FOUR years ago, Active Surrey, the county sports partnership body, secured funding and initiated ‘Club Conversation’ events in each district of the county.

Farnham’s Sports Council was the first organisation to lead and trial the new initiative on behalf of Active Surrey and it is one of the few local sports council in the region still co-ordinating an annual event.

The purpose of the activity is for sports club representatives in the town to share and exchange ideas on how to improve their clubs.

The 2017 event was held in the Farnham Town Council chamber and two sessions were accommodated for the benefit of member clubs and it was also attended by Emma Das, Waverley’s leisure development officer.

The first session on ‘how to attract more members to your club’ was facilitated by Paul Adlam, the chairman of Brightwell Tennis Club who used an engagement method of encouraging the expertise in the room to solve a problem or tackle a sports club issue.

The second session was led by Nigel Oates, chairman of the Aldershot and Farnham Hockey Club whose club is a benchmark for club planning.

The hockey club aspires to be a family-friendly club, open to all, and have a strong vision of where they want to be in the years to come by identifying and recording their key operational and strategic issues and planning ahead for them.

David Gill, chairman of the Farnham Sports Council commented: “We are very grateful to Paul and Nigel for their excellent contributions. The evening really underlined how lucky we are in Farnham.

“There are so many well managed and first-rate community sports clubs in our area but we can always learn from each other and strive to improve.

“That’s the very essence of the Club Conversation events, to pass on, debate and share good practice.”