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Guide ​

This guide covers three surfaces: the admin panel, where a committee sets the club up and runs a season; the volunteer console, where day-to-day work happens on a phone; and what your members see. Pages are grouped by who does the work, so the quickest way in is to start from your role.

New to RunClub HQ? ​

If your club is trialling RunClub HQ, start with Running a pilot — a step-by-step first hour that covers what is switched on, what is deliberately switched off, and the order that keeps a trial safe.

Moving your club to RunClub HQ covers the other half of starting up: what comes across from England Athletics, a spreadsheet, another membership system, GoCardless or an old WordPress site, and who does each part.

When the pilot has done its job, Going live is the readiness checklist we work through together, what changes at the moment we promote your club, and how billing works from then on.

Start here: by role ​

Not sure what you should be looking at? Pick the role that matches the hat you're wearing. A person can hold more than one.

  • I run the club (Club Admin) — full access, in the admin panel and the volunteer console alike: members, renewals, payments, events, settings and communications. Start with Members and households.
  • I look after members (Membership Manager) — day-to-day member and renewal work, in the admin panel and the console's Members and Performance sections, without touching club settings. Start with Members and households → Renewals.
  • I handle welfare (Welfare Officer) — emergency and medical information, in the admin panel and the console's Members section. Start with the Welfare officer page.
  • I run event check-in (Check-in Manager) — the console only, from a phone on the night. Start with the Check-in page.
  • I keep the club records (Records Manager) — the console's Performance section, results and record submissions. Start with Results and club records.
  • I review submitted results (Results Reviewer) — the console's Performance section, results only, not club records. Start with Reviewing results and records.
  • I run events (Events Manager) — the admin panel's Events area and the console's Events section. Start with Events.
  • I handle communications and content (Content Manager) — the admin panel's Content and Communications areas and the console's Content and Messages sections. Start with Communications.
  • I look after the money (Treasurer) — the admin panel's Finance area and the console's Finances section. Start with Payments and invoices and Finances.
  • I only need to see reports (Viewer) — read-only, across the volunteer console. Start with Club at a Glance.
  • I'm a member — see What your members see.

For a full breakdown of what each role can and cannot do, read Roles. If a term on these pages is unfamiliar, check the Glossary. If something is broken, the Troubleshooting page is the single place to start. If you want step-by-step how-tos for specific jobs, the Recipes section is organised by task.

Running the club ​

The admin panel is where the committee sets the club up and does bulk or structural work, on a laptop.

Member lifecycle ​

  • Members and households — Creating, editing and managing member profiles, households, emergency information and affiliations
  • Subscriptions and seasons — Season-based memberships, fee configuration and payment plans
  • Renewals — Annual renewal campaigns, household renewal status, grace / lapsed / resigned phases and automated reminders
  • Consents — Collecting GDPR, code of conduct and photography consents with a full audit trail

Money ​

  • Payments and invoices — Direct Debit and card payment setup, invoices, refunds and failed-payment handling
  • Finances — The treasurer's season report: where a season's money is, without keying anything in

Club activity ​

  • Events — Quick Create and Advanced Event wizards, recurring series, team management, attendance tracking and event check-in
  • Results and club records — Competition formats, age categories, record applications and admin review
  • Your club website — Public pages and sections, news, documents, team bios, navigation, branding and the publish/schedule model

Communication ​

  • Communications — Branded email templates, merge tags, member inbox and audit trail
  • Custom email domain — Send club emails from your own domain: DNS setup, the enable switch and automatic fallback
  • Mailing lists — Closed email lists members post to from their own inbox: forwarding setup, moderation and member opt-outs
  • Support — Member support requests and the staff workflow for resolving them
  • Polls — Ask members a question and see the results back in Club at a Glance

Records and exports ​

Day to day ​

The volunteer console is where the recurring work happens, mostly on a phone: check-in, welfare, results and records, expense claims, support and Club at a Glance. See Check-in, Welfare officer and Club at a Glance.

For your members ​

Members don't read this guide — they use the help library inside the member app. If you want to see what they see, start with What your members see.

Need help? ​

If you can't find what you're looking for:

  • Read the Support guide for the built-in support workflow your members use
  • Read Getting help for how your committee reaches RunClub HQ, and what to include
  • Open an issue on GitHub if you think this documentation is wrong or missing something

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