Gymnastics BC (GymBC) is a provincial sport organization with 71 member clubs across British Columbia. Its member clubs offer a wide range of gymnastics programs from introductory programs all the way to National Team athletes.
GymBC is responsible for the governance, promotion, and development of gymnastics in BC and are dedicated to making gymnastics inclusive and accessible for all. GymBC provides clubs with services including coach education, backcheck management, a competition structure, and an insurance program.
The GymBC team was looking for a solution to streamline online waivers, injury reports and simplify communications with members.
They chose Activity Messenger for its drag-&-drop form builder, integrated digital signatures, and effective communication tools.
Gymnastics BC has over 50,000 individual members including coaches, judges, athletes and club owners. GymBC staff wanted to provide clubs with current best practices and offer blanket solutions for their community.
This meant moving to an online system that worked for legislation and was acceptable by Canadian legal standards.
Serving thousands of members with a small team required finding a system that could:
GymBC chose Activity Messenger for their federation-level toolkit. The benefits of this solution have resulted in immediate cost and time savings. “For injury reports, we used to have someone transcribing hand-written scanned documents into an excel. The entire process is so much faster than it was.”
When it comes to injury reports and waivers, increasing compliance was a crucial improvement.
“We are more likely to see higher compliance for waivers and injury reports if we create a frictionless, vetted and free system for clubs”
Moving to a federation-wide online solution has been a huge shift in their operations but had become a necessity. Prior to Activity Messenger, GymBC had many clubs still using paper and pen to fill our forms
“We’ve had examples in the past where physical files were compromised so having a version online and a physical copy helps us have more control over the data in case of unexpected events.”
The ability to have complete analytics on hand will play a great role in the future. “With the analytics offered, we are aware in real-time of the types of injury that are most frequent. We can then offer education initiatives that reflect the needs of our members.”
Moving to an online solution will also help GymBC with insurance claims and premiums in the long run.
The automated email/SMS notifications system has allowed the right people access as soon as an injury form is filled out. For example, ff somebody has to call an ambulance after an injury, the GymBC Safety Officer gets a notification in real-time.
“We’re less likely to miss an opportunity to support an injured athlete. In the past, the form might had been sent days if not weeks later. The delay in administrative processing caused all sorts of issues.”
Activity Messenger is now being used to replace Mailchimp for broad weekly outreach to members of the community. “The communication features are easy to use and the outcomes are great. If you look at our newsletter, it looks sharp. We’re proud of the content we are able to create. The integration of Canva is fantastic”.
When asked what impact this new system has had on day-to-day activities at the federation, GymBC said;
“It’s simplified things. Everything is in one place with most of our team being able to use it. It’s easy to get new staff up to speed and there is less confusion. We also have much better access to information.”
Another added bonus has been the ability to better serve member clubs. “As a federation, Activity Messenger better enables us to help clubs become more efficient and save time with the different federated processes.”
Although changing systems with as many club members might seem daunting, the team at Activity Messenger has been able to make it as painless as possible.
Their ability to provide high quality and prompt customer service has made a significant difference. For other subscription services, the ability to make customized changes just takes much longer and many times, the immediate fire we are looking to address has already passed.”
This high level of customer support has been very valuable in making sure the tool works well for GYM BC’s always evolving needs:
“We’re able to go to Activity Messenger, explain our needs and most times those conversations result in collaborative conversation. Next thing you know, they added the new feature we were looking for.”
Learn how to move your injury report online
As GymBC starts planning their upcoming season, they’re excited to streamline even more processes. In the next few weeks, GymBC will start using Activity Messenger for:
When the federation faces a new challenge or is trying to streamline outdated processes, the CEO of Gymnastics BC now always asks: How can we do this with Activity Messenger?
“With the flexibility and problem solving Activity Messenger has been able to provide, we have developed a level of confidence that we can continue to reduce the number of tools we use and amalgamate everything in one place.
Helping our member clubs is at the core of our mission and Activity Messenger has helped us take our service to another level.”
