Our Irish players managed a fine haul of medals at the Nordic Junior Open – Denis Gilevskiy won the Gold in the U15’s, Conor Moran won Gold in the U17’s, with Alex Smith  getting a silver in the U15’s and Sam Buckley a silver in the U17’s.  Sean Murphy got Silver in U13’s  and Scott Gillanders taking Bronze in the U19’s event, so 6 medals in total which was superb. Well done to all the players.

Well done to all the other Irish players. There were 24 Irish players playing in the Open, who all will have gained valuable experience at this event.

Again Ireland has shown that we are continuing to produce players to compete and win at the highest level of European Squash with a total of 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal in the boys U19/17/15/13. The finals of the U17&15’s were all Irish affairs.

A great start to the ESF Super Series season!!

New members often find it hard to maintain that same level of motivation that they signed up with. They can get overwhelmed by the environment and they stop coming. Connections are a great way to get commitment from our members. Connections are our retention glue. Every member is part of this connection process that keeps a member coming to the club and in return we must all take individual responsibility for someone who stops coming.

The following connection and retention scale can help explain this process. It runs from negative five all the way up to positive ten. A negative five is where people don’t enjoy squash. Positive ten is where people work within squash and absolutely love it. A zero is where someone is starting to contemplate trying squash and a five is where they are looking to join as a member.

The journey from negative five to zero and how long it takes is based on experiences. A positive experience with squash moves someone up, while a negative experience moves them back down. When someone makes it to plus one, this is where they have started playing squash. The journey from plus one to plus five is again based on experiences. It is during this ‘In/Out’ phase where a lot of members can be lost before they have firmly established themselves within the club. Plus five to plus ten is where someone is heavily involved in the club, they are starting to refer their friends and they have become advocates for the game.

How to leverage this:

For best effect, it takes multiple connections to move someone along the membership scale. However, we know that people can move down the scale for several reasons:

• They may feel no one cares about them and whether they play or not
• They haven’t made a deep commitment to the sport or club yet
• They just don’t feel comfortable in the squash environment

The secret to moving more of your members up the scale is helping them to form connections – which is a great way to get commitment from your members. As a club, you’ll need to be inclusive of everyone and influence them to form connections with each other. The more members your club has, the more opportunities for connections to take place. Also, the more positive members your club has, the more likely that this enthusiasm will rub off onto new members – which creates an upward spiral effect and builds a community.

Renewals are a sign of member satisfaction. Those that renew are happy with what they are getting from being a member. Those that don’t are in search of more. There will always be members who fall into one of the following:

• Moved – have changed email or postal address and have not advised you.
• Busy – have forgotten about renewing and haven’t had time to get to it.
• Undecided – have not gotten what they wanted from their membership and are unsure.
• Dissatisfied – have had negative experiences with your club and are not going to renew.

To maximise the likelihood of retaining your members each year you should have a number of ways to renew – telephone, email, post, internet or in person. Allowing your members to pay by direct credit will increase your retention rate as the person has to take action in order to not renew.

Tips for sending out renewal notices

• Ensure your database is up to date prior to renewal time.
• Consider segmenting your renewal forms based on your membership categories. This way you can remind people of the value that their membership provides them with.
• Use a simple mailer with as much information pre-filled out as possible.

Start sending out renewal notices three months before the membership lapses.
For example:
1 April: Renewal notice “Renew now for your membership discount”
1 May: Reminder notice “Don’t forget your membership is due”
1 June: Urgent reminder “Have we done something wrong?”
1 July: Resigned notice “Your membership has lapsed, contact us right away to have this reinstated”

Remember: if the member doesn’t renew it is a good idea to find out why and follow up with them at a later date. For many, the decision to renew or not to renew is made before renewal time based on their experience throughout the year. It is better to be proactive rather than reactive!

How you induct a new member is absolutely crucial to the long-term success not only of that member, but also of your club. Too often, clubs stop once the member has signed up and then assume the member will be okay if left to their own devices. What happens? They leave. This is where the new member needs support to get started.

Work the member through the key stages of new member induction:

• Accountability – make the new member accountable to someone who will notice if they’re coming to the club or not
• Frequency – help the new member set realistic participation targets and gradually develop regular playing habits over time
• Intensity – once they’ve got into a healthy routine you can then focus on challenging members appropriately

To prevent your new member from leaving you need to create a club culture (as a result of repeat behavior patterns) where your members actually want new members to fall in love with squash. This means your focus should be shifted away from the sign-up and towards building relationships – because relationships are what keeps members loyal, happy and playing regularly.

Understand why
It’s important to understand why the new member is joining. What has been the tipping point – the event – that has caused this sudden determination to act?

Personal welcome
Your club may like to send a welcome email with great ways to start at squash (e.g. technique tips videos, welcome pack, club information etc.) full of advice for the new member.

Help the member start well
Encourage the new member to take one step at a time. Help build relationships between members while giving them the skills they need to grow in confidence – so they feel good about the experience rather than being put off forever.

Build communities
Once you’ve got them in the door you need a group of people to take the member journey from here.

If you do everything you can to help new members develop friendships within the club, this will not only make the experience more fun – and therefore something they’re more likely to repeat – but it will make their squash journey last a lot longer

The 2018 IRISH JUNIOR OPEN will take place from the 22nd – 24th of November. Once again the Open will be held at the super facilities of Sutton LTC & Aer Lingus Squash Club (ALSAA). There are 5 modern squash courts in Sutton and 4 in ALSAA and there will be some great squash on offer for the spectators. 

ENTRY FORM (Irish Players only)

ENTRY FORM (Non Irish Players)