Joondalup United hosted its first Coaches & Committee Forum on Monday night at the Currambine Bar & Bistro.
The reason for such an event was to get the senior members of the club in one room to discuss all things JUFC past and present, to align everyone with what our club is about, and to set out our intentions for 2018 by highlighting how everyone can all help in achieving our goals.
The presentation delivered on the night addressed numerous areas within the club, including the committee structure and reporting lines, council issues and updates, the club ethos and culture, the partnership with Glasgow Celtic, all things social and fundraising, social media and its importance to a club like us, and rounding it out with the 2018 objectives off the field.
One main area discussed was the growth of the club. The past three seasons have been a bit of a blur for us, and it’s fair to say that the growth has caught us off guard a bit. As you can see via the below graph, it’s been rapid.
Newsletter
We are looking to roll out some new initiatives in 2018, with the junior newsletter being one example. This is an important communication piece within the club that will not only bridge the gap between all the junior teams, but between the junior and senior areas of the club as well. Stay tuned as there will be more info to come on this shortly.
Social and fundraising
As with every year, a major focus is on social and fundraising. We have the annual Family Fun Day this coming Sunday, the club raffle, the mid-season do and the end of season presentation nights.
There are four events that require lots of support, and we only have a few chances a year to get together as a club so we need to make the most of them. We’d love to see a massive increase in junior parents attending social functions and getting really involved in the club and once again bridging the gap between the two areas.
Vice President Peter Rustidge is driving these initiatives from the top down and more details will be available in the coming weeks, with the raffle prizes in particular guaranteed to appeal to everyone.
Social Media
We are one of the most progressive clubs in the social media space, and it has proven to be a very effective way to promote the club and its good news stores. We have the full support of both Football West and the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in terms of our philosophy and usage of the various platforms.
In the past 18 months, JUFC have jumped from 15th to 7th on the list of Perth clubs with the most Facebook likes (almost 2000). We have four accounts which cover all areas of the club, including the much loved mascot Joondalup Joe, and all members are encouraged to like and share posts to spread the word about JUFC and our various endeavours.
We also have Twitter and Instagram accounts which are used to interact with followers from across the globe. However, we need content to make them even better so if you have any good news stories and relevant photographs, we would love you to send the details through to media@jufc.com.au.
Our new website, www.jufc.com.au, was launched in recent months and looks fantastic. We have built the JUFC brand to the point where our acronym is instantly recognised in the football community and beyond. It is something to be proud of and we are keen for it stretch far and wide in the coming years.
A huge thanks to everyone who gave up their time to attend Monday night’s forum, it was great to have so many people in the room who care about JUFC.
The challenge now is to get the message out there to the rest of our 600 members but with everybody pitching in, we can make keep building on the great foundations that have been laid over the past 18 years.
Regards,
Stephen Martin
JUFC President