GymBC is a Gymnastics federation with 78 member clubs across British Columbia. Member clubs offer a wide range of gymnastics programs from introductory programs all the way to Olympic level.
Gym BC’s mandate is to provide clubs with coach education, backcheck management, insurance liability and accident policy. They also assist with programming to facilitate athlete development and run several intra-provincial events.
The Gym BC team was looking for a solution to streamline online waivers, injury reports and simplify communications with members.
Serving thousands of members with a small team required finding a system that could:
They chose Activity Messenger to create waivers with digital signatures, an injury report system and simplify their communication tools.
Gymnastics BC has just over 5400 members including coaches, judges, athletes and club owners. Nathan, their safety officer, wanted to bring GYM BC up-to-date with best practices and offer a blanket solution for the community.
This meant moving everything online in a system that worked for legislation and was acceptable in the eye of a liability lawyer.
Gym BC 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.”
Nathan explains.
And when it comes to injury reports and liability waivers, increasing compliance and accessible analytics is crucial.
“We are more likely to see higher compliance for waivers and injury reports if we create a frictionless, vetted and free system for our member clubs”
To reduce injuries and insurance claims, Nathan believes integrated analytics will play a great role over the next couple of years. 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, he says.
Moving to an all-in-one online solution will help GYM BC with insurance claims and premiums in the long run.
“In the event of an insurance claim, we are better able to defend the claims and our premiums are less likely to continue increasing. This has a very real effect to help us regulate fees to our members
This has been a huge shift in their operations but had become a necessity. Prior to using Activity Messenger, GYM BC had clubs using all different strategies to complete waivers with the majority still using paper and pen. 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, he says.
Activity Messenger is also now being used instead of MailChimp for broad weekly outreach to very specific targeted communications 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 level, Nathan 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 and help them save time, streamline processes and spend more time doing what they love: Coaching athletes.
“As a federation, Activity Messenger better enables us to help clubs become more efficient and save time with the different federated processes and obligations”
Although changing systems in a federation with as many 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 the customized changes just takes much longer and many times the immediate fire we are looking to address has already passed”, Nathan explains.
This high level of customer support has been very valuable in making sure the tool works well for GYM BC’s current and always evolving needs:
“We’re able to go to Activity Messenger, explain our needs and most times those conversations result in very fast collaborative conversation. Next thing you know, they added the new feature we were looking for.”
As Gym BC starts planning their upcoming season, they’re excited to streamline even more processes with Activity Messenger. In the next few weeks, Gym BC will start integrating the following features into their systems.
When the federation faces a new challenge or is trying to streamline outdated processes, Nigel, 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.”
With so many members in the province, offering streamlined digital waivers and communications, has simplified the process for everyone. As a Federation, “Helping our member clubs is at the core of our mission and Activity Messenger has helped us take our service to another level.
