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Last month, the Regional Development Officers—Brian, Georgia, and Laura—completed the nearly year-long Changing Lives Programme through sportscotland, along with over forty other leaders in Scottish sport.  Anyone who has spent much time at all in sport will know that sport has an impact on participants beyond the actual competition.  Changing Lives is a mindset that intentionally focuses on that impact: improved physical health and mental wellbeing, socialisation, building confidence and life skills, etcetera.  The Changing Lives Champions made valuable connections, discussed many of the major issues affecting Scottish sport, and were introduced to numerous tools to both use internally as well as with clubs and centres.  This concept of impact through sport is essential to the RYA Scotland strategy and will surely be obvious in conversations with the Development Team.  Ask us how we can help your organisation to positively change lives. 

The RYA Scotland Development Team began our regular Zoom Connect Calls for clubs and centres.  The topic of our first call—a direct response to conversations the RDOs are having with several clubs—was around the process of becoming a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation or SCIO.  Thanks to all who attended and engaged in the conversation, especially those who shared their experience and insight.  These calls are opportunities to connect with RYA Scotland staff as well as club leaders from throughout Scotland.  The intention is for the conversations to be led by clubs and centres toward topics relevant to them.  Register for future monthly calls here.  Feel free to suggest topics for discussion to the Development Team.

Equally we were delighted to have an in person Affiliated Club Conference at the start of March, both Mandy Peters from the RYA Legal Team and Liz McMaster from the RYA Training team joined us to support the delivery of the workshops. While the carousel sessions had some great presentations from inspirational Scottish Club and para-sport leads. 

The feedback was very positive including a few comments below:

“Ability to talk with sailors from other clubs to find out how they manage to run their club.”

“Too many good points to isolate any single part,  but getting together with like minded folk again was great.”

“Threaded throughout the day; conversations, a sense of solidarity, “not doing too badly,” recognition of struggles we all face in some form and renewed enthusiasm to tackle them.”

Sailing and windsurfing are the perfect vehicle for teaching personal and social development to children and young people and RYA’s OnBoard programme is the perfect set of tools to help RYA Recognised Training Centres facilitate that development.  OnBoard venues benefit from RYA and regional support; potential for further funding; resources for instructors, parents, and teachers; instructor training; and insight from relevant research.  To learn more about joining OnBoard, contact your Regional Development Officer.

Discussions have begun regarding 2023 Onboard Introductory Festivals.  These events aim to gather sailors for first time experiences or their first event away from their home club.  The focus is on creating a fun atmosphere and bringing sailors together from across their region.  Dates and locations will be shared through all channels as soon as they are available.

Join the RYA Scotland Development Team!  There are currently two opportunities to join the team: Regional Development Officer (East) and an Administrator.  The RDO application deadline has been extended to the 2nd of May, while the Administrator deadline is the 17th of April.  Full details on the vacancies are here.  Please get in touch if you have any queries about either role.

RYA Scotland Impact Awards – Who has made a positive impact on your time afloat?  

Thank you for all your nominations to those who deserve recognition for going above and beyond the norm in supporting activities afloat in Scotland over 2022.  Nominations were a very personal thank you for the impact they have made to you, or a much wider recognition of their impact to the sport or organisation.  We plan to start presenting awards over the next few months, while we will continue to welcome nominations you feel worthy of recognition. Nominate here.

You can also make nominations for RYA Volunteer Awards, which close on the 2nd of May. Full details, including guidelines and the link to the nomination form are here.

Would you like to grow your club’s membership?  Consider signing up your club to Discover Sailing, the RYA Demand Creation Campaign which supports clubs by providing both physical and online resources, regional communicator support as well as allowing clubs to benefit from being part of the national promotions. Full details on the programme, as well as about Re-Discover Sailing may be found here.

Join our sustainable boating community and take the Green Blue Pledge!  The Boating Pledge allows you to show your commitment to making your boating more environmentally sustainable by pledging to respect, protect, and enjoy our inland and marine waters. Find more information and make the pledge here. 

There is still a little time left to join in Spring Clean Scotland 2023, 17 March to 17 April.  Help reduce litter levels in your neighbourhood for our environment, our wildlife, and our own health and wellbeing.  This would be a great way to bring interested club members together for pre–season activity.  Find more ideas and details here. 

The Big Help Out is a national day of volunteering, happening on the 8th of May coinciding with the Bank Holiday Monday for the King’s Coronation.  There are numerous ways individuals and organisations can get involved.  Find more details here.  Join in.  Lend a hand.  Make a change.

National Lottery Awards for All Scotland is a quick way to apply for funding between £300 and £10,000 to support what matters to people and communities.  Applications should do at least one of the following: bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities; improve the places and spaces that matter to communities; help more people to reach their potential, by supporting them at the earliest possible stage.  RYAS clubs and centres do this all the time!  Find complete details here.  Please ensure your RDO is aware of any application for this funding as they will likely be consulted during the review process.

The Magic Little Grants fund is now accepting applications for £500 grants.  The application process is simple with a quick response time of less than 6 weeks.  Funding can be used to launch new projects, support existing ones, or cover core costs associated with ongoing work.  Full details are here.

RYA is offering Active Bystander Training.  Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to challenge someone’s behaviour, but you didn’t know how to do it or what to say? The topic of being comfortable whilst challenging uncomfortable behaviour and knowing when it’s appropriate to step in and challenge microaggressions, discrimination and bullying, regularly comes up when we check in with colleagues and stakeholders.  RYA Affiliates (committee members, centres, clubs, class associations and Regional Volunteer Teams) are invited to attend an Active Bystander training session on Sunday the 23rd of April 6-7:30PM, which aims to help the RYA community to challenge microaggressions, harmful comments and behaviours. The session will include self-coaching techniques to help you keep a cool head when you’re faced with a challenging situation and assertive language devices you can use to make sure your voice is heard when raising a concern. We hope that by working together we can create a safe and supportive environment within our community. Further information and booking are here. 

Please do not hesitate to make contact if you have questions or areas where we might be able to support.  Send us a message at Development@RYAScotland.org.uk. 

All the best from The Development Team – Georgia, Laura, Brian & Liza

06/04/2023