Discussion: Volunteer Help from Non-Orienteers

I'm moving a thread that started here to give it more visibility. Essentially there were several comments about all the volunteers at the NAOC, and then today event director Jim Webster wrote the following summary of how it was accomplished.

A great model/lesson for others to use.

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(by Jim Webster)

In July 2007 our club had just hosted the BC Championships and were approached to see if we might consider hosting the North American Championships, recently awarded to our association. This request came, as a result of everyone being very impressed with the area and terrain. At that time there were 3 active members of KOC in Kimberley / Cranbrook and another 5 - 6 located in Rossland about 3 hours drive to the west. Although a couple of us had previous experience organizing large events, we knew that we wouldn't be successful without outside help.

We were lucky to have two clubs, with extensive experience hosting large events, in close proximity: FWOC & EOOC (4 hrs and 7 hrs) both with experienced volunteers and a good supply of equipment. The Vancouver and Kamloops clubs, although in BC, we soon realized would be busy hosting the SAGE and Barebones events and able to offer only limited assistance..

Our approach to finding volunteers was as follows:
- 2 years out: Approached friends within FWOC to see if they would be interested in taking on key course planning roles: Jane and Kitty agreed. About this time, I learnt that long-time orienteer, Juri Peepre was moving to our area. He and Ron, of KOC, agreed to become course controllers. At this same time I got agreement on a results and timing person.
- got agreement from Magnus to become the mapper.
- 14 months out Magnus agreed to also become course planner for the sprint and Frida for the Thomass (at this point Frida had very limited course planning experience but was keen to learn)
- 14 months out: started e-mailing EOOC, KOC & FWOC members with a general call for volunteers. Also, sent a press release to the Kimberley / Cranbrook papers which resulted in a large article and the raising of local awareness of the event. Carol came forward to do registration, Eva the booklet, Alar the model and many more in other roles
- Toni, at her first ever event, offered to handle first aid and to find the necessary volunteers and supplies
- over the next 6 - 8 months I continued to mention the event to anyone who would listen, slowly, I began getting commitments from people within the community that they would help with the event. Usually nothing specific other than an agreement to help in some capacity.
- 4 months out we had another major article in the local papers with a call for volunteers plus a mention in the Go Kimberley magazine that we needed volunteers. Slowly the emails started to come in and we began to build a base of volunteers.
- asked good friends, Larry, lois, joe and Sharon is they would work on the site set-up (which grew to be much more: equipment, construction) Mike & Rita offered to drive from Calgary to help any way they could.
- got an e-mail, from Meghan, asking about any orienteering events coming up as she thought it might be interested to try: After a few e-mails back and forward, she agreed to take on the job of signage. Best signs I've ever seen.
- 3 months out, I started to assign people specific roles as team leaders. It was at this point the volunteer numbers begin to grow as many of the team leaders asked if they should find there own volunteers (such as parking: Don & Alan). This was a huge help as they started to now draw on their own circle of friends. At this time we also started to put up posters at as many locations as we could, further raising local awareness.
- At some point, the volunteer recruitment took on a life of its own. One person in the local poker group would agree to volunteer and soon they were convincing the others to come on board. John & Judy, our volunteers co-ordinators, with a long history of local volunteering experience, called, out of the blue, to ask it they could help. This put us in touch with a whole new group of people.
Sue & Anita spent a full day printing programs, john cooked pizza for the package stuffers, Suzanne organized the BBQ and flags. Glenn, at Kwikprint, spent hours personalizing bibs & plagues, Carol and the group at Centre 64 took over and ran with the O Mazing Race....
At the time of our volunteer orientation, less that 10 days prior to the event, it was an amazing feeling to have 50 people walk into the room, many that I'd never met, yet all keen to help in whatever capacity they could. Many of them thanking us for bringing this event to the community.

It soon became evident that everyone wanted to do the best they could in their area. From Magnus pushing hard for high standards for the WRE events and arena, the course planners, Barry and Laura stepping in at the last minute to take over the finish to the parking officials who measured and calculated and recalculated to determine where every car would park.

Each day was a surprise for me. The level everyone achieved was beyond what I had thought possible and it was the volunteers that took things to the high level, each with their own vision for their area. It is something we all benefited from and something which made me very proud to have such an amazing team and group of friends. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for sharing, this sounds like an excellent example of how to do things right!

A nice touch was that the inside back cover of the event program listed the names of all the volunteers, alphabetically by last name. There was no distinction by task. All were thanked equally.
What's next Cranbrook/Kimberley? APOC? JWOC? WOC?
'O'Ringen North America'?

The APOC isn't what it used to be anymore, with the creation of the "official" Asian Orienteering Championships.