May 2019
Everyone wants a piece of Netball...
May was one of those months where I failed to have any sort of work-life balance, it was crazy busy - everyone wants a piece of Netball!
I’ve met so many new partners and have lots of exciting programmes in the pipeline including a new Active Colleges project in partnership with Chesterfield College, launching in September.
Corporate league launch
On 2 May the Derby corporate netball league launched, five businesses took part in the opening night:
Flint Bishop LLP
East Midlands Trains
Bates Weston
Cooper Parry
Smith Cooper
On Saturday 4 May I was invited to the closing East Midlands county tournament, which saw U13 and U15 athletes from Derbyshire, Notts, Nhants, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire come together at SOAR Valley in Leicestershire. It was a great opportunity to catch up with the Performance TSG’s from Derbyshire and Notts and of course watch some brilliant netball.
With a Walking Netball festival coming up next month, I squeezed in a couple more visits to Walking Netball groups - promoting the festival to Hosts and talking to participants/answering questions about the event. This is really important, particularly when a group hasn’t attended a festival before as they can find the idea quite overwhelming. Nothing a chat over coffee and cake can’t solve though!
New Netball Youth Camp
After speaking to a local netball club, I decided to pilot a Netball Youth Camp (NYC) in a new area of Derbyshire in May half-term so I spent the following 2 weekends visiting junior training sessions and junior league competitions armed with NYC postcards increasing awareness of the new, local opportunity. Generally I found talking to and (trying) to inspire the girls way more effective than talking to parents. I also challenged some of our amazing young volunteers in Derbyshire to promote the opportunity to their schools/clubs. The NYC went really well and the girls were in awe of our Vitality Roses SPOTY Team of the Year 2018 trophy!
After a busy couple of weeks I needed to find some admin time. I made a new template to log all my EN programmes and to help me keep on top of M&E. So far it’s proving to be an effective organisational tool!
I had 2 new WI Walking Netball sessions launch this month in Derbyshire - Duffield WI and Swadlincote WI. Loughborough University attended the launch of Swadlincote WI and a record breaking 50 ladies walked through the door to complete baseline physiological tests and then took part in their very first Walking Netball session.
It was another working weekend, presenting awards at the closing North Derbyshire Junior League tournament - but this was another not-to-be-missed opportunity to catch up with volunteers from across the county whilst everyone was very rarely in one place! Who doesn’t enjoy a day watching over 200 girls playing the sport they love with massive smiles on their face.
Just because this month wasn’t already a crazy one, it was time to launch Walking Netball in Beeston (Notts). Chilwell Memorial Institute have been a fantastic partner and really worked hard to promote the new opportunity throughout the community. The sun shined and everyone had a great afternoon.
“I would like to congratulate you on leading such an inspiring and joyous session. This was undoubtedly one of the best things we have done. It was great to see new folks come together and have a great time.”
Netball is always the winner.
May key targets summary
Engaged 169 participants (132 new to netball)
£816.00 income surplus
2019/20 total to date: 304 participants (206 new to netball) and £2013 income surplus
