The chairperson is typically the most senior official role in a club and fulfils a range of duties dealing with overall management of club affairs. The chairperson leads the club to achieve their vision, short term and long-term goals.

Typical responsibilities:

• Provide leadership on all aspects of the club from training to competition, fundraising and social activities
• Strategic planning and key decision-making duties
• Form a team so that all the officer and committee positions are filled, taking in consideration skills, experience and diversity
• Delegating, leading and motivating club volunteers towards club goals/objectives
• Uphold the club constitution and terms of conditions of affiliation bodies
• Ensuring an understanding of the legal responsibilities of the club to which the Club complies
• Lead in the enforcement of the club’s code of conduct
• Assist the club to fulfil its responsibilities towards club welfare and safeguarding
• Taking responsibility for personal conflicts of interest and declaring, recording and managing these appropriately
• Chairing regular committee meetings and the Annual General Meetings (AGM)
• Being actively involved in creating and following a Club Development Plan
• Representing the club at local and regional events
• Arranging handover or succession planning for the position

Club Welfare Officers within your club ensures that members have a trained and trusted person to speak to about a concern either within the club or at times outside of your sport. A Welfare Officer is the lead person who has the right skills and knowledge to manage any concern raised in an appropriate way that would not hamper any investigation and shares information accordingly. By undertaking the necessary training, the officer is equipped to undertake the role with confidence. This includes how to raise a concern and who to speak to within the sport.

Typical responsibilities:
A Club Welfare Officer (CWO) with the support of the club committee has the responsibility to:

• implement effective Child Safeguarding Policy and Child Safeguarding Procedures and keep them up to date
• implement effective Adult Safeguarding Policy and Adult Safeguarding Procedures and keep them up to date
• promote safeguarding at the club and encourage good practice
• respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns
• regularly report to the club’s organising committee on safeguarding matters
• ensure that members of the club/volunteers/staff who are working with children and/or adults at risk are recruited safely and in line with legal requirements
• maintain records of safeguarding training attended by club members
• maintain records of club coaches and officials’ licences and criminal record checks
• make sure the sports volunteers/staff, parents/carers, adults and children are aware of:
  • how to contact the CWO
  • the codes of conduct for working with children/adults at risk
  • how to respond to safeguarding concerns
• deal effectively with breaches of the codes of conduct, poor practice, or allegations of abuse
• keep up to date with developments in safeguarding
• attend the relevant safeguarding courses for the role of CWO
• complete a criminal record check through the relevant Home Country procedures
• maintain confidential records of reported safeguarding concerns and action taken
• liaise with the HCAF Welfare Officer and/or statutory agencies if/when required.

Person specification
It is desirable for a Club Welfare Officer to:

• have an interest in safeguarding and welfare matters
• be friendly and approachable with the ability to communicate well with adults and children
• be willing to challenge opinion, where necessary, and to drive the safeguarding agenda
• have strong listening skills and the ability to deal with sensitive situations with empathy and integrity
• have an understanding of the importance of confidentiality and when information may need to be shared in
• order to protect the best interests of a child or an adult at risk
• have the confidence and ability to manage situations relating to the poor conduct/behaviour of others towards
• a child or an adult at risk and know when to ask for support

The primary role of the club secretary is to provide administrative support to the role of chairperson. Much of the hands-on administrative effort may be delegated to other club officers and volunteers, but responsibility for ensuring the overall, well-run club administration lies with the Secretary. 

Typical responsibilities:

• Plan club meetings with the chairperson and agree an agenda with all club officers
• Circulate details of meetings (time, location, agenda etc.) to club members
• Take minutes and circulate to meeting attendees
• Follow-up with relevant parties on key actions arising from meetings
• Ensure meetings adhere to procedures of the club constitution (e.g. quorums and election procedures)
• Being the first point of contact for club enquiries
• Receive, send and log correspondence on behalf of the Club
• Delegating tasks to club members
• Attending to affiliations
• Ensuring insurance is up to date and relevant
• Maintaining up to date records and reference files
• Arranging handover or succession planning for the position
• Taking responsibility for personal conflicts of interest and declaring, recording and managing these appropriately
• Manage club grievance and disciplinary correspondence

The primary role of the club membership secretary are membership registrations. Membership registration is a well-established part of any sport. It is essential that competing members are registered with the club as well as any associated affiliations.

Typical responsibilities:

• Managing the club affiliation renewal
• Managing the athlete registration renewal process
• Progressing athlete registrations for new members
• Maintaining records of all athletes – competitive and social
• Maintaining records of club members who carry out the role of volunteers, coaches and officials
• Works with the club treasurer to reconcile membership payments, discounts, refunds etc.
• Contacts members in payment arrears to pay club membership dues
• Updates coaches each week on who has paid their membership and is eligible to train and compete
• Responsible for managing athlete transfer requests to other clubs
• Sharing National Governing Body (NGB) registration numbers with members
• Reporting to the club secretary on the progress of memberships (growth/decline) etc.
• Ensuring data privacy and meeting GDPR obligations as an officer of the club who are a data controller
• Arranging handover or succession planning for the position

The Club Treasurer is responsible for the managing the flow of money into the club and for allocating and recording how that money is spent to run the club. This is a vital role in a club as the treasurer works to ensure the club is able to meet its day-to-day expenses and prompts the need for increased club fundraising where a shortfall in income exists.

The treasurer also works in conjunction with the committee in planning the development of the club e.g. creating annual budgets, estimating funds required for a capital project like a new facility and projecting membership and income for future years to contribute towards prudent planning of the club’s future. 

Typical responsibilities:

• Managing the club’s income and expenditure and its assets and liabilities
• Maintain bank account(s) in the name of the Club in accordance with mandate ratified by the Committee
• Producing an end of year financial report
• Identifying a suitable individual to independently review the annual accounts
• Regularly reporting back to the club committee on all financial matters
• Depending on the type of legal structure reporting back to the relevant body as required
• Efficient payment of invoices and bills
• Proposing amendments to annual and weekly subscriptions as appropriate
• Depositing cash and cheques that the club receives
• Keeping up to date financial records
• Arranging handover or succession planning for the position
• Taking responsibility for personal conflicts of interests and declaring, recording and managing these appropriately