Open Day 2021
CLUB OPEN DAY ON SATURDAY 29 MAY 2021
THE FOLLOWING NOTES ARE PROVIDED AS A REMINDER OF HOW THINGS WERE ORGANISED SO THAT THEY CAN BE USED WHEN ORGANISING FUTURE OPEN DAYS
The Club’s Open Day was timed to coincide with the Big Bowls Weekend promoted by Bowls England. This, together with good weather and marketing, resulted in a very good turn-out and, with a lot of help from the Club’s members, a very successful and enjoyable event.
We produced flyers for Club members to distribute around their friends and neighbourhood, A4 posters for locations such as local supermarkets, cafes and community venues and contacted the local radio station. Copies of flyers and posters were available at the club or could be printed by downloading the files below.
The club was open from 10.30am until 5.00pm with 4 rinks being used for visitors to have a go. Sets of bowls were available in various sizes and Richard Mason lined up a team of helpers to show visitors how to use them.
The rink nearest the Clubhouse was used for demonstration pairs/triples matches from 11am to 4pm to show prospective members how the game works. Andy Todd organised these sessions each of which lasted about an hour.
Off the green we offered refreshments from the kitchen (led by Gail Gilbert) and outdoor bar (led by David Hearle). Each visitor was given a voucher for a free bacon roll and tea/coffee. Sales of bacon rolls, homemade cakes and teas/coffees were good, but hardly any sandwiches were sold. Gross kitchen sales were £76; net bar sales were £318.
Mike Newman was in charge of organising the raffle. We had many donations for raffle prizes which were displayed on an outside table. Tickets, were on sale at the table and also from volunteers who walked around encouraging visitors and members to buy them. Ticket sales, at £1 per ticket, came to £295. The draw commenced at 3pm.
Hardly any merchandise from the Pershore Bowls shop was sold, maybe because it was tucked away between the raffle stall and the bar. Next time we intend displaying and selling the merchandise that we sell at the Club. Many of our members may not be aware that items such as club shirts, spray chalk, bowls grip and CWBC bowls stickers are available to purchase from behind the bar.
As always, our stalwart photographer Colin Bassett captured some wonderful pictures of the day several of which are now in the Gallery on the CWBC website. He also had some of the photos made into an album that’s now on display in the clubhouse.
We had 55 visitors, 11 of whom handed in membership applications on the day with 4 more returning their applications later. We fast tracked the applications and assigned new members to buddy groups led by established Club members to help them get to know the ropes and each other.
Management of car parking and visitor registration went well. We had a Club member and an ‘A’ board at the gate letting people know where to park (once the Club’s car park was full cars were parked in Cheltenham FC’s car park next door). Two spaces nearest the Clubhouse were left free in case they were needed for disabled parking, for deliveries or for turning.
When he wasn’t busy with other things Mike Newman, the Club President, spent time near the registration table so that he could welcome visitors.
The registration table was set up in the car park between the Clubhouse entrance and side gate. Visitors were asked to provide their name, contact details and how they’d heard about the Open Day. From this we learned that the people that joined on the day had heard about it from existing members, from living locally, from a poster displayed at Whiskers Coffee Bar (Prestbury Playing Fields) and from info we’d placed on the Nextdoor app.. The majority of visitors were friends/family of existing members, one had seen a poster at Sainsbury’s and one came along as they were interested in short mat. We noted arrival times on the registration sheet, but our attempts at recording exit times and scores about how visitors had felt about the event didn’t work.
Membership application forms were available on the registration table for anyone who wanted to take them away with them. The Membership Secretary, Yvonne Anderson-Foss, was based at the registration table but went off to chat with visitors who’d indicated that they wanted to join the club there and then. This only started happening from about midday so Yvonne was able to man the registration table until then after which one or two other club members were needed to take over the registration of new arrivals.
Organising the event started a couple of months in advance of the day. A small team comprising Peter Weir (team leader), Mike Newman, Richard Mason and Yvonne Anderson-Foss met regularly to get everything organised.