NVSL Team Stuggles to get Volunteers - Ideas Needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What sort of requirements do other teams have for volunteering? Our NVSL team doesn't have a set requirement, but somehow each week all the slots get filled. I assume the team reps are doing some arm-twisting behind the scenes to get it done.

5 volunteer slots per family for our team

[Anonymous]

Ours is volunteer or pay. And if too many people were paying I change to if your kid wants to swim you have to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find that individual messages asking people to volunteer works best.

Volunteer coordinator messaging the people who haven’t volunteered much yet: Larla, we still need three timers for Saturday’s meet. Can I put you down to time at this meet?

Larla: responds either yes or no with some excuse.

Volunteer coordinator: ok, if this meet doesn’t work can we sign you up for these other three meets that still need workers.

I think this may be the key. Literally signing them up for something else there on the spot when they turn down what you do need them for at that moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s my proposal:

Several days before the meet, set a volunteer deadline. If any volunteer slots are empty after the deadline, the team will assign a family who has not signed up for their volunteer obligation to that slot and notify them. Those families have several days to contact other families to swap places or to find replacements.

If they are still a no-show on the day of the meet, the announcer opens an auction and offers to pay someone to fill in, starting at $100, and rising by $20 increments until the volunteer spot is sold, oversold flight style. The family who failed to sign up in advance, failed to find a replacement, and failed to show up will be billed for the amount.

This way, parents who are short on cash can pick up some money, parents who don’t care about volunteering can pay their way out of it, and collectively, the team can express their disdain for those few who never volunteer by letting the price go up as high as they want to punish them.

Plus, how fun would that be.

OMG - I love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find that individual messages asking people to volunteer works best.

Volunteer coordinator messaging the people who haven’t volunteered much yet: Larla, we still need three timers for Saturday’s meet. Can I put you down to time at this meet?

Larla: responds either yes or no with some excuse.

Volunteer coordinator: ok, if this meet doesn’t work can we sign you up for these other three meets that still need workers.

I think this may be the key. Literally signing them up for something else there on the spot when they turn down what you do need them for at that moment.

I agree, the rate of success increases with in person requests. Unfortunately I work fulltime and I'm not at the pool in the mornings during practices. It's difficult to track people down in person in advance.

[Anonymous]

Our team has no volunteering requirement. Our slots always get filled. Sometimes it takes some last-minute urging to fill the final few slots, but it gets done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s my proposal:

Several days before the meet, set a volunteer deadline. If any volunteer slots are empty after the deadline, the team will assign a family who has not signed up for their volunteer obligation to that slot and notify them. Those families have several days to contact other families to swap places or to find replacements.

If they are still a no-show on the day of the meet, the announcer opens an auction and offers to pay someone to fill in, starting at $100, and rising by $20 increments until the volunteer spot is sold, oversold flight style. The family who failed to sign up in advance, failed to find a replacement, and failed to show up will be billed for the amount.

This way, parents who are short on cash can pick up some money, parents who don’t care about volunteering can pay their way out of it, and collectively, the team can express their disdain for those few who never volunteer by letting the price go up as high as they want to punish them.

Plus, how fun would that be.

This was my proposal and it’s still my hope and dream that a team will institute this. This is how my med school handled finding someone to transcribe lecture notes for every class. There was a particularly annoying guy who always no showed and we always let the price run as high as possible to punish him. I think it reached $400 once.

But a less exciting way to incentivize people is to charge every family a $500 volunteer deposit at the beginning of the season. If they fulfill their requirements, the deposit is returned. If not, the team keeps the $500. This plan has a flaw in that people will race to sign up for the easier tasks and the harder tasks will still be unfilled. The first proposal hits the sweet spot in that it should prevent unfilled spots for every meet.

[Anonymous]

Our reps just assign volunteer slots. If your kid is swimming at a meet, you are working at the meet. Occasionally you get a meet off.

[Anonymous]

We had an intersquad meet this week and the team reps did a raffle for prizes for the volunteers. It was surprisingly motivating.

[Anonymous]

Of course you pull their kid from the meet if they don't volunteer....Who cares if the kids are impacted? What else will motivate these parents?

[Anonymous]

Summer swim team is an exercise in poor volunteer management.

Lanes don’t need three timers, the table doesn’t need people checking times and then someone else double checking and then someone else checking while entering times into a computer.

It is absurd use of parents time.

[Anonymous]

No volunteer- no swim. Enforced and everyone volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Volunteer deposit - high enough to incentivize people to volunteer. Our team suspended it at one point but many of us who volunteer (and pick up extra jobs when they inevitably are short on timers etc) requested they bring it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's punitive to the kids, who aren't responsible for their parents' actions.

What you SHOULD do is make it clear before enrollment that the team cannot function without parental contribution, either as a time donation, or an additional monetary donation. They need to sign something to that effect before enrolling their kids.

And then if they check the volunteer box and don't volunteer, you remind them, and let them know they can always write another check. if nothing is forthcoming, they are banned from subsequent swim team seasons.

Money doesn’t run a meet. Our team has plenty of money, but not enough volunteers

If your team has plenty of money, why can’t you hire people to do these jobs instead of using volunteers? Make people who don’t want to volunteer pay enough to cover full time salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s my proposal:

Several days before the meet, set a volunteer deadline. If any volunteer slots are empty after the deadline, the team will assign a family who has not signed up for their volunteer obligation to that slot and notify them. Those families have several days to contact other families to swap places or to find replacements.

If they are still a no-show on the day of the meet, the announcer opens an auction and offers to pay someone to fill in, starting at $100, and rising by $20 increments until the volunteer spot is sold, oversold flight style. The family who failed to sign up in advance, failed to find a replacement, and failed to show up will be billed for the amount.

This way, parents who are short on cash can pick up some money, parents who don’t care about volunteering can pay their way out of it, and collectively, the team can express their disdain for those few who never volunteer by letting the price go up as high as they want to punish them.

Plus, how fun would that be.

This was my proposal and it’s still my hope and dream that a team will institute this. This is how my med school handled finding someone to transcribe lecture notes for every class. There was a particularly annoying guy who always no showed and we always let the price run as high as possible to punish him. I think it reached $400 once.

But a less exciting way to incentivize people is to charge every family a $500 volunteer deposit at the beginning of the season. If they fulfill their requirements, the deposit is returned. If not, the team keeps the $500. This plan has a flaw in that people will race to sign up for the easier tasks and the harder tasks will still be unfilled. The first proposal hits the sweet spot in that it should prevent unfilled spots for every meet.

The volunteer deposit needs to be higher in this area. Make it $5k.