Member Article

Club Development High on the Agenda for Snowsport Scotland

As the hugely successful Aberdeen Snowsports Club celebrates its 60th anniversary, National Governing Body – Snowsport Scotland – is making bold moves to help and support club development as part of a larger strategy to increase the popularity of snowsports in Scotland as a whole.

Through the provision of funding from sportscotland, Snowsport Scotland’s Club Development Team are working hard to assist with club development in any way possible with a range of tools on offer including an all new Event Crew Development Programme which is designed to develop volunteers so that they can assist at a variety of different competitions in various different roles. The team is also working hard behind the scenes to provide access to different event resources, assist clubs in running their own events, access coaching resources such as the Athlete Tracker System, as well as providing information on funding resources such as sportscotland’s Direct Club Investment funding.

A club which has been particularly successful, and is Scotland’s largest club, is that of Aberdeen Snowsports Club. The club has celebrated its 60th anniversary this season and is extremely proud of what its members have achieved in that time.

Bob Gentle, from Aberdeen Snowsports Club said, “Being Scotland’s largest snowsports club comes with a lot of responsibility, particularly as other clubs look to you for inspiration. Our aim is to be a change agent, a disruptive element and a catalyst for growth. Our landmark year led us to spend some valuable time examining who we are, what we do and what the clubs purpose is, this has fired us with a new sense of mission which now drives our work.”

“We’ve shaken up the club structure and delegated a lot of authority to provide new tasks to specific groups which includes skills development, competitions, fundraising, communications and many others. Our new ‘Mat to Mountain’ philosophy has led us to provide a new Resort Leader Qualification to broaden the support offered to members on the mountain. At 60 years – we’re just getting warmed up”.

Other stand out successful clubs under the Snowsport Scotland regime includes Scottish Ski Club, Lothian Ski Racing and Cairngorm Ski Club. The success of these clubs is down to the hard work, enthusiasm and persistence of their volunteers and the Snowsport Scotland Development Team plan to work with all of these clubs in the coming months to help increase their successful programmes and subsequently their membership.

The popularity of freestyle recently with high level success may give rise to increased participation outside the traditional formal club structure. Another area of success includes facilities running their own programmes and clubs, for example, Newmilns Freestyle, Hillend Freestyle, Snow Factor’s Project Fridays, giving people a regular opportunity to participate in Freestyle ‘club’ type activities.

Jane Campbell Morrison, CEO of Snowsport Scotland commented, “Our clubs are doing a fantastic job of providing a consistent delivery of activity and adapting to change in a positive manner – this success is mainly down to our long serving volunteers, a strong passion for snowsports and a recognition of the many forms that snowsports comes in – without any of these our clubs could not continue. Snowsport Scotland plan to sustain this existing success through the provision of high level support provided by our Club Development Team, and the continued relationship with sportscotland to help us access their funding for sport development”

For any clubs interested in taking advantage of the services that Snowsport Scotland provides please get in touch with the Club Development Team of which contact details can be found on the organisations website.

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