RECRUIT - Good Practices
Networking - Small scale
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Recruit relatives and get them involved in your association — Volunteers are the backbone of a successful association. Involving parents and retired members in running your association can be beneficial from an administrative and performance perspective. Recruiting and retaining more volunteers can help free up players from juggling administrative roles while playing. Additionally, having less pressure on more people will encourage people to volunteer within the club. Retaining club members should not solely focus on athletes; it should also focus on volunteers, supporters and organisers.
Networking - Schools
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Bring role models to beginner sessions — One of the key aspects of recruiting is having potential new players identify with a role model. Age, ethnicity, gender and other aspects play a role in the identification process. A role model plays a central role in showing new players what they can achieve.
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Cooperate with schools and PE teachers to showcase your sport — The most efficient way to recruit junior players is during physical education classes or after-school programs. Long-term collaborations with schools can ensure a continuous flow of recruits into your club or association. Cooperation with schools or teachers should be a key part of your recruiting strategy if your association targets students.
Networking - Large scale
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Stand out at sports showcasing events — Using networks of more prominent sports associations allows you to present your sport to a broader audience. Additionally, sport-for-all associations are interested in expanding their portfolio, so they should be eager to be ultimately represented at their event. Having Gender Equity as a core message helps distinguish your sport from others.
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Create partnerships with other sports — Partnerships are hugely beneficial in sports, both from a resource and performance point of view. From a coaching perspective, it is crucial to break the mental patterns athletes might develop from repeating the same patterns during training. For instance, changing these patterns improves cognitive engagement and engages athletes’ muscles by playing a different sport as a warm-up. Partnering with associations that share the same gender equity values for training or events can benefit everyone involved and promote a supportive sporting community.
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Run targeted side programs at your sports event — Including side events about gender equity or small demonstrations for beginners as part of your sporting event can increase participation among spectators, especially those with families and kids. Including various attractions and side programmes at your event can benefit the participants and spectators.
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Showcase your sport as part of local public events — Partnerships with public / community sports groups and school events, etc. that attract an audience are excellent opportunities to showcase your sport and increase awareness. Consider partnerships with events that share your association's same player base, values, and targets. Events and organisations that support Gender Equity are ideal targets for this practice. Large events are often happy to have additional side programs, especially if you share and admire similar moral values. Lots of organisations for younger players are particularly impressed by the SOTG aspect of ultimate. School or college sports events are also a good platform for showcasing women matching players and mixed sports.
Media
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Emphasise and promote what makes your sport special — Knowing what makes your association unique can help your promotion and recruitment efforts. All associations should strive to have gender equity as one of their key selling points, as this will help develop a gender-equitable ultimate community.
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Promote your association using different media channels — Your media strategy should reflect your association's identity, culture and critical principles. You should consider what messages you want to communicate through social media and which channels to use. Equity considerations should always be integral to media plans.
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Have a media strategy that compliments your recruiting strategy — How an association presents itself in the media strongly influences how potential new members perceive it. Making Gender Equity and Inclusivity one of the core messages of your public presence can raise your standing and be beneficial not only from a recruiting point of view but also from a marketing and sponsoring point of view.
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Have videos and links with engaging and exciting content — Short videos are great advertisements for a sport on social networks. These should emphasise what makes the sport or the event special. You can also use these videos to increase the representation and promotion of women matching athletes within the Ultimate community.
Organisation
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Emphasise the social aspect of the sport to boost retention — As part of the onboarding procedure for new players, they have some social activities after training to help create a welcoming atmosphere and overcome any initial uncertainties. Building a supportive female network increases the chances that a player will stay in the association. Social activities help to create and establish networks.
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Recruiter Training - getting the most out of your recruitment efforts — A key objective for many associations is to grow; to grow, you need to recruit. Basic training can equip recruiters with simple skills to encourage new players to join. It also allows potential players to get a glance at the sport and what the community is like.
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Have a recruiting strategy — Set a SMART goal, create a plan to achieve it, reserve resources and keep the focus on your primary target.
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Have a welcome plan for new players — After all your efforts recruiting new athletes, it is crucial to have a plan for them as well as clear responsibilities, so that they feel included, when new players come into the training.
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Let respected figures introduce coaches — When a respected figure introduces or praises the competencies of a coach or athlete, they pass on the part of their authority to that person, directly influencing the perception the audience has of them.
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Focus on recruiting women matching players to grow your community — Women's sports are shown to grow much faster than established men's ones. So by investing in the recruitment of women matching players, you invest in the quick and sustainable growth of your club or association and contribute to community efforts to make Ultimate more gender equitable.
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Show the competitive side of the sport especially for women matching athletes — Presenting how women-matching athletes play sports helps break stereotypes and allows young women matching athletes to approach these sports.
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Benefits of Mixed Ultimate for young athletes — Recruiting in schools and after school programmes can be a great way to introduce ultimate to young athletes. Since the physical differences between 14 year olds are negligible, Mixed Ultimate helps create an equitable and respectful atmosphere when they get older.