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With the sports awards
season in full swing, you will no doubt be thinking about how
you can ensure your volunteers feel valued and are rewarded for
their time. Whilst awards are a great way to reward volunteers,
there are many other ways that you can thank your volunteers.
Sports volunteers are the
lifeblood of sports clubs - without them the majority of clubs
just couldn’t function. Volunteers are extremely valuable, and
deserve considerable praise and thanks. So it’s essential that
volunteers feel that their role and their actions are important;
they want to feel welcome, needed, useful, part of the team and
thanked.
So how can you reward your
volunteers? Sometimes it’s the simple things that make a difference,
just saying thank you or offering praise while they are doing
their role. Other ways you could thank your volunteers include:
• Acknowledge
them in club newsletters and on the notice board
• Send
them birthday and Christmas cards
• Listen
to their ideas and implement their suggestions where possible
• Organise
a social event for volunteers
• Pay
for them to attend relevant skills and training events
• Give
them a thank you certificate
• Deals
on club membership
• Give
them complimentary tickets to special events and functions
It is also worthwhile to
ensure club members understand the impact that volunteers have
on your club. This can be done through raising awareness of what
the volunteers do within the club. Suggestions for doing this
include;
• Producing
articles for the club newsletter that focus on a particular
role - forexample ‘a day in the life of a groundsperson’ or
‘what does a club secretary do?’
• Creating
a notice board that explains the different roles at the club
More information can be
found in the running sports Top Tip ‘ Recognising
and Rewarding Volunteers ’ and in the ‘ Volunteers’
Quick Guide, both of which can be accessed free by Network Members
on the running sports ’ website - www.runningsports.org
. There is also a running sports workshop,
‘ Valuing Your Sports Volunteers ’, which is an excellent
way to meet people from other clubs and the tutor will positively
encourage you all to swap ideas at the event. ‘ Valuing Your
Sports Volunteers ' will help you to recruit more volunteers,
motivate, retain, reward and manage them even more effectively.
To find your nearest workshop, visit the running sports
website and view the workshop
calendar .
Most volunteers get pleasure
from volunteering, but we all like to be treated well and thanked
when we give our time for free. Rewarding volunteers is an essential
part of retaining your club’s workforce - it can’t be left to
chance!
For more information on
rewarding your volunteers, or to access running sports
’ range of resources, all designed to support administrative
sports volunteers working in sports clubs across the country,
visit our website, www.runningsports.org
.
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