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Riv View Drop Down
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Posts: 353 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Riv Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Volunteering / Club Duties
    Posted: 16 Jul 23 at 10:30am
This is an interesting discussion because it affects the basis for most club activities.

Eric said earlier 

"
Firstly 'duties' are not the same as 'volunteering'.
club duties' are part of the deal you make when you join a club or take part in the activities or whatever they do at your club. It's part of the cost of being in the club going sailing etc etc. Volunteering is when you do something for no direct return, like working in a charity shop, conservation work or whatever"

Is it possible for a member to volunteer given the above description? All members who assist with any club activity get something back for it, continuation of the club, exercise, socialising, improved mental health, skills, etc, etc. 

I "volunteered" for five years with out local sailability group and stopped because they removed all the fringe benefits in the name of safety and corporate image.

Thus I now realise that I was not volunteering there, I was doing duties, and expecting a return.

I help to run my local sailing club (we don't race much) I get benefits from that activity, therefore these are duties. (I'm the Bosun, Dinghy park organiser and run the club Whatsapp group) 

I think the concept of Duties needs a re-brand, I'm going to give it some thought. 
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davidyacht View Drop Down
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Posts: 1345 		Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jul 23 at 11:26am
You can do “duties” voluntarily.

The way I look at it, our sport exists due to people putting back what we take out.  Often this is a bit back ended in our sailing careers.  

There are some people who go though life not volunteering for the delivery part of the sport.  This used to make me quite cross, I am now more relaxed and recognise that it is probably best that they don’t volunteer for something that they are unsuited.

If we relied on people doing stuff for money then the participation costs would probably be unsustainable.

I still get quite vexed by active sailors opting out of the club system completely and sailing as RYA, but that is a well trodden argument on the forum.
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eric_c View Drop Down
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Posts: 382 		Post Options Post Options   Quote eric_c Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jul 23 at 2:03pm
Originally posted by Riv

.....
I "volunteered" for five years with out local sailability group and stopped because they removed all the fringe benefits in the name of safety and corporate image.

Thus I now realise that I was not volunteering there, I was doing duties, and expecting a return.
.....




I wouldn't be criticising a 'volunteer' for being swayed by a few fringe benefits. A lot of the 'volunteers' at my club get benefits from the club such as their kids get training, they might get some free kit or be allowed the odd jolly in a safety boat. In a small club, any volunteers who reduce the need for sailors to do duties are much appreciated. Like a lot of clubs, if we run an event, a lot of us volunteer to run the event, and we get the benefit of the profit from the event keeping our subs down.
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The Q View Drop Down
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Posts: 126 		Post Options Post Options   Quote The Q Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jul 23 at 5:38pm
My club requires one duty day a year which I did in May. Rescue boat driver, or crew. Tea bar assistant.

Yesterday, I volunteered for rescue boat duty Driver every morning of regatta week. 31st July - 4th August at Horning SC.
The only benefit is free tea or coffee on duty, that wouldn't sway my decision. Neither does it sway my decision, volunteering at the Radar Museum https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jul 23 at 7:20am
Originally posted by davidyacht

I still get quite vexed by active sailors opting out of the club system completely and sailing as RYA, but that is a well trodden argument on the forum.

This becomes self perpetuating.

A sailor active on the circuit ends up doing more duties at their club than they do sailing there so they leave and sail under RYA or join for a winter membership only.

This means everyone else has to cover another duty.

Repeat 10x (I've seen this happen and decimate what was one of the best active racing clubs in the region) and the normal club racer/dinghy sailor ends up having a duty every 6 weeks. Many clubs now also have an influx of paddle board and model boat sailors and have not yet squared the circle of how they can contribute to the main reason for the club's existence - dinghy sailing (Not just racing). Clubs are also scared that if they ask the paddle board fraternity to do duties they will just move elsewhere to a club that hasn't grasped the nettle yet.
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davidyacht View Drop Down
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Posts: 1345 		Post Options Post Options   Quote davidyacht Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jul 23 at 3:08pm
Maybe a bit old fashioned but it is nice to consider sailors on the open circuit as representing their home club.

Ref. The paddle boarders … take the money, but don’t allow them to get control of the club.  

I suspect the model boating thing will come and go pretty rapidly … we had a boom at the backend of lockdown, now the Dragonflites are consigned to decorating living rooms.
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H2 View Drop Down
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Posts: 750 		Post Options Post Options   Quote H2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jul 23 at 3:31pm
I know of a number of top sailors that are members of multiple clubs for various reasons; they just buy out their duties for practicality. Personally I have no issue here, the clubs offer the option and people pay; I suspect it is a very small number of people in reality.

Having been a member of a number of clubs and served as a committee member at one of them I have had some insights into various models. My current club has a large membership of sailors as well as non sailing members. The non-sailors are involved in swimming, SUP, paddle boards etc and they also help out with duties which means as a sailor I only have to do 1 duty per year - great!!

Interestingly the club is very clear that it is a sailing club so sailing takes preference and non-sailing activities (i.e. swimming) is only allowed early / late in the day before anyone wants to sail. Seems to work really well and everyone is happy.
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Sussex Lad View Drop Down
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Posts: 360 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Sussex Lad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jul 23 at 11:07am
.....another thing that may discourage volunteers is indiscrete badmouthing of volunteers skills.

We may have all done it at times, it's certainly prevalent in a lot of sports clubs. Eliminating it completely in a male dominated, competitive environment is probably impossible......but it can be discouraged.

The reasons folk do it are complex but one of the main reasons is to show off about skills allegedly possessed by the perpetrator.......Judgements made about others skill levels are natural and useful......it's when they are voiced negatively to an audience (usually one per week so the offender thinks they're being discrete but by the end of the year they've told everybody) that they can become very, very destructive.

That combined with a lack of thank you's........and presto, volunteers that dread their duties,  particularly those volunteers that have had less experience.






Edited by Sussex Lad - 23 Jul 23 at 5:57pm
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