Phil Richards is a busy man. As former Chairman of the Colyton Youth Football Club, now running the Under 16s side whilst acting as the adult representative of the local youth forum and working on the ground staff of the club, he knows what it means to be over-stretched. Phil understands the issues surrounding managing a club and in his own words, “there are never enough volunteers”.
To help rectify this and aid the club’s approach to recruiting volunteers he decided to attend a runningsports Volunteer Management workshop. Phil valued the opportunity to talk to other people in the same situation and found that the workshop re-kindled his enthusiasm; “it certainly opened our eyes a bit. The workshop was very positive.”
The real change Phil has noted since the workshop has been the “more positive approach” Colyton has taken to volunteer recruitment. They have started involving current members of the club more and recruiting volunteers from a wider area and cross-section of the local community.
Phil sums their new approach up; “volunteers are encouraged to give us their time and the club try to return the compliment by ensuring they have the right skills. Enthusiasm, encouragement and enjoyment are what’s important.”
All of these changes certainly seem to have paid off, with Colyton’s success with their lottery grant opening new doors for them. Phil certainly feels that, while there are many reasons for their success, the positive impact of the workshop, enabling them to develop a structured approach to the volunteer issues, must have helped.
Best Practise Tips from Cloyton Youth Football Club
- Involve your club members in volunteer recruitment
- Recruit from a wider cross section of the community and reach further afield to find your volunteers
- Don’t forget that you may need to train them
- Make sure that they enjoy their volunteer work
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