Club structure tries to keep up with growth

10 years ago Herts Baseball Club had around 15 members and one adult team. The club has changed beyond recognition since then. There are now 5 Herts teams playing in the adult baseball leagues as well as 4 youth league teams. The facilities have doubled in size with two purpose-built diamonds and the club had 127 paying members at its last Annual General Meeting in November 2012.

This fast growth has prompted the club to seek a better organisational structure. In the early days the club could be administered by just three members of staff – secretary, treasurer and team manager. To a certain extent the model can be replicated with each new team, but there comes a point at which the model is no longer viable. Herts reached that point around 18 months ago.

Over the last six months the club has been making the gradual transition to a new more departmentalised model, which is expected to give the club the capacity to accommodate further growth in the next few years.

The size of the club’s Executive Board has increased from 8 members last year to 12. Two weeks ago the club added its thirteenth Board member when Joe Gray was appointed as the club’s first Non-Executive member of the Board.

Apart from increasing the size of the Board, the club has established eight subcommittees covering the club’s various operations and departments as shown below. Some of them are still at their very early stage and more subcommittee members will be added in due course, but the club is already starting to benefit from this new structure with much more effective communication and decision-making.

As the club grows and evolves so will its structure. The new club structure appears to be an improvement, but perhaps there are other innovative structures and procedures used by other businesses which could be applied effectively by fast-growing British baseball clubs. If you have suggestions and proposals on ways to improve existing procedures and structures, please contact us.