We Need Volunteers! We Need You!

[magic]

I’ve never asked to be compensated for my time and never will. When running a tournament the compensation for me is the club raising more money. When running a league the compensation is getting more people involved in organized events which hopefully turns into more club members. When doing course maintenance the compensation is a better course for all to enjoy.

Some people don’t agree with me on this, but I believe the primary goal of the club should be installing new courses and maintaining existing courses. Running tournaments should be a way to raise more funds to do these things.

If you try to start compensating volunteers either through direct cash and/or merchandise you are taking away funds that could go towards improving disc golf. And once you give something to one person where does it stop? Do this for everyone who volunteers their time and the next thing you know there is nothing left for course improvements.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t do what we can to give volunteers something when possible. I’ve had plenty of free sponsorship merchandise that I’ve given away to people who help out. Same as with players packs for events like the STL Open. Most events just don’t have the players packs to do something like that. As Jay mentioned you can also cut a volunteer a deal on merchandise at cost where you at least aren’t losing any money.

I’ve been running events and leagues for quite a while now and have interacted with many other organizers. The best and most committed volunteers out there could care less about being compensated. They are doing it for the love of the sport and wanting to improve disc golf. If you’ve gotten to the point of TD’ing an event most likely you don’t need anymore merchandise. Most of the TDs in the area now would most likely put any compensation right back into the event.

Once it is all said and done you can easily have 20+ volunteer hours put into a good event. Is free entry into the next event or a $20 merchandise voucher really going to entice someone who is financially motivated to put that much effort into something? Maybe once, but after they see what is involved most likely not.

There is already a good core group of volunteers in place. There are also many past volunteers and TD’s who became burnt out and stopped. Part of the solution might be to get some of them back. I know Ray Vuichard was a long time TD who has been gone for a while, but has offered to TD an event. We need more people like that along with some new blood to help lighten the load otherwise the same cycle is going to continue over and over.

[Richard~Cheese]

You hit center chains on that post Andy.

[dehaas]

How about people who complain at tournaments get an automatic bid to TD the next event? You're killing 2 birds with one stone at that point...reducing the griping and increasing your volunteer count.

[irwinje]

I don't like the idea of compensating volunteers because of the aforementioned contradiction of paying volunteers. However, having run numerous events, I can tell you what hard work it is and how hard it is to find people to step up and help. I, for one, got completely burned out and don't really have a desire to run events again - I wasn't very good at it and allowed myself to get very frustrated with the people that complained about the event I sacrificed my free time to run.
To address the suggestion about having "the complainers" run events, you have a better time getting water to run uphill. The people are typically the "pros" and they usually complain about the payout, or lack there of. Truth is, even if you put all entry fees into the payout, they'll still complain.

In my opinion, the compensation scale should look something like this for RCF events
Run a local RCF Event
- Club provides lunch and a voucher for 1 disc of their choice, or entry into another RCF event
Run a Sanctioned (C or B-Tier) Event
- Club provides lunch and a voucher for 2 discs or entry into 2 RCF events
Run an A-Tier Event
- Club provides lunch, a players pack and voucher for entry into an RCF event

* If the club chooses to print tournament stamp discs for any event, the TD/ volunteers should get one of those as well. Or, at very least get it for club cost.

[pjohnmeyer]

FWIW:

"... once employees get used to receiving financial rewards for meeting goals, they begin to work for the rewards, not the intrinsic motivation that comes from doing a good job and helping their company be successful. Many studies have shown that extrinsic rewards like grades and pay will, over time, destroy the intrinsic reward that comes from the work itself."

from http://www.poppendieck.com/pdfs/Compensation.pdf, some of which applies to this scenario.

I, for one, do hope to get more involved in the near future, but for now I am satisfied with helping what little I can with the Schroeder league.