Who has been a part of a successful club?

[Parks]

I'm joining the board of a local club here in Spokane, and the club does not have a well-defined path or goals. We've had the same two courses around for a while, and have not added any more. The player base has expanded.

I'm looking for people that have been part of or helped run successful disc golf clubs. I'm wondering what your goals were, and what steps were key in letting you achieve those goals.

I believe the goals should be to get more new people involved in the sport, get more and better courses installed in the area, and to improve disc golf's profile and reputation with the local community and the city/parks department. I want disc golf to be the go-to thing to put in underused or misused parks, and something that Spokane can be proud of.

Which clubs have been there, done that? What did you do to make it happen? What are you doing to still grow the sport, and what new goals are you trying to achieve? If you choose, drop in the name of your club and city/area.

 

[JHern]

I'm also interested in being more active, and I live in a fairly well-seasoned part of the disc golf nation. Jim Oates and Co have done tremendous work over the years to get many courses up and running in Central/NorCal, and it seems like challenging work for the most part, but also very rewarding. Sometimes it is disappointing work as well, since they laid a new course, only to have it torn out by a gay environmentalist lawyer trying to protect his blowjobfest in the park where the course was to be established.

Anyways, the challenge these days, I think, is organizational: to better integrate and harness the newer younger energy of recent growth in the sport with the old school guys who have the wisdom and know-how but have already sacrificed so much for the sport and have less energy left to give the broader effort. Getting this connection established is critical, and I think it is necessary for all of us to reach the next level of a higher profile disc golf sport.

Already I see many differences between the common old perceptions of disc golf as a "bunch of stoners and loafers throwing frisbees in the park" and the emerging reality: lots of families out there, tons of kids throwing discs, more women entering the sport, etc.. I even saw a Grandfather, his Son, and his GrandSon all playing disc golf together once, and I have to tell you, that is a beautiful and priceless sight to behold.

So, sorry I can't respond to your question in the affirmative yet, but I want it to be so! Let's keep up our energy and gumption for working to expand and improve disc golf!

 

[readysetstab]

the first goal of any club should be to raise money. you can't do much without it. the second goal should be to build relationships with anyone who might be able to help to get things done for you. city parks reps, city council members, etc. after that you just try to do everything possible to build up your disc golf community so that you have volunteers for any work projects... plus you will represent a larger percentage of the community this way. it just looks better if you have a lot of members.

you need to constantly try to gain sponsors to have money coming in, and run a lot of local tournaments (non-sanctioned probably) to raise money also. anything you can think of, really. if your city sees that you're doing a lot to make your disc golf community better and will do a lot of the work without their assistance then they will be more likely to let you put disc golf in more areas and might even throw some money at you. when they have multiple options in front of them like... building a sports facility, or an Audubon center, or other super expensive propositions, disc golf begins to look like a nice option, especially if they only have to do basic maintenance.

also, cities usually have various clubs and non-profits from around the city work at local events that the city runs. they will usually pay you a reasonable amount. easy way to raise money if you don't have a tournament going on at the time. of course you'd have to have club members that are will to volunteer their time to raise some club funds.

bottom line - it takes a lot of money to run a decent club. you need to have more than a couple ways to raise funds.

after you have enough money coming in... the goals should be to make your club members happy, gain more members, run plenty of events (that covers making people happy and making money), put in more courses (preferably in some part of your region that doesn't have disc golf to help gain new interest), spread the word about the sport (trying to introduce disc golf to as many new people as you can). you can try to get the sport into schools, try to get the news to cover disc golf stories, etc. one thing we're thinking about doing around here is running some newcomer events, maybe invite families (through the news channels or paper) to just come and spend the day outside and we can show them a thing or two about disc golf. a lot of younger families look for ideas to get their kids outside and active. just pick a date and do it. you would only need a few volunteers from the club for that.

the more new ideas the better.

if you don't like the way your club is run, then run for a club office. make your goals known so that everyone knows you're interested in getting stuff done. it might be hard if you just joined the club, but if you help enough with events and volunteering you'll get some attention.

 

[tigel]

Being from Springfield, MO I've experienced some of what JDGC has to offer. Great club, ran by awesome guys, and very successful (I think they had over 20 sponsors it seemed at one of their events last year). Readysetstab know's what he's talking about.

 

[Mr. Wick]

NEFA

http://www.nefa.com

Great organization

 

[cali]

Where I am from it seems like everyone wants to run their own club. Having 12 different clubs and only 20 people in each doesn't really accomplish much.

Here are the 3 that really do contribute a lot though.

www.cincinnatidiscgolf.com
www.daytondiscgolf.org
www.buckeyediscgolfclub.com

 

[JHern]

the first goal of any club should be to raise money...the second goal should be to build relationships...city parks reps, city council members, etc...after you have enough money coming in...the goals should be to make your club members happy, gain more members, run plenty of events (that covers making people happy and making money), put in more courses (preferably in some part of your region that doesn't have disc golf to help gain new interest), spread the word about the sport (trying to introduce disc golf to as many new people as you can).

I would put all the above under the heading of what the old school guys already know how to do. All of the ones I've met are civically minded, and typically involved in several community organizations (not just disc golf).

you can try to get the sport into schools, try to get the news to cover disc golf stories, etc. one thing we're thinking about doing around here is running some newcomer events, maybe invite families (through the news channels or paper) to just come and spend the day outside and we can show them a thing or two about disc golf. a lot of younger families look for ideas to get their kids outside and active. just pick a date and do it. you would only need a few volunteers from the club for that. the more new ideas the better.

Absolutely! Good stuff.

if you don't like the way your club is run, then run for a club office. make your goals known so that everyone knows you're interested in getting stuff done. it might be hard if you just joined the club, but if you help enough with events and volunteering you'll get some attention.

No doubt, this kind of thing is driven by the "get-off-your-ass" ethic, organizations based on volunteerism will necessarily respond to members who put in the effort. That's the only way anything ever gets done.

Where I am from it seems like everyone wants to run their own club. Having 12 different clubs and only 20 people in each doesn't really accomplish much.

This is the challenge I was mentioning. As the sport grows, the organizational structures that previously supported it are not effective enough to handle the much larger increase in activities that would need to accompany expansion. Just inventing new clubs is not always the right answer.

I've only seen a few places organize anything like a larger political groundswell in support of disc golf, of putting in new courses, etc.. Politically it is very very simple...just make lots of phone calls and write lots of letters to the politicians who are in charge of making these kinds of decisions (ground mail, not e-mail). Take lots of photos of people crowding the disc golf course, document the community coming together for fundraising events, etc., and send them to these politicians, especially showing the range of ages and diversity of folks who are outside having fun and enjoying a public resource. When the phone is ringing off the hook, they respond!

 

[Timko]

I'll try to right up more later, but I'm part of the KC Flying Disc Club, which has been around since '81 or '82. We predate the PDGA. We've put in 13 courses in the metro, with a number of courses planned in the suburbs. We've done a lot to improve some of the parks in the 80's that were drug and prostitution havens and turned them back into family oriented recreational areas. One of the things we're doing right now is signing contracts with the various cities and suburbs to ensure the relationships that have been established over the past 25 years stay in tact. Establishing a solid link with the P&R and government in your area I think is crucial to making a club really work as far as exposing disc golf to the masses. I've been parts of other clubs where the relationship was strained at best (in NW Arkansas), which really hindered the growth of both the club and the sport.

About 300 active members, and 1000 total members in the KCFDC.

 

[Parks]

This is all good stuff, keep it coming. Readysetstab, you had a pretty good overview of a strong club in your post.

Anyone got some more specific stuff from their clubs? How about 401c (I think?) non-profit status? Which clubs use that, and has it been helpful?

And thanks Cali for bringing up the fractured groups. Which brings up an interesting question. Anyone have any failed ventures that your club (or ex-club, as it may be) undertook that hurt their progress? I could see fracturing being the cause or result of some failures.

 

[Working Stiff]

St. Louis splintered pretty bad back in the 90's. What happened was in '93 we had two courses, one that was run by a municipality and one that was run by the Club. The Club's course was wiped out in the flood of '93, so suddenly there was no Club course. Guys jumped to the challenge. In less than a year two new courses opened (Jefferson Barracks and Sioux Passage, so two very good courses) and Creve Coeur was quickly cleaned up (and flooded again ) So there was a challenge that was met, and disc golf came out stronger in the area.

Then the wheels fell off.

A local guy started a company selling course design, and a back-room deal ended up in the decision that the Club was not going to pursue installing any more courses so that we would not compete against the guy trying to sell course designs. At that point you took all those guys who successfully got two very good courses done and told them to stop. So all the momentum of the Club came to a screeching halt. Then the guy selling course designs started passing out promotional material that made it sound like he alone had designed Jefferson Barracks and Sioux Passage, which pissed a bunch of people off. I know the promotional material was intended to make the guy sound good to people looking to install a course, but he really underestimated the overall impact that stuff would have on the uncredited guys who worked on those courses.

The other odd thing was that disc golf had been a cult North County sport, and Jefferson Barracks was in South County. As the South County scene took off, the Club was still run by the old North County good old boys. The guy that was selling course designs stepped up and provided leadership to those new guys, so they pretty much followed his lead. A lot of the North County good old boys were the exact same guys who were upset with him, so you got this weird North/South, old guys/new guys split. I could feel the tension at events at Jefferson Barracks, a lot of those guys just did not like the North County good old boys. As the Club grew, it got harder and harder to keep everybody on the same page.

Another problem was that it wasn't abundantly clear what page that was. We ran an event every weekend, sometimes two. We ran a rotating schedule and played all the time. Since we always had events going, they were all pretty much the same. Not much in the way of extras at anything. Our biggest event was a B tier, and it was no great shakes as far as payout or anything. It was really all the few of us that volunteered could do to keep that 60-event schedule rolling. So there was nothing big to rally around. No A tier to get sponsorship for, no course projects to raise money for. We ended up going through the motions of running the next club flight that 12 guys were going to show up at to play for each others cash.

Pretty soon the Club fractured into groups and started bickering. The Club had crappy by-laws and no one who knew how to control a meeting, so the meetings became free-for-all's with nothing getting done. The Club staggered along like that for a few years until it imploded. The President quit, and no one would take the job. They guy who finally stepped up did it on the condition that he could start new. They actually had to kill the old club and start a new one to try to put all the crud behind them and start fresh. That is why the "St. Louis Disc Golf Club" is no more and the "River City Flyers" is the name of the St. Louis Club.

In retrospect, a lot of things could have been done differently. A clear goal, some good bylaws and a better job of giving the new South County guys something to follow would have gone a long way toward achieving some peace there. As it stands now the new Club does rally its year around the St. Louis Open, which gives them a unified event to work toward and something the leadership can point to as something they have done. They still struggle with some issues like I'm sure all Clubs do, but it seems to be a lot more organized than it was 10 years ago.

 

[readysetstab]

Anyone got some more specific stuff from their clubs? How about 401c (I think?) non-profit status? Which clubs use that, and has it been helpful?

we use our non-profit status to help us get extra work with the city. Our city will call on non-profits to work various events like school plays or even cage fighting! :shock: they pay a reasonable amount for a night's work and all they need is about 10-25 workers, depending on the size of the event, to help usher or bounce if necessary. without a non-profit status we would be missing out on a lot of extra money. it also helps to get sponsors if they know that you're a non-profit. i think most people think of non-profit organizations as generally "good people."

 

[topcide]

The most successful club in the area is the ann arbor area disc induced sports club AKA a3 disc.

They have been instermental in getting multiple courses built and putting on countless tournaments.

One thing I think has been critical to their success is that they come off as professional. When guys from A3 present stuff to local civic leaders and such, the do so in a proper manner, look and speak respectable, and generally don't fit the sterotype.