Improvements to competition hosting for British Weight Lifting members

British Weight Lifting now offers competition hosting opportunities to every current Licensed weightlifting club in the United Kingdom, along with a range of resources to help organisers run high quality competitions.

Since introducing the Tiered competition structure in 2016 and experiencing the significant positive feedback and growth in the number of competitions being run, British Weight Lifting has been working on improving access to competition hosting, and support to organisers.

Making it easier to apply to run a competition

It is now easier than ever for competition organisers to apply to run competitions through the BARS platform. Any Licensed Club with a valid British Weight Lifting membership can now submit a request to host an event directly through the system, which will then be reviewed by British Weight Lifting to determine the right level of support for the organiser and to ensure a well-balanced national spread of events.

Opening up the application process means that any club that can meet the requirements of running a Tier 3 competition now has the ability to apply directly to British Weight Lifting.
By better promoting the application process to run events, British Weight Lifting hopes to see a number of new competitions established, contributing to the already impressive growth of the weightlifting community.

This improved system comes at no extra cost to members and will be available 24/7, allowing you to apply in your own time and at your own convenience.

More support to organisers

In addition to opening up the application process, British Weight Lifting has recognised the need to provide more support and resources to maintain the high standard of competitions taking place, both for existing and new competition organisers.
A range of guidance documents and templates are now available within the support centre of the BARS platform and on the British Weight Lifting website. These documents include schedule and start list templates, risk assessment guidelines and more resources will be added in the future.
This additional support will ensure weightlifting continues to be a safe and well governed sport that meets the conditions to receive public funding.

Why run a Tier 3 event through BARS?

BARS is the central hub for the weightlifting community so running an event on BARS instantly promotes your event to the vast majority of the weightlifters in Great Britain.
Hosting competitions is a good way to generate funds for your club which can then be used to re-invest in equipment, running costs and attending other competitions.
Another major benefit is that running a competition on BARS gives your club lifters, as well as others, the chance to qualify for national events. Every BARS competition is eligible for lifters to set national records, achieve qualification standards and all results feature on the British Weight Lifting ranking lists.
In addition, every event registered on BARS is automatically notified to UK Anti-Doping, helping to keep our sport clean, safe and fair.

Quicker payment speeds

Listening to the feedback from existing competition organisers, British Weight Lifting has been working towards improving the speed of payments for entry fees to organiser. We are pleased to announce that with immediate effect the organiser will now receive entry fee payments on a 7-day rolling basis. This means that if an entry fee is received on BARS on the 1st of the month, it will reach the organisers Stripe account on the 8th of the month.
This improvement also means that event organisers no longer have to request a financial report and provide bank details for each event. Instead, organisers will need to complete a one-off setup of a Stripe account where all entry fees will be automatically transferred. Organisers will then be able to withdraw the money from their Stripe account whenever they choose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Stripe and why do I need it?

A. Stripe is the online payment gateway that British Weight Lifting uses within BARS to process payments. You need to have a Stripe account to directly receive money from the platform.

Q.How do I manage my stripe account? Is it complicated?

A.When you apply to run an event through BARS you will be prompted to create a Stripe account, it only takes a few minutes and you only have to do it once, not every time you run an event.

Watch this short video from the platform provider of how to connect a Stripe account- vimeo.com/316749490/a328aa26ec

Q.How much will it cost?

A.All fees linked to running a Tier 3 event can be found in the Terms and Conditions.

Q.I’ve got an event registered on BARS already, will the payment change apply to this event?

A.No, any events that are already registered will still have the up to 30-day payment period. Only events registered after the changeover date March 21 will be able to take advantage of the quicker payment process.

Q.Why is it only Licensed Clubs that can run events, why not individuals?

A.There are two key reasons that only Licensed Clubs can run Tier 3 events. The first and most important is that every Licensed Club must have at least Level 2 Licensed Coach working within it. Given the British Weight Lifting rule that only L2 or higher qualified coaches can enter the warm up room at competitions, it is appropriate that every competition organiser should be involved in a club with at least one Level 2 Licensed coach.

The second reason is to safeguard individuals and clubs from during the event management process.  Licensed Clubs are insured under the British Weight Lifting policy to deliver competitions. It is important that events are registered by the club, rather than an individual to protect any volunteers involved in organising the event who may not be members of British Weight Lifting, but who are members of the club.

It also ensures that the payments for each event are correctly paid into a designated club bank account setup by the club secretary

Q.Will I be able to issue refunds?

A.Yes, you will have access to an admin panel which displays all the payments you have collected. This will include the ability to make full or partial refunds, and because the system is aware of amounts taken, you can never refund too much money.

Q.Will an entry be cancelled if I issue a refund?

A.Yes, if you refund an entry fee, the entry will be cancelled. Remember to refund all line items on a booking to ensure the individual is completely remove from all elements of the event.

Q.How do I see payments?

A.You will be able to see all the payments processed in your Stripe admin panel which also offers the ability to generate payment reports with information on funds received.

Q.How will payments show in my bank account?

A.You can choose how payments appear on your bank statement during the Stripe account set up process.

For more information on the improvements and support available to competition organisers, or to find out more about running a competition for the first time please contact British Weight Lifting on 01132 249 402 or email competitions@britishweightlifting.org