Disc golf Club - how to start one ?

[Tbolg]

I Didn't know where this topic fit best but I figured this area best fit . Anyways as the title of the thread is obvious I was wondering what the process was for starting a club. I was hoping that someone here at Dgcr would surely know what this entails or describe the process they took in establishing a club. I have scoured the internet for help but haven't found much. Any suggestions, help, or links would be greatly appreciated.

 

[greg_b_4]

I have started a very new club at our new course, first club in the area. We started in Januaray, I'm up to 61 followers on Facebook and have around 15 players that play in our weekly. I'd be glad to help but would probably be best over the phone or something. Feel free to private message me and I'll send my number.

 

[Tbolg]

I have started a very new club at our new course, first club in the area. We started in Januaray, I'm up to 61 followers on Facebook and have around 15 players that play in our weekly. I'd be glad to help but would probably be best over the phone or something. Feel free to private message me and I'll send my number.

Sounds great , Pming you now.

 

[DavidSauls]

I was part of the founding of one club, in the pre-Facebook era.

A handful of us who knew each other, decided to have weekly doubles. We'd invite anyone we'd see, and put up flyers inviting anyone we didn't. After a while we'd have a dozen or so each week, meaning several dozen people involved from time to time.

A handful of those decided to form a club. We invited all the doubles participants, and put up flyers on the course inviting any other disc golfers to join us. One energetic member drew up a draft structure, about a dozen people showed up for the founding meeting, and the club was on its way.

It's had its ups and downs, but is still running almost 20 years later, with an entirely new cast of characters.

(I mentioned pre-Facebook only because, for those who use Facebook, it's a much easier way to aggregate and communicate with a bunch of people than stapling flyers to trees, as we did).

 

[Tbolg]

I was part of the founding of one club, in the pre-Facebook era.

A handful of us who knew each other, decided to have weekly doubles. We'd invite anyone we'd see, and put up flyers inviting anyone we didn't. After a while we'd have a dozen or so each week, meaning several dozen people involved from time to time.

A handful of those decided to form a club. We invited all the doubles participants, and put up flyers on the course inviting any other disc golfers to join us. One energetic member drew up a draft structure, about a dozen people showed up for the founding meeting, and the club was on its way.

It's had its ups and downs, but is still running almost 20 years later, with an entirely new cast of characters.

(I mentioned pre-Facebook only because, for those who use Facebook, it's a much easier way to aggregate and communicate with a bunch of people than stapling flyers to trees, as we did).

Great information David. Thanks for sharing. Do you know what requirements if any are required to go through local municipal Papaerwork or is it as simple as creatin a logo and name and inviting people to join with a structure of drafted laws?

 

[Tbolg]

If anyone else has anything to share on their process of starting a disc golf club I'd love to hear about it. Share the knowledge and grow the sport!!

 

[DavidSauls]

Great information David. Thanks for sharing. Do you know what requirements if any are required to go through local municipal Papaerwork or is it as simple as creatin a logo and name and inviting people to join with a structure of drafted laws?

You can start a club just about any way you want. It depends on what the ultimate intentions are. But there's no paperwork involved in simply forming a club.

If you want the club to become the main entity working with the parks department, then a formal structure with elected board members, etc., is probably a good idea. The better organized the club is, especially regarding authority within the club, the more respect you're likely to get.

Money. Here's the important and dangerous part. If the club is going to deal with money, and it probably is, you need to think this through. If it's a small club and small sums---membership fees, ace pots, etc.---you might leave it in the hands of a very trustworthy member, and leave it at that. But once you go beyond that stage, with large sums and fundraisers and tournaments, at some point you'll want something more formal. You'll want to consider:

---A budget
---A treasurer
---Checks and balances on that treasurer, so he or she is transparent and accountable
---A bank account (accessible to at least 2 people)
---Probably to look into incorporating. You might need to anyway, to set up the bank account.
---Taxes. Or, at least, tax filings. Or risk being accused of hiding income.

The club can weigh its feelings on this. But if you go the easy way and avoid being so formal, you risk arguments about how money is to be spent; accusations that someone has pocketed club money; and legal issues.

---eight years as Treasurer, Columbia Disc Golf Club, an incorporated not-for-profit club

 

[avillion23]

Having started a club twelve months ago and getting it built to 40 members, I'd recommend the following:
1) make sure you have a good group of people to serve as a foundation of the club. Anything we build needs to have a strong foundation for longevity.
2) put into place bylaws
3) hold elections for board members
4) get volunteers, everyone likes to play but not everyone likes to be involved in the day to day operation of a club
5) build relationships with local businesses that will help support tournaments with donations, etc..

If you want an example of bylaws, check out our website at www.badgc.com

 

[Tbolg]

Having started a club twelve months ago and getting it built to 40 members, I'd recommend the following:

2) put into place bylaws


If you want an example of bylaws, check out our website at www.badgc.com

Great post and you were one step ahead of me concerning the bypass. Thanks for the link , I will deff give them a look. :thmbup:

 

[hawk12]

Here in South Jersey we started a club 4 years ago, was 2 years in the thought process before that. In the last 4 years, our club has grown up from a concept, we have grown from 30, to 65, to 120+ bag tag holders the last 2 years (yearly paying & active members) that contribute actively to building an maintaining course, to having 700+ discs currently in stock, and I'm hosting 14 tournaments this year.
Probably the most important contribution is that in the area we had 2 existing course, have built 5 more in 4 years, and I have 2 more proposals well into the approval phases and will both likely be installed in 2016.

Not saying it was easy, but I am saying the success we've had is 25 times more than we thought possible, and 10 times more successful than our dreams were just 4 years ago...

That said, our conversation will have to wait till next week, as tomorrow I'm hosting a tournament that sold out 3 weeks ago, and has 13 players on the wait list. Good things can happen, just be prepared to DO THE WORK.

Please feel free to PM me, and we can have a good long conversation. Or more, as over time your questions will change.
Adam Harris

 

[AdamE]

1) make sure you have a good group of people to serve as a foundation of the club. Anything we build needs to have a strong foundation for longevity.

^^^ This. There is lots of good advice in this thread but this is can be particularly important and easy to overlook. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch and I've seen a number of clubs ruined or set back because of it. Get a code of conduct in place for officers and club members and put it in the bylaws.