Start Archery Week gives the archery community the annual opportunity to come together and celebrate our great sport, with clubs and archery providers opening their doors for new people to start their archery journey. And your club or organisation gets to be part of that.
This page is mostly for clubs and our partners who are planning events. If you're a new archer or are interested in attending an event, picking up a bow and having a go, you’ll be able to discover experiences near you, find out what to expect from attending a Start Archery Week event, and read more about the sport over on our other website, Start Archery.
This year Start Archery Week will take place from Saturday 4 May to Sunday 12 May. That's nine days to welcome as many people as possible and give them the chance to try our wonderful sport.
The theme for this year's Week is mental health. Most archers say that archery has helped them in one way or another, whether that's improving focus, teaching calm or just getting out of the house and making friends. But this year we'd like our clubs and organisations to shout about just how good our sport is for mental health and wellbeing. Right up until the end of Start Archery Week we'll be sharing member's personal stories about how archery has helped them through hard times or given them a small break from daily stresses. We've also added a list of suggestions to the SAW Toolkit (see below) for how you can incorporate good mental wellbeing into your event, and some sharable mental health resources for you to add to your website.
Of course, with this being an Olympic and Paralympic year, we can't let that slip by without a mention either. Start Archery Week will also officially kick-off Aim for Paris, our summer of celebratory events leading up to the Games. There'll be more information on this coming in the next few months, but we've included a list of suggestions for incorporating Olympic and Paralympic themes into your event in the Toolkit.
If you've started planning your event already, and you've got the details ready to go, then you can sign up now!
For clubs, you'll need to sign up through the Club Management System (CMS) in Sport:80. By doing so, we can make sure that not only do you get the right support from your Regional Development Officer, but your event will appear on our Experience Finder over on Start Archery, which is viewed by a whopping 25,000 people each week! Here's a quick guide to how to add your event:
Log into your club profile on the membership portal
Click ‘Access AGB CMS’ on the left-hand menu
From the menu, choose ‘Bookings’ and ‘Add new’
Enter a title, select the location, choose the activity category from the drop-down menu – ‘have-a-go’, for example – then click ‘Create’
Tap ‘Make Public Event’ on the ‘Basic Details’ page – all Start Archery Week events must be made public
Type ‘archery’ in the ‘Activity’ box
Fill in every box – set any age restrictions and add accessibility details under ‘Supported disabilities’
Click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page
Click the ‘Schedule’ tab at the top, then click the red plus symbol to add event details
Enter a start date, end date, start time and duration (of the whole event), and the day of the week. Unless you are taking payments for bookings, make one entry per day
Check details by clicking the three dots next to the ‘Save’ button on the top right, then ‘Sessions’. Click the pencil icon to edit
If you've not quite got to grips with adding your event to the CMS, that's fine. We've created a video to help you add your event. To access the CMS, log into the members’ portal as a club admin or super admin and select 'Access AGB CMS' and then follow the steps in the webinar below.
If you would like any extra support setting up your club on the CMS or adding your Start Archery Week event details, please contact your Regional Development Officer
Because it's also a Games year, we're getting our athletes and ambassadors involved too, which means we'll be looking at the Experience Finder to find amazing events to send them to. Want a visit from a Paralympian or a member of the GB Youth Squad at your event? Then add your event to the CMS and make sure your event has 'Make Public Event' selected - this means your booking is shared in the Open Active platform ensuring maximum online promotion of your hard-planned events - and we'll see how many athletes and events we can match up. Even if your event is closed to the public, signing up means you're going to be spotted by members of the public, and we can still help you with support, promotion and merchandise.
For Archery Activity Partners and schools, you won't be able to access the CMS, but we can still help promote your event. Sign up using this form, and we'll add your event to our AAP and School Google Map, which is shared to the Start Archery Week page on our Start Archery website.
In 2023, Rugby Archers unveiled their inaugural Start Archery Week event. With no previous experience in hosting such an event, the club stepped onto the field not knowing what to expect. What transpired was nothing short of spectacular.
They kept the event simple, deciding to run it as a have-a-go where anyone could drop by between 10:30am and 4:30pm and try archery, talk to club members, and find out more about the sport, trying to provide a fun, accessible and inclusive experience for all. They decided to charge a suggested fee of £2 per person to try and cover their costs, and anything above that would be given to Macmillan Cancer Support.
To say it was a hit would be an understatement. Over 150 eager individuals turned up, brimming with curiosity and enthusiasm, ready to take their shot at archery. And they ended up raising almost £200 for Macmillan.
Deciding that the event would be a good time to announce their summer beginners’ courses, they took along a signup sheet and poster of dates and prices, so that anyone who wanted to sign up at the event could. They expected some interest. Within the first two hours the club had sold out every space on all three of their courses, showing the overwhelming demand for archery in the local community and a clear testament to the appeal of the sport. The enthusiasm didn't stop there. Rugby Archers were inundated with requests from those who had missed out on a beginner’s course place. They now boast a waiting list that stretches to nearly 100 people eagerly awaiting their turn to try their hand at archery.
With the overwhelming success of their first event, Rugby Archers is already looking forward to their next Start Archery Week open day. This time, they're committed to having more volunteers on hand to ensure every participant gets the support they need to learn and enjoy archery fully. The club's dedication to promoting the sport is evident, and they are excited to bring even more individuals into the fold.
Balloons, card games and charity fundraising at Rugby Archers.
We've put together a Toolkit for you to use to plan and promote your event.
It includes the Participant Form that every attendee to your event should fill out and a preparation checklist to make sure you've thought of everything before, during and after your big day. There's also a template press release for you to send out to local news and radio stations to help get your event the publicity it deserves, and we've included a couple more things like some brand new posters for 2024, some social media images and a few suggestions for eye-catching captions to go with them. Click on the link below to get your hands on the Swiss-army knife of event preparation.
Our Club Shop is fully restocked and waiting. Need a personalised poster for your event? We've got you covered. Want some ground flags to get your event noticed? We've got those too. You can even get your hands on some lovely bunting to help lead the way to your event, or make a child's day with a delightful arrow-shaped pencil - in fact, these were so popular that we sold over a 1,400 of them last year!
Your Regional Development Officers are the best people to contact. Between them, they've helped organise hundreds of events up and down the country. In fact, we'd go out on a limb and say they're pretty much the experts in this, so don't be afraid to get in touch with them.
You can also catch up on our 2023 event organisers' meeting to get some ideas on running a successful Start Archery Week event.
Start Archery Week 2023 took place from 6-14 May and here are some key stats from the 2023 event:
View the map below to see where events were held:
