Getting parents to volunteer

[Macey78]

I'm a parent rep for the team my daughter plays football on. On match days we need parents to volunteer to act as lines person and at home matches to help set up.

On the group what's app no one ever volunteers for this or help set up. There are 1 or 2 parents who accidentally arrive early on match days and if they see there's Help needed with setting up will do this.

I need to say in a nice but firm way that as parents of your players you need to support the team by helping set up and acting as lines person. My husband has done this quite a few times. When I've spoken to other parent reps they have said they don't seem to have a problem there's always someone ready to volunteer for lines-person and help with setting up at a home game. Any advice with wording greatly appreciated.

@YourFinestPantaloons
Parents helping out occasionally on an open pitch in full sight of everyone are negligible risk. They don't have time to groom children etc. They help run games.
Clubs will DBS all regular volunteers who have chance to befriend kids

A common theme is that parents assume football clubs could just increase subs and pay staff.
But there just isn't an army of qualified coaches waiting to be employed, who aren't parents.
In addition adding eg £10/week to subs that may be as low as £15 month would exclude millions of kids

Don't think I'd fancy running the line. Been into football since the early Ninties and the offside rule is still a bit of an unknown lol

I volunteered at school, was a very regular helper at Brownies and Cubs, and I have a busy volunteer role that now takes up most Saturdays, but I wouldn't expect to help out at a paid class, which I would consider football training to be. If it was made clear that it was needed I would take my turn, but I'd be quite surprised to be honest.

The parents are paying a very minimal amount. Send out an email to all stating that unless x number volunteer for each session, the training will not continue.

Get the coaches to have a meeting, tell them the club isnt profit making, their kids get x training sessions and league games for only £25/month and needs everyone to pitch in or it will fold.

I can empathise. I spend a lot of time trying to get people to help run sporting events. I'm on a couple of club committees now and have been on others in the past.
Every community sports club I know of is much the same unfortunately , with a very small number of volunteers doing all the work, and most believing that paying their fees mean they just drop and run. As unknownstory says, fees generally cover facility hire, insurance, affiliation to the sport's governing body and maybe a bit extra to cover a rolling replacement programme for equipment.
Nobody is getting wages, and increasing the fees to generate wages isn't an easy answer either. There's enough responsibility involved in being on a club committee as it is thanks, without being responsible for employees. Some big clubs do have paid employees but it puts the clubs onto a different footing legally speaking ( or at least it does in the sports I'm involved in) and creates a lot of extra work, and costs. Offering expenses is one thing, but actually paying people is a different kettle of fish.
Things we've found help include
Providing refreshments
Giving a discount to those who help, or something like everyone who volunteers this half term gets their name put in a draw for a free session
next half term (one entry per volunteer session).
Being specific, and asking people directly. Vague requests for help are easy to ignore but "Tom, could you cover the sign on desk next Saturday please? You'll need to be here for 8.45 but should be free by 9.30."is much more likely to get a positive response. Partly it's the embarrassment factor it is true, as it is harder to say "no" to someone face to face, but also, people do worry about being asked to commit to vague things. If you are specific, and can break the job down into bite sized pieces people are more likely to say "oh, that doesn't sound too bad, ok then."
Say thank you. You can't do this too much. Do it face to face. Get the kids to give a round of applause at the end of the session. Follow up in your club newsletter or social media. Imagine a picture of a smiling couple on your Facebook page with the comment " Here's the fabulous Kevin and Sue marshalling at last Sunday's race, and that carrot cake they're eating looks fab. Thanks to Star Baker Jane for this week's donation. You're all amazing - we couldn't do it without you!" Kevin,Sue and Jane are more likely to help again, because you have shown you appreciate them. And Tim and Cathy who never help, might be encouraged because it actually looks fun, they feel guilty or get embarrassed that every other kid's parents seem to be getting a mention and they aren't. I know it's a bit cynical but it does work. People like to be thanked and praised and positive messages do work.
"Thanks to all those who have already volunteered for Saturday, we just need someone to step up for XY and Z now. Weather forecast looks good, we're going to have loads of fun" elicits quite a different response to " We still don't have enough parent helpers for Saturday. If we dont get X more by tomorrow we'll have to cancel" even though the facts of the matter are the same. It can be draining - there are times when I want to rant and rave, but that saying about catching more flies with honey does hold true in my experience.

One way is to simply require each signup to come with a certain number of volunteer commitments. Then use an online signup system. The problem with this is it can preclude some kids from participating depending. If you want to take this approach you really need to provide a variety of volunteer roles to accommodate a variety of abilities.

I would actually start by being really explicit about what each volunteer role involves. People need to know if they can handle the problem task. Especially if parents have physical restrictions, vague tasks like “help setup” can be terrifying.

I think it’s a bit unfair to say someone is ‘selfish’ to not volunteer. How do you know someone doesn’t volunteer already at several other things, hence wants the football as a ‘ sit down and watch’ scenario.

I do volunteer every week already. It’s something I can do whilst I have my 1 year old with me.
I couldn’t be a linesman whilst safely looking after him.

However if my son in future was at this type of event, and you said that it’s essential 1 in 4 games or whatever then I would try and arrange either someone else to come and help or childcare. But I couldn’t just do it ad hoc.

Can you look into getting perhaps sporty teens to do it for payment. If they were going on to do sports science it might be good experience. Then inform parents you are upping fees to pay for these people.
If there's an outcry then they can volunteer.

A lot of patents don't seem to understand the difference between for example swimming lessons at the sports centre where fees are paid to a commercial enterprise and a volunteer run community sports club where the fees cover pitch hire, insurance etc. So it does need to made clear on joining - the club I volunteer with has an electronic sign up and you have to tick a box agreeing to volunteer in some capacity.

Other than that I agree with the strategy of mentioned above of publicising the positive aspects, as in social media shoutouts to thank people and photos of them enjoying themselves.

Another thought is to put word around the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme co-ordinators locally, secondary schools, Scout and Guide groups, the young people have to take part in regular volunteering as part of that.

A lot of Duke of Edinburgh schemes are folding because there aren't enough volunteers to run them ....

No idea what the answer is, volunteering is something I enjoy, it's a major part of my life but It clearly doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

I would do a rota for set up. I presume putting up goals, respect line ect ,Running the line is not for everyone, trust me my son's a ref and him and the lines person can get a lot of abuse

Lots of kids doing the duke of edinburgh need to volunteer - ask the parents if they have teens needing a volunteering job

Excellent idea - and the commitment is for 12 weeks, so you get a reasonable amount of predictability.

It's a shame to hear about schemes folding. Does that include many facilitated by schools? It is possible to do the awards without a scheme, but of course much harder to find who and make your volunteering opportunity known

I would be transparent and circulate comms explaining:

• The £25 covers pitch hire/entry fees
• It does not cover any staffing, everyone involved is an unpaid volunteer
• We cannot afford paid staff, it would make the sport unaffordable for many parents/guardians and we want all the children to play
• We cannot put on the games without X number of volunteers, and we need parents to confirm in advance or game will be cancelled
• Here is where you can find the roster (Google spreadsheet, maybe?)
• You need to sign up by X day before game day or we will cancel
• Thank you to everyone who has helped in the past

^ that's what I would do.

Going off the replies here, it's obvious some people will think they are paying for someone else to do the grafting. Make it clear this isn't the case and you'll cancel if there isn't a rota in place by X date. Then cancel and find a league with less lazy parents where you can volunteer instead of doing it all.

Glacinda I can only speak from personal knowledge but the scheme at my DS's school folded a few years ago, my job means that we offer volunteering opportunities to local students doing DoE but there are no schemes running near me now sadly.

I think asking someone to be a linesperson is a bit much for any parent, it's pretty specialised. I love football but I'd do any sort of refereeing role over my dead body. Especially with other parents watching getting really involved! Am glad my daughters did their football training in a paid after school club where no volunteering was required. Especially as I was on the PTA while working 4 days a week in a professional job. I would not have the energy to run up and down a touchline on a Saturday.

Is there a specific " job " that's not covered. Could the team pay a local teenager to help out ? You may have to increase fees by a few pounds to cover this , some parents might be happy to pay an extra £1/ £2 in order not to volunteer.

I help whenever I can. I'd just feel guilty not to do my share.
So many don't though.
The only way you can 'kindly' do it is a non- negotiable rota, but this needs to be sorted from the outset. This happened at brownies. Introductory letter 'fees are £30 per term and you will need to help out once per term' A rota was sent out, and if you couldn't do your day the onus was on you to find a replacement.
But what you might not realise is they might help elsewhere, and this is their time 'off'. For example, at one point my kids between them were doing school, swim club, football, dance, brownies. I helped a lot at swim club, and a bit with the PTA; so I felt for dance I could just delete all the messages.
I remember one time I was refereeing a football match (Dd was about 6 so it didn't matter that I wasn't particularly versed on the rules), it had gone round on the WhatsApp group and I'd said 'I'll do it but I don't really know the rules.' When the match was in play, one of the male parents who was on the WhatsApp chat made a 'come on ref' type comment. I waited till quarter time, then calmly took my whistle off, handed it to him and said 'awesome, you know the rules better than me. Great because now I get to watch my child which I'd far rather do' and walked off.

The problem with volunteeering is the marketing of it is aimed at the busiest sector of society, parents of young children, because that's where the help is needed. Whereas simultaneously, we have a generation of active retired folk who would love something to do!

I've never helped at Brownies or Guides. I've never been asked to other than getting the vague "parents are expected to help out" in the newsletter. If there was a rota then I'd sign up. I assume either they don't need help regularly or there is a little group who help already and don't want anyone else to be involved. So I think if you need volunteers, you have to work out what needs doing and have rota slots so that people can see there is not too much time committment. We always did that for running stalls for PTA events and it worked well.

I’d be going down the D of E route. I know that my children and their friends are struggling to find places to volunteer at the moment. Most of the usual places/activities haven’t started up again.

But also with Brownies to be fair I was still at work when it was on and would get back just in time for pick up. MIL would take DDs.

I agree that some may be volunteering elsewhere, mine are teens now and I have been a committed (ie committee member) volunteer for at least two of their organisations at any given time ever since they started school. There is one club that one of them goes to that I have only volunteered for once in 7 years, I just can't do it all.

I’ve volunteered as a brownie leader that morphed into brownies and rainbows and guides because there was no one else. And it was thankless and no one else ever volunteered and when I couldn’t do it any longer the group folded.

I also did my time on the playgroup committee and the PTA.

The football club wouldn’t know that.

I have more than one child so I often had to dump and run as Saturdays were a coordinated mess of drop off and pick up.

The football club wouldn’t know that.

Giving discounts or first pick to those whose parents can help will discriminate against single parents. Increasing the cost will make the club out of the reach of many (£25 a month would already have been too expensive for me to send my kids).

I am disabled but you wouldn’t know that, nor do I have to tell you any of my personal health information I order to send my child to football. I couldn’t run a line

And last but not least. I’ve no interest in football and I haven’t a clue about the rules.