Sports club membership form template

What’s in the template

• Member details and membership type. With a line pointing members who can’t afford the fee to a confidential contact.
• Emergency contact. Name, relationship and two phone numbers.
• Medical information. Optional, with explicit consent to hold it and share it with coaches and first aiders.
• Parent or carer (under 18s). Contact details, who may collect, consent to take part and to emergency treatment.
• Photos and keeping in touch. Separate choices for photos and video, and opt-in for news.
• Declaration and privacy notice. Agreement to the club rules, and how the club uses members’ information.

Ask for what you need, and say why

UK GDPR applies to clubs of every size. Collect only what you need to run the membership and keep people safe, tell members what you do with it, and keep it secure. The ICO has plain guidance for small organisations (ICO: advice for small organisations).

You don’t need consent for everything. Running someone’s membership is a contract, and keeping people safe at sessions is usually a legitimate interest (ICO: lawful basis). Use consent where a member has a genuine choice: photos, marketing emails and, usually, medical information.

Medical information is special category data

Health information is special category data, so the club needs both a lawful basis and an extra condition to hold it (ICO: special category data). For a club, explicit consent is usually the simplest condition. The form asks for it separately, makes the section optional, and says who will see the information.

Keep medical details where the coach in charge can reach them in an emergency, but nowhere else. A spreadsheet emailed round the committee is not secure.

Photos and junior members

Ask about photos as a separate choice, and let people change their mind. NSPCC Sport’s guidance is that a parent or carer consents for a child under 16 (NSPCC Sport). Never publish a junior member’s full name with their picture.

Does the club need to pay the ICO fee?

Many clubs don’t. The ICO exempts not-for-profit organisations that only process information to establish or maintain membership or support and to run activities for members, but a club that uses CCTV, for example, doesn’t qualify. Even if you are exempt, the rest of data protection law still applies (ICO: fee exemptions).

Common mistakes

• Bundling photo and marketing consent into the declaration so members can’t say no to one without leaving.
• Asking for medical details nobody uses, or that coaches can’t reach when they need them.
• Keeping paper forms in a coach’s car boot or a volunteer’s spare room.
• Keeping old members’ forms forever. Set a retention period and stick to it, except where safeguarding or accident records must be kept longer.
• Sharing members’ details with a sponsor without asking.

Questions

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