How a league runs club affiliation each season

01What a club sends each season

Each league sets its own rules in its by-laws, but most ask every club for the same things before the season starts:

• The annual return: the club's office bearers and contacts, and the teams it is entering in each grade.
• The affiliation fee: often a set amount per club, plus an amount per team.
• The paperwork the by-laws name: commonly the club's current certificate of currency for its insurance, and its child safety declarations.

Most of a club's return is the same as last year's, with a new secretary here or an extra junior team there. Starting from last year's return saves every club from typing it all again.

02What the league checks

The league secretary reads each return when it is lodged, then either accepts it or sends it back with a note saying what to fix. A club that has lodged is waiting on the league; a club that hasn't lodged yet is the one to chase. Keeping those two lists apart is most of the work in the weeks before round one.

03The fee

Many leagues invoice the fee once the return is accepted, and some add a late fee after a date set in their by-laws. However the league collects it, someone needs to record when each club's fee is paid, so that the treasurer and the secretary are looking at the same answer.

04The register of affiliated clubs

Once a club's return is accepted and its fee is paid, it goes on the season's register of affiliated clubs: who is affiliated, and since when. The register is what a league shows its governing body, its insurer or its AGM.

app.perchhq.com.au

05Every club on one page

The question a league secretary is asked most in pre-season is "where are we up to?". The answer is one line per club: return lodged or not, fee paid or not, paperwork in or not, insurance current or not, child safety declared or not. With that page, the secretary can see who to chase and why, without opening every email.

06How Perch HQ runs it

In Perch HQ, the league opens the season's affiliation once, with its due date, its fee per club and per team, the grades, and any paperwork it wants signed. Every member club then gets a draft annual return carried forward from its last accepted one, updates it and lodges it in Perch HQ.

• The league accepts each return or sends it back with a note.
• The fee is recorded as it's paid, and the league collects it the way it already does.
• The register of affiliated clubs keeps itself current.
• The club-health board shows every club's return, fee, paperwork, insurance and child safety side by side, with the reason written beside each colour.

See it on the For leagues page, or book a demo to try it in our invented cricket district.

07Questions