Sporting Memories Foundation WSA Membership Testimonial
Kelly Hart, Fundraising Manager at the Sporting Memories Foundation, has spoken to the Welsh Sports Association (WSA) about how membership has been a support to her organisation.
Kelly explained why the SMF signed up to membership.
Up until a few years ago we weren’t present in Wales, but we then got funding to start Sporting Memories clubs in the country. Part of that meant we recruited a lot of volunteers and therefore required a lot of DBS checks to be carried out – that was the key thing.
People signposted us to the WSA saying that they were the best organisation for this, so we hunted them down and had conversations which were really helpful. I was told about all the benefits that the WSA’s service has, and it just seemed right; we’ve had a really good process ever since.
Kelly continued to detail the benefits that her organisation has felt from the DBS process.
The Sporting Memories Foundation isn’t office-based, and our staff are all dotted around the UK, so what’s been really useful has been having the access for different people across different areas on one system onto which multiple people can log-in!
It’s meant that the whole thing hasn’t been going through one person and we can spread the workload out, with local people carrying out DBS checks for their local volunteers – that’s really, really helped.
Furthermore, whenever we have had issues or couldn’t get something to work, the WSA has been really quick to respond. Steffan, to whom we’ve put forward most of our queries, has been rapid in replying and has always been straightforward when explaining things to us – he’s been brilliant!
In all, their service has been slick, efficient, and easy for us to use.
Kelly went on to summarise what her experience with the WSA.
It can sometimes feel like a massive organisation, but the WSA certainly look out for and take care of you; in my experience of liaising with them, it feels like they remember you, which is nice.
I’d definitely recommend the WSA. For the services accessible through membership and for the amount that we pay each year, I think it’s really good value for money.
We know that they’re there behind us should we need support at any given time; it’s nice to be a part of that bigger network.
Visit our Member Benefits page to see the full range of benefits of membership.
To discover how to sign up to the WSA, check out our Become a Member page.
And to hear what other organisations have to say about their experiences with the WSA, visit our Membership Testimonials page.