The Timeline
1. The first thing to consider is what sort of company would Whitlingham want to be if they were offering this type of course. I have already summarised the benefits and negatives of the three different types of company in a previous post. Charities will be easier to earn grants for, are more well known which is beneficial for fundraising and are more tax exempt. On the other hand CICs are more rewarding for there shareholders who can benefit financially, also the rules and regulations around CICs are less restrictive than charities. Whitlingham is currently managed by the limited company of Educator Solutions, however I believe it would be better to branch off from this for the disabled sailing. I think setting up as a charity would be the best option as it allows for better fundraising and grants which is important as this project has quite a high financial cost. It takes on average 30 days for a charity application to be processed, thats if all the correct information is supplied first time.
2. The next thing to consider is whether or not to become a sailibility centre. I believe becoming an official RYA sailibility club would be the best option as Whitlingham has never offered this before the help and guidance they offer would be useful. However in the future when the centre has had some experience with disabled sailing they could branch off and do it independantly. The RYA released a document containing some key steps to becoming a sailibility centre. The first of all is making the commitment, with a centre leader to spearhead the project being created. The club also needs to release the "sport for all" policy, and get the membership of the club to agree to this. The RYA says they think this is one of the hardest tasks.The next thing is to contact the RYA sailibility, and they recomend that you visit a disabled sailing centre to see how it runs. The next step is to become a foundation site, and people from Sailibility will come and conduct a foundation assessment which will help you to make adjustments and improvements to the centre. The RYA also suggest that the centre carries out some disability awareness training and volunteer management training. The next thing to consider is what sort of disabilities the centre can cater for. Some centres can handle people of all disabilities and some centres can only do some disabilties. Each disabled person has different indiviudal requirements. Deciding when the sessions can run is the next thing to think about. The RYA says it is important to try and include these sessions in the general times of the organisation so there isnt a gap between disable bodies sailing and able bodied sailing. Where to sail is also very important but in the case of Whitlingham that is already set up. The types of boat is also important and I have already looked at special disability boats. The RYA says that sometimes boats don't even need to be modified for disabled sailing. Another option is to ask local clubs to borrow boats to help get started however i'm not sure that is the appropriate option for Whitlingham. The finiancial side is also important to consider, how much it will cost the centre and if and if so how much we charge the students. I think it depends on what type of company it sets up as will determine if there is a charge. Marketing also needs to be considered as the next step and trying to get the disabled people to come and try sailing. The RYA says the best way to do that is contact local disability centres. It is also essential to give this organisation a name- i dont know whether this would fall under Whitlingham or if it would be seperate. The final step is to set a review date to check progress and look at the future.
3. After all these steps have been followed, the sailibility centre should be all set up and running. In the future you could look at expansion and the possbilitiy of going independently which has the benefits of being able to control it more yourself.
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