QUESTIONS

ANSWERS

What does “no protection given” mean on a tournament entry form?

Do you have answers to these questions?

Some questions for croquet Victoria and the clubs perhaps.

Does anyone have any information on the full results of the 2010 and 2011 ISS events ?

Does anyone have any old information on the Sandringham club pre the fire in the early 1980's ?

Does anyone or any of the clubs have old Victorian yearbooks especially the 1940's through to the 1960's ?

Answers to Martin Clarke -  ACA Historian (Croquet Australia)

Why aren’t Pennant matches scheduled for weekend play?

By playing pennant matches on the weekend students and working members would be able to participate. This would encourage stronger teams and keener completion between clubs.

Look at the success that sports like Bowls have with their pennant teams playing on the weekends.

Would rescheduling an annual pennant encourage club members who work through the week to participate in pennant competition if it was conducted at weekends?

What are your thoughts?  

You can see the 20 responses thus far when the question was posted to the Croquet Victoria Facebook page on 29 May 2023.

Facebook

 Just click on the link above and scroll to 29 May 2023.

Insurance Query  - What does the VCA cover?

I see that our insurance issued by the VCA from Regional Insurance Brokers covers "members, prospective members, temporary members and voluntary workers". What is the definition of a 'temporary member'?  Does this insurance cover 'guests'?  From time to time we have friends and relatives of members such as grandchildren, visiting siblings etc. who come and play with us on an irregular basis.  Are these people covered by this insurance?    

 Also, what about members who we might pay to undertake some maintenance from time to time.  Are they covered by insurance whilst undertaking this paid maintenance?

All visitors (friends, relatives, grandchildren) are covered for public liability. Insurance covers guests. If children in attendance members should have WWCC’s.

If someone is undertaking paid maintenance (ie not voluntary workers) they should have their own ABN and their own insurance. 

Research about temporary members (not a category of membership I have come across in croquet) eg:

Temporary Membership | Archery Australia

It appears that some clubs grant ‘temporary member’ so that whilst that tradie or visitor is on the premises they are covered by public liability. 

Not aware that any of our clubs do this.

Maurice Cevaal-Hewitt Interim Secretary

Advantage Rules? 

Our club is interested in Advantage Croquet. We'd like to know
if other clubs have tried it and how they found it. 

Looking for help on this one.

Does your club play the Advantage Play version of golf croquet? Please let us know if you prefer (or otherwise) this format to ordinary handicap play.

Here are some links to the rules:

https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=games/golf/advantage

Golf Croquet Advantage Play

Send your feedback to handicapsgc@croquetvic.asn.au

Accessing club survey

I'm responsible for updating the info about our club in the annual Club Survey, but I have no idea how to get into it. What do I need to do?

Start by going to your official club home page. You can find a link to it on https://croquetvic.asn.au/contact.php

Towards the bottom of the club home page is a link to the Manage your club page that looks like this:

If you don't know your club password, and your predecessor isn't able to tell you, ask our Webmaster Gareth Bushill: webmaster@croquetvic.asn.au. (Not a live link - just copy and paste his address. It's an anti-spam strategy.)

When you get to Manage your club, you will see a link something like this: 

Club survey - question about visitors

I'm updating the data about my club in the Annual Club Survey. Who should I count when I'm answering the question about visitors to the club? Does it include pennant players? Associate members? School groups?

Only non-members. We are trying to get a handle on how many people play croquet in addition to affiliated members. You can count every child in a school group, and their teacher if the teacher had a go. 

Croquet Australia grant for recruitment

I've heard that at the end of this year (2023) Croquet Australia is going to pay affiliated clubs $50 per head for increases in their net membership since 1 January 2022. How do I find out what our club membership was on 1 January 2022?

This information has just been added to the Manage Club Membership section of your Manage your club page. 

Note that the grant will be paid on the basis of a net increase in members, not per new member. 

Referee allowances for Lefel Shield (GC regionals)

Do referees at the Golf Croquet Regionals qualify for lunch money and travel / accommodation allowances?

Yes. Claim forms are available on the Resources section of this website - see https://croquetvic.asn.au/links.php. 

Lunch money is available for all three days of the 2023 competition - including the Friday, when play started at 2 pm. 

Referees are being contacted to advise them of this. 

Membership management systems 

From: Philip DeAraugo 

Good morning

I am a member of Bendigo Croquet Club and I was just wondering if Croquet Vic are familiar with any membership management systems that other clubs use and can recommend (or at least we can chat to about their experience).

At our club everything is done manually, but it would be good to get things a bit more organised and I was wondering if you’ve come across a good system.

If you have, please let me know, if not I’ll continue to google it!

Thanks

Phil DeAraugo

From Andrew Wootton (Brunswick)

I've been responsible for installing/running several membership management software packages over the years (not just for croquet). Generally we are looking for a cloud based membership database integrated with a website, email and event management and possibly an online store, with preferably a connection to banking.

Top of the pops would be Wild Apricot which is extremely comprehensive and can handle thousands of members but has gradually become more and more expensive and is now prohibitively so for a small croquet club.

Revsport is an Australian product which is somewhat limited but cheap (approx $100 per year for under 100 members).

You could probably set up something which had most of the required facilities using WordPress for nothing, but would need considerable IT expertise.

The ACA and Aust Croquet Academy have been working towards offering some sort of IT facility which may be comprehensive.  As far as I know the intention is for all the States to transfer to this and that it would also provide a system for individual clubs. I'm not sure how far this has progressed, but as a general principle it is good for everyone to use standardised approaches, so we should all probably hope to move to this eventually.

In the meantime the Revsport approach would suit Bendigo.

From Maurice Cevaal-Hewitt, Interim Secretary

The Victorian clubs' membership is collated on the Croquet Victoria website. We are not aware of our clubs using a separate online platform for their membership database but know that many other sports clubs do.

Here are a few sites used by other sports. Cost may be a factor.

Memberpoint - https://memberpoint.com.au/

Join It - https://joinit.com/categories/sports-clubs

Member Jungle - https://www.memberjungle.com.au/sportingclubs-membership-software

Other thoughts?