Ground and facility management

Why should clubs have a Facility Management Plan?

In short, a Facility Management Plan will assist your club with achieving your short and long term goals.

By linking your Facility Management Plan to your Strategic Plan (Link to Strategic Plan) and Objectives will enable your club to improve the quality of your service to your community as well as be a more cost effective and productive organisation.

So how does this happen? Planning, Planning and Action Plans

Taking the time to co-ordinate your Facility Management Plan will allow your committee to consider how your facility fits into your clubs “big picture”.

This allows the committee to be empowered to have a complete understanding of the financial, service delivery and volunteer time required to ensure your facility meets the current and future needs of your members and broader community.

Having this empowerment of knowledge to the committee allows thoughtful and well considered strategies and tactics to be implemented and reduces the risk of rash decisions and their consequences which may cost more money in the long run.

Another added benefit to a Facility Management Plan is clubs can identify new members and sponsorship and most importantly potential competitors to securing these.

Through this process clubs can also identify new opportunities and pathways they may not have previously considered for the club and their members.

By creating realistic goals in line with your Strategic and Facility Management Plans committees can allocate volunteer and financial resources which support these initiatives whilst also factoring in set review dates. By reviewing your facility in line with your goals and evaluating the effectiveness of your facility, clubs can ensure they are staying relevant in the sporting landscape.

A significant part of this review is considering the risk management component of your facility.

Potential risks and problems associated with managing a facility can be identified, reduced and mitigated where possible.

Having the potential to assess financial requirements and forecasts once again allows your club committee to be prepared in seeking financial assistance through sponsorship or grant allocations.

Assessing operational and future development costs ensures your club is well prepared and not spending beyond their means.

By having clear measurable outcomes for your facilities, your club can keep track, predict in advance and make clear and concise decisions for your members and broader community. This of course contributes to your club’s long term sustainability.

Who should be responsible for your Facility Management Plan?

Well this is a great question …

We do know all clubs with sporting facilities require a management plan. We have also mentioned the role of your Facility Manager is the central point of contact for coordinating the running of your facility, looking after the facility management plan and looking at long term solutions and care of your facility.

This does not mean it is the sole responsibility of the Facility Manager to create your club’s Facility Management Plan or more importantly to make major financial decisions on behalf of the club or committee.

Preparing a Facility Management Plan is not a difficult task, however it does take time and commitment to complete it accurately. Keep your plan simple and easy to read so it can be managed and actioned without too much difficulty.

It may better to have your facility manager facilitate the preparation of your plan in stages or by allocating sections of your facilities to different volunteers/committee members.

Over time this plan can be refined and added to ensure a workable document exists for your club. A good rule of thumb is your Facility Management Plan is prepared with a three to five year timeline in mind, although it must be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

An added benefit to this process is you will always have a starting point for any facility funding you may apply for.

Once your Facility Management Plan is underway your facility manager can oversee, update and ensure appropriate actions are taken as per your plan.

The most effective process for doing this is to link your Facility Management Plan to Implementation Plans that are ongoing working documents breaking down tasks to individual responsibilities by due dates.

Let’s not forget it is still the role of the committee to have ultimate responsibility for your club’s facilities. The committee is still the custodian of your club, and must ensure all decisions made in relation to your club facilities are financially and legally responsible and in the best interests of your members and community.