athletesDirect - Athletes

Athletes

Are you interested in visiting schools to inspire young people?

We require you to be:

a) a Sports Person with International Honours at either Junior or Senior level. We welcome both current and retired athletes.
b) have short testimonials from 3 previous visits to schools.

Please apply by completing the on-line profile, accessed via the Athletes page on the home page of this site.

This athletesDIRECT regsitration and booking service is currently run for free by the British Athletes Commission. We actively encourage all athletesDIRECT visitors to be paid up members of the BAC, to support the running of the scheme. More information on the financial benefits of BAC membership can be found on www.britishathletes.org/

Please read the notes below for information on the scheme registration, operational procedures and expectations from you, the visitor.

NOTES for Athletes

athletesDIRECT is a quality assured athlete introduction service for schools.

Athlete visitors are expected to respond to all event invitations within 6 days plus complete the whole on-line booking process, including feedback when they undertake a visit.

Athletes are asked to check the dress code and formalities of any event, plus act in a professional manner at all times.

Athletes are not expected to at any time be left alone with young people, and the organisers have been made aware of this.

There are two sections to the website for athletes;

My Profile

This is the registration form. It can be amended by you at any time. Information from this profile is used at different times during the booking process. the Athlete List on this puiblic site publishes your name, sport, year of birth, level of competition and an image. The registered schools can view, more of your profile including:-

Sport details
Medals & Achievements
Images
Biography
Testimonials & visiting experience

Your email and phone contact details are only released to a school when you reply indicating interest in their invitation. Hopefully the school will contact you to chat about the visit before making their selection of visitor. Please keep your email and SMS details up to date, or the visit requests will be sent to the wrong destination.
All other information is confidential and purely for the purposes of the scheme adminstrator.
Access to your athletesDIRECT PROFILE PAGE, is only possible using your login details.

My Bookings;

This section allows you to manage your invitations. Using this page you can;

view your invitations and the event details.
indicate your availability for the event, amend your proposed fee and travel expenses.
decline a visit invitation.
confirm your commitment to an event when you are selected as the preferred visitor .
provide your very brief evaluation for the visit .
view your booking history.

THE PROCESS for registering and replying to visit requests

Registration

Register your name and email contact. You will receive an automated confirmation message.
Complete the on-line registration profile pages, including images.
You can save and come back to the profile at any time, by logging in and returning to My Profile. You may complete the sections in any order, use the left-hand tabs to navigate between sections.
NB: REMEMBER TO CLICK the 'Apply Change' button at THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE WHEN YOU ENTER DATA, before you move to the next section. If you do not, your information will not be saved. this appliles to both registering for the first time and when you amend your details.
When typing in text or copying across text, please check there are only single spaces infront, inbetween, or after words / sentences /paragraphs. The message "double spacing" will appear to indicate the error.
Submit the completed form and await an email from the administrator to say your account has been enabled.

Replying to Visit Invitations

You will receive an automated email, SMS, or both, to say that you have an event invitation on your My bookings page.
Log in > My Bookings: Read the visit details and Accept or Decline the visit.
- If you Accept the visit; complete the confirmation page amending details of your fee and travel expenses for this particular visit. These will be sent to the school along with your contact details. Hopefully the school will call you for a quick chat before selecting their athlete.
- If you Decline the invitation, the school will be notified. PLEASE decline invitations, as this is very important to the school and ultimately both your professional reputation and that of the scheme.
If you are selected as the most appropriate athlete to attend this particular event, you will receive an automated SMS / email prompt to let you know there is an event confirmation on your web page. PLEASE login and click your confirmation, committing yourself to attend the event.
If you are not selected, the event will register as "Invitation Withdrawn" next time you log in.

After the visit

Send your Invoice directly to the school.
Complete the very brief evaluation on the website using Login > My Bookings > the event >Leave Feedback. VERY IMPORTANT for reports to potential sponsors.

Your Fee:

As an athlete registering with the scheme you are agreeing to offer your services for between £100 - £300 (+ travel expenses.)

The exact amount is negotiated between you and the school, and should be based on your level of experience and the requirements of the visit. If they want you to hand out certificates and talk for 5 minutes at an hours prize giving, this is less demanding than a 4 to 5 hour visit that requires you to deliver 3 or 4 interactive presentations to G&T and GCSE PE groups, and your fee should reflect this.

You can display your proposed travel expenses, in addition to your fee. Mileage rates vary between 0.20ppm to 0.40ppm. NB THE MILEAGE SHOWN ON THE WEBSITE IS A GUIDE FOR THE DISTANCE ONE-WAY AND AS THE CROW-FLIES i.e. in a straight line between the two postcodes. PLEASE remember this when calculating your travel. The multi-map link will take you to the page to calculate the road distance.

Open Bids

There maybe occasions when the visit is flagged as an Independent School or Profit Making Organisation. This entitles you to submit your current market value fee for the visit. There is no longer the £300 restriction.

Images:

For images on the website it is advisable to crop into a square and then reduce to about 136 x136 pixels, before you upload to your registration page. This stops the webiste squashing the image and provides instant upload for the schools interesed in your biography. jpeg format appears preferable. If you have difficulty with your images, email the originals to the administrator who will happily re-size and upload to your profile for you.

If possible provide action photos plus either a head and shoulders (with medals for example), or a picture of you speaking at an event.

Remember you cannot show faces of children in your picture unless you have parental agreement. All photos must be copyright free as they will be published on the public web. It is also important that the Olympic rings are not evident in the picture – there are strict copyrights on the display of the Olympic rings! (sorry)

the adminstrator will also ask for you to email one action image to be used on your space in the Athlete List on this public viewing side of the site.

Hints on getting the most from this site:

Keep your email and SMS contact details up to date on the site.
Be quick to reply to school requests, as many schools accept the first athlete that replies.
A quick call / email to the school to say you have replied to their invitation, can also be a positive move.
Sell yourself in the Profile sections - your biography of your accomplishments, testimonials / images etc.
Update your testimonials and visit experience.
Be realistic with your fees, amending them to the demands of the visit.
Put a date by which you would like to hear back from the school regarding your offer. (use the comment text box).This allows you to feasibly release that date in your diary if the reply is overdue. Allow at least 3 weeks to give schools time to collate responses and get a decision from their organising committee.
Give the school a prompting call if you have not heard anything after 3 weeks.

Remember athletesDIRECT is an introduction service and you are responsible for all arrangements regarding the visit with the school. You are also responsible for any invoicing or tax liability.

Any queries contact Susanne at British Athletes Commission Office via admin@athletesdirect.org