ULSTER GAA: Find your club compás

THE Club Compás Programme gives clubs a digital self-assessment tool to review their performance and get direction on how to address any operational shortcomings.

Each club receives a bespoke self-assessment report that scores their performance against best practice. This report also gives them advice on ‘what to do next’ and learning resources available to assist.

Once the self-assessment aspect of the programme is fully operational, clubs will have an option to submit applications to become accredited clubs and receive rewards in recognition of their commitment to good governance.

The Club Compás has been developed to:

– Encourage club planning by providing clubs with insights into their current performance and resources to guide action planning conversations among the club executive and sub-committees.

– Improve club governance standards by increasing awareness and adoption of the key rules, policies and tasks relevant to all clubs.

– Simplify volunteer workload by streamlining the information and documentation clubs are routinely asked to provide to counties, provinces, Central Council, and the GAA’s sister organisations.

– Support evidence-based decisions by gathering data on club performance to inform planning and resourcing decisions and helping clubs to benchmark their performance against other clubs.

– Reward clubs by giving them valuable rewards in recognition of their commitment to good governance.

Self-Assessment

Each club will be encouraged to review the Club Compás criteria at a specially convened club executive meeting and agree on responses.

The Club should then assign one club member with responsibility for completing the self-assessment via Foireann and sharing the Club’s Compás report with the executive for review at subsequent meetings.

It is envisaged that clubs can repeat the self-assessment as often as they wish; however, at least once per year. The accreditation process – once established – should be completed every three years.

Club Report

The Club Compás report scores a club’s performance against best practice and generates a club-specific report.

Upon completion of the self-assessment, each club gets a total club score to indicate how well they are performing relative to the maximum score of 100 per cent that is possible from the assessment. Each club also gets a score per each category of club administration.

As more assessments are completed, a statistically significant average score can be calculated, so that clubs know if they are above or below average when compared to clubs on a range of benchmarks. For example, all clubs; club type; club location; club membership numbers, etc.

Each club will receive suggested advice and resources for every criteria that they are not compliant with.

After considering the Club Compás report, a club executive might decide to take some corrective actions independently.

If they wish, however, it is envisaged that they will be able to request the services of a trained facilitator to meet with the executive to develop an action plan to address issues they have prioritised.