Volunteer strategy matters

Yesterday I attended a workshop run by our clubs parent association. In truth it wasn’t so much of a workshop but a briefing as to what added administration clubs will have to undertake over the coming 12 months.

With ever increasing administration comes more pressure on volunteers, making for a more unattractive proposition to present to potential volunteers and as a result the less likely volunteers are to carry on with these further burdens on them.

With this in mind execution of these administrative tasks becomes critical. Of course leadership and peoples kindness will mean that things will get eventually get done, but with the revolution of the web, with everyone having a smart phone in their pocket means that the way you approach your volunteers, the way you structure and frequency of your communication, and the model of your organisation needs to change.

Running your club with the wrong strategy, the strategy focused on the 5 committee members will put you in an uphill battle. The alternative is to think hard about your structure, your resources and the benefits your club could gain from having less pressure on more people through resources and platforms like TIdyClub.com.

Your committee should stretch from 5 to 18. The roles and responsibilities of these people should be well articulated and defined. Through increased transparency everyone know what needs to get done and why they are doing it.

However talking to clubs at the workshop presented what I feel is the predominant issue in clubs. Through clubs not changing their strategy merely because they’re used to the one they have been relying on for the last 20 years is lousy strategy, and must change.

Transparency

Transparency is good business. If the people involved in the club know and understand why the sponsorship drive is so important, or why a club can’t give away free t-shirts, they may be more likely to give you a hand.

A few suggestions to increase the transparency could be;

  • Produce an organisational chart, insert the names of those in the positions, and print it out into a poster size document and put it on the wall in your club rooms.
  • Give them an idea of costs, by advertising how much insurance costs are, how much the canteen costs to run, or the new equipment is to purchase.
  • Start including other non-committee members on committee-like actions, get more people involved. The more involved, albeit in a third party fashion the more awareness there will be of the sheer quantity of effort involved.