Please note that the suggestions outlined below were those followed by the founding members of BWSA at the formation of the association in 1992. It is entirely up to you whether, and to what extent, you follow this procedure. It is important however to keep all financial matters correctly recorded; to elect a Treasurer for this purpose and to have your books checked and signed annually by a qualified accountant.

To start off, we suggest you should:

(1) Put an advertisement in your local paper/s stating what you aim to do and naming a venue, date and time for any interested people to meet up.

(2) From the people who turn up, form a committee i.e. Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary etc.

(3) Hold a Committee Meeting and decide your Constitution and Rules, your membership fees, frequency of your meetings and finally decide on the date and place of your next members' meeting.

(4) Advertise this meeting in the local paper/s and local radio/s. Get in touch with the sports desks at these papers and radio stations, tell them about yourselves and see if they will advertise your meetings on a regular basis. They usually do this for free on their sports pages and during their sports programmes.

(5) You will need to get application forms printed so that members can fill them in at your enrolment evening and/or at future meetings.

(6) When they are filled in you will need membership cards to give/send out to the members with a membership number. The members will then show these at every future meeting to gain admittance.

(7) Your Membership Secretary will need to record member's details and membership numbers in a book or computer database.

(8) Your Treasurer will have to set up an account in your club's name at a local bank. Usually your club cheques will require two or three signatures before they can be cashed, e.g. Chairman's, Secretary's, Treasurer's etc.

(9) Your Treasurer must also methodically record every financial transaction both incoming and outgoing in a book and this book must be audited by an independent, qualified accountant annually and the balance made known to your members at your Annual General Meeting.

(10) At your first proper members' meeting give members a copy of your Rules and Regulations and ask if they wish to pass them by a show of hands, (on agreement, changes can be made if necessary). We give out a copy of our Rules and Regulations to every new member. The rules are kept to, but they are not slabs of stone. They can be changed if the committee or members feel a change is necessary, but the changes must be put to the members at one of the members' meetings and passed by a show of hands.

(11a) As well as members' meetings, you will also have to continue to have regular Committee Meetings to gauge the progress of your group, plan your future membership meetings and discuss finance etc.

(11b) The Secretary must keep Minutes of these Committee Meetings and they are read and passed, if correct, at the next committee meeting.

(12) Once your group is up and running, if you would like it to be recognised as an official supporters' group by BWFC, you will need to become affiliated to our Association. We will explain the advantages and benefits this will give to your group when/if you are interested in becoming official. We hope this is of some help and guidance to you, but please don't be put off, this is only a guide. It is up to you how you form and run your own group and much will depend on its size and activities.

Good luck in your venture.