Cambridge Boston Volleyball Association: A Community-Driven league grows with TeamArrange

League History

CBVA is an LGBTQ+-focused volleyball league which has been operating since 1984, and offers pickup volleyball with the goal of bringing its community together through competitive and friendly games. Play is facilitated by a court manager who creates the teams for the day depending on the players who sign up.

Before TeamArrange, it used a manual, paper-based process to create balanced teams based on a rough idea of each player's ability, strengths, and preferred position on the court. As the popularity of the league grew, the task of creating teams became particularly challenging. This system was impractical for new court managers who didn't know the growing membership well and it was not easy to form balanced teams.

Efficiency through technology

Years ago, TeamArrange enabled CBVA to create teams and schedule sessions, replacing a time-consuming and cumbersome process with an efficient and effective online solution. This made it much easier to onboard new volunteer court managers, increasing involvement in the league.

TeamArrange created a new system to help anyone create balanced and fair volleyball teams based on player rating and preferred volleyball position. It did this by helping the court manager visualize each team in terms of the players' ratings and whether or not the volleyball positions are filled by people who want to play those positions.

The pandemic changes things once again

In 2020, the world was shaken by the COVID 19 pandemic and CBVA had to put its offerings on hold.

The following year, CBVA saw an opportunity emerge with gym space becoming available again. The organization had been cash-based with players paying as they arrived but this had become a challenge and liability. Receiving cash slowed down the process of welcoming players, and the cash had to be physically taken to the bank after play.

In addition, the pandemic presented new concern around cleanliness and there was skepticism from players and volunteers around cash.

TeamArrange again helped CBVA to modernize. It added new functionality to allow players pre-register in advance on TeamArrange.com, paying for their spot with a credit card.

"We are an entirely volunteer managed volleyball organization with ~450 active members. Switching to TeamArrange has enabled us to streamline our operations (we offer an open gym format which is very challenging to manage typically), expand our offerings, and dramatically simplify our bookkeeping. TeamArrange is enabling our growth, and has improved the player experience more than we thought possible." -Dietrich Warner, CBVA Commissioner 2019-Present

From a financials perspective, the change to TeamArrange meant that there was no more need for trips to the bank. At the end of the year, CBVA now gets a form 1099-K every year summarizing funds received, making taxes a breeze.

"TeamArrange has been a massive boon to our organization, from simplifying the move to being cashless during the pandemic to making the tracking of our finances much simpler. The collation of multiple transactions into one lump payment into our accounts has greatly simplified our accounting and made the process of tax preparation exponentially easier." -Mark Fulton, CBVA Treasurer

"TeamArrange is a game changer for the sports community. For open gyms, it vastly simplifies the sign up and payment experience by eliminating the rush to the gym (hoping there's still an open spot) and hassle of making a payment (especially if it's cash only). Once registered, you simply show up and get ready to play. It also provides a handy roster with positions and play schedule right on your mobile, which is huge benefit for those challenged with remembering names and memorizing details (where are we playing now?). It is continually adding features, such as allowing you to record game scores. This is a nice feature for tournaments to track your standings, eliminating the need to hunt around for the paper standings or rely on your memory." -Willy Chung, CBVA Player

With TeamArrange, the focus is on bringing people together through volleyball and community, not on administration and organization.

Let us talk with you about how we can help you streamline your sports league. Contact us.