How to encourage club membership?

[Scott]

I don't think Sean was referring to student orienteers, though. Students have lots of free time (relatively) and generally feel pretty loyal to (and therefore keen to help) their student club and/or the open club they spent years with as a junior.

But of all the student planners/organisers/mappers/general event helpers I've worked with over the past five years, I can think of very few who have remained active as volunteers since they stopped being students and got full-time jobs. Can't really blame them for that - I expect the amount of volunteering I do will also drop dramatically when (if) I finally stop being a student.

But then, most of the ex-student planners/organisers/etc I know more or less stopped orienteering altogether when they got jobs. Pressure from their club to help out - often a new open club who they don't feel particularly attached to - may be part of the reason, although I think there are probably bigger factors at play, eg. they decide they have better ways to spend their limited free time at the weekend than driving two hours to get to an event where they might not see anybody they know to talk to.

But, of course, the big question is whether high-cost/low-volunteering would appeal to the young, working folk who aren't already orienteers (and who are often equally poor in terms of both time and money). I'm not sure what the answer is to that one.

But if your running club also organises races - whether a low-key cross-country or a major marathon or half - doesn't it also ask its members to volunteer as marshals?

Right, but marshalling for my local running club consists of giving up a couple of hours once or twice a year to do work that doesn't require much actual effort (standing and pointing, mostly). Given how much activity much many running clubs offer in terms of training/social, that seems like a pretty attractive deal, especially when compared with the "typical" orienteering club.

[SeanC]

I definately wasn't referring to students. When I said "younger generation" I mean younger than the average adult orienteer which isn't really that young .

However, it's quite possible that my speculation is total rubbish - any social scientists etc out there who know of research on these trends?

[Red Adder]

I still convinced that voluteering to help is the way to get the most of the sport - and certainly make it a more sociable activity. Have attitudes changed over time ? When I joined my club nearly 30 years ago (previously I had been a sporadic uni versity orienteer) it was actually a good feeling to be asked to help - I felt I was been included within the club - and then came the honour of being asked to plan... Now we almost seem afraid to scare people off by asking them to contribute. Do we sell the sport teh wrong way - should the need to combine team co-operation to hold events along with individual competition be stressed from the start ?

In order to have a good club spirit and make for an inclusive atmosphere you really do need some regular actvities (even if its for only part of the year). When I started their was a training night each Wednesday - I co-ordinator and about 10 -12 people offering to take a turn to organise something. Sadly that declined in to a weekly run and for a while faded completely. Several attempts to restart these activities stalled but in the last 3 years a summer series and satellite club have both been more successful.

Small clubs will always struggle though you never have enough organisers (or even somethimes participants) for such events. Do we have too many small clubs - should some - if geographically feasible - combine ?

[frog]

Having lots of social and training events only really works if your club has 1 population centre. Easy for Edinburgh, less easy for Tayside or Fife.

[awk]

Did you see the articles in the recent focus seabird? There was a bit more information/evidence.

Yes, very interesting too. I will be interested to see if they translate longer term into anything other than local orienteering based on others organising/planning etc.

It did seem from the articles, that local events were needed to encourage those going to club nights to move into mainstream O. Occasional district events 20-50 miles away seemed too far.

Absolutely. The club seabird comes from organises 35+ events a year (indeed, he is the very hard working fixtures secretary and one of the lead mappers), most within the main urban catchment areas the club is based on. So, whilst there may not be a formal 'club night' on the lines of the BOF model, there is plenty of local activity, much of it midweek, which seems to attract significantly more younger adults than conventional events (there is also a regular weekly informal weekly run). Having said that, we (I'm a member of the same club) also recognise the need for coaching, but have until recently not had anybody willing to take a lead role on.

Club nights is an easy to remember term, but it doesn't have to be a weekday night does it? I think it's possible to do these on Saturday daytimes and somehow integrate with local Saturday events, which might work better for some clubs?

Again, agreed, a model we continue to explore.

[Marco Polo]

But if your running club also organises races - whether a low-key cross-country or a major marathon or half - doesn't it also ask its members to volunteer as marshals?

Right, but marshalling for my local running club consists of giving up a couple of hours once or twice a year to do work that doesn't require much actual effort (standing and pointing, mostly). Given how much activity much many running clubs offer in terms of training/social, that seems like a pretty attractive deal, especially when compared with the "typical" orienteering club.

But for most volunteers in orienteering, the commitment is probably the same? An hour manning a start, or registration before your run? (or did you just mean that o clubs offer less training/social?)

[Scott]

But for most volunteers in orienteering, the commitment is probably the same? An hour manning a start, or registration before your run? (or did you just mean that o clubs offer less training/social?)

Yeah, I guess I mean that the ratio of requests-for-volunteering to number-of-club-activities-as-a-participant was better for most running clubs than for most orienteering clubs (although there are obviously some very impressive exceptions out there).

Having lots of social and training events only really works if your club has 1 population centre. Easy for Edinburgh, less easy for Tayside or Fife.

I agree with this up to a point - there are always going to be rural areas where the regular "club night" model just can't work - but you really don't need a huge metropolis to support a successful club night: having a sufficiently motivated (and motivating) group or individual organising it and getting the publicity right seem to be as important. From what I've heard, the Buxton club night has been pretty successful over a couple of years now, and Buxton has a population less than half that of Perth or Dunfermline. Of course, how/if that translates into more people at "traditional" orienteering events is a different matter.

[SeanC]

In some ways it might even be easier in the more rural / semi-rural areas than large towns and cities, as the stronger community links might make it easier to publicise the club nights via word of mouth and personal recommendation, and (without wishing to be rude to rural areas) there may be less competition from other leisure activities.