Questionnaire feedback for Parents
Many thanks for helping us with completing the Parents feedback form, we have now received 130 replies, and this is really useful, in knowing what to focus on.
We want to use the information to improve the experience for all at the club, and this information can help drive it.
Firwood Waterloo is a members club, it is generally run by volunteer members for the benefit of members, that is certainly the case for all board and committee members and M & J coaches.
Firstly, well done to all the coaches, the collective average score was 4.64 out of 5, which shows that most of you are pretty happy with them.
Below is a table of the average results across the club.
The replies do differ from age group to age group, and there are certainly trends in the data, this may come from the way your age group interacts with the club.
|
Question |
Results Average Score |
|
How would you rate your child's overall experience at Firwood Waterloo Rugby Club? |
4.57 |
|
Please rate your child's experience as part of a team, thinking about teamwork, friendships, and team spirit. |
4.67 |
|
Please rate the quality of coaching your child has received, focusing on RFU guidelines of player wellbeing, inclusivity, and promoting the games positive values. |
4.64 |
|
Do you feel your age grade adheres to the RFU 50% rule - all children are encouraged to attend all games and must be given a minimum of 50% game time for each game Do you feel you receive good value for money at Firwood Waterloo Rugby Club. Please think about similar services and sports your child may attend. |
103/130 - 70% 4.22 |
|
How likely would you be to recommend Firwood Waterloo? |
4.57 |
Here are some of the common issues raised by in the comments.
“Where does our Money go”
There were several suggestions that the M & J section was supporting 1st Team Mens rugby, and questions of where all the money goes, so here are some approximate figures that should add clarity.
The M & J section brought in approximately £40,000 in membership, including family memberships.
It brings in virtually no sponsorship that goes to the club, only to individual age groups.
The M & J sections has approximately £26000 + of direct expenses, the most significant are Sunday Morning food, Presentation evening, Hall Road & Litherland Hire, Equipment, Match Jerseys & Courses, your age group coaches have additional detail on this.
The remainder goes to help pay for the Rugby Club ground, and just to give you all an idea of how much that costs to run.
At year end 2024, according to figures from the club accounts, it costs £203,000 to operate the club per year, after removing M & J and Adult costs.
The M & J section is contributing about £14000, towards these costs, or about 7%, considering the M & J section have access for the whole of Sunday, we are not contributing 50% of the costs to run the club. The pitch maintenance alone is expected to cost up to £16,000 this summer.
As for the Adult Men’s section, they raise approx £37,000 in memberships, and £30,000 in sponsorship, this more than pays for their expenditure of £28000. This does not include the coaching budget, but the total spend will be far less than raised in sponsorship and adult membership.
At Firwood Waterloo all our Adult players are amateur, no payments, no match fees or even travelling expenses are paid, all players pay membership or they are not allowed to train or play, and they even pay for their own kit, unless a sponsor has been found.
The majority of the income approx £295,000, comes from bar sales (majority from 1st team home games), events (such as Fireworks), Bungalow rent, grants, and other miscellaneous incomes
This shows that in reality Adult rugby is supporting M & J, not the other way round.
New Kit every Year
Some have suggested that they should receive a new kit every year, here are the costs for playing kit
Junior size Adult Size (including VAT)
Shirt £28.50 £40.80
Shorts £19.00 £25.20
Socks £6.25 £8.70
Totals £53.75 £74.70
Assuming half our M & J members are in adult sizes, this would give a total cost of approximately £20,500 to give the whole section new kits every year. As you can see from the previous figures, this is just not possible, meaning the only way to give a new kit to everyone, every year, would be to increase membership fees by approximately 45%.
If, between all the sections in the M & J, we could raise £20,000+ in sponsorship and donations, for the club, we may be able to create an opportunity to purchase new kits every year, without this level of sponsorship, I don’t see it being possible, it may also be a better use of this money to upgrade equipment and M & J facilities rather than new kit every year.
So for the time being, kits in good condition will be passed down to younger age groups, with replacement kits for the age group with those in the worst condition.
Half game Rule
The 50% rule only seems to be applied sporadically with 30% parents saying it is not applied, there also seems to be squad selections for cup games.
The RFU is pretty clear on this, and Firwood Waterloo also supports the RFU stance, please see information here.
https://www.englandrugby.com/run/coaching/age-grade-rugby/half-game
All players should in the squad should get Half a game for All games, including cup games, there is no limit to squad sizes in Lancashire Cup Competitions
Facilities
It is clear our facilities are not as good as we would like, and often worse than the teams we play against, this is certainly not an easy fix, but we will try to make improvements where we can. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Club Events
Some parents suggested that they did not know about Club events, including missing the opportunity to buy tickets for the Fireworks, the Club does publicise these events on social media, so it would be good to encourage parents to follow social media channels, and we will try to inform all coaches of events, so you can share with your individual ages groups.
We are looking at ways to inform parents directly, and have created a whole M & J Whatsapp group that will just send club notifications.
It is an opt in group, if you want to join please follow this link
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KBBVmLzsPPR31kNa8iY6Tc
Or this QR code
If you have any questions, or want to discuss sponsorship opportunities, you can email on stuart.turner@waterloorugby.com , or on 07775947601
