Developing a Badminton Team on Your Campus

Introduction
One of the goals of the IBA is to eventually see men's badminton and women's badminton recognized as official intercollegiate sports by the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA throughout the nation.  The development and growth of badminton club teams on campus is one way that we'll be able to achieve that goal.  We hope the information given below will help you establish and badminton club and team on your campus.  If you already have a badminton club on your campus, the ideas in this article should help you to improve and expand your club.

What Is a Sport Club?
A sport club (or club sport) is a group of students who voluntarily organize to further their common interests in an activity through participation and competition. The key to success of a sport club program is student leadership, interest, involvement, and participation. The sport club should be a learning experience for the members through their involvement in fund-raising, public relations, organization, administration, budgeting, and scheduling — as well as the development of skills in the sport. Sport clubs are formed through the recreational sports department of your school and span the sporting world from martial arts and fencing to soccer and, soon on your campus, badminton! Your badminton club will be formed, developed, governed, and administered by your student membership, along with the recreational department of your school. With this article, you will be able to maximize all of these areas for your club.

At this point, you may be wondering what the differences between a sport club and an intramural sport are:

• Intramural: within the walls or boundaries of the institution.

• Extramural: Intramural teams from one school play intramural teams from other schools

• Sport Clubs: recognized student organization on campus who compete against other sport clubs generally a higher level of competition.

Intramural sports form many teams on your campus that compete against each other over short time periods. For badminton, this is often in the form of tournament held during the fall and/or spring semester. Your badminton club will organize these very same students, the ones with an interest in badminton, and provide them with an all-year option to play. They will have the opportunity to practice together, play against each other, compete together against other schools in intercollegiate competition, and to socialize together! Clearly, forming a badminton club offers students advantages that intramurals cannot: year round play, organized practices, intercollegiate competition, social aspects, and the ability to adjust your program to your members' needs.

The one downfall is that badminton clubs have to pay for everything they do, whereas the school’s athletic department fully subsidizes varsity athletics. In short, your badminton club will fall somewhere on the spectrum between intramural and varsity athletics in both funding and skill levels. The beauty is that you and the members of your badminton club have the opportunity each and every day to create the program that is right for you and your campus!

Where Do I Begin?
The first stop on the road to becoming a recognized sport club at your school is your Recreational Sports department. Here, you will need to seek out the Director of Recreational Sports. This person is in charge of all recreational endeavors outside of varsity athletics, including sport clubs. Depending on the size of your school, however, you may be directed to someone else in the department who deals specifically with sport clubs. Either way, these are very important people for you to become acquainted with. They will have information tailored to your school regarding the process of becoming a recognized sport club and you will deal with them on a weekly, if not daily, basis throughout the year. Share with them your vision of creating a badminton club on campus, and ask them what you need to do to make that happen.

Another person in the recreational sports department that you may want to talk to is the Director of Intramural Sports. This person is in charge of all intramural sports activities on your campus, from flag football to the weekend badminton tournament. The Director of Intramural Sports should have a list of students who have recently participated in an intramural badminton event that you can use as your starting list for interested people on your campus.

Other Students
Of all of the people that you will meet, your own student population is the most important. They are the ones who will become members of your badminton club, the ones who will help you run the team behind the scenes, and the ones that will become your friends and teammates on campus! Another invaluable resource among your peers are the leaders of other organizations on your campus. Talk to your Recreational Sports Director and obtain a list of other sport club presidents (often their names and email addresses are listed on the Recreational Sports web site). Contacting some of them and setting up a short meeting would be a good idea. They are in the same position that you are, just with another sport. They will be able to help guide you in the right direction with the structure of your new badminton club, will have some valuable insight into the Recreational Sports department on your campus and how it functions, and will be able to answer many of the questions that will arise throughout this process. Last, you will want to establish strong relationships with the Student Government and Student Activities leadership groups on campus. These organizations are usually responsible for deciding how all of the money from the student fees that are built into your tuition gets distributed. Some of this money is for recreational sport endeavors, like your badminton club.

Not knowing these people and how these organizations operate could potentially cost your team thousands of dollars in missed funding! Find out who these people are on your campus and meet with them. You will most likely need to register your badminton club with the Student Activities council the semester before you request funding from them, and be prepared to submit a semester budget for your team as well. Make sure to attend some of their meetings, too; they can be great places to network with other campus leaders and will provide you with some great ideas about campus fundraising, promotion, and organization.

Apply to Be a Recognized Club
This is the most important paperwork step along the way. You need to officially apply to become a recognized sport club with your Recreational Sports department. Talk to the staff in your Recreational Sports department to get more information about this. They will have specific information tailored to your school — and perhaps your club. Every school is different when it comes to this process. At some schools you may simply have to fill out a form, while at others you may have to organize yourselves and function as a non-recognized badminton club for a year before you can become recognized. Often collegiate recreational sports departments give minimal funding to recognized sport clubs, and in some cases student leadership organizations may also have funds available for recognized sport clubs. Talk to your Recreational Sports Director for details at your school.

Website
Setting up a website is a very easy and efficient way to help organize your badminton club. It can be used to attract new members, update current members, keep members in touch with each other, keep statistics for the club, raise awareness of your sport club on campus and in your community, keep past members in touch with the club, etc. Things that you may want to include are a team roster, pictures, practice information, contact information, schedule, directions to your facility, etc. Setting up your website early on in this process will make life much easier on you. You will be able to advertise your team and distribute up-to-date and accurate information to interested people. If you do not know how to create a website, talk to your Recreational Sports Director or campus computing department and ask them to point you in the right direction. It is also very likely that once your badminton club is formed that there will be someone who will be versed with things of this nature that will be able to take on some of these responsibilities.

Informational Mass Meeting
The most efficient way to find and coordinate those students who are interested in joining your new badminton club is to organize an informational mass meeting.  Talk to your Recreational Sports Director for help with this. First, set a date for the informational meeting. Make sure to give yourself enough time to let people know about it and to organize the information that you want to distribute, but soon enough so you can get started quickly! Next, secure a large room (your turnout will be greater than you expect). Last, it is time to let people know about the meeting.  Start this process by contacting the people who played in your campus tournament (remember the list that your Intramural Director gave you?). Then, make posters and fliers and strategically place them in high traffic areas around your campus. Good places for this are the recreational sports building, near your badminton facility, in dormitories, on the ground on busy sidewalks, on busses and at bus stations, and on poles and walls near busy pedestrian crossings. You may also want to try chalking sidewalks, placing an advertisement in your school newspaper, or posting information on your website (both your badminton club's new website and the recreational sports website). On your posters, make sure to include the meeting day, time, and place, along with your contact information. Your Recreational Sports Director will be able to advise you on appropriate and acceptable means of promotion. At your informational meeting, you will be able to share your vision of a badminton club with your peers. After reading the rest of this article and doing a little bit of work, you will be able to explain when you will play, where you will play, how the club will be structured, what the costs are, what teams you will play, what fundraisers you will do to keep costs low for them, etc. Now that you have all of these people together, though, you need to get all of their contact information too keep them updated. Come prepared with plenty of paper and pencils and ask people to write their name, e-mail address, and phone numbers down. Voilà! You now have the tools necessary to distribute more information about your badminton club to a large group of people in a short amount of time.

E-mail Lists
Now that you have all of these e-mail addresses from people interested in joining your new badminton club, its time to create a team e-mail list. With the team e-mail list you will now be able to send an e-mail to the entire club with just a single e-mail address. Your school should have an easy step-by-step process that will direct you through the setup process. If you do not know how to create a group e-mail list, talk to your Recreational Sports Director or campus computing department and ask them for help. After you establish your club, it is a good idea to create a few other e-mail lists for different purposes. Create one for your club officers so that they may communicate easily amongst each other (see below for more information on officers). Create one for your club members after you get everything rolling to keep them up to date. Create one for interested students who are not yet in the club to keep them in the loop. Create one for alumni of your badminton club. After graduating they start making the big bucks and will want to give back to the program that gave so much to them! Finally, create one for parents, friends, and fans to keep them involved. Sending out directions to matches and match schedules are greatly appreciated by these people and, again, it helps create a larger badminton family and larger support base for your badminton club!

“Campus Days”
At the beginning of the academic year almost all colleges have organized events to introduce students to the range of extracurricular activities that await them. There are normally two specific kinds of events in this category, both of which you and your club will want to be a part of. First is National Recreational Sports Day. This celebration is put on by your college’s Recreational Sports department and showcases all sport clubs, intramural sports, and other recreational sport endeavors on campus. The second event is a school-wide event that is open to all student organizations. This includes sororities and fraternities, clubs, sport clubs, political groups, etc. Make certain that you are a part of these events! This is where many students will come looking for information about your new badminton club.  If you have a booth or table there are several things that you will want handy. First, create some kind of large sign or poster to attract people to your area. You may also want to have a few racquets and tennis balls lying on your table, too. You will then need fliers to pass out to people. If the event is before your mass meeting (which is a great scenario to have if you can coordinate it), then use the same fliers that you were posting around campus that have the meeting day, time, and place, along with your contact information.  Also, make sure to use this opportunity to obtain the interested students’ contact information.  Come prepared with paper and pen to take their names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. Now, you can add these names to your group e-mail list!

Governing Board
Your Recreational Sports Director or Club Sports Director should have a structure that you can follow to set up your badminton club’s governing board. If they do not have one available to give to you, the following is a standard structure that has been very successful in the past for numerous organizations. This structure and the duties of each position are outlined below:

• President. This is the most crucial position on the governing board. The elected president will be the liaison between the club and the Department of Recreational Sports, attend all required recreational sports meetings, inform club members of policies, procedures, expectations and regulations that must be followed, familiarize incoming officers with how the board runs, submit all paperwork to the appropriate people, arrange facility reservations, oversee the club’s financial obligations, make all travel arrangements for the club (rental vehicles, hotels, contacting other club teams, etc.), lead fundraising activities, lead communication efforts within the team and between the team and other parties, and generally oversee the duties of all other board members.

• Vice President. Will assist the president in all duties, namely travel arrangements, scheduling, fundraising, and communication.

• Treasurer. Keep up to date with the recreational sports program staff regarding the financial status of your club, keep current financial records, prepare a yearly budget, initiate and ensure that all club members assume responsibility for generating funds.

• Secretary. Keep accurate records of all meetings, make sure the club’s website is up to date, lead organization for team social events.

• Committees. Using committees effectively can greatly reduce the workload of your officers. Certain things that you may want to form committees for include away trips, social events, and fundraising

Advisor
It is very important that your club selects at least one advisor.  This should preferably be someone on campus (faculty or staff) who will be around for a while and can act as a liaison to the school and help provide continuity to the program.  Student-run programs tend to fade away; when the student who is driving the program leaves, there is no one left to carry on. 

Practices
Before any practices can begin you must secure a facility. Your Recreational Sports Director will be able to help you with this process. Do not be surprised if you end up having to hold your practices at odd hours. Also at this point, you should have a rough estimate regarding the number of members in your club. This is vital to reserve the right amount of courts: too many and you waste valuable court time for others, too few and people have to sit. To maximize everyone’s time on the court, plan on four people per court to start with. This means that it will be tight, but everyone will be able to play all of the time. Then you can either reserve more or less depending on how things are going. Some of the advantages to reserving more courts include room for singles play and room for drilling. Again, once you get into the groove of things, it will be easy to see what will work for your club. Your practice schedule will also depend on many things: the number of people you have in your club, the availability of the facility, and the availability of your members. One way that you can make it easy on your members is to offer two different practice sessions per week, of which they may attend one. For example, if you have 40 people on your team you could offer one practice on Monday night and one practice on Wednesday night. The team members could choose which one they would rather attend based on their schedules (classes, exams, other clubs, etc.). You will have to be ready to be flexible, as will the members of the club.  Your practice structure is yet another thing that you get to adapt to your club’s specific needs. Some people want to drill, some want to play singles, some want to play doubles, some want to play games. Again, it is very important to listen to your members and their needs. Make sure that they are happy with the badminton. It is the foundation of the club. Keep it simple and keep it fresh and you should have no problems.

Coaching
Searching for a coach can be a good idea, but is definitely not necessary. They can provide structure at practices and an authority figure when one is needed. They can also take care of some of the behind the scenes work of running the club, thus relieving you and your board of some duties. Many people see coaching sport club teams as a great way to strengthen their badminton experience and may be willing to volunteer their time; this situation can work well for both the coach and the team. Some good places to start looking for a volunteer coach are current players at your tennis facility, former badminton playing alumni, and former sport club members. Be sure to follow the guidelines set forth by the Recreational Sports Department on hiring sport club coaches. Many have guidelines/contracts coaches must adhere to. Be familiar with these before recruiting a coach.

Costs
There are numerous costs associated with the effective existence of a sport club badminton team. Among them are:

1) Recreational Sports Participation Fees - Your recreational sports department will likely charge each member of your sport club a nominal fee to be on the team and be associated with the school’s Recreational Sports department.  This is usually a one-time fee, sometimes annually, sometimes per semester.  Your recreational sports director will be able to tell you what this fee is, and once you know how many members you will have, you can budget the exact amount. 
2) Shuttles - Shuttles are an expense that your club will have to pay for on a regular basis.  The way that your club integrates new shuttles into your stockpile, the number of people you have on your team, and the number of matches you play will all affect how many shuttles you will need and thus how much money you will need to budget for them.
3) IBA Dues - If your team plans to play dual matches against other IBA member teams, compete in an IBA Regional Tournament and possibly the IBA National Championships, you must become a member of the IBA.  The annual dues for IBA membership is $50.00 per team per year (separate men's and women's teams).  The IBA membership dues are waived for each team's first year in the IBA.
4) Travel Expenses - Travel expenses for away matches are another large cost. Included here are rental vehicles, gas, hotel rooms, and flights (depending where you are in the country for the IBA Regional Tournaments and IBA National Championships).  This is the most difficult category to budget for. The easiest and most effective way to deal with travel expenses is to treat each trip individually.  Most often the entire team does not travel, so whatever the total costs for one away match are would be split by the people who attend and play in the match.
5) Uniforms - Uniforms are another cost that you and your club tennis team may incur. T-shirts are the least expensive route, though some of the newer athletic materials can be much nicer to play in. Depending on the shirt that you decide on, and if you also get matching shorts and skirts, this can be inexpensive or expensive. Make sure to get a feel for what your members want, and what they are willing to pay for. There are some different ways that you can turn this expense into a fundraiser, too. Listed below are some fundraising ideas.
 

Funding
Knowing all of the expenses is nice, but how are you to pay for it all? There are numerous sources of income for your badminton club. From free money to fundraising, the more avenues that your club pursues, the less expensive it will be for each member of your sport club. The primary way that your club will be funded is from member dues. These are the out-of-pocket expenses that your badminton club’s members must pay to be a part of the club. It is unlikely, though not impossible, to entirely subsidize your team’s costs through free money and fundraising. Again, maximizing these sources of income will keep costs down for everyone!  The first source of income for your club besides out-of-pocket expenses is your recreational sports department. Most recreational sports departments will budget a small amount of money for your club’s use. Sometimes this money can be used for anything your club needs. Most frequently, however, it may only be used for specific items such as court time and equipment. Make sure to check with your recreational sports director. Most recreational sports departments will require you to submit a budget proposal to secure funding. This is free money for your sport club, and should be renewable every year!  Another source of free money can be your student government. Many times student governments have application processes by which you can obtain either money that they have specifically set aside for sport clubs or money that they have set aside for any kind of student organization. Hopefully you have already been in touch with your student government leadership. Ask what you need to do to become eligible for this money. You will most likely have to already be a recognized sport club, but they will have the specifics for you.

Possible Financial Setups for Your Sport Club
There are numerous ways that you can set up your sport club to run financially. The way that you choose to do it will depend on the nature of your club, and this, of course, could change over time. Before discussing the setup, though, you will need to open a bank account for the club. Ask your recreational sports director for assistance with this as there may be university guidelines for university versus non-university accounts. Make sure to get your non-profit organization number from your recreational sports director and set up your account as such at the bank. As a non-profit organization you are eligible for the waiving of some fees along your path. Make sure to inquire about these at the bank, when you are making large purchases for your team (shuttles, uniforms, etc.), and when staying in hotels. Also, make sure to get the other board members’ names on the account so they can write checks, make deposits, etc. Now, back to the financial setup of your sport club. You will need to have your club’s members pay a certain amount of money (dependent upon your budget) to run the club.  When, how much, and how frequently you collect dues is up to you, and, of course, is dependent upon your budget. You could do it annually, per semester, per month, or per time participating. Again, this will depend on the nature of your club. The recommended method this is per month dues. Per month dues accomplish several things that the other methods lack. The only downside is that they must be collected more frequently than the annual- or per-semester methods. However, if you have a good treasurer this should be no problem. The per-month dues allow you and your club to adjust each month’s payment depending on how much money you have in the bank, how many matches you have scheduled, how many practices you have scheduled, if you need more shuttles, etc. It is very flexible! This flexibility will allow you to be much more accurate with your finances, never falling short and not collecting too much (this is where the other methods fail). Another financial obligation that you will have to contend with are matches, both home and away. It is very likely that your club will not be able to have each member participate in every match or go on every road trip. Therefore, the simplest and by far the easiest way to fairly deal with these costs are to treat them all as separate events. Financially separated from regularly scheduled practices, this allows those club members who participate in the event to fund it and does not force those who do not participate in it to pay for something that they are not partaking in. For home matches this cost would cover shuttles, refreshments, etc.  For away trips the costs would include transportation and lodging.

A possible four-month payment by a club member:

• September 1: $10 for club dues

• September 1: $8 for rec-sports participation fee

• September 4: $10 for club T-shirt/uniform

• October 1: $10 for club dues

• October 16: $80 for weekend away match

• November 1: $10 for club dues

• November 20: $15 for home match

• December 1: $5 for club dues (shortened practices because of the holiday season)

Fundraising
There are numerous ways that you and your sport club can fundraise to keep your club dues low. If you check with your recreational sports director, they should have a list of possible fundraising ideas that you can try from the simple carwash to alumni donations. Some of these will be better than others. Below are several of the most successful fundraising ideas that require minimal time and effort, yet yield the most money for your club.

• Grants. Check with your Recreational Sports Director, the United States Badminton Education Foundation, and the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association. There are grants out there waiting to be given to you and your club!

• Sell T-Shirts or Water Bottles. Make a T-shirt or water bottle with your school’s emblem (check with university trademark rights before using) and club name on it. Have these for sale on your team’s website, at all matches, and at all practices. Parents and friends of players will buy them, along with local fans of tennis. To generate funds at the beginning of the year, raise the first month’s club dues slightly and give every member a T-shirt or water bottle. This also advertises for your club!

• Sponsorships. Draft a letter and hand deliver them to the owners/managers of local businesses. If you form a partnership with a business, you can promote it on your website, on the back of your T-shirt, on your water bottles, or on a team banner in your badminton facility. Make sure to check with your recreational sports director for acceptable sponsorship businesses.

• Alumni Donations. Find badminton-playing alumni to help fund your sport club. A nicely drafted letter with an invitation to watch a match or hit with your club would be nice. You could have space on your website to recognize them, too. Also, make sure to form contact lists for people who graduate from your club. In the future they will be able to give back to the sport club that gave them so much!

• Other Donations. There are many people who would like to give you and your badminton team money, you just have to find them. Parents of players, grandparents of players, friends of players, and other badminton players in the community are just a few examples. Be creative in how you ask for the donations. One idea is to recognize them on your website; have different levels of donations (under $25, $25-$50, $50 or more) and list people under their category of donation.

• Run a Tournament. You can run a tournament for those players on your campus that are not in your club, but still want to play under that format. This can raise money for your sport club, and will expose your club to other badminton players on your campus.

• Run a Badminton Marathon. Set up a mini-badminton court in a high traffic area on your campus. Have members of your sport club sign up for shifts to cover a 24-hour period. Make posters to advertise who you are, what you’re doing, and ask for donations for a specific cause (“Help send us to our Regional/National tournament!”). This also exposes your sport club to other students on campus.

Intercollegiate Competition
After your badminton club becomes established, one thing that you may want to look into is developing a team and playing intercollegiate dual matches and tournaments.  Dual matches can be as close as across town, or you can schedule them for long weekend road trips across the country. You could even plan a spring break trip and play dual matches against teams in warm weather climates!  Dual matches and tournaments offer great ways for your club members to compete and travel together. When you are scheduling home or away dual matches, keep your school’s academic schedule, football schedule, facility schedule, and members’ cost factors in mind that may impede on your plans. Team contact information for all IBA member teams is listed on the IBA Members page.

Extracurricular Activities
It is important to note that your new badminton team will offer much more than just badminton. There are an incredible number of fringe benefits to such a club. First, there are leadership opportunities. Your members run the team, filling board positions like President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. These are all fantastic learning positions that will lend great experience and look great on resumes upon graduation. It is also a place that can make a large college campus seem small. If your campus is enormous, your club badminton team will offer a smaller community for your members that all share the same passion: badminton! This leads into another aspect: friendship. Your badminton club is a great place to meet new people and make new friends while in college. You get to practice together, play together, socialize together, and will most likely take some of the same classes as some of your teammates. The badminton club can coordinate social events, too. Events like bowling, miniature golf, whirlyball, paintball, team dinners, professional sporting events, haunted houses, skiing, snowboarding, etc. are all fantastic “extras” that can be organized by your club. These provide your club with alternative ways to hang out and have a good time besides playing badminton. Other social events that club members will benefit from include get-togethers that people throw at their houses, meeting for coffee, and studying for exams. These lists are truly endless and are only limited by your imagination.

One last fringe benefit that must not go unmentioned is the opportunity to travel. Whether your badminton tennis travels across town to play another college, across the state to play a rival or an IBA Regional Tournament, or across the country to compete in the IBA National Championships, your members will have opportunities to see parts of the country they have not seen before. The benefits that come along with being a part of the club badminton team are second to none. In some ways it can be very much like a sorority or fraternity, except that it revolves around the wonderful sport of badminton.  Members will find best friends, roommates, study partners, and perhaps even romance within the club!