Set up a youth program
What you’ll achieve: parents can join your club, register their children in one go, land in the right training group, and pay for the sessions those children attend.
Prerequisites: your club is created and, if families pay online, Stripe is connected.
1. Build one group per training slot
Section titled “1. Build one group per training slot”Everything else hangs off your groups, so start here.
A member group — also called a training group — is simply a named list of the players who train together: “Kids Beginners”, “U14 Competition”, “U18 Team”. Create one for each real slot in your week, rather than a single group called “Youth”. The group is what you will later attach to each training session to decide who may book it, so it should match reality: one group = one set of children who turn up at the same time.
Each group carries the information a parent needs in order to choose:
- Training schedule — the weekday slots and start/end times.
- Level — the club level the group trains at.
- Coaches, location and a photo.
- Group status — Looking for players, Looking for substitutes, Full or Archived.
Set the privacy settings on each group deliberately. A group that families should be able to discover and choose needs Group visible to public; leave it off and the group’s details stay hidden from anyone who isn’t already in it. Club members visible to public additionally publishes the named coaches.
Put the children into the group
Section titled “Put the children into the group”A group is only useful once it has people in it, and the club is what puts them there. Save the group and a Members section appears underneath it: add each child who trains in that slot, and move people between members, waitlist and interested as places free up. A Share button copies a join link if you’d rather families ask to join and you approve them.
By the end of this step, “U14 Competition” should literally be the ten or so children who show up on Tuesday evening. Full detail: groups & coaches.
2. Restrict each training to its group — not to a level
Section titled “2. Restrict each training to its group — not to a level”When you upload a training session, you decide who is allowed to reserve a spot. Volley World gives you two different tools for that, and for a youth program you almost always want the first one.
Member group access — “these particular children”
Section titled “Member group access — “these particular children””In the event editor, open Advanced Options and switch on Exclusive access for fix training/member groups. Choose the coach, their groups appear as cards, and you tick Free access (that group can book straight away) or Preferred access (that group gets priority while everyone else waits). Anyone who isn’t in an allowed group lands on the waitlist instead of taking a place.
This is exactly what a youth session needs. The same eight to ten children attend the same slot every week, and you already listed them in step 1 — so attaching that group to the event means those children, and only those children, can reserve. See member access.
Level restriction — “anyone of this standard”
Section titled “Level restriction — “anyone of this standard””Also under Advanced Options, Level Restriction limits an event by playing standard rather than by name: a range on the Volley World scale, or one of your own club levels.
That fits an open session. If you have a hundred intermediate adults in the club and you want all of them to be able to book Thursday’s intermediate training while beginners cannot, a level restriction does it in one setting — nobody wants to maintain a list of a hundred names. See level restrictions.
For youth trainings, use the group alone
Section titled “For youth trainings, use the group alone”| Situation | What to use |
|---|---|
| The same small group of children attends the same slot every week | Member group access only |
| Any player of a given standard may come | Level restriction |
The short version: if you can name the players, use the group. If you can only describe them, use the level. Youth programs are almost always the first case.
3. Add the children question to your membership form
Section titled “3. Add the children question to your membership form”This is what turns a parent’s club application into registered children. On your membership form, add a question of type Add Children.
- Open Forms, edit your membership form and add a question.
- Set the question type to Add Children. (It is a membership-form concept and is not offered on competition sign-up forms.)
- Under Child fields configuration, choose what each child row asks for. First Name, Last Name and Password are always collected. You can additionally switch on Collect email, Collect birthday and Collect phone number.
- Set Max children — how many children one parent may register in a single submission.
Collect email is on by default and is worth keeping: an email is what lets the child have a login of their own. If you turn it off, a placeholder address is assigned instead and the child ends up with a profile the parent operates.
When a parent submits the form, Volley World creates each child, links them to the parent, and files them in your club as a pending member with the family role Child — the parent’s own file is stamped Parent in the same family. Approve them like any other request under approve requests.
4. Decide what a family pays
Section titled “4. Decide what a family pays”Children pay through the same products as everyone else — you decide which ones the youth section uses:
- Subscriptions for a recurring monthly membership per child.
- Session packs for a block of classes to use up.
- Single tickets for pay-per-class.
- Licences where a federation licence applies.
The parent buys each of these for a specific child, so a family with three children in three groups can hold three different arrangements on one adult account.
5. Record families you enrolled by hand
Section titled “5. Record families you enrolled by hand”Children already in your club from before, or registered at the desk, can be connected on the member file itself: open the member, go to the Family tab and add the relation. See families.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”The children were created but aren’t in the club yet
They are — as pending members. Youth registrations wait for approval like any other join request. Check approve requests.