As a part of our commitment to Support the Club Community, Rugby Ontario developed the Club Development Self-Assessment Tool. The tool is built on the work of the emPowering the Prairies Club Development Series and Standards and designed to help clubs identify areas of strength and need within the club compared to best practices, and to measure growth and development over time. In addition, by submitting your results as a club, Rugby Ontario will be able to identify provincial trends as well as individual strengths and needs, which will help to focus club development efforts and resources and ensure that the needs of all clubs across the province are being met.
The tool is divided into the following ten sections:
The Club Development Series is back for its third year!
Introduced in 2024, the Club Development Series is an opportunity for our club community to come together to learn and grow the game of rugby in our communities.
This year’s theme is “Raising Standards Together”. The series will feature a combination of new and familiar faces leading us through sessions on club and coach development-related topics. Returning this year, sessions will also feature a club leader or leaders sharing about a unique program or best practice of theirs and lessons learned that could help others.
Each week will have either a club or coach-focus, to provide new perspectives, and targeted education for different members of our community.
Do you have a good webinar topic you want to lead, or suggest? Contact Jocelyn Poirier (jpoirier@rugbyontario.com) to find out more!
Find out more here!
2024 & 2025 Series
Building from the Club Development Self-Assessment Tool, Rugby Ontario introduced the Club Development Series to support the growth and development of member clubs across the province. The first instalment of this virtual series ran from October 2023 – April 2024 and consisted of free webinars to assist clubs in identified areas of interest and need. The sessions featured experienced speakers from within and outside the rugby community with lived and professional experience with the session topics.
2025 saw our second instalment of the series featuring 5 new virtual sessions from January to April 2025.
Topics and speakers are listed below:
2024 Winter Club Development Series
- Session 1 – Grant Writing – Bryan Heal and Dr. Lauren Wolman
- Session 2 – Finances – Ian Carter
- Session 3 – Strategic Marketing – Jillian Bowman
- Session 4 – Partnerships – Leigh Tynan, Hailey Jones-Milligan, Mike Lacovelli, and Chris Warren
- Session 5 – Transitioning to ONCA Compliance
2025 Winter Club Development Series
- Session 1 – Club Governance – Dave Best
- Session 2 – Safe Sport – Jennifer Bennett
- Session 3 – Youth Sport Programming – Tom Waud
- Session 4 – Rugby Development Initiatives – Rob McQueen
- Session 5 – Rugby Retention Research – Dr. Karl Erickson
The Club Development Conference was created in 2023 with the goal of bringing our club community together to build relationships, learn, problem solve, and share best practices. These conferences received positive feedback from all attendees and represented, along with other Club Development initiatives, a significant shift toward centering development work around community clubs as the foundation for all rugby in the province.
Themes
2023 | Retain and Grow
2024 | Planning Together
2025 | Building Capacity and Alignment
The session recordings from previous years are available on YouTube, and linked below.