Planning
What does planning do?
- Looks at where your organisation has come from and where it is now, where it wants to go and how it is going to get there.
- Identifies the main objectives of your organisation.
- Encourages your members to get involved in the development of your organisation.
- Adjusts to the changes that happen around you that have an impact on your organization.
- Ensures that resources (human, physical and financial) are used properly.
- Evaluates your organisation and bring order into the hectic business of running a sporting organisation.
What are strategic plans and operational plans?
A strategic plan is a document that contains the long-term outlines for your club (two to four years). It lays out the overall mission and direction of your club, and how you plan to achieve these outcomes. Once you have established your strategic plan, you need to separate out all the tasks for the next 12 months and this will become your operational plan. It can be used by your members or volunteers to guide them in their work during this time.
A strategic plan takes into account your club’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats, and outlines some strategies to address or build on these.
In general, a strategic plan incorporates the following items:
- Vision and/or mission statement.
- Core business areas of your organisation.
- Goals/objectives related to these business areas for the period of the plan.
- Strategies/tasks to be undertaken to achieve the goals/objectives.
- Timelines for the completion of those strategies/tasks.
- Resource Implications, i.e. what will it cost to do in people and financial terms?
- Performance indicators, that is how will you know when the strategy/task is completed?
- Priorities for action, what should be undertaken in year one, what in year two, what is year three and so on…
We have provided a sample strategic plan in the resources section.
All the tasks that that are to be completed in the short term (within the next 12 months) can be separated out of the strategic plan, and can be placed into a separate document called an operational plan. The operational plan will be used by your members or volunteers to guide them in their work during this time.
We have provided a sample operational plan template in the resources section.
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Preparing a strategic plan
Like many things involved in running a club, there is no right or wrong way to prepare a strategic plan. They can vary from a few pages to a complex document with images, charts and diagrams. Your strategic plan should reflect the size and scope of your club.
If you are new to preparing a strategic plan, we suggest that you keep it simple at first. The plan can grow and evolve over time as your club grows.
There are some basics, however, that must be considered:
- Does the plan provide a clear basis for the direction of your club?
- If a new member picked it up could they easily use it to find out where the club is going in the next few years?
- Does the plan provide detail on how the objectives are going to be achieved, i.e. does it prioritise the strategies and tasks, include resource allocation and target setting?
- If the National Sports or Recreational Organisation for your club has a strategic plan does your local strategic plan refer to and reflect the priorities of the national plan, or is it a separate document with no reference to the national plan?
- Has your planning involved communicating with your members so that they have some ownership of the strategic plan so they agree with it?
SPARC's Supporting Sport: Strategic and Business Planning takes an in-depth look at strategic planning which is suitable for larger clubs with sizable commercial interests.
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What is a business plan?
A business plan is a more detailed document that includes all of the information from your club’s strategic plan, plus considerably more information about your club and what it will be doing in the coming years. Business plans are particularly helpful if you have a considerable amount of commercial (money-earning) activities planned, such as opening a licensed bar.
While the format for a business plan can vary considerably from business to business, in general terms it might contain:
- Title page - details the nature of the document, the name of the organisation, the period of time it relates to, and the date it was written.
- List of contents - details the sections within the document and page references.
- Executive summary - this is a broad statement about the background of the organisation, the purpose of the document, what is in it, how it was prepared and what its intentions are.
- Strategic plan - details the organisation’s mission statement, goals/objectives, etc.
- Marketing plan - details information and research related to market demographics, products and services, price structures, place of delivery of products or services, an analysis of the competition, product life cycle and promotional strategies.
- Financial plan - details current and projected budgets, cash flows and details as to any assets and liabilities.
- Management plan - explains the structure of the organisation in terms of membership, board structure and staff employed - may include an organisation chart and constitution or other related legal documents relating to ownership of the business.
- Appendices - list all documents that may be referred to in body of the business plan.
Business plans are documents that require a significant amount of time, resources and expertise. They are more often developed by the commercial sector and well-resourced non-commercial organisations.
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Organisational charts
An organisational chart is simply a flow chart showing who are the responsible people within your club. It shows the roles that they undertake and their reporting relationships to each other. It can include both paid and voluntary positions. An Organisational chart is useful at almost all levels of the planning process.
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Resources and more information
CommunityNet Aotearoa provides internet resources for communities in New Zealand and has more information on resources that you can use for your club.
Other resources your club can use include:
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