2. Time Saving Features
Recreation directors are now widely using websites to help with running
their departments. Time spent on tedious paperwork and phone calls is no
longer necessary; a well‐made website can easily handle these tasks. Not to
mention, there are programs that can help you build a website for FREE, and
require NO technical experience.
Here are 6 key website features you should be taking advantage of today:
1) Online Registration
2) Announcement Posting
3) Facility Scheduling
4) Season Calendar
Season Calendar
5) Contact Management
6) Form Posting
3. Online Registration
How It Works
• Participants visit your website and select the programs they wish to
participate in
• They enter their contact information and download all necessary program
forms
• They officially become registered for programs; their information is stored for
you to view at any time
The Alternative: People register for programs by manually filling out pen‐and‐
paper registration forms, which you are forced to sort and copy information from
The Benefit: You save time by having all registrant information automatically sent
to you online and conveniently sorted for you in charts
4. Announcement Posting
How It Works
• You post announcements, such as rain‐outs and field changes, on your website
by simply typing them into a text box (similar to composing an email)
• People can see announcements at any time by visiting your website; they can
also choose to have announcements automatically emailed to them by subscribing
also choose to have announcements automatically emailed to them by subscribing
to your site’s email list
The Alternative: You send out announcements by emailing individual staff
members, using a complex “phone tree” or subscribing to an expensive hot‐line
service
The Benefit: You no longer need to stress about having your department staff
notify coaches and parents when a game is canceled; the website will take care
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of this for you
5. Facility Scheduling
How It Works
• You enter all of your playing locations (ex: fields, courts, gyms) and program names
(ex: 8th grade girls soccer, 7th grade boys baseball) online
(ex: 8 grade girls soccer, 7 grade boys baseball) online
• You match programs to locations and the website will automatically create a master
facility schedule for you and your participants to view online; you can make the
matches yourself or allow people to send you online requests for preferred time
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slots
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•The website will make sure you never “double book” a location
The Alternative: You manually enter time slots into Excel spreadsheets, which takes a
long time and provides no protection against “double booking”
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The Benefit: As you schedule time slots, they are automatically sorted for you in
charts and calendars and are assured to never be “double booked”
6. Season Calendar
How It Works
• You can easily post any sort of a single event or recurring event on your site’s
calendar (games, practices, fundraisers, sign‐up deadlines, etc)
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• The events get displayed online for people to view or print at any time
• If you edit an event, the update is instantly reflected on the online calendar
The Alternative: You enter schedules inside Word documents and email them out
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to people; this takes a long time and forces you to re‐create and re‐distribute
schedules every time a change needs to be made
The Benefit: By posting schedules online, you can assure that your information is
available to anyone at any time; when you make edits, your schedule
automatically gets updated without you having to do any additional work
7. Contact Management
How It Works
• You add the contact information of the people you communicate with in a
personal online contact book (coaches, officials, parents, etc)
• You can create email groups and email multiple people at once whenever you
choose (ex: soccer board of directors, basketball referees, etc)
choose (ex: soccer board of directors, basketball referees, etc)
The Alternative: If you want to send group emails, you have to individually
enter multiple email addresses every time
The Benefit: Once you make an email group, you can send mass emails to the
group at any time with just a click
group at any time with just a click
8. Form Posting
How It Works
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You upload any necessary department forms onto your website (waivers, fliers,
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rules forms, etc)
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• People can visit your website and download any forms at any time
The Alternative: You print out all of your forms and send them out to people by
mail, which takes a long time and costs a lot of money
The Benefit: People can download your forms online at any time, which provides
instant access and costs you nothing in printing/mailing costs
instant access and costs you nothing in printing/mailing costs