Standard Clubs - Adding a Club

This guide, part of the standard club setup series, takes you through the first key step: Adding a new Club and entering its basic details. These settings include the club's name, description, the students eligible to participate, and whether attendance needs to be recorded or parental consent is required.

This is the second guide in our series on setting up a standard club:

• Introduction 
• Adding a Club (You are here)
• Scheduling sessions
• Prices and memberships
• Managing participants
   

Step 1 - Selecting the Club Type

The first step is to create the club and define its basic information on the Clubs Dashboard (School > Activities > Clubs).

1. Click the green +Add button
2. Select whether the club will be a Paid Club or a Free Club (more on the difference between the two here)

Note: It's not possible to convert a free club to a paid club once it has been added, so please take a moment to choose the right option for your school.

Step 2 - Entering the Club's Details

A slide over will appear for you to enter the club's details. 

Enter the following required information:

• The club Name - This appears on the Club Dashboard and Parent Portal/App. Choose a name that is clear, unique, and suitable for admins and parents to identify easily.
• A short Description of the club (Optional) - Visible on the Parent Portal. Use this space to share club details, booking info, and important notes for all eligible students.
• The Pupils Eligible to attend - Eligible pupils are the students who can be signed up for the club. 
  • If a student is not eligible, neither parents nor admins can register them for the club. Click on the arrow for a drop-down list of choices, including custom groups for students attending next year. You can select multiple groups or individuals in one go
• The Maximum Number of Participants - This limits the number of students who can sign up for a club; leave this blank if there is no maximum. Once the maximum is reached for a club session, no further students can be signed up for that session.
  • Note: This number refers to the maximum number of students per club session,not the total number of students who attend the club at any given time.
• Whether Parental Consent is Required - Check this box to require parents to provide explicit consent for their child to participate in the activity. When checked, all sign-ups through the portal must include consent. Learn more about consent setup, including collection arrangements, here.
• Whether to Take Attendance or not - You must tick the box if you want to enable attendance taking for this club. If you tick this box, a register will be created for each club session.

Once you're happy with your choices, click the green Save button to continue to your newly created club's overview page. Your club will now also be listed on the Clubs Dashboard page.
 

(Optional) Customising Club Details

After creating your club, you can change the settings in the Club Details section of a Club's Overview page at any time.

Just click on one of the options with an arrow, make your edits on the slide-over and click Save Changes.

Take Attendance Date

You can also change the date you first started tracking attendance for the club, as this defaults to the start of the year. Usually, you would only begin taking attendance going forward from today. However, if you have old paper registers that you would like to transfer to Arbor, you will need to set this to a date in the past.

Note: If you have already started taking attendance for your club and you untick 'Take Attendance?' or change the 'Take Attendace From' date to a future date, the attendance you have already recorded will be lost.

Accounting Details

You can set a custom accounting code for the ease of tracking and reconciling payments made towards this club by clicking Accounting Code.

Remember to set this code following the agreed-upon rules and policies of your school. Leave the Accounting code empty to use the default accounting code for this club. The default accounting code is the one specified for the "Clubs" customer account type.

Club Leads

Use the +Add button to assign staff members to the club as a lead. These staff members will automatically be assigned club sessions if no staff members are selected when you schedule your sessions next.

This concludes the second guide in our series. With your basic club details added, you can now schedule sessions.