Components of an Operational Plan
The essential purpose of sport organisations is to provide a well-organised program of training, coaching and competition for members or customers. This requires a great deal of organisation of people, space and equipment which includes:
- Scheduling events or fixtures
- Organising people into teams (if team sport)
- Recruiting and appointing coaches and competition officials
- Preparing facilities, equipment and playing surfaces
- Allocating space and practice times due to space limitations of facilities
- Coordinating with other clubs and associations
However the ability of the sport manager to organise training, coaching and competition is also dependant on a number of difficult constraints: These constraints include:
- Financial constraints - the cost of providing a well-organised program must not be greater than the level of funding available.
- The availability of coaches depends on significant work to either recruit coaches from outside the organisation or develop coaches through internal coach education programs, or both.
- Facilities and equipment need to be appropriately maintained to ensure the safety and satisfaction of members/customers
- Competition schedules have to integrate with numerous other events and holidays. For example a sport club will need to integrate with the event calendars of regional, state and national bodies.
Therefore an operational plan has many components including:
- Calendar of events (or fixtures) for the whole year (or for the season)
- Team lists (if the sport is a team event)
- Facility use schedules (i.e. allocation of pitches, courts, or equipment to particular groups at particular times)
- Facility and equipment maintenance schedules (e.g. grass mowing, floor sweeping, line marking, equipment preparation and repair )
- Training events and programs for coaches, officials and event volunteers
- A budget that provides a realistic estimate of the total income
- Policy and procedure for ensuring the program runs smoothly (i.e. safety procedure, emergency management procedure, competition rules, code of ethics for all participants, discipline procedure, wet weather procedure, etc).