While many clubs are kept running by volunteers, it is a challenge for many to find time and ways to recruit additional helpers.
For a report on volunteers, WaiBOP Football visited the Te Aroha Junior Football Club and its president Ben Norman.
The Waikato town of Te Aroha is about halfway between Hamilton and Thames. The club has about 140 registered players and a committee of five volunteers.
Ben Norman gave some tips on how his club found volunteers to share the work.
First Kicks timekeeper Steve Hill is originally from Auckland and moved to Te Aroha in retirement, having played soccer with his own children in Auckland growing up.
Ben Norman met Hill by chance before the 2023 season when both men were on the football field.
Hill talked about how much he loved watching all the kids playing soccer on a Saturday morning as he passed by while walking or riding his bike.
He missed his football days, but felt it was inappropriate to go and watch without the involvement of a family member.
This gave me an idea.
Norman spoke to his committee about creating a dedicated timekeeper role at the club, someone to hold the horn at the first kicks of games and keep the morning going.
This role was shared by the entire committee, with all members also having other responsibilities.
Norman came back to Hill with the idea: “Would you like to be part of our club? We have this job that we would be happy to give you if you want to join.”
Since he had a specific task to complete, Hill was excited and agreed to serve as timekeeper for a season.
Main photo: Volunteer Steve Hill. Photo credit: WaiBOP Football.
After the winter season, he returned in early 2024 to time a fun 5v5 round-robin tournament on Friday nights for six weeks and was invited to committee meetings, providing input and insight that Norman said was very valuable.
This season, Hill is back as timekeeper for First Kicks and is also involved in the Cluster Festivals.
“Even as a child, I was taught that it was important to play sports and work as a team,” says Hill.
“This commitment gives people a sense of belonging and appreciation. Seeing parents and children come to play on Saturdays is priceless. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this.”
One of the key takeaways for Norman and the five-person committee is to define clear and specific roles for volunteers to take on (rather than just “show up and pitch in”).
They realized that one of the barriers to volunteering was not knowing what to do.
Another problem they identified for volunteers was uncertainty about the time commitment.
People don’t want to volunteer if they’re not sure they can do the job if needed.
Te Aroha is a dairy farm, so different time constraints apply than other occupations.
The committee wanted to make it easier for volunteers to get involved wherever possible.
Norman reported that the committee had been very deliberate in identifying what needed to be done and had broken down the tasks into “bite-sized chunks” with very clear instructions so that they could be carried out by different people.
An example is line marking.
This work has been carried out by committee members until now. It is time consuming and the timing varies depending on the weather and how quickly the grass grows and is mown.
The association managed to train six volunteers (mainly fathers) in the use of the line marking devices.
The equipment and a card with instructions are kept in a shed with a locker and all volunteers know the code.
Norman has a group chat specifically for pitch marking. He keeps an eye on the pitches and the weather and tells the group when they’re due and what two or three day window they can be finished in.
So far, it has always been one of the six who has been able to complete the task.
Norman believes there are some key points to finding and supporting new volunteers:
- Break tasks into clear sections with instructions and timeframes.
- Makes it easier to perform some tasks without depending on others (e.g. a locker with a shared code).
- The committee continues to organize tasks and take them on as needed.
The committee sees managing volunteer workload as a key to preventing individual burnout and building a sustainable club for the future.
This story was first published on July 22, 2024.
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We would like to thank WaiBOP Football for providing information for this story, which was first published on their website.
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