How to Support and Grow our Volunteer Base: What Came Out of November’s Community Conversation

The November session in the SOA’s monthly online Community Conversations series focused on the crucial topic of supporting and developing our volunteer base, including our pipeline of event officials. This is of course core to delivering on our mission for orienteering to be a thriving sport for all.

One of Scottish Orienteering’s four strategic aims (read more here) is around lifelong pathways, and a new one for Volunteers was published earlier this year (Lifetime Pathways infograms) (many thanks to Jen Leonard, FVO, for developing the original pathways graphic).  This sets out clearly for everyone what the opportunities look like and how to progress.  

How can SOA and clubs best work together to encourage and engage members as club volunteers, to drive positive developments for orienteering, at all levels? Some of the foundations might be around training and sharing technical information; however, a great deal is around the ‘people’ side of things.

Building on the Club Networking Day

Nikki introduced the conversation with a summary of key points from the Club Networking Day in September (read more here). The challenges of recruiting new volunteers are multi-faceted. Whilst there are common themes, clubs can be in very different situations and have different opportunities, depending on their geography and demographics.  

For example, smaller rural clubs such as BASOC struggle to get enough club volunteers for events, but have solved this by developing good reciprocal relationships with other local sports clubs. They regularly exchange volunteers to provide each other out with on-the-day helpers for events and so enable club members to participate in their own respective sports. Larger city-based clubs may have enough members to run smaller local events but find it harder to fill key roles such as planning as the areas on offer are less enticing.  In addition, younger members in particular can be reluctant to commit to key roles when there is a lot else going on in their lives. 

Tackling the Challenges

Recruitment is generally most successful when done through personal approaches, although this can take time and persistence (and emails are read less and less). MOR have a focus at their main annual social on filling roles across the calendar, encouraging sign-ups. Some clubs have Volunteer Coordinator positions which can help; KFO for example is just setting up a new role.  Asking early in a routine way might get responses; an apparent last-minute crisis and urgent calls can scare people off.  New volunteers can also be very anxious about ‘doing it right’ (if they get as far as taking the plunge and trying, even – ‘I could never do that’ is heard too often).  Highly competent all-abilities volunteers are a double-edged sword – great to have of course, but to newcomers, being involved can then look even more overwhelming.

Build Confidence and Keep it Simple

Good ways to build new volunteers’ confidence can be around focusing more on training or other ‘lower-stakes’ events as stepping stones in their development.  Training sessions can be really good for introducing people to skills and technology (SI, Condes etc), without too much pressure or the constraints posed by specific event rules.  Local events can be great as there is often very positive feedback from newcomers, as well as orienteers pleased to have a run without travelling a huge distance.  

When developing new officials, think about striking a balance between ‘doing it properly’ and not making it overwhelming. Try hard to keep the approach to the event simple enough to entice new volunteers in and grow their abilities, as well as their enthusiasm to do more. It’s a leisure-time activity after all, so needs to feel enjoyable and rewarding – the human element is key!  

Building Club Cultures of Encouragement

Building club cultures of encouragement and ‘having-a-go’ will also pay off, along with opportunities to get to know other club members socially and build positive relationships.  That can also help with finding the best fit for a new volunteer and possible ways that they could support their club.  Think beyond the core technical roles – what else would be useful and meaningful?  For example, could someone contribute as a friendly approachable person to chat with newcomers, or perhaps they would be well suited to generating communications content with photos and reports.

Do Some Myth Busting

One observation was a shortage of women on the Controller pathway – which needs women to try some event planning too.  Are there myths to bust about not just what sort of people do what roles, but also what those roles actually entail? Controlling isn’t perhaps as time-consuming and arduous as many might assume. (Next time you see a Controller, ask them about what they do, how they do it, and how rewarding they find it!)

Join Forces Across Clubs

Clubs helping each other out came up as a topic, and sharing resources across smaller clubs in particular. This can widen opportunities for newcomers too, getting them to see other types or styles of events and so perhaps help engage them further, especially as they get to know more people.

How SOA Can Support Clubs

SOA delivers courses to train and develop event officials, with the full calendar on the SOA website here or contact Suzanne Robins-Bird (suzanne@scottish-orienteering.org).

This year, SOA has also organised Mentoring training too, with two courses to date to explain what mentoring is, what’s involved and how to it can be very valuable as part of developing the volunteer base.  It can be fairly informal, and in-person or virtual – the key element is around building a supportive relationship that will help a newcomer to the role develop in a positive way. Mentoring might take place by finding a match within a club, or across different clubs – which can bring added advantages such as opportunities to learn about different ways of doing things and allow some cross-fertilisation of ideas.  If you’d be interested in getting involved, get in touch with Suzanne Robins-Bird.

FUTURE COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

Many thanks to those who came along.  The next Community Conversation will be at the start of December, with a round-up on Event Safety.  See the SOA Community Conversations webpage (here) for the sign-up link and more information will be available nearer the time.  Contact Nikki via nikki@scottish-orienteering.org for any queries, or suggestions of topics you’d like to see included in the series as a future session focus.