Reducing Soccer Registration Workload by 500%

Wade Jacques

Customer Success

"We estimate that we've saved about 10,000 hours compared to our old process. Seriously though, it used to be 5-6 times more work compared to what we do now."

Introduction

The Tuscany Community Association is a volunteer-driven organization committed to addressing community issues, planning community events, and organizing recreational activities, while also providing effective representation in civic matters. Annually, they host a community soccer program, offering over 500 children an exciting opportunity to make new friends and acquire new skills.

Jamie, the Executive Director, sought a solution that would streamline the registration process for parents. However, finding one that offered member-only registration, age restrictions by team level, mass communications, t-shirt size collection, volunteer shift coordination, waivers, and online payments proved to be a challenging task.

After careful consideration, she chose Communal as it provided an all-in-one solution to fulfill all of their requirements. This decision allowed her to eliminate manual tasks and efficiently implement membership requirements for registration, set appropriate age restrictions, collect t-shirt size preferences, manage online waivers, and recruit volunteers for coach positions.

The Situation Before Communal:

Tuscany had a highly popular soccer program, but its growth had begun to overwhelm their small team of volunteers each year. While they were utilizing another software provider, they urgently needed a new solution to alleviate the administrative burden, which was hindering their ability to expand the program further.

"The problems with our old software were abundant. Every task required around seven or eight steps to complete, and the interface was consistently confusing and outdated. Making any edits or modifications to records was a very difficult process, and setting up new seasons and teams posed significant challenges."

The Tuscany team found themselves resorting to numerous workarounds, leading to an extensive list of manual tasks. Additionally, their previous system did not adequately support membership management and volunteer coordination, forcing them to rely on external spreadsheets outside of the existing software solution.

Solution with Communal:

Communal drastically reduced the number of administrative hours required to manage the community soccer programs and successfully resolved all the previous issues that were impeding their growth.

“By moving to Communal, we were able to resolve all of our past issues. We saw a 5-6X reduction in the amount of time required to manage our soccer program.”

A better user experience:

Both the Tuscany administrative team and users found the solution to be significantly more efficient and user-friendly:

"Our users found it much easier to navigate, and our in-house team had no trouble adapting to its functionalities. Having everything accessible online through a unified system made it available to everyone, regardless of their location or the device they used. We particularly appreciate the simplicity of setting up volunteer positions, coordinating tasks, and the seamless communication features that allow us to reach everyone directly from within the software."

Increased volunteerism and coach acquisition:

Instead of relying on a combination of spreadsheets and manual emails to recruit volunteers for coaching positions, Communal consolidated everything into one centralized location. When parents registered their kids for soccer, the system presented available volunteer shifts relevant to their registration.

Additionally, Tuscany experienced an increase in volunteerism by offering a discount to parents who registered as volunteers. All payment details, including the discount, were automatically processed within the Communal system.

A true partnership:

“One of the best advantages of moving to Communal is the experience with the team. Every time we reach out for a new feature, assistance with the data, or to resolve an issue, the team at Communal gets back to us incredibly quickly. They feel like an extension of our own team and are always very helpful and willing to work with us.”

Looking Forward

With a significant reduction in administrative workload, Tuscany has witnessed a remarkable amount of reclaimed time for their team. This newfound efficiency has enabled them to concentrate on further expanding their already incredible soccer program. Freed from the burden of manual tasks, they can now wholeheartedly dedicate their efforts to the primary purpose of their community association - fostering a strong sense of community.