Social events are a crucial part of a club’s culture. Having a strong social event calendar allows members to be more involved in the club and build relationships. Many people join clubs for a sense of inclusion and belonging and social events assist in the retention of your members. By creating a fun, inclusive culture in the club, members will be more willing to help out when needed.

To run a successful event, consider the following basics:

1. Define the purpose of the event – What are the goals and objectives of the event. Is it to acknowledge sponsors, welcome back past players, raise funds, community involvement or awareness, getting members involved in club activities etc.?
2. Be organised – Make sure the event is well organised before it starts. This allows you to be free to deal with anything that may come up during the event.
3. Strong Planning – While you need to be organised, make sure you have planned for all outcomes so that the event runs smoothly e.g., enough toilets, have correct licences, enough food and drinks, rubbish bins, entertainment (e.g., music), security, cleaning.
4. Support – Make sure you engage volunteers to help plan, prepare and run your event. Ensure all volunteers have documentation which clearly outlines their roles and responsibilities for the event. Also consider the option of having paid staff to support the volunteers. It is easier to manage paid staff than volunteers who are also enjoying the event.
5. Budget – Make sure you have prepared a detailed budget so that the club knows exactly what the cost of the event is and what revenue needs to be generated to cover these costs.
6. Be creative – Get feedback from the members on what kind of event they would enjoy. Get creative in your marketing and running of the event.
7. Have a plan B - The club needs to have an option if the original location is not available. This may include rain on an outdoor event or a power failure in an indoor event. You do not want to have to refund participation fees as most of your costs will be non-refundable.
8. Market your event – To ensure you maximise attendance, make sure the club markets the event with all available types of media e.g. email current members, supporters and old boys/girls. Setup a Facebook event. Put the event up on your website. Advertise at home games leading up to the event.
9. Pay attention to service at the event – Be friendly to participants, speakers and partners. Look for issues that may be occurring during the event and try to solve them immediately to meet their expectations of the event. People will always remember how they were treated.
10. Get feedback – at the end of the event, try and get as much feedback from the participants as possible. Maybe send out via email a survey of the event to get their views, good or bad. This will assist the club in future events.

See below examples of events that can be held by the club. Each club is different, so events should be tailored to your club. The principles for events are the same, your club needs to work out what would work best for you. The club may set up a separate sub-committee for events. Make sure you get the players on this committee and involved in the planning of the events. Put events on that THEY want, not just what the committee wants.

This might be held during a preseason trial game at the clubs clubhouse or sponsors pub. It is a great way to get returning players to turn up to a trial game and also introduce all the new players to their first social event at their new club and help them field included.

This day is an opportunity to show to your local community that your club supports and promotes women involvement in your club. The day should be focused on the ladies and promote your women’s rugby team if you have one. Consider getting a women’s-based charity involved in the day for fundraising and awareness (e.g., The Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation). Ensure that you invite any female politicians (Local/State/Federal) to your event. The event promotes your inclusiveness/diversity in the community and may also raise substantial income for both the charity and the rugby club.

A rugby season goes for a considerable amount of time from preseason to finals. To keep the enthusiasm of the players going, mark the half-way mark of the season with an event at your home ground.

One of the great rugby social events has always been an away game bus trip. Clubs usually organise this event against an opponent who is situated the furthest away from their home club. If you plan to have the bus make stops along the way, make the itinerary available so that participants can make appropriate plans. Due to the kick-off times of all grades and colts, consider only have the bus trip returning from the home ground at the end of the final game. Players can usually organise lifts with teammates in the same grade/colts who will not be participating in the return bus trip. This will also reduce the cost of the event for the club.

The profitability of your club depends on the generosity of your sponsors and donors. Because of the difficulty in finding these supporters, it is very important to keep them year after year and ensure they have sense of belonging at the club. Let the club show their appreciation to the sponsors/donors by having a home game dedicated to them and treat them to a great day out at THEIR club. Try reaching out to international players/coaches to see if you can get some celebrity guests to attend. Everyone loves a selfie with a celebrity. Rugby Australia and your state rugby association may assist with organising this.

For most rugby clubs, the supporter’s lunch is a great way to raise funds for your club. This supporter’s lunch involves players, coaches, managers, committee, volunteers, former players, sponsors and supporters within the club’s community coming together to support their club. Money is raised through ticket sales, auctions (public and silent) raffle prizes, lunch games (e.g., heads/tails) and lucky door prizes. The secret to success for these lunches is the entertainment. It is very important that you get the right speakers and MC to entertain the crowd for the entire lunch and allow sufficient time for the attendees to catchup with each other.

Another large part of a club’s financial backing should be connected to a well-established and organized Alumni network. These “Past Players” have mostly advanced their careers and maybe in a situation where they now are able to financially assist the club they spent memorable times socialising and playing for. Maybe consider combining your Friday supporters lunch with the Saturday “Back to …..” Day, making it an “Alumni” weekend. These days are also a great opportunity for the club to source additional sponsorship or donations for the club.

When the season is done, it is important to have a farewell to the season at your last home game. Making the finals or not, focus on the positives within the club and reinforce the culture of the club and its members (players, coaches, managers, committee and volunteers).

If you are fortunate enough to have one or more teams in the finals the club should get together to support the team/teams in the grand final, regardless of what grade they are. It is very important to instill in the club that it does not matter if it is 1st grade or 5th grade, Colts 1 or Colts 3 in the grand final, the club will still come together and support their club mates. Organise a bus/buses from your home ground to the grand final ground.

One of the most important nights for the club. This gives the club an opportunity to thank everyone who played for the club but also everyone who was involved in the running of the club for that year. Awards should be given out to players, coaches, managers and volunteers.

Also, encourage attendees to invite their partners and sponsors to the event.