Can we really deliver an Olympic Sporting Legacy?

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If you want to have a go at athletics or hockey – or your kids want to take up cycling, rugby or football you will probably go to your local club. But this club will almost certainly be run by volunteers and will quite likely be close to reaching capacity. So, if we want to deliver a real sporting legacy of more children and adults taking up new sports, we need to find ways of building capacity.

I am proposing that we need a much more effective system for attracting and training volunteers to deliver entry-level sport.

Here is my idea: we don’t need senior (Level 3) coaches to deliver introductory sessions to newcomers – what we need are suitably trained volunteers that can inspire beginners and give them a positive and correct introduction to the sport. We should be putting much more emphasis in recruiting and training club helpers and new coaches to cope with Olympic-generated demand and free up the experienced coaches to concentrate on coaching elite club members. A good example of an effective training programme is England Athletics’ one-day “Leadership in running fitness” course.

Inspiration

The Olympic Games Makers have done wonders for the image of volunteering. If we can’t get sport volunteers to step forward now we never will. We need to build on the enthusiasm that we have from the Olympics to inspire volunteers to get involved and provide a pathway for them to do this. We should be making it easy for a dad to help at a cycling club or a university student to train as an athletics coach.

Recruitment

Clubs need coaches and team managers – and they also need volunteers to put out equipment, look after kit, manage membership systems and do a range of small jobs that you might not think of. If you are a club – how do you advertise these vacancies beyond your membership? If you are a potential volunteer, would you know where to look to get involved?

Welcome and preparation

Volunteers need to be nurtured. If they offer to help a club they should be welcomed with open arms and they need to know exactly what their job involves. Newcomers to coaching need to be trained by attending an Introductory or a Level 1 coaching course. As a minimum for certain roles they need to have safeguarding training. There is helpful Information on coaching courses here: http://sportscoachuk.org/

A fair relationship

Volunteers are entitled to enter into a fair relationship with the organisation they are supporting. The club needs a commitment from the volunteer to turn up at the agreed times and deliver. In turn, the volunteer needs to be properly managed and looked after. If we are to retain good volunteers they need:

  • affordable training – it’s right that volunteers make some investment in their own training, but £150 for a Level 1 Coaching course is a deterrent for many
  • a schedule that is workable for them and the club – volunteers have limited time available and fear of being asked to do too much is one of the major factors that puts people off volunteering. One idea: could a new helper be paired with another volunteer to job-share?
  • to be supervised and mentored – new coaches and other helpers need a contact they can turn to for ideas and advice
  • to be kept informed of how the part they are playing fits into what the club is doing as a whole

Clubs have needs too

In turn, the clubs are also going to need practical support to find and look after new volunteers. There is information on http://www.clubmark.org.uk/ about managing volunteers including an outline job description for a volunteer coordinator. This is a key post and one that needs to be filled by an enthusiastic and capable leader.

There is hope

Sport England has set up Sport Makers: http://www.sportmakers.co.uk/  as the official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic sports legacy. They are aiming to recruit 40,000 volunteers to help make sport happen. If you are looking to volunteer in sport then go to this website today!

The last word

Much of sport in the UK is currently delivered through clubs. These clubs need more volunteers to increase capacity for new participants.  I sincerely hope that we can harness the inspiration and deliver volunteers to the sports clubs to make sure we really do make the most of the buzz we are experiencing after an amazingly successful Olympic Games.

“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”  Let’s make our Olympic Sporting Legacy happen.

Please leave a comment with your legacy thoughts and ideas.

 

I’m not supposed to blog about being an Olympic volunteer but….

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I must join in the debate about the potential good to come from the way volunteers have “made the Games”. Here are some of the things that are being said:

The Guardian Best bits-olympic-legacy-volunteering Panellist debate how to maintain an Olympic legacy for the voluntary sector.

“The Olympic volunteers’ great attitude is doing wonders for our national brand.” The Telegraph-The-Olympics-have-shown-Britain-is-a-can-do-nation

The Observer headline “How the spirit of the volunteers could be London’s greatest legacy”

Whilst I don’t think the volunteer selection process worked entirely smoothly, I do think the Games Maker volunteering programme is a huge success. From my view as a Team Leader in the Technology team, here’s why:

  • We are excited and proud to be associated with the ultimate sporting event
  • There is no distinction between volunteers and employees – we are all called Games Makers and we all wear the same uniform
  • We are well kitted out and well looked after on our shifts
  • We were trained effectively and know what we have to do
  • We get lots of chocolate!

When I stop spending 14 hour days travelling and working my shifts I look forward to continuing this discussion. In the meantime, please leave a comment and let me know what you think about the idea of a volunteering legacy.

 

5 ways to keep your volunteers happy

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1. Keep them informed

Make sure your volunteers understand what their role involves and how it fits into the overall project or event. The need just enough detail to see the big picture – they don’t want to read a telephone directory-sized handbook! It is likely that different volunteers will need different levels of detail. Friendly, timely, informed communication is key.

2. Keep them busy

Volunteers will have made sacrifices – given up free time or taken leave from work – and will fee undervalued if there is not enough to do. Plan carefully to ensure they are actively engaged in a productive activity, or at least entertained if there is a temporary lull. You will need to monitor activity and encourage the workforce to be flexible so they can be redeployed if fewer numbers are required on certain tasks as the project evolves. Bored and frustrated people will vote with their feet. If they don’t have enough to do today, don’t expect to see them again tomorrow, next week or next time.

3. Keep them fed and watered

This should be obvious – but while volunteers are working for you they reasonably expect to be fed and definitely need to be kept hydrated. What you give them will depend on their shift, remoteness and your resources. A packed lunch or a meal voucher is common. For smaller roles, just a small snack and a drink is a good way to say thank you. Can your sponsors help by providing supplies?

4. Help them be properly equipped

Don’t forget to tell them what they need to bring. Mobile phone? Pen and notebook? A folding chair? Let them know if they will be inside or outside and advise them on suitable clothing. I’ve seen cold, wet road-junction marshals wearing suits and ties at a cycling event. I’ve turned up to a winter sports fixture dressed in thermals for sub-zero temperatures only to be given a job inside. Make sure you give them information to help them help themselves by arriving with the right kit.

5. Give them them opportunity to communicate

Have you ever been sent information from a “no-reply@…….” e-mail address. And then searched the Frequently Asked Questions page on the website in vain for the information you need? This way of doing business may be OK for big companies avoiding time wasters. But if your volunteer really needs to find out some information, they need a way of contacting the right person who can answer their question. If not they will get so frustrated that they will probably let you down. And how will they tell you they are not coming!

Debate on the Olympic legacy for the voluntary sector

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The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network held a live Q & A with a panel of experts today: The Olympic legacy for the voluntary sector. As both a volunteer manager and a Games Maker Team Leader, I think there are some very interesting points raised. Highlights for me are:

“the importance of getting it right; contacting people quickly, keeping them informed and making them feel valued.”

“the Olympics has raised the profile of volunteering in this country and empowered a lot of people to get involved and play a part in a unique event in London….I think LOCOG have been very successful in shifting perceptions that volunteers have real jobs and are senior, experienced professionals are not just being used for casual jobs.”

“LOCOG intentionally didn’t talk about volunteers but gave them a distinctive brand of Games Makers to reinforce they were the ones who made the Games happen.”

“the sense of pride and engagement people feel by being part of a movement is a great concept we should think about more when designing roles and developing programmes.”

See full questions and responses here.

3 ways to be the perfect volunteer

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1. Take on a role you feel happy to do

Start with a modest role that you can tackle confidently. You are aiming for something that gives you the right amount of buzz and avoids any sinking feeling of being overwhelmed.

2. Do it on time

Find out what the deadlines are before you say “yes” and then meet them. Other people will be depending on your timeliness and being late is being unfair to them. If something happens in your life that genuinely gets in the way, then let someone know early so they they can make other arrangements. Don’t put off giving bad news! Worrying and waiting until the deadline has passed and only revealing your problems when someone contacts you does not help anyone.

3. Enjoy it

Do your task with good grace and a smile. Enjoy the company of other volunteers and collaborate with them. This makes the job more fun all round. Feel a sense of satisfaction in what you achieve and do not allow yourself to be pressurised into doing more than you agreed and don’t feel guilty for saying “no”.

 

Its all about you….

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“When many people consider doing something for charity they tend to think it’s all about doing good for others. But for the vast majority giving time is much about what you get out of it as well as what you put in.”

This short blog post by IVO highlights 5 reasons why volunteering is also all about you. It is a subject I have written about before in “What motivates a volunteer” but IVO has some surprising reasons. Do take a look!

http://ivo.org/spotlight/posts/its-all-about-you-five-reasons-why-you-might-want-to-volunteer

 

 

 

Are you yourself?

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Instead of wishing you were someone else, be proud of who you are. You never know who has been looking at you wishing they were you. Credit

As Oscar Wilde famously said:

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken”

“Most people are other people; their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

But I think Dr Seuss does it best!

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.