Welcome to Teamwork in Event Management!
Planning, organising, and running a successful sports or active leisure event is never a one-person job. Whether it is a charity 5-a-side football tournament, a school sports day, or a regional swimming gala, success depends entirely on how well people work together. In your CCEA A2 1 Internal Assessment Portfolio (which makes up 36% of your total A Level), you will not just be evaluated on the sporting results of your tournament; you will be assessed on how effectively your management committee plans, negotiates, communicates, and delivers the event as a unified team.
Don't worry if teamwork concepts seem slightly theoretical at first. In these notes, we will break down team dynamics, committee structures, and the exact evidence you need to include in your portfolio to secure top marks.
1. Tuckman's Stages of Group Development
When a new event management committee is formed, people do not instantly work together like a well-oiled machine. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman identified five distinct stages that groups go through as they develop. Understanding these stages will help you analyse your own team's journey in your portfolio evaluation.
Memory Trick: Remember Fast Sports Need Perfect Athletes → Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning.
Stage 1: Forming
This is the orientation stage. Committee members meet for the first time to explore the project. Interactions are usually polite, cautious, and positive because people want to make a good impression.
• What happens in event management: You establish ground rules, outline the event brief (e.g., a multi-skills sports festival for Year 8 students), discuss initial ideas, and clarify personal expectations.
Stage 2: Storming
As team members start sharing their true opinions, interpersonal conflict often emerges. Individuals test boundaries, debate leadership, dispute how roles are allocated, and disagree on event priorities (such as venue choice or ticket pricing).
• What happens in event management: Disagreements arise over who gets to lead specific areas (e.g., Marketing vs. Logistics) or how the budget should be spent.
• Examiner Tip: Do not hide conflicts in your portfolio! Examiners reward candidates who honestly identify the 'storming' stage and explain how professional communication resolved the issue.
Stage 3: Norming
Conflict gives way to consensus and cohesion. The team agrees on standards of behaviour, workflows, communication channels (such as weekly formal meetings), and shared objectives.
• What happens in event management: Individual committee roles are finalised, respect for the Team Leader is established, and members begin supporting one another willingly.
Stage 4: Performing
The team reaches a state of high autonomy, trust, and synergy. Energy is directed entirely toward executing tasks efficiently without internal friction.
• What happens in event management: The team smoothly handles final pre-event preparations and runs the operational day of the event (managing registrations, directing referees, maintaining safety protocols, and handling sudden schedule changes).
Stage 5: Adjourning (or Mourning)
The project concludes, the event is complete, and the committee prepares to disband.
• What happens in event management: Venue cleanup, returning hired sports equipment, completing financial accounts, holding a post-event debrief meeting, and writing the final evaluation report.
Key Takeaway for Tuckman's Model: Group conflict during the planning stages is completely normal. High-performing event teams reach success by moving past 'storming' through clear communication and established 'norms'.
2. Belbin's Team Roles in Event Committees
Dr Meredith Belbin discovered that balanced teams require a mix of distinct behavioural strengths. Belbin categorised these into nine roles across three major groups: Action-Oriented, People-Oriented, and Thought-Oriented.
A. Action-Oriented Roles (Getting Things Done)
1. Shaper: A dynamic, driven individual who thrives under pressure. They push the team forward and overcome obstacles, ensuring the committee stays focused on milestones.
2. Implementer: The practical organiser. They take theoretical ideas and turn them into workable, step-by-step action plans (e.g., drafting the minute-by-minute fixture schedule).
3. Completer-Finisher: The perfectionist who spots errors, checks details, and ensures strict adherence to deadlines and quality standards (e.g., proofreading risk assessment forms and scorecards).
B. People-Oriented Roles (Bringing People Together)
1. Coordinator: A mature and confident chairperson who clarifies event goals, encourages decision-making, and delegates work fairly across the committee.
2. Teamworker: A perceptive, mild-mannered diplomat who fosters team harmony, listens actively, and diffuses interpersonal friction during heated planning sessions.
3. Resource Investigator: The enthusiastic networker who gathers external intelligence, contacts external sports facility managers, secures sponsor prizes, and negotiates equipment hire.
C. Thought-Oriented Roles (Ideas and Analysis)
1. Plant: The creative innovator who comes up with original solutions when problems arise (e.g., inventing a modified round-robin tournament structure when bad weather cancels outdoor pitches).
2. Monitor-Evaluator: The logical, critical thinker who objectively weighs up all options without bias, assessing whether proposals are financially and logistically realistic.
3. Specialist: The expert who provides technical, specialized knowledge (e.g., understanding governing body refereeing rules, sports scoring software, or first-aid protocols).
Key Takeaway for Belbin: A successful leisure management committee needs a balance of thinkers, doers, and communicators. An event team made up only of "Plants" will have endless ideas but may never finish the risk assessment!
3. Operational Committee Hierarchy and Roles
To successfully plan and execute a leisure event, the management committee must establish a clear hierarchy. Every student must take on specific operational responsibilities.
1. Event Coordinator / Team Leader:
Provides overall direction and leadership. Acts as the primary liaison with teaching staff and leisure centre management. Chairs formal meetings, monitors master timelines, and ensures all committee members meet their agreed milestones.
2. Health & Safety / Risk Assessment Officer:
Conducts pre-event venue safety audits, identifies hazards, and formulates risk mitigation strategies. Prepares the Emergency Action Plan (EAP), verifies first aid provision, and briefs participants and marshals on safety procedures.
3. Marketing & Promotion Lead:
Defines the target audience, designs promotional materials (digital announcements, posters, social notices), manages participant registration forms, and coordinates media/photography consent.
4. Finance / Budget Lead:
Establishes the initial projected budget, tracks all income (entry fees, sponsorship) and expenditures (facility hire, medals, bibs), maintains accurate receipt records, and produces a final financial balance sheet.
5. Logistics & Equipment Officer:
Coordinates venue bookings, creates sports equipment inventories, manages the physical set-up and teardown of pitches/courts, and organises signage and transition zones.
6. Officials & Marshalling Coordinator:
Recruits and assigns referees, umpires, scorekeepers, and timekeepers. Runs pre-event briefings for stewards and marshals to ensure rules are enforced consistently.
Key Takeaway: Clear role allocation prevents overlapping duties and ensures accountability. Every committee member has a defined area of ownership while working toward a common goal.
4. Team Communication, Monitoring, and Portfolio Evidence
In Unit A2 1, the CCEA moderator needs to see written proof of active teamwork and communication. You cannot simply state that your team "communicated well" — you must provide evidence in your portfolio.
A. Meeting Agendas and Formal Minutes
Your committee must hold regular meetings and keep formal records:
• Agenda: A document sent out before the meeting outlining the topics to be discussed.
• Minutes: Written notes taken during the meeting documenting discussions, decisions made, and an Action Table (stating the specific task, the person responsible, and the completion deadline).
B. Gantt Charts and Action Plans
A Gantt Chart is a visual timeline that displays all event tasks against a calendar. It shows:
• Start and completion dates for individual tasks.
• Which tasks can happen at the same time (independent tasks).
• Which tasks depend on others finishing first (dependent tasks, e.g., you cannot confirm match schedules until registration closes).
C. Peer and Individual Evaluation
After the event has concluded, you must complete a reflective evaluation that looks at:
• Your individual contribution to the team.
• Team cohesion, communication channels, and how conflicts were handled.
• The effectiveness of committee leadership and delegation.
Key Takeaway: Strong portfolios are packed with primary artifacts — dated minutes, signed-off action plans, and structured peer reviews.
5. Common Pitfalls & Examiner Advice
Make sure you avoid these common mistakes highlighted in CCEA Chief Examiner reports:
Pitfall 1: Describing Solitary Management instead of Team Governance
The Mistake: Writing the portfolio as if one person planned and ran the entire event single-handedly.
The Fix: Emphasise shared leadership, committee voting, delegation, and mutual support across roles.
Pitfall 2: Writing a "Diary of Events" without Linking to Theory
The Mistake: Submitting a basic diary entry (e.g., "On Tuesday we had an argument about rules, then on Thursday we booked the hall").
The Fix: Link real events directly to group theory: "During week 3, our committee entered Tuckman's Storming phase when debating tournament rules. Our Coordinator resolved this by adopting a democratic vote, moving us smoothly into the Norming phase."
Pitfall 3: Missing Communication Artifacts
The Mistake: Failing to include actual copies of meeting minutes, duty rotas, or action plans.
The Fix: Keep organised digital copies of every meeting agenda, minute sheet, sign-off log, and fixture timetable, and include them clearly in your evidence portfolio.
Pitfall 4: Evaluating Only the Sporting Outcome
The Mistake: Writing a conclusion that only says "Team X won the cup and everyone had fun, so the event was 100% successful."
The Fix: Critically analyse internal team dynamics. Did time management slip? Did communication break down during court transitions? What would your committee do differently next time?
Quick Chapter Summary Checklist
• Can you explain all 5 of Tuckman's Stages (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning)?
• Can you identify Belbin's 9 Team Roles across the Action, People, and Thought categories?
• Do you know the 6 key Operational Committee Roles needed to stage a safe, well-promoted sports event?
• Have you produced verifiable portolio evidence (agendas, formal minutes with action points, Gantt charts, and reflective peer reviews)?