The process and documents of the organization

It is a general rule that routinely organized training programmes and events are sooner or later to become boring and monotonous for active participants and also for spectators. The organizational work will have an influence on the general atmosphere of the event and also on the feelings of people who participate in it or of those, who watch it. Good organization is a motivating force and it is essential to arouse peopel’s interest in physical education and sports. This is why it is inevitable that well-prepared trainers obtain sports organizational knowledge and skills and put those efficiently into use. In the next section of this material the general tasks of the organization of sports events will be outlined, which can be utilized when organizing a variety of sports events.

In most cases this is a sports leader who commissions the organization of an event. Trainers are to prepare annual work plans and include these tasks in them.

a) Preparation

The gathering of information is the first step in performing any organizational task, since the organizer must see it clearly what exactly the task is and how much work is needed to perform it successfully.

In this process the following questions need to be considered:

What is the exact goal of the event? – It can be a professional, an economic or another goal including the establishment of professional relationships, returning a former  invitation, or the recruitment of competitors.

What kind of event is to be organized? Is it a competition, a match, a conference, a demontration, parents meeting or a training camp?

What is the size of the event? How many active participants are there? How many supporters are expected? How long will it last?

The timing of the event is important, too. What other events are there at the same time which might have an effect on the success of our sports event? It is also important to note that seasonality might also play a role; for example, do we need a cloak room?

The venue of the event: how many venues are there? Is it our own facility, or do we have to rent it? Is it an outdoor or an indoor space?

The participants (both the competitors and the supporters) are important, too. Both the needs of the competitors and of the supporters need to be considered along with the expected professionalism.

The range and quality of the services (accomodation, catering, leisure time, medical and information services) need to be taken care of.

The following permit have to be acquired :             

• Permit to use public area – from local government;
• Permit to use public streets and roads – from Public Roads Authority;
• Health and environmental issues – from National Public Health and Medical Officer Service as well as from disaster prevention services (e.g. fire brigade)

Having acquired the necessary permits the organizer needs to find answers to the following questions:

• How much time do I have to perform the tasks?
• Do I need any help? How many assistants do I need?
• Are there any open questions, the answers to which depend on other people?
• What is my sphere of responsibility?

In case the event is organized on the basis of invitations, the questions, which are unclear, need to be discussed with our boss/employer.  If we forget about it, later on in the organizational process problems and tensions might occur which might endanger the success of our organizational work.

Having clarified the most important questions we can strat working on the next phase of our organizational work, which is planning.  

Planning is a critical period of the preparatory process, since this is the time when the most crucial decisions are made concerning the venue, the programme, the conditions, and financial issues. We can start the elaboration of plans only if we have all the necessary information at our disposal.  

The planning phase includes two tasks:

• Mental planning, which means to imagine and elaborate in head all the details of the event.;
• Written planning, which means to write up all those tasks which are necessary to realize the plans.  

In practice these two tasks are performed simultaneously. As we go through the event in our heads the tasks will also shape up. The next step is to write a task list, which serves as the basic docuemnt of our organizational work.  This document will also help to determine what size the task actually is, how many assistants are needed to perform them. These are very important factors when planning our the budget, too.  

When we organize a large-scale event, it is recommendable to form a steering committee or a working group to assist with the organizational tasks.

The task list is helpful when organizing a steering committe or a working group because the number of committee or group memebrs, their exact tasks are determined on the basis of the task list.

The composition of the steering committee:

Leader  - his tasks include the directing of the work and coordinating team work

Secretary – performs administrative tasks including correspondence, daty collection and systematization, documentation and other secretarial tasks.

Members – leaders of the individual working groups, for example economic, technical, professional, PR and organizational working groups (assistants, referees etc.)

The leaders of the steering committee need to be selected very carefully. Identification with the task and the motivation to be successful are essential. As it is attested by practical experience, the candidate’s reliability and positive attitude need to be considered as qualities of primary importance. High-quality professionalism and good attitude also represent a desirable pair of necessary qualities.

The person, selected for the job can be offered the post in writing, in an email, in person or on the phone. At the same time it is also important to send him/ger the draft work plan which would be finalized within the framework of the steering committee’s first meeting. It is the leader, the secreatry and the leaders of the individual working groups who participate in the first meeting of the steering committee.  

Suggested agenda for this meeting is as follows:

• Welcome participants, outline the tasks (detail their significance and nature);
• Finalize the working groups (composition, tasks, sphere of responsibility, liabilities);
• Discuss the draft plan;
• Other issues (next tasks to be performed, methodology to be used, contacts, time, venue and the agenda of the next meeting).

As an outcome of the decisions made in the first meeting, the event’s basic documentation, the work plans of the individual areas of work as well as a detailed schedule need to be prepared.

Each individual work plan and schedule is to include the description of the task, the deadline of its completion and the name of the person responsible for it.  (Also called ’task owner’.)

After this meeting if we are to organize a large-scale event which lasts several days and which is organized at several venues with the participation of hundreds of participants who often come from many countries, it is useful to convene a general meeting of the entire committee with all committee members present.

Each member is supposed to get an invitation as well as

• The scenario of the event;
• The work plans of the steering committee and of the individual working groups

Suggested agenda for this meeting is as follows:

1.   Information of the goal(s) of the meeting and the work done so far.

2.   Reports by working group leaders. A munkacsoportok vezetőinek beszámolói.

3.   Finalization of the scenario of the event.

4.   Other issues including the way of keeping contact with each other, significant deadlines, information flow, time, venue and agenda of the next meeting.

The next step is that the steering committee perform the following tasks:

• Preparing and approving the budget ;
• Checking on the planned venue(s) of the event (venues for competitions,  accomodation and catering, leisure time activities, means of transport.
• Based on these concrete experiences the preparation of a detailed plan, that is the preparation of a scenario is needed. (It covers the time from the arrival of the first participant to the deaprture of the last one).
• Fulfil the necessary conditions according to the implementation plan.
  • Human resources (organizers, sportspeople, spectators);
  • Oobjective conditions (venues, sports articles, equipment, technical-professional items);
• Preparation of the venues for the event;
• Administration (list of names, addresses, permissions, invitations, orders, posters, infroamtion leaflets, boards, admission tickets etc.)

If these activities are well planned and coordinated, the preparational phase comes to an end 7-10 days before the event itself starts. At this point it is also advisable to organize another meeting with the participation of all those people who prepared the event and those who would implement it. Within the framework of this meeting a summary of the tasks performed is offered together with the finalization of the tasks and the schedule of the next phase.