these along to one of your local clubs. Go online click on ‘CLUB TOGETHER’ for a list of drop off points. This will help run  a young adults project for 16-24 yr olds  in the Birmingham area.

The promotion is being televised and I believe Moseley Golf Club have been involved in this project. Regional press releases will follow and Sharon Heeley was interviewed by local Midlands Today. Andrew was interviewed by BBC Hereford and Worcester on Saturday 16^th July.

If you need further info. or further assistance   do not hesitate to contact Warwick Holland  warwickholland@btconnect.com Tel: 0773 711 0273

Sharon.Heeley@englishwomensgolf.org   Tel: 0773 408 8319

CGP REPORT 16.5.11

Club Coaching Grant

Application forms for 2011/12 have been sent to all GolfMark clubs. Three clubs to date have applied, Fulford Heath GC, Little Lakes GC and Kidderminster GC.Please check your club has received the form or view online at www.englishgolfunion.org/coachinggrant 

The grant is £500 this year (not £200 as previous) so it is worth chasing up. Clubs need to focus on increasing the 16 year plus category. Funding is to be directed at coaching sessions for adult beginners, young people aged 14-25, families and priority groups.

If you require further EGU/EWGA details of activities visit www.getintogolf.org  or contact the team at www.development@englishgolfunion.org

Jenny Hartley is to be congratulated for recently increasing junior girl’s membership to 30. Jenny is very pro-active with the County Academy coaching run by Russell Adams. A prime example of what can be achieved working alongside your pro.

            Equity Policy

23 clubs have signed up to the EGU/EWGA Equity Policy. Please check your club has applied whether you are GolfMark accredited or not. I have a list if you would like to check.

Golf Roots Centres

7 clubs have signed up. These clubs are particularly proactive in junior development. I can expand on such projects, do contact me.

GolfMark

Accreditation to 33 clubs has been awarded. If your club has not applied and you require information visit www.golfmark.org

Many clubs are completing their 3 year reassessments. Fulford Heath, Redditch and Droitwich have completed this. Gay Hill, and The Worcestershire are also preparing. CocksMoor Wood, GaudetLuce and Hagley are going through annual reviews. Wharton Park is hoping to reach High Achiever status. Pitcheroak are near completion towards accreditation.

National Skills Challenge

21clubs have registered and all are in the process of submitting scores for the first challenge. This is a great initiative for juniors. As a county we have done particularly well over the past few years.

Recruitment and Retention Toolkits are still available.

For more help and personal advice on any of the above mentioned initiatives

contact - Sharon Heeley, Regional Development Officer.

Tel 01386 881311/ mob 0773 4088319

Email Sharon.Heeley@englishwomensgolf.org

The County Golf Partnership held the AGM on Thursday 14^th April at Kings Norton Golf Club.

A review of achievements from 2010-11 was presented by Sharon which included a précis of the Biannual review from April- Oct. Highlighting the needs for targets, monitoring and reporting. Applying measures to improve recruitment to golf was covered by Warwick along with the volunteer expansion within the CGP. If your club is interested in golf development and would like to get involved with helping in a small way do contact me or Warwick.

There are so many in expensive and worthwhile initiatives which need to be promoted involving the club and school link. You should be aware of how you can expand your membership categories for women and girls. The offer of £200 to GolfMark clubs to promote recruitment is still possible. Have you applied?

The Worcestershire and Herefordshire County Sports Partnership (CSP) was represented at the AGM. Jennifer Wilks explained initiatives that were promoting participation across all sports. She asked clubs to put themselves into the position of the potential member and to design membership packages that would appeal. The CSP has funds and if clubs and if clubs are interested Warwick has made successful bids.

The Open Championship always triggers interest in golf. Sharon is applying for funding to support a ‘Midland promotion in golf’ and will be targeting clubs to timetable recruitment activities during the week after the Open.

Attendance at the AGM was poor so next year please send a representative, It is vital your club knows what is happening at county, regional and national level. Remember the aim is ‘to be the leading nation in golf development by 2020’.

We can aspire!

Finally the County Academy programme will only be funded until March 2012 hence our juniors will need financial help if the programme is to continue. I thank all our members for giving so generously at raffles held at county competitions. It has been suggested that the CGP hold a raffle. The partnership has a license for a draw open to all club members that could assist in the overall funding. We need to continue our efforts and if any of you have further ideas to boost funds let me know.

Netty Kitson

16.05 11

Worcestershire CGP – Achievements to date

Grow

• Coaching Grants – 18 clubs (50%) have access to full EGU £800 club coaching grant, compared to £400 to 20% clubs in country (highest ratio in country).
• Taster Golf/Membership promotion – 25 clubs accessed £30,000 Sportsmatch/Clydesdale support. Resulting in 250 new members and 1,000 pipeline prospective members.
• Schools – Over 250 schools in county have received Golf coaching (50% of schools), some linked directly to Clubs (eg Bromsgrove, Wharton Park, Redditch Kingfisher, Cocks Moor Woods, Gaudet Luce, etc). Highest activity rate in the country.
• Membership & Marketing initiatives – CDO clubs visits resulting in marketing/membership committees with new club initiatives to community. Marketing Toolkit (EGU). 
• Various golf festivals undertaken to promote golf throughout county.
• CGP direct management of Pitcheroak resulting in 90 new members (new to Golf) within 4 months.

Sustain

• Saviour from closure of Pitcheroak and introduction of feeder club system initiatives to other clubs in county.
• 18 clubs (50%) achieving Golfmark accreditation. Highest in country.
• CDO club visits on membership retention initiatives and reduction of barriers to entry within clubs.
• Training of 28 PGA Level Volunteers. Financial support of Golfmark workshops.

Excel

• Introduction and operation of Club & Coach Program, £40,000 cash injection into Talented Junior development program for Girls & Boys. 120 juniors currently being coached 50 hours per year.
• Training and development of 9 Elite Coaches to PGA Level 4.
• Child Protection and Equality roll out to majority clubs in county as per NGB requirements

CGP Report   17.1 2011

i)Golf Mark

The January EGU ‘Golf Development Initiatives Update’ document gives a current list of 23 GolfMark accredited clubs. Congratulations to Kidderminster and Habberley who recently achieved GolfMark on 26^th November 2010.  There are only 2 clubs that are not working towards Golf Mark. It will become statute that all clubs need GolfMark if they are working with juniors from their local schools or community links.

A grant of £200 to GolfMark clubs can be applied for marketing and promotional activities to recruit new golfers in the 16 plus age group. This is not to be used for advertising but to promote activities getting young people into the game for the first time.

ii) Club Coaching Grant

16 clubs have currently applied for the grant of £600 which leaves 7 outstanding. The remaining clubs are Evesham, Gay Hill, Habberley, Kidderminster, Moseley, The Vale, and The Worcestershire. Perhaps you would investigate why your club has not applied. Please come back to me and/or Warwick Holland if there is a problem that could be rectified, as in form filling! You have to have GolfMark status.

iii) Golf Club Questionnaire (completed by 30 Clubs)

The results of the national survey have been distributed as a booklet and show the specific Worcestershire performance, compared with Midland and National levels. This has been emailed to the delegates so they could view the document to see how their club performs within the Worcestershire framework. I am only looking at areas of concern or where we excel.  

Page 2.

Junior girl’s membership has increased by 33% compared to national average of 22% and only decreased by 17% compared to a 30% national decrease.

Adult female membership has increased by 17%, national average 18% but decreased by 47%, national average 46%.

The percentage of clubs with vacancies for junior girls and females is 87% which falls above the national average of 80%. An area of concern.

Page 3.

How golf clubs promote and market their facilities and membership opportunities is significant.

We are above the national average by 20% offering taster sessions and offer above average induction programmes, membership offers and Open Days.

57% of clubs promote through local facilities, national average 43%

20% of clubs promote through links with ranges, national average 12%

We are above the national average for promoting golf at Primary and Secondary level but below via community groups or via the internet.

Page 4. Fees

We appear not to charge entrance fees for boys and girls compared to national average of £53.

Club subs /fees are comparable with national fees. At an earlier WHLCGA Executive Meeting it was noted that female entrance fees were higher than the men’s £790.23 v. £633.50. Clarification on this was later given by Ros Weston.

Page 5. Volunteers

The average age of volunteers is staggering with 58% of volunteers being between 51 and 60 years. I Interestingly, female volunteers are equivalent to national average 8 v 9 where the men fall below 14 v 19!

Page 6. Juniors

We fall below the national average by 12% for having junior organizers with no set term. 73% of our clubs have a Child Welfare Officer, national level is 50%. We are well above national average offering junior group coaching to non members and are above average with using level 1, 2, 3 coaches. We must address increasing the amount of junior sessions throughout the year. There is a fall off by 6%.

I trust your marketing departments, junior sections and professionals will work on these statistics and where there is a possible area for concern please act.

iv) Volunteer Workshop at  Kings Norton Golf Club on 29^thNovember 2010

The evening presentation was presented by Phil Beard (EGP Volunteering Manager)).We were represented by Warwick Holland (CGP Development Officer), Netty Kitson (County Ladies Capt.), Elizabeth Freeman(County Junior Organizer) and Sally Dare (Junior Committee ). Representatives from the Executive committees of Shropshire and Warwickshire also attended.

Having highlighted the need for younger volunteers this was an interesting evening attended by many  volunteers all of whom were in the 51-60 years bracket and over! However, Warwick had encouraged two university students to attend who made a refreshing input. Their ideas of how we could recognize, reward and retain were interesting. On average clubs function with 2/3 paid staff and approximately 21 volunteers.

We worked in groups. The first task was trying to assess the amount of man hours our county organization needed to function. This was a very ‘hit and miss’ assessment but all counties realized how difficult this was to assess as we strongly rely on volunteers, many of whom were not present. Analysing age was the next task and addressing the need to encourage more youngsters. Ideas were put forward with a view to targeting those who had recently left junior sections and were at university/college. They all need extra -curricular activities for their c.v.’s and students are now finding more employment opportunities if they have offered volunteer roles. Currently we are targeting 30 of our PGA Level 1 coaches to ensure they are pro-active. Warwick Holland continues to source students from local colleges to assist with development at Pitcheroak Golf Club and other partnership projects.

Phil Beard who led the workshop and evening presentation was very appreciative of the ideas and suggestions that were discussed within the groups. With his enthusiasm and expertise we gained many ideas on encouraging and retaining future volunteer recruitment.

Following the Volunteer Workshop there has been a meeting with Warwick Holland and Phil Beard to restructure the CGP Steering Committee who will be required to spearhead and actively develop roles and activities. 7/8 more volunteers need to be recruited to help kick start initiatives to help assist within a specific working group capacity. These roles include Player recruitment (16-40 years), Raising the profile of women’s and girl’s golf, Marketing and Club development, Website/ Press Liaison, Coach education, assisting recruitment and new talent into Academy Programme and junior player pathway, assistance with GolfMark and helping clubs apply for free coaching grants.

v.) Finance/Awards

The following awards have recently been granted and/ or made available to the CGP;

• £8,500 to pilot a programme to develop junior schools golf development . The idea is to try and get young talent through a competitively set up situation. It is important to recognise outstanding performance.
• £7,000 towards the 16 -19 year age group for disabled and abled golfers in local schools and sixth form colleges. 16 +financial support is likely to be good in the future where as junior support will be low. It is important that we integrate the 16+ age group into the junior programme.
• £90.000 is available for development in the ‘Greater Birmingham’ and Redditch area. A 3 year award is targeted at 16-24 year olds to ‘get them into the game’. 40% of the figure will be used on marketing and advertising. These are targeted at community organized events for non golfers.

Finally, the date for the WHLCGA /WUGC County Junior Conference is Thursday 3^rd March at Kings Norton G.C.  An Agenda with time will be sent out later.

Netty Kitson

17.1 2011