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School Spoon
As part of Spoon's 20th anniversary celebrations, we launched a new initiative to attract membership from young people. ‘School Spoon’, was launched at the Independent Prep Schools’ Conference in 2002.
The concept of School Spoon is very simple, schools who sign up are asked to mail their pupils’ parents with a donation request of £15 per child or £25 per family (ie two or more children). This is payable annually with the January school fees and will give their child(ren) automatic Wooden Spoon membership.
In return, the Wooden Spoon will give each participating school a free day of sports coaching which will include the appearance of a celebrity sports coach. The schools will also be given the option, for a modest fee, to sign up for Charter Membership of the Wooden Spoon for which they receive a plaque, presented to them at the sports coaching day by the attending celebrity.
Rose Tanner the organiser of the National Schools Sevens Tournament has been a great supporter of Spoon and has agreed that any school signing up to School Spoon and who is also entering the National School's Sevens will be eligible for the Endeavour Trophy. This will be presented to the school who has raised the most funds for the Wooden Spoon over the last year.
School Spoon is only one of the elements of our campaign to recruit young members; we are also looking at how we can serve the junior clubs. A similar scheme to School Spoon is under development and should be launched by the New Year.
We realise it is important to inspire and engage the youngsters who sign up. Their membership will include a baseball cap and membership card however we are exploring other ways we can make being a member of the Wooden Spoon worthwhile. We are approaching the Home Unions to explore participation in pre-match entertainment and use of our young members as mascots. We are asking current rugby players to contribute to an email newsletter/website specifically targeting young members. In addition, each of the regional committees will be encouraged to forge links with the schools to them the chance to get involved in the charitable work we do.
We have great hopes for this project. If you know of a school who might be interested in participating in this scheme or if you have any ideas that you would like to contribute, please email Tony Richards aarws@globalnet.co.uk or contact the Spoon office: charity@woodenspoon.com
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