Volunteer strategy

[Mrs H]

Does anyone have any news about the Volunteer strategy working party's report which was due out by the end of 2007?

......and before you ask...... yes i have asked BOF - i send MH an email before christmas but have not heard anything back

[distracted]

On the topic of volunteers...

Given the number of people in some clubs, it is worrying to see time and time again the same names on the organising, planning, SI/Emit, mapping rosters. And in many cases it's difficult for clubs to find volunteers to fill these spots at all. So:

- why aren't some orienteers who will happily give up their Sunday to run round a forest not willing to put themselves forward for a volunteer role once every so often?
- how are we going to increase numbers of volunteers in the sport?

The importance of volunteers was highlighted recently at the BOF conference before the EGM, where one of the major questions asked was "if we're going to put on many small local events, who's going to do them?" It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation really - if there's a certain proportion of people willing to volunteer, then we need to increase numbers; to increase numbers you need more volunteers to enable us to effectively "market" the sport . As it stands, there are too few people like Mrs H. who (a) have the free time to devise and organise a targetted series of events and (b) are willing to volunteer themselves to do so, to attract this new blood into orienteering. We need to do something so that the sport we all love so much will at least survive, if not flourish.

People's thoughts? And is this "volunteer strategy" meant to answer some of these questions?

[roadrunner]

On the topic of volunteers...

Given the number of people in some clubs, it is worrying to see time and time again the same names on the organising, planning, SI/Emit, mapping rosters. And in many cases it's difficult for clubs to find volunteers to fill these spots at all. So:

- why aren't some orienteers who will happily give up their Sunday to run round a forest not willing to put themselves forward for a volunteer role once every so often?

In my experience, we have no problem in getting people to volunteer to help at events - it's just the major jobs (organiser in particular) where, as "distracted" says, there is a shortage. So maybe the problem is the amount of work required for these roles - would splitting the task up be a possible solution? For example, when my running club organises a road race, we don't have a single organiser - there's a race director (which is the equivalent post), someone else looking after marshals (i.e. finding other helpers in the orienteering context), another person handling sponsorship (not a big thing in orienteering, though maybe it should be) and so on. (It has to be said that, even with this approach, there's still often a problem filling all the roles.)

[Mrs H]

I'm glad to see this topic getting some attention. I have made further enquiries about the strategy and will be publishing what i know and what i think in the next compasssport - order your copy now
Speaking personally - splitting responsibility (as opposed to delegation) would not work for me. i very definitely need to be in control although i am very happy to delegate as long as i know i have put the right person in charge of the job - but however other people want to do things is fine if it works - and the key to it working is good clear communication. i don't have any easy answers to Distracted's points - clearly i'm very fortunate to be in he position I am - and the two points Distracted makes about me were all about putting my money where my mouth is as i had been highly critical about a lot of so-called development work which was being encouraged at that time. but ironically society does not approve of people like me - i've lost count of the sneers i have received at decribing myself as a housewife - maybe i should say I'm a part time sports facilitator (unpaid). People just assume if you haven't got a "proper job" you are lazy and feckless. I think raising the status of volunteers would be a good place to start but as to how we do that - well i think suggestions would be welcome.

[seabird]

Given the number of people in some clubs, it is worrying to see time and time again the same names on the organising, planning, SI/Emit, mapping rosters. And in many cases it's difficult for clubs to find volunteers to fill these spots at all. So:

- why aren't some orienteers who will happily give up their Sunday to run round a forest not willing to put themselves forward for a volunteer role once every so often?
- how are we going to increase numbers of volunteers in the sport?

Sometimes, us "old hands" are our own worst enemies.

My club is larger enough to split into helper groups, which are fundamentally the start team, the "tent " team i.e. registration, download and results; the organisers team, parking, signposting, managing drinks and any other task which doesn't fit neatly into the other teams' tasks; and the planners/search team i.e. putting out and collecting controls etc. In fact there are 3 teams in each section who rotate between events.

The organiser usually has little to do apart from liaising with landowners, advertising the event, booking toilets, collecting some of the equipment and making sure the respective team leaders are in place and doing their task. A good organiser will be at a loose end during the event, and will be best employed going for a run.

It is the team leaders who recruit volunteers from their helper group. More often than not the human tendency is for them to only ask the people on their list who they know. One of the issues we are trying to address as a club is the growing number of members who have been around for a few years, who have never personally been asked to volunteer, and who wish to help. (These same people may not have helped at C4+ events despite some of them having single-handedly arranged C5 events!)

[LostAgain]

Many clubs are experiencing difficulty with getting people to volunteer for key roles. This is surprising as the age profile of the membership has gravitated towards the retired, who should in theory have far more time available to donate.

Why is it then that Clubs are experiencing these problems?

[Tatty]

Perhaps because they've done so much in the past they feel that it's time someone else made an effort

[AndyO]

Maybe there are people who would be happy to help, and all we need to do is ask