In March the Royal Yachting Association launched their new four year strategy outlining their aims and objectives for the next four years. The overarching vision of the strategy is:
"To be more tailored in everything we do in order to increase our relevance and value to members, affiliates and stakeholders".
The RYA want to achieve this through a combination of new policies and initiatives that target five key sectors of their operations: membership, performance, participation, training and support services.
After carefully reviewing the strategy we identified several familiar themes that we have encountered previously in our work with other sporting awarding bodies. In this document we will highlight and demonstrate the ways in which our software can help the RYA achieve the aims set out in their strategy.
Membership
The RYA want to provide a more tailored service to their members; be them volunteers, young people, industry affiliates or long-term customers. In order to provide a more personal service to your individual members you first need to understand them - this requires a shift to a more data-driven, analytical approach.
At tahdah our users are at the heart of our operations, we have focused on liberating the individual and giving them them the autonomy to control and share their personal data across multiple sports & recreational activities. This means that the data you collect about your members is detailed and current.
Another benefit of having deeper, data-driven insights into your membership is improved targeted communications. You can identify particular groups of members that you want to reach according to whatever filters you want.
For example; you could target members who have recently booked on a 'level 1' course with promotions for a 'level 2' course. You can also target people whose membership is about to expire. We have delivered substantial reductions in churn rate for our customers in part due to better targeted communications.
Our digital logbook, or DLOG, feature allows users to upload their own personal participation data to their account. This data can be used as evidence when trying to attain a new qualification or simply as a record of someone's personal journey through their sport. Users who are most active in uploading DLOG records can be placed on one of our leaderboards. Our customers have responded very positively to the digital logbook; the gamification of their sport drives increased engagement and when it is coupled with our mobile app it creates a powerful data recording tool.
For volunteers tahdah offers a platform that helps them organise their commitments, find new volunteering opportunities, record their participation and display verified records of any training they receive. Volunteers can be rewarded for their efforts through the tahdah system in the form of non-monetary gifts, discounted training opportunities and a spot on our volunteer leaderboards.
To help our users, including volunteers, manage their commitments we have also introduced a personal calendar that allows you to create custom reminders for important events, synchronise your availability with the organisations you currently volunteer for and ensure that you can plan your valuable volunteering time in an efficient way.
Performance
In regards to performance the RYA have signalled their intent to become the most successful boating organisation in the world. To achieve this they have concentrated on inspiring the next generation of participants, volunteers and coaches to take up their sport.
tahdah can assist the RYA in this area in two distinct ways. Firstly, by creating a network for their volunteers where they can promote themselves as available, find and share volunteering opportunities, network with fellow volunteers and be contacted by organisations requiring volunteer support.
Clubs, or other organisations, can search the volunteer network for specific volunteers with the skills or experience they require by using our range of search filters. They can then contact the volunteer directly to ascertain their availability.
The other way in which tahdah can help the RYA in terms of performance is with maintaining and supporting youth and junior development pathways.
Children under 14 are normally excluded from engaging with their sport online. However, we have developed the concept of 'parent accounts' to overcome this issue. This feature works by allowing a parent to create a limited account for their child which is attached to their login. They have control over their child's account and their data; including any participation data, awards or training they have.
This means that young people interested in boating can start their digital association and engagement with the sport much earlier and develop a long-lasting and fruitful relationship with the RYA. Every time they attend a training course or an RYA event they can log this activity as part of their verified profile.
Once they're 14 they can legally claim their account and all of the verified records, awards and participation data associated with it. They can then continue their sporting journey and develop their skills along a chosen development pathway this could lead to a career in coaching or as a professional athlete; this entire journey can be facilitated by tahdah.
Participation
The RYA seek to drive increased participation in their sports - especially from underrepresented groups.
tahdah can help you achieve this through providing a more engaging digital offering, improving your event organisation and promotion and using data analytics to inform new strategies that are targeted at recruiting more diverse participants.
As we have shown previously tahdah represents a sea change in the digital offering you provide to members. Our system is accessible on-the-go across a range of devices and is much more engaging; especially for new participants from younger demographics.
Creating and promoting events on tahdah couldn't be easier. You can create a custom event in a matter of minutes and send out event invites that target specific groups of members via email with a couple of clicks.
Training
tahdah is a powerful platform for training. We have built our system around the principles of verification and transparency to ensure that the people delivering training through our system are competent, current and complaint.
Every training provider is subject to rigorous, automated checks that ensure that they deliver the highest standard of training and comply with all of the latest safeguarding policies.
Training providers can keep up-to-date with their continual professional development (CPD) point requirements using tahdah. They can earn CPD points for attending events that you can create and promote and keep track of their current points total using our tracking software. All of this information is verified and dated and can be viewed by any candidates prior to booking on a course - giving them complete peace of mind that their instructor is of a high standard.
tahdah puts candidates at the heart of the system. We have tried to break down as many barriers to training as we can by making it as simple as possible to find and book yourself onto a course with the minimum of effort.
Our suite of targeted communications tools ensure that members are fully aware of the training opportunities available in their local area and that they appeal to them.
We have full E-learning functionality available so you can get creative with your training programmes and devise more engaging methods of teaching new members.
Support Services
In regards to support services, the RYA want to modernise the way they administer their sport and organisation so that they can maximise the impact of the funds they receive.
tahdah streamlines the backroom processes your admin staff complete on a day-to-day basis. Many of the time consuming responsibilities associated with the administration of your members are automated, freeing up staff resources and allowing them to concentrate on other areas of the organisation.
As previously mentioned, tahdah has a comprehensive range of data analytics tools that give you instant insights into any aspect of your organisation, membership or the wider sport.
Who uses tahdah?
Our system has been live since September 2015. In that time we have accumulated a lot of experience in dealing with a diverse range of awarding bodies; each with different challenges to overcome and unique needs to fulfill.
We have delivered an impressive ROI for our clients, with quantifiable results in the areas of increasing membership levels, reducing membership churn, boosting revenue from alternate sources and much more.
John Cousins, CEO of Mountain Training, describes the impact of tahdah on his organisation as follows:
"tahdah has been a key part of the success of our candidate management database. By taking time to understand our unique business needs they have delivered a quality piece of software that has revolutionised the way we work and engage with our candidates”.
