Founded in 2009, the Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club (PSKC) is a thriving sports community on the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh. The club focuses on sailing and kayaking, and also incorporates coastal rowing. With 360 members divided among six groups, the club needed an efficient solution for managing its diverse activities. To tackle these challenges, PSKC adopted Spond as their club app, transforming how they organise events and engage with members.
Moving to a Unified Platform
Before adopting Spond, each sporting group within the club operated independently, using separate systems for communication and organising activities. The rowers were the first to implement Spond, followed by the kayaking and sailing sections. Eventually, the club recognised the need to consolidate all sports into one comprehensive platform.
Richard Hope, the Membership Secretary, managed the migration to Spond Club in 2024, ensuring a seamless transition that unified all sporting activities. He noted, “Our aim was to try and integrate the three different groups into one club, both in terms of administration and the psychology of the members. Spond has really helped us to achieve this.”
Simplified Event Management and Communication
With Spond’s centralised system, organising events is now streamlined, and signing up for them is straightforward. Coaches and admins can easily plan activities through the sailing club app, while members can RSVP and pay their fees with a few clicks. Spond also provides a unified messaging platform, which has strengthened the sense of community across sports.
Richard highlighted, “There’s less need to cross-check a different messaging system. Notifications keep everyone up-to-date, while the intuitive interface makes managing and joining events effortless.”
Saving Time and Building Community
Adopting Spond required an initial time investment, but Richard believes this effort will yield substantial time savings for the committee and coaches over the next year. They expect to save hours of administrative work each month, freeing up time to focus on enhancing the member experience.
The convenience of integrated messaging, payment collection, and file storage eliminates the need to cross-reference data from different systems. Moreover, members and coaches appreciate the intuitive events and messaging features, while the notification system ensures no one misses important updates.
A Sound Decision
The decision to adopt Spond as their sailing club app has brought Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club together in a more organised and efficient way. The club now manages its members, events, and communication effortlessly from a single platform, fostering a stronger sense of community and streamlining administrative tasks. “It’s a great product,” Richard affirmed. “Members like the app and the admins love Spond Club.”
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