Bowls England have updated the Play Bowls site, the site has undergone significant development with the purpose of creating a more comprehensive club finder for current and potential players whilst also creating a ‘one stop shop’ for all club data.
It will ultimately enable clubs to better publicise themselves among the bowls community – whilst offering potential new players an easy way to find nearby clubs and everything they have to offer, from ‘Pay and Pay’ and Bowls Bash sessions to full memberships.
Clubs will also be able to provide additional information about their facilities, and to input contact information for key personnel including Secretary, Greenkeeper and Safeguarding Officer that can then be used by counties and Bowls England to provide relevant updates.
What’s New?
The site now includes all affiliated clubs, regardless of whether they are signed up to offer ‘Pay and Play’ sessions. This creates a single place for potential players to visit and a simple system for them to find a club local to them.
Clubs can assign editing capabilities to those with roles in their club, therefore, sharing the responsibility of keeping this information up to date. Roles can opt in to Bowls England communications relating directly to their position at the club – for example, the greenkeeper can opt in to receive ‘Cutting Edge’ and the Safeguarding Officer to the ‘Safeguarding Bulletin’.
What’s Next?
Emails will be sent to clubs informing them of the updates made. A login will then be automatically sent to those who are listed as the main contact (likely the secretary) – these contacts have come from our current Bowls England website.
clubs need to log on to their profile and ensure all details are up to date, to input roles held at their club (to share responsibility of the club profile) and consider signing up as a ‘Pay and Play’ club (to generate additional revenue and have a more prominent listing on the site).
Aligned with the launch of the new club finder on Play Bowls, the club pages on the Bowls England website will be shut down, the log in for the site will be turned off with no content hidden and everything will point to Play Bowls for those wishing to find clubs. Therefore, updates to club details will no longer be required on bowlsengland.com.
More Information
You can find out more about the developments at https://www.bowlsengland.com/playbowls/ including a list of FAQs which will help arm you with responses if asked questions.