Reading & District Angling Association
KEY BENEFITS
Allows RDAA to process 1,500 memberships every year, gave Bailiffs more effective tools to keep their waters safe, gave their committee one centralised and up-to-date database.
Reading & District Angling Association - Our Story
Reading & District Angling Association owns or leases around twenty-five miles of the River Kennet, River Thames, River Loddon and Kennet & Avon Canal, as well as 14 lakes comprising some of the most varied and finest fishing in the south of England. The variation in waters means that we can ensure bank space for everyone to come along and fish. The Association caters for all types of coarse anglers, the pleasure angler, the match angler, the specimen hunter and the night angler.
Running the club was a demanding task.
Before we implemented Clubmate, running the club was a demanding task and keeping everything in order was incredibly time-consuming. We process an average of 1,500 memberships every year and with no system in place to help us, renewals and joining new members were a real headache. It also made it difficult to keep everyone on the committee on the same page because there were always different versions of documents floating around and things like sending out important updates and chasing payments fell victim to simple human error.
What drew us to Clubmate?
Clubmate looked like an ideal solution because it’s specifically made with the angling community in mind. They’re partnered with known causes like ANLRS and the Angling Trust so that was a good sign for us.
We were also looking at Catch, a different fishing club booking system. Although we liked their booking system, we felt Clubmate was the better fit for us. It facilitates online membership sales and renewals as well as online bookings and payments. Clubmate also has free apps for Anglers, Bailiffs and an admin app that we knew we’d make use of.
Clubmate has all of the tools we need to run RDAA.
In a nutshell, Clubmate has given us all of the tools we need to take control of our internal processes. The software is so simple to use – not just for us, but for our members too. We’re able to manage 1,500 memberships with ease and the Bailiff App means that it’s so easy to keep our waters safe and make sure nobody’s fishing with us that shouldn’t be.
Communication is better than it ever has been. Everyone has their own login to Clubmate and all information is updated in real-time, so everyone can see everything they need from the admin dashboard. We can send emails to individuals or specific groups in minutes.
It’s given us the tools to encourage our members to take control of their own angling experience and limits the need for me or another committee member to manually update spreadsheets and send confirmation texts when someone wants to book a day ticket. Most of our members renew their memberships themselves and pay online, meaning we hardly have to get involved! We’ve finally got more time to spend making the club a great place to fish.
Our committee have peace of mind knowing our club is in good hands, which was important to us because moving everything online was a big change from how we’ve been running things for all these years.
Would we recommend Clubmate?
If you’re thinking about getting started with Clubmate, go for it. It pretty much has every feature you could need when running a fishing club and it’s given us more time to develop the club to hopefully grow our membership base. I’d recommend it to any fishing club that’s struggling to stay on top of their admin or wants to grow their membership base.
If you’d like to learn more about Clubmate and how it could benefit your fishing club, please get in touch (we don’t bite!):
0333 987 4677
CLUB NAME
Reading & District Angling Association
CLUB MEMBERS
1500+ members
CLUB WATERS
25 miles of the River Kennet, River Thames, River Loddon and Kennet & Avon Canal and 14 nearby lakes.
MAIN CONTACTS
Alan Charles Hughes
WEBSITE
KEY CHALLENGES
Struggled to stay on top of admin
Didn’t have an effective way of keeping in contact with their members
Difficulty chasing payments
Wanted to eliminate human error
Interested in becoming a member of RDAA?
To become a member or purchase a day ticket, please visit their website.