With the sailing season just around the corner, we encourage clubs to provide a Race Management Induction training day as an effective and efficient means to plan for fun, enjoyable, safe and efficient season of racing at your club. In providing a training day for your volunteers and workforce clubs can provide updates on important club policies and procedures, upskill your team, and allow your clubs management to set expectations within the larger context of the club’s goals, objectives, and operations.  

A Race Management Induction training day can also help to build a positive culture at your club, as the whole team get to know each other better and grow their social connection to each other and to the club itself.  

Race Management teams are important and help new participants and members at clubs connect when they first start racing, therefore it is important that they role model the behaviour and values set by your club and act as ambassadors of your club and the sport throughout the season. 

In addition to setting expectations and responsibilities, an induction training day should include training on how the Race Management team do their roles safely and what to do in the event of an emergency at your club, this training will assist your club with State work health safety requirements. 

A well delivered Race Management Induction training day can provide the opportunity to build rapport amongst the team, provide up-skilling and ongoing training to individuals, and provide the necessary tools and knowledge to deliver successful training opportunities throughout the season. As well as provide an opportunity to broaden the individuals ideas of what is possible for them to achieve in the officials space/pathway. A way to spark ideas in the individual, knowing that they can develop their skills and become any of the roles in officiating. 

Through mentoring and establishing a mentoring system your club can help your team get the experience by improving their current level of officiating knowledge, skills and judgment. 

Adopting an induction process and delivering training annually (at least) for your Race Management team, can have many benefits for the club, as well as for the Race Management team themselves.  

For clubs, an induction process can: 

• Contribute to a positive culture as it helps to create a sense of teamwork and social connection amongst the Race Management team. 
• Saves club leadership time, as the whole Race Management team can be informed at once rather than having to repeat information to every volunteer or staff member individually. 
• Helps the club to value its Race Management team. 
• Ensures operational efficiency and increases retention of sailors and members, as Race Management team have a full understanding of the club and their significant role within it. 
• Educates Race Management team on compliance with club race management policies and procedures, and safety matters. 
• Helps the club with State Work Health Safety, and child safeguarding requirements 
• Enhances club reputation by creating a professional impression and ensures that races are delivered to a high standard consistently throughout the season. 

The benefits of induction training for Race Management team individuals: 

• Helps new volunteers and workforce to settle into their role quicker. 
• Volunteers and workforce better understand their role, how it fits into the organisation and possibilities for any future roles. 
• Volunteers and workforce feel valued by being provided ongoing training to do their roles better. 
• Volunteers and workforce better understand club processes, race management policies and procedures and their role in creating a fun safe environment for participants and members. 
• The induction process helps establish effective communication with club leaders and other team members. 
• Volunteers and workforce increase their skills and knowledge by learning from others in a team environment. 
• Volunteers and workforce strengthen their social connections and enjoyment of their roles. 

What should a Race Management Induction training day include? 

Australian Sailing have developed an Race Management Induction training day pack for you to use, and to deliver your induction training day this season, the resources can be accessed via the participation hub and by following the links at the end of this article. The list of topics below is intended to assist you with some key items which you should cover, in addition there will also be specific topics relevant to your own club and environment that you may wish to include, 

• Club vision, culture, and values 
• Workplace health and safety 
• Club Race Management operating procedures and polices 
• Child safety 
• Responding to incidents and emergencies including entrapments 
• Acceptable use and storage of club resources (e.g., club boats) 
• Administration (e.g., availability, records of any current qualifications, duty rostering) 
• Introduction to key people within the club (e.g., committee members, Management) 
• How the Race Management team play a significant role in the club’s success 
• An opportunity to learn new skills or develop existing ones further 
• Setting of goals and expectations 

Whilst the above list represents some of the more formal aspects to an Induction training day and is essential, the opportunity for your club to bring the Race management team together as a whole at least annually, is a fantastic way to build and foster a team culture. The Race Management team do what they do, because they love sailing, the club environment, and the social connections it creates. 

Because of this, some social activities should also be included, for example, include an activity afloat at the conclusion of the formal part of the training day, or finish off with a social gathering like a BBQ put on by the club to thank the team for everything they do. 

We want to run an Induction training day for our Race Management Team what should we do? 

Once your club has decided that it will deliver a Race Management Induction training day this season, the next thing to do is to schedule the day at a suitable time that will fit with most people’s availability, and be delivered close enough to the start of the racing season so that the information presented on the day, remains fresh in the minds of your Race Management team once they start managing the bulk of the racing at your club this season. 

Next, begin to work out the key details and information you wish to communicate to your Race Management team using the prompts and resources linked in this article as a guide and by having a meeting with key members of your race management team. 

You can set up the induction training day as an event in your revSPORT portal so that your Race management team can register to attend, this will help you keep track of who has done the induction and help cater for numbers.  

Contact any key persons who should also be present on the day to ensure they will be available, e.g., your clubs Commodore, Flag Officers, Club Management, etc…   

Consider if there is someone from your local community that you could ask to present something of Interest on the day, for example does your club have a successful local Judge who may be able to provide an inspirational speech or Q&A session, a local Race Officer who is well respected by your team, or a guest speaker from your State maritime safety department.  

Lastly, ensure that all the equipment you need for the day will be available and in good service to use, and that you are prepared with what you will deliver and how during the day. Below is a sample schedule of how your day may run,  

The best way to ensure we deliver a quality participant experience is to deliver consistently, using best practice techniques to help the participant. Australian Sailing have created a suite of resources to assist you with delivering Race Management Induction training day, these resources contribute to great delivery and can be found here ready for you to adapt and use.  

Be at the heart of sailing clubs and competition by becoming an Australian Sailing Accredited Official. Officiating is a fun way to volunteer and contribute to the fair and safe running of sailing competition. More information on Officiating can be found here.

For further support on running a Race Management Volunteer induction training day contact your local Australian Sailing Club Support Officer: https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/