Shelflife wrote: Im happy to approach the branch on this if ye want or if someone with contacts in the branch wants to do it that's fine by me.

I would def suggest posters and maybe an information table on both sides of the pitch at home games to try and promote the supporters club.

Thanks SL... Shane normally acts as our contact point with Connacht Rugby to avoid too many conversations. I will ask him to contact them.

We are doing up some (long-life) signs and they will definitely be up in the Clan Bar this year, but not too sure about the other side as Connacht Rugby don't own that building.

Okay well as Dec said we are already planning on donating to the G2G campaign as we felt it would be a good way to raise exposure for ourselves and the campaign ahead of the new season. The money for that donation was raised from local businesses for events that we organised and promoted on their premises. The rest of our money (or a large part of the rest of it) is going on the PA system and some signs for the Clan Bar.

Regarding the player sponsorhip... It is a good idea, and I think it was one that we broached before with the branch when we were starting out. If I remember correctly the issue was the cost, which is being under-valued here I think. For a regular starter we would probably be looking at well over a grand or possibly two.
However we are not going to get anywhere speculating. We will contact Connacht Rugby and get a price-list. Maybe they will even give us a knock-down price...

Ok lets keep this one simple KISS,

there is a proposal to sponsor a player through the clan, to date there is €450 pledged.

I would propose that we approach the branch and ask 1. how much does it cost and who is available.

When we find out that we can vote on who we want to sponsor, €20 per vote so if you donate €10 you get 1/2 a vote and if you donate €100 you get 5 votes.

any money that's left over is held by the clan. easiest thing would be to stop taking donations when we reach out limit or continue on and sponsor more than one player.

Im happy to approach the branch on this if ye want or if someone with contacts in the branch wants to do it that's fine by me.

I would def suggest posters and maybe an information table on both sides of the pitch at home games to try and promote the supporters club.

Guys, we have been in discussion with Connacht Rugby regarding a donation to the Grassroots to Greenshirts fund for a while, it's something we'll be bringing up at the AGM

As an example of gap in provinces mrsc have 3 fulltime staff and have an agency to look after renewals which either go thru them or the clubs

I can tell you that mrsc membership is currently 65 euro if you want he tickets. AFAIK associate membership is 30 euro. Connacht are 10 yes + behind that so don't panic but that's where clan has to be heading. For instance its reported that Connacht can't afford a defence coach!
First things first though and raising profile of clan is a start.

rossie wrote: That's what mrsc do also. They donate 6 figure sums to the Munster academy on a yearly basis. I'm not saying that's possible for Connacht clan at point in their development but it should be a goal.

Sea point and I disagree on many rugby related issues but I agree with his detailed post above. Its vital its done correctly and that fundraising is done more vigorously if the supporters club is to become more than an internet forum. The player sponsorship idea is an ideal marketing strategy to grow the supporters club.

Any of you guys know were these other Supporters Clubs are getting the funds to do these sort of things.

The Clan has no income source.

Agree that fundraising should be more vigorous but with active members only in the 100's rather than the 1,000s, it is going to be an up hill battle. The Forum has 375 members but only about 70 have posted more than 50 times. Connacht rugby has nearly 30,000 likes on Facebook the Clan has 555. Somewhere there is a disconnect.

might be an idea to throw out feelers on FB and twitter

That's what mrsc do also. They donate 6 figure sums to the Munster academy on a yearly basis. I'm not saying that's possible for Connacht clan at point in their development but it should be a goal.

Sea point and I disagree on many rugby related issues but I agree with his detailed post above. Its vital its done correctly and that fundraising is done more vigorously if the supporters club is to become more than an internet forum. The player sponsorship idea is an ideal marketing strategy to grow the supporters club.

Fourdogs wrote: I think Borders no 2 made it perfectly clear at the beginning of this topic what the goal for the money was going to be (at least I understood it).
Try to try and raise about €500 so that the Clan could help sponsor one of the players.

Look at the recent examples run by the Branch “Grass roots to Green shirts” which has stalled and fallen pitifully short of its target. This was something which to use your phrase was “formalised what the objective” had lots of time and money spent on it, and to what objective. In the end, it will be lucky to cover its costs.

At lease Borders no 2 is taking the time to suggest ideas. I would rather know if there is sufficient interest in an idea before spending time and effort on it and before the Clan approaches the marketing department of the Branch.

We would look pretty stupid if we approached someone about sponsorship only to find out that there would not be enough support to follow it up. At least this way we will know. If we do not reach pledges of €500 buy simply asking a question, there is absolutely no point in going to the effort of organising the structure, and getting someone to spend the time collecting it for real.

To use a quote from one of my favourite moves of the 70’s, Kelly’s Heroes “Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves”.

So you're in agreement then that to go ahead with player sponsorship that there has to be a clear gameplan. Borders made a general proposal, it's down to the Clan committee or volunteers on their behalf to formalise it and present it to supporters with all the blanks filled in so that fundraising can proceed.

• How much will individual sponsorships cost.
• How are the funds received used by Connacht
• How many player sponsorships are proposed.
• Which players are being proposed for sponsorship.
• What will happen to any excess funds
• What will happen if there's a shortfall or insufficient funds to proceed

The point I will continue to make is that a supporters club (especially one that hasn't presented any financial accounts as yet) when asking supporters to contribute money to a proposal needs to have the details nailed down before actually asking commitments for cash. People often change their minds when details are fleshed out.

And as you mentioned the "Grass roots to Green shirts" campaign, one that despite time and effort having gone into it's planning seems to be failing to gain support (perhaps a warning for better planning?). Perhaps as I have suggested in the past this is the area where the Clan should actually be focussing it's fund raising efforts for a season or two given it's actually designed to target support for young indigenous players. Perhaps by running collections at a few targeted games each season and also forming part of the promotion of Clan events. And this would mean that donators can actually see the donations at work.

As a comparison the Quins and London Irish Supporters clubs principal funding role is donating to the respective Academies to help fund player development.

QUINNSA from AGM 2011/12 wrote: Fund raising
• We have raised funds at some of our events for the Quins chosen charity, this year, Right to Play, but, as normal, our main fundraising thrust has been for the Quins Academy.
• Once again we raised significant sums for the Academy and presented Tony Diprose with a cheque for £3,370.55 at the Premiership semi-final.
• This really does enable some of the academy players to gain rugby experience outside of the normal Academy structure which they would not otherwise have been able to do. This year, for example, we have sent Sam Stuart to Nick Evans’ old club, East Coast Bays, in North Harbour. As well as being a fantastic experience for Sam the opportunity to play a club season in a demanding environment is just what he needs. Having missed so much of the last two seasons it gives him a great opportunity to get back up to form so that he hits the ground running for Quins next season.

www.quinssa.org.uk/minutes/20130413minutes.pdf

London Irish SC wrote: Funds raised through LISC are frequently used to help provide specialist training and coaching equipment for London Irish’s Academy. LISC also sponsors a number of Academy players each season and has even arranged cookery instruction courses for the Academy’s rising stars.
www.london-irish.com/SupportersClub.ink

And seeing as we're following a movie theme, to use a quote from a film I don't much care about. Arnie in 'Last Action Hero', "No One Likes a Smartass"

count me in, any chance we could get a list of who is already sponsored and then come up with a list of who is available and then run another poll. I don't neccessarily agree that it has be one of the senior 1st team players but instead whyy not go with one of the promising younger guys, Matt Healy for example.

Gotta go for a high profile 1st team player if available to raise the profile of the clan among the 4000+ other Connacht fans who attendeded regularly the last 2 seasons. Many of them think the clan is a stand or a bar on the other side of the pitch. A regular startergets the clan in the programme and if he scores gets clan mentioned by announcer. He also can promote/ attend clan functions and fundraisers. If there is enough support in future years for multiple sponsoring then by all means go for squad players but IMO its an ideal opportunity to advertise/market the supporters club.

No harm to be clear in what we are doing.

all ill say is that whoever we get, they are staying at my place at Christmas

Only spotted this thread now, count me in for a couple of quid.

I'd say the only reason George is available is that Bar Eight closed down. I'm sure he'll be snapped up. But should be some opportunity to sponsor a younger player.
Based on a program I looked at from last season, nearly all the academy were available. If there's a choice of players we could have an online poll.

Should be easy enough to collect the money via PayPal or whatever (or good old fashioned handing it over in the Clan Bar).

I think Borders no 2 made it perfectly clear at the beginning of this topic what the goal for the money was going to be (at least I understood it).
Try to try and raise about €500 so that the Clan could help sponsor one of the players.

Look at the recent examples run by the Branch “Grass roots to Green shirts” which has stalled and fallen pitifully short of its target. This was something which to use your phrase was “formalised what the objective” had lots of time and money spent on it, and to what objective. In the end, it will be lucky to cover its costs.

At lease Borders no 2 is taking the time to suggest ideas. I would rather know if there is sufficient interest in an idea before spending time and effort on it and before the Clan approaches the marketing department of the Branch.

We would look pretty stupid if we approached someone about sponsorship only to find out that there would not be enough support to follow it up. At least this way we will know. If we do not reach pledges of €500 buy simply asking a question, there is absolutely no point in going to the effort of organising the structure, and getting someone to spend the time collecting it for real.

To use a quote from one of my favourite moves of the 70’s, Kelly’s Heroes “Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves”.

Fourdogs wrote: Only 13 of the forum members have voted and we have over €300 promised.

There are nearly 400 users of this forum, I know we can reach €500 before the season starts proper.

<strong>Remember you can get involved for as little as €10.</strong>

Once it can be formalised what the objective is and how the Clan goes about collecting the money it can be promoted. But the objective needs to be formalised first. Because people like to know exactly what their money will be put towards.

I don't think we need a poll to know that if the right proposal is put in place and there's a clear benefit for Connacht people will dip into their pockets, maybe not 400 but enough to make it worthwhile...