There are thousands of free online tools to assist clubs to achieve their goals and carry out club activities. The difficult part is trying to work out what is useful and what to steer clear of.

 The important part of using online tools is not to be afraid. There is help everywhere. The internet is full of guides; you just need to search for them.

The best places to start are.

• Australian Sailing -Resource Page
• Google
• Youtube

Membership Management Systems 

Using a membership management system is one of the first ways technologies can assist you to reduce your club’s workload.

Sporting clubs exist to offer sporting participation options, so it is important to consider how your club participation is tracking. Not only does it provide you with a good understanding of the sporting side of your club but also focuses on upcoming sporting needs. It prompts clubs to question their past and plan for their furture; "If we have low numbers, then what is the committee going to do to increase them?" Conversely, if participation numbers appear to be high, membership management systems assist clubs to consider "do we have enough facilities to cater for everybody?"
 

revSPORT

revolutioniseSPORT is an online, cloud-based, end-to-end platform for sporting and community organisations. Everything in the platform is driven by your membership core—online registrations, finance and invoicing, events, and training—with additional administrative capabilities, such as recording incidents & injuries, tracking tasks, and managing meeting minutes and action items.

Learn more about revSPORT at this link. 

Club Admin Tools

There are a range of tools available online to assist clubs.

Meeting Tools

Often committee meetings struggle to get a quorum for various reasons. There are a range of online products to assist in getting everyone to join in. 

Uses: conduct meetings

Benefits: gives club members flexibility on how to use their time

Outcomes: less burn out, better capability to attract volunteers

File Sharing

Sometimes we need to share big files. The following applications allow you to do it online.

Photos Storage

Photos and graphics are a simple and effective way to display messages to your club audience. One of the most overlooked process is photo and image storage.

Uses: upload and organise club photos using cloud storage.

Benefits: photos are not kept on a volunteer’s computer and lost when they move on. Easily shareable.

Outcomes: a library of images from where you can create club history and build club culture and use on all forms of marketing collateral.

Graphic design

Canva and Gimp are great resources for producing resources in an easy, free and well-polished manner.

Uses: design posters, flyers, memes and other graphical elements

Benefits: don't need a degree to produce great graphic designs

Outcomes: professional looking communications

Volunteer Rosters

Many clubs rely on the support of their members to help their club run smoothly. Using an online volunteer roster system can assist to end the endless chains of emails or trying to find a person at the last min to fill a spot. There are plenty of systems that may assist:

• MySailing - details here
• Rosterfy - details here. 
• Find My Shift - details here
• revSPORT - details here 

Race Management Tools

Further details regarding race management tools can be found on the Australian Sailing Resources page - via this link.  Below is a selection of results and race management software providers that are used by clubs and event managers across the country:

sailingresults.net	Sailingresults provides software to assist in the management of large sailing regattas. The full system contains Sailing Results, Protests, Event Notices, Rule 42 Infringements, Requests for Information and Big Screen Displays
	Topyacht is the the largest provider of Race Management Software in Australia. Over 140 clubs, associations and events use the system, for various capacities from results processing for small volunteer clubs through to online entry solutions for the largest sailing events in the country. Contact: Rod McCubbin - support@topyacht.com.au
	ScoreIT is the premier online results system and continues to be used by clubs as well as internationally, by over 300 users all over the world! ScoreIT is free to use, however the system does cost to maintain. To enable ScoreIT to continue to be available online donations via PayPal are greatly accepted.
	SailSys is a complete online race management system, the only one to include the highest pedigree of PHS handicapping. Designed & developed by yachtsmen with decades of experience in major yacht racing, it is currently used by some of the clubs and events. Recently redesigned and upgraded, SailSys provides a simple and logical workflow while seamlessly handling multiple point-scores in a single series (series-in-series), to ensure that volunteers club administrators benefit from simpler, more cost effective race management.
	Regatta Toolbox has everything you need to run a modern regatta, whether it's a local event or a World Championship. See for yourself what organizers and class administrators all over the world are talking about. Contact: Graham Biehl  support@regattatoolbox.com
SailWave	Sailwave is a popular, fully-featured, easy-to-use, multi-lingual, sailing results/scoring application for Windows – running on other platforms via Windows emulation software. In addition to the help available on the website, friendly help and advice from hundreds of experienced Sailwave users and the authors are available from the Sailwave User Group. Flexible publishing tools allow results to be targeted to web browsers, blogs, websites, email, and sailing news sites. Sailwave is used internationally at all levels of the sport, from sailing club dinghy/yacht racing/regattas to regional and world championships and is supplied free of charge.
SailRes	SailRes has been used for race results by many clubs around Australia for over 10 years now. It was set up to simplify the job of club scorers by providing club and regatta results with a minimum of steps. The benefits are: No software required - any browser on any device will do, No updates to install... ever, Extremely simple user interface, Enter results on the water - all you need is an internet connected device, Fleet and divisional results and Results instantly available on the web - no uploading and no waiting.

Bouy Zone

Getting the right course planned and then communicating it with your support boats has always been harder and taken longer than it should have. Buoy Zone is the tool you have always wanted but never knew existed, until now.
Plan a 100% accurate course and once you're ready, share it with the support boats instantly via the Buoy Zone app for them to go and lay.

Online Learning and Resources

The Australian Sailing myLearning portal has a catalogue of free and useful online courses created by Australian Sailing and Play By The Rules that could benefit clubs, members, volunteers, administrators and instructors.

List of Australian Sailing specific e-learning courses:

• Instructor General Principles
• OutThere Sailing Instructor Induction
• OutThere Sailing Windsurfing Endorsement
• OutThere Sailing SUP Endorsement
• Sailing Coach General Principles
• Mark Laying Course
• Protest Committee Member - Judge Level1
• Tackers Online Induction
• Safety Code Induction

List of generic e-learning courses:

• COVID-19: What It Is, How to Prevent Spread
• Child Protection
• Complaint Handling
• Harassment & Discrimination
• Member Protection Information Officer
• Inclusive Coaching
• Ethics & Ethical Decision Making In Sport
• Introduction to the Integrity of Sport
• Let Kids be Kids
• Parent's Guide to Clean Sport
• Take Action to Prevent Violence Against Women
• Walking the Talk: Personal Practise & Organisational Integrity

Head to www.sailingresources.org.au/training/e-learning-courses to find out more