what can be done to get more people to organise events?

[SeanC]

What can be done to get more people to organise events?

Putting comments in tiny size seems the latest Nopesport fashion. I've started this thread to get some development ideas rather than to encourage more arguing (though that can be entertaining). Maybe this can be a thread where we are all nice to each other

[andy]

simple

£

[madmike]

Andy, not sure that will completely solve the problems we are tilting at here, although a good start.

For multi-day events with big budgets yes it is proably what makes S6D and ORINGEN etc so good.

But how do we encourage more people to come in at the bottom L3 - my starter for 10 is resonant with the small writing on Sean's thread starter - be nice - say thank you, praise officials in the hearing of others, so that those on the periphery, who might be a future organiser, think most orienteers are nice appreciative people vice whinging gits! Focus on the positives not the negatives perhaps.

Still don't know how you encourage people who are intimidated by the thought of organising to take the plunge - maybe ask them to be deputy organiser to a known organising guru perhaps?

[andy]

For multi-day events with big budgets yes it is proably what makes S6D and ORINGEN etc so good.

the vast vast majority of S6D officials are volunteers (so be nice to them next week ). all day organisers/planners/controllers, the central organising committee, company directors. I could probably count the number of paid people on one hand. it's the 'experience' you're paying for, the frills that other events don't have that one can afford due to the budget, but remember that it's a volunteer who's likely to be putting the effort into spending that money to bring the event to you.

I volunteer a lot (not as an organiser though), I get whinged at a lot, I usually whinge back but most importantly I do it because I enjoy it, it's a challenge and I find it fun to get it right and do well at it. I wouldn't find organising an event fun in the slightest, it seems to me to be a lot of jumping through hoops and doing things that I, personally, would only be happy doing if I were being paid to do it.

How we make it more simple / accessible, no idea

[RJ]

Get your club to put on an event every week of the year. That way you have to have the best part of fifty organisers/planners. People will often say.... Oh, it must be my turn now!

[SeanC]

I'm not sure if paying organisers is such a daft idea at a local level.

Imagine you paid a full time organiser to organise lots of local events. Say 2 a week, 100 a year (the more the organiser organised, the easier the job would get). Say the cost of this person is £30000 (including national insurance blah blah). If each local event has 100 people that's £3 each per person per event. Worth it if you get twice as many events to go to and you never get that "please will you organise" call from the chairman?

Of course no club would try this right now, but not within the bounds of possibility one day.

I've organised local events and one of the positive things is the money generated for my club which has been used for mapping, development etc. So please next time, if your entry fee is £1 more than normal, don't get angry, remember it's for a good cause.

[Mrs H]

Well if someone would pay me £30,000 a year i'd definitely organise 2 local events a week for them - it's a piece of cake - I organised about 35 local events in 3 years with MADO while at the same time managing the JK camp site and event centre in 05 and co-ordinating SinS and managing the camp site/event centre in 07. It' great fun - i like having a budget to spend and i like making a profit for the club - some of which I get to spend. It helps being married to a man who has the skills to solve most practical issues

I can't imagine why anyone would want to do those boring technical jobs like planning and controlling in preference. Mind you it's a bit of a bummer when the weather is lousy and no-one notices the loving details of your efforts

[SeanC]

Isn't there a job on the BOF website paying about that Major events and BOF committees maybe not so much fun.

[eddie]

simpler still

ask someone.

if someone asked me to organise an event i would probably do it because many hundreds have done it before me.

[funnyrunner]

Personally what puts me off is red tape. I'm constantly short of time, so would have to be paid a lot for that to make any difference.
If you didn't have to specfiy control sites 2 months before (landowner), fill in 2 risks assessements, record numbers for levy, deal with dodgy map etc etc... for a summer informal, I'd be much happier to organise them. Britain seems big on making simple things difficult.

[Red Adder]

If everyone who had a whinge on here offered to organise an event for their club instead......

[Adrian]

The question presupposes that there aren't enough people organising events. To a club member who doesn't organise events this looks untrue. There are loads of events, and they're all being organised, so what's the problem.

Hardly anyone will put themselves forward unless they are asked. And they are more likely to say yes when the club (like HOC) has a well established helpers system and a (hard-pressed) committee member whose job it is to deal with all the BOF red tape.

[SeanC]

The question presupposes that there aren't enough people organising events.

The question doesn't presuppose this, though I'm sure this is the case for some clubs. Many clubs are looking to increase the number of local events as a strategy for increasing membership, so this problem may occur in the future as the number of events in proportion to the total orienteering population increases.

My own club has been increasing the number of events in the past few years, but we wouldn't say no to a few more.

[RanaldMacdonald]

We used to have a huge organiser's pack which just put people off. Whilst it is a responsible role we need to try to make it less burdensome by sharing that burden.

As with many clubs we are looking to establish teams of helpers with team leaders who support the overall organiser in getting things done on the day - start, finish, registration, carparking, string course, download - and allocate club members to a team for a period. We do this with major events so why not with more local ones? When I organised the BRC a few years ago I was lost for things to do on the day as the team leaders just got on with it - most of my work happened beforehand.

Small, local events need fewer helpers but not so few as to make it a daunting task.

The acronym KISS springs to mind - which is what many, including MADO, seem to be doing.

[Snail]

We used to have a huge organiser's pack which just put people off.

Can't agree more. We always seems to produce fairly rambling guidance. (Although to be fair the Rules are now far more succinct than they used to be).

At one time BOF produced a series of "tips" sheets, of no more than 2 or 4 sides of A4, aimed at planners, organisers, entries secretaries etc. I used one of those when organising my first event, and thought it brilliant at the time. Short enough to read quickly and refer back to, but with enough information / advice to ensure that I wasn't missing anything significant