ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Orienteering Development Ben Rattray, Director (Development)
Thanks for our volunteers – can everyone start showing their support? I have just come back from Easter in South Australia. I had a great time, and the events all ran smoothly and well. It does amaze me how well we orienteers run events. There is inevitably the odd hiccup, and the unavoidable complaints about trivial points, but we do run events well, often very well. Major carnivals require a tremendous amount of work, and to quote a fellow Board member, “the work required provides a few people with what would be equivalent to a full-time job for several months.” What makes it more impressive is that the vast majority, if not all, is conducted by volunteers. Volunteers run our sport, and it is great. It is great to see people passionate to make the sport they love happen. It is great to see that in this world of financial and time pressures, people are willing to donate their time and effort. It is great we have so many volunteers, from organisers to Board members, and start crews to coaches. Volunteers in orienteering cover a wide range of activities. There is a down side however. One of the largest issues we have in Australian orienteering is the large amount of volunteering that a relatively small group of people undertake. These people often get tired, and are too often overloaded or burnt-out. This is particularly true with our major carnivals, and even more alarming, the problem is only likely to get worse in the future with changing attitudes in society, and an increasing ageing demographic involved in the sport. Addressing this issue will include increasing our volunteer base, member and participation numbers as well as supporting our volunteers. There is a popular notion that if we increase our active membership, we will increase our volunteer base. This is true, but I believe only to a limited extent. Many people are not likely to volunteer, and the idea that you have to volunteer may actually deter people from becoming members, or even participating in the sport altogether. I don’t believe that other sports such as athletics or cycling would have the same relative number of volunteers that we have in orienteering. Athletics is a very large sport, yet I doubt every second participant has been a volunteer as seems to be the case with orienteering. There is much more we can do in terms of supporting our volunteers rather than just hoping more appear. We can support volunteers in many forms, thanking them is the most obvious. We show our appreciation regularly by thanking volunteers in person, in event write-ups, at prize-giving and the occasional award. I don’t believe that is enough. Here are some ideas on supporting our volunteers further. 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2007
Volunteer Support Resources Generally each State has guidelines to assist volunteers with event organisation. This may be in the form of a club guide, or individual guidelines on the different aspects of event management and coaching. I am uncertain how often these guides are used, but I suspect many people are unaware they exist so I encourage States and clubs to ensure they are continually well advertised as a useful resource, acting to reduce the load on individual volunteers. Resources should be continually updated, reviewed and developed as new issues arise (such as with electronic punching). Useful development resources are something I am working hard to develop from a national perspective as well and there is now a number of resources on the Orienteering Australia website. While we do events well, we often don’t do other aspects of the sport well, particularly promotion and advertising. As part of the development resources being established on the website, we are therefore trying to establish better resources for our volunteers in these areas. Another project that we would like to achieve is putting together a resource for organising a major carnival. All these resources are aimed to provide volunteers with a framework in which they can achieve their objectives more efficiently, and that should take some of the stress and load off our volunteers. If you have any ideas or suggestions of resources that would be useful, please be in contact.
Paid officer support Volunteers are predominantly supported by themselves and each other in orienteering. This is great, and in some places a necessity since there is not a paid officer in every State. But volunteers need support from our professionals wherever possible. Effective paid professionals have a list of duties to fulfil as part of their employment, and these duties should be made clear to everyone. As part of these duties, tasks that assist the volunteer structure (either through policy development, administrative or direct support) should be in place. We have some great paid officers that contribute tremendously to our sport, but unfortunately not enough. States should continue to investigate the viability of a paid officer(s) bearing in mind that there is potential for them to pay for themselves through: • Membership and participation numbers • Value for money at an event – and price structuring • Commercial business – jump on the adventure sport bandwagon catering for corporate sectors • Marketing and sponsorship/grants • Running paid events and education for schools The level of support to volunteers will vary depending upon the commitments of the paid position. As for the argument: “why should we pay one (or a few) people when everyone else volunteers?” - Because it increases the professionalism and quality of our sport, and makes the volunteers job easier. It comes down to effective task allocation, prioritisation and management of the paid officer.
Gifts Many organisations provide their volunteers with gifts as thanks for their support. Orienteering is a small organisation and struggles financially to provide volunteers with conventional gifts such as polo shirts, gift vouchers, hats etc. Gifts may include many other items that are more realistic, including event vouchers. This is perhaps the most obvious area in which orienteering could show thanks to its volunteers. Sponsorship arrangements may