As one season ends and another rapidly approaches, it’s timely for me to look back at the year that has gone, reflect on what happened, and set the strategy for the future. For the first time we have produced an Annual Report and Strategic Plan for the 2024/25 season, based on the performance of QUK against our metrics we laid out at the start of the 23/24 season.
It can be read in full here, and it include analysis of how we performed, what we need to do better, and the vision for the next season. Below is a summary of the report, details of our new club incentives, our strategic plan for 2024/2025, and details of our Open Forum for the community being held on Wednesday 14th August.
Annual Report Summary
The report lays out our performance against the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) we released at the start of the 2023/24 season. While it would be easy to focus on the bits we did achieve - our successful bid for European Games, national team performance, and new sponsorships, we overall fell short of what we wanted to achieve.
We shrunk as a sport to our smallest since 2015 and we face fundamental challenges as a sport that we need to address collectively to change this trajectory. QUK has faults it needs to address, including improving our transparency and accessibility to the community. I am sorry for when we let the community down this season. Part of the reason for this document is to be held accountable for how we work as an organisation and provide transparency to the community.
In the report we have highlighted 3 areas of particular note:
New Player Recruitment and Player Retention
We did not hit our targets and we've identified that this drop in players was larger than anticipated. This was not matched by recruitment especially at the Community club level, where we saw an extremely small amount of new players joining the sport through Community clubs. While we expect more players to join through Universities, with a smaller pool of players to draw from Community clubs will need to increase their own efforts to recruit new players this season.
The Quadball Community experience with QUK
The community's experience with QUK has not been good. It has come through in our surveys, and we have been rightly criticised for things we have gotten wrong. We hear that people want QUK to be more receptive to feedback, that we need to be more transparent, and more accessible.
Our referees have been let down by not being paid for their work - which we set out as a Key Result to not only pay this year but catch up on the historic missed payments. We are sorry we've not achieved this. We have made the necessary preparations to pay this out but are currently awaiting over £25,000 in unpaid team and player fees from the 2023/24 season. If you or your club has not paid your invoices, please do so urgently so we can distribute this money to the referees and volunteers who deserve to be compensated for their efforts.
Introducing Quadball to the wider world
An area where we've succeeded this year is creating connections outside the Quadball bubble. Beyond new sponsors such as Partners in Health and returning ones such as Enrich Education and SISU Mouthguards, we have seen there is interest in the sport and what opportunities there are in a post-Quidditch world. We've become a member of Sported which is a charity that helps non-profits and charities get access to funding and expert advice. They are currently helping us move from a Non-Profit to a registered charity, which would open up new revenue streams and funding. We've also talked to other NGBs such as UK Dodgeball to learn and make connections where we have common ground (and in some cases, common athletes).
One aspect we get asked a lot about is BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport). BUCS offers a path for Quadball to be formally recognised as a sport at the University level, and we’ve had productive meetings with them this year to discuss Quadball becoming part of their offering. In order to achieve this, we need to show them that the University scene is growing, profitable, and the existing player base wants to be a part of BUCS. We have addressed the last point by asking for opinions on us joining BUCS in the recent Player Survey, but the other two points will need to be addressed by supporting our existing teams and helping new ones start.
New Incentives For Clubs
Player Recruitment and Retention is vital for keeping the sport alive and growing. Clubs are at the forefront of these efforts, from recruiting players at freshers fairs and give-it-a-goes, to keeping players engaged through the off-season. QUK recognises that this work is critical and we want to make sure clubs are incentivised to keep up this great work. As a result we have 2 new incentives for waivers and grants being made available to clubs, and a new requirement for Crossplay.
Club Tournaments Grants and Waivers
Fantasy and Friendly Tournaments were a staple of the Quadball community experience until the emergence of the Quidditch Premier League (QPL) in 2017. These Club Tournaments benefited the community as a whole but especially our Universities, who ran the bulk of these before QPL.
We are offering clubs that run friendly/fantasy tournaments a team fee waiver for their next QUK tournament, and grants of £250 for clubs that present a plan for a club tournament that presents a plan for the tournament to become an annual fixture and prioritises any of the following:
- University players
- FINTA (Female, Intersex, Non-Binary, Trans, and Agender) players
- New teams
- New players
Details of the criteria for tournaments and applying for these grants, and why we are providing this incentive can be found in the report
Club Development Partnering
Connecting University and Community clubs together is crucial in rebuilding the pipeline between the two leagues. There is also a want from University clubs for help with numbers at early sessions, governance advice for new committees, and to get opportunities to experience a higher level of training that community players experience due to years of accumulated knowledge.
We are proposing a formal scheme for Community Clubs to partner with a University Club for the 24/25 season.
Community clubs and players can help with governance knowledge, and also with a presence at early events they can support the university committee with coaching and drill advice as well as boost numbers for taster sessions that mean more drills and games can occur. We also see this as a massive opportunity for the Community teams to market themselves to the University players and form connections that can help bridge the divide in the same way Crossplay is.
We will be offering waivers of 50% team fees for the season to Community clubs that partner up with a University club for the season. The Community club will be expected to run at least 6 joint training sessions through the season, provide players and volunteers to attend the University’s taster sessions during freshers and refreshers, and committee support to the University club throughout the season.
The ask of Community Clubs is great, and so we believe the incentive should match that - for a club that attends all fixtures, EQT, and BQC this waiver is worth over £500.
Clubs that wish to participate (both University and Community) are to contact the Clubs Department who will facilitate the pairings.
New Crossplay Requirement
We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback about Crossplay from University players and Community clubs alike. It provides a much needed bridge for developing players between University and Community leagues, and it has created links between clubs that had been lost due to the league split. Crossplay is here to stay.
We however do not want Crossplay to take the place of external recruitment at Community clubs and that has been raised as a concern. So we are proposing a single requirement for clubs taking Crossplay players this season. Any club that wants to engage in the Crossplay programme this year will be required to run a public give-it-a-go/taster session before doing so. This will not apply for the seeding fixture at the end of August.
Strategic Plan
As per the QuadballUK Constitution, the President must “outline specific and measurable goals they wish to achieve” when appointed to the role, which must have clear parallels with the QUK core mission. The core mission has 4 pillars: growth, ability, sustainability and community. Our new President has developed goals in accordance with this mission and presented them to the Executive Management Team (EMT) and now the wider community.
The goals follow the methodology known as Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). The purpose of these goals is to set an ambitious vision and for them to be measurable, adaptable, focused, and increase alignment. The OKRs will be tracked throughout the 24/25 season by the EMT and may be adapted internally based on how the season progresses.
OKRs are meant to be ambitious and stretch an organisation, so not every Key Result will be met. A rough expectation of setting OKRs is to aim for a 70% success rate - if all Key Results were achieved then the targets should have been higher, if none of the Key Results are met we were too ambitious.
Rather than 5 Objectives as per the 23/24 season, we have 1: Grow The Sport. It is the north star of our organisation, and everything we decide and work on will be framed by that Objective. While all core functions of QUK will continue, any other projects departments want to undertake need to further that objective.
Grow The Sport
- 420 players in the sport
- 100 new players
- 24 Participating Teams
- 5 Clubs Initiative Participants
Open Forum - 14th August
One area in particular QUK needs to be better at this season is to be more open, more transparent, and more accessible. We need to engage with players and club leadership more, and be honest about how things are going. We have heard the feedback that people do not know what QUK does or what we're working on.
To that end, I will be hosting an open forum for the Quadball community to submit questions and opinions about QUK, the mission, and the plan going forward. The forum will be open to all on Wednesday 14th August at 7PM. This session will be an opportunity for any and all community members to ask questions of QUK and provide feedback of how QUK can improve or what needs to change. If there is sufficient interest and engagement, we’ll do more of these over the season (these will not replace our General Forums where club leadership have a regular call with QUK). You can submit your questions/feedback here. The forum will be held on Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/fmv-vyyc-wpj
I, personally, am hopeful for the future. I still remember the first training I attended and how quickly this sport became a central part of my life. This sport has so much to offer and I am so thankful to be able to serve this community that has given me so much. We can do so much together and I look forward to working with you all to make the 2024/25 season the best we’ve had.
