Volunteering

[Timsands]

I quote from the Volunteer Needs Work Group Report

"Reward and recognition
 To develop a ‘thank you’ note pro-forma that can be added to the print portal site. Clubs can access the print portal, customize the note and then order to give to volunteers in recognition of their work."

Am I missing the wider context?

[andypat]

Probably the wider context is that these people volunteered to put this volunteer reward scheme together
If they think that's a good idea they've every right to put it out there.

[Mrs H]

A 'thank you" note pro-forma - Dear God - that's really coming from the heart

[Oldman]

I think a formal recognition (in addition to a personally delivered, sincere thank you) is often well-received and valued by some volunteers, especially if the event and the volunteering was particularly significant (eg team leader at a JK; or (dare I suggest) for the person originating and driving through an idea like MADO).

... and not just for being a start team member at a local event.

[Mrs H]

I am perplexed - are you suggesting I should have given more thanks - or that I should have got more?

[SeanC]

These comments seem unnecessarily negative. I thought it was an interesting report and quite a bit of research has been done (voluntarily I assume ).

There are a few other bits that could be picked out for discussion here, eg:

"The majority of responses suggested that there were enough volunteers in orienteering."

"From the young person’s survey, it was evident that using volunteering experiences on C.V.s and for interview examples was an important motivator for the 14- 25 aged volunteers"

"Overall, once members had volunteered they tended to become repeat volunteers and there was a general feeling of people gaining enjoyment and positives from their volunteering experiences".

"Consistently respondents made reference to difficulty recruiting volunteers to specific roles, especially organizer. There was a fear of responsibility that came with the role and need to clarify the requirements and potentially split down the role further."

"‘Core’ volunteers were often taking on multiple roles. Not only is this additional burden on individual but it also explains why some respondents felt clubs could be ‘cliquey’ with volunteer and committee circles difficult for newcomers to break into".

[Clive Coles]

I thought the report was an interesting rain check of where we stand as a sport ~ not sure though there was really much in it to take matters forward. To be fair though volunteers tend to be the sorts of folk who don't like to say no.

If, at the grass roots level at least, we rely on our volunteers to stage events. volunteering is part of the package we sign up to when we become a club member.

Not sold on the suggestion we need a a portal derived pro-forma. It lacks sincerity ~ a hallmark of our tick-box age. For thanks to register it needs to be spontaneous and timely ~ do we really want another bl***y certificate ?

The key question, not really addressed by the working party , was how to overcome the decline in the pool of regular volunteers. Here I think it comes back to club size ( a topic recently discussed on a previous thread). If clubs have the right critical mass they will find sufficient members to share ( and rotate) the various volunteering commitments. Volunteering is part of the social makeup that sustains the club ~ once club membership becomes too small that core membership can become a clique. That's not healthy.

[oo_wrong_way]

If clubs have the right critical mass they will find sufficient members to share ( and rotate) the various volunteering commitments. Volunteering is part of the social makeup that sustains the club ~ once club membership becomes too small that core membership can become a clique. That's not healthy.

Spot on Clive. Where we have seen very small clubs doing a fantastic job for their members their ability to sustain that is limited.

I haven't read the report yet, will do later. For those who have, are the views of those reluctant to volunteer analysed?

[SeanC]

This is something that the volunteer needs group could analyse? Is there any variation based on club size or location?

How do you take this stuff forward at club level? A short term aim is this:

"Share best practice on how clubs can successfully approach newcomers, face-to-face and electronically and encourage them into volunteering opportunities"

I feel sorry for BOF here. What can they do? Article in Focus, awards. Surely best practice for sharing knowledge about volunteering or any other aspect of club life is face to face? A few lucky clubs will have an RDO who has the experience and the remit to go to club committee meetings and speak face to face. Clubs and regions could get together to pay for one, but that seems very unlikely in my own region and probably many others.

How about this for an idea: Pair clubs together for knowledge sharing. Ideally ones with a track record of success with the less successful ones. Then members from each club could go to each others meetings to share experiences and 'best practice' and give an honest alternative view of the club. This would probably work best if it wasn't just the neighbouring club as these clubs tend to talk anyway.

[andypat]

We are lucky here in the sense that the top two "volunteers" regularly post on here so presumably what is said here will also register with BOF.

I tend to agree with Clive in the "proforma" debate. I'ts difficult to put into words why this might not be seen as a step forward.

Its possibly the difference between not appreciating how much you are valued (ie the current situation for volunteers) and knowing exactly how much you are valued (ie a printed sheet of paper). I'm not sure the latter is necessarily an improvement for me, but it clearly must be for some of the folk on the group.

[Oldman]

I am perplexed - are you suggesting I should have given more thanks - or that I should have got more?

Got more

[Timsands]

[quote="SeanC"]These comments seem unnecessarily negative. [/quote]

I take full responsibility for this. Primarily, I chose this paragraph as an attention grabber. I hope to encourage wider readership of the report and stimulate a healthy debate. However, the paragraph does illustrate how easy it is to undervalue volunteers and overlook their basic needs. Letters of appreciation need to come from the heart. A mechanical process really is not good enough. Generally, for me the report presses all the right buttons. I hope the volunteers who helped construct it receive the thanks they deserve.

[SeanC]

Fair enough. In fact one of the problems that such reports have is that they must avoid offending people by stating facts/opinion in too blunt/too interesting a way.

Perhaps I should offer a prize for the most blunt/funny/offensive (mis) interpretation of a sentence from the report, it might make people read it

Eg:
Subtle version:

Lots of clubs assign newcomers to volunteer ‘teams’. There was disparity of opinion on whether or not this was an effective recruitment process. The disparity of opinion could be associated to whether newcomers have team allocation imposed on them by club committees or whether they can chose to volunteer to a particular job together with other like-minded individuals. This is a potential area for future work."

Blunt version:
"Telling people to volunteer is a great way to ensure people don't volunteer. Although this is blindingly obvious, there are some people who won't be convinced until we show them the stats of the people who've left their club because of this."

Subtle version:

"Combining the fact that most clubs felt they had adequate numbers volunteers, with their main succession planning being to increase member numbers, this does pose an interesting potential cycle. To increase volunteer capacity the current plan involves persuading current club members to do more, and to recruit new members. To get more members, clubs need to attract new members via club-nights, summer series events etc… and this requires an additional amount of volunteer time that could otherwise be employed elsewhere. If a club feels it has reached volunteer capacity, it may reduce its efforts to attract new members and thus have less volunteers overall."

Blunt version:
"If your club spends most of its time organising big events for experienced orienteers and doesn't spend time on stuff for newcomers/beginners, don't be surprized if it's not around in 10 years time."

[graeme]

Volunteer Needs Work, Group Report

No I don't.

[Paul Frost]

Perhaps instead of a impersonal pre-printed note of thanks from the print portal there could be a mention on a Facebook page that people could "Like", this would be much more sincere wouldn't it?