Discussion: Logistics of hiring help at meets

Do any clubs have experience with how to (legally) hire people to assist in putting on local meets? I'd be particularly interested in clubs from the US because I'm sure regulations vary from country to country, but any input would be welcome. Our club, like many others I'm sure, is often strapped for volunteers. There are some volunteer positions where it may not be necessary to have significant orienteering knowledge or experience, where it might make sense to hire non-club members to take some of the burden off of members.

I've heard that any situation that would have someone be considered an "employee" of the club should be avoided, but I don't know all of the legalities surrounding that question. The other option would appear to be to have any helpers be contractors, but I'm also not knowledgeable about the legalities of that situation. Any insight / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Our state association (sorry I am not from the US), we have several paid positions, mostly casual:
-Sports development officer
-Admin-ey type person
-Event computer operators

It just got to be too much of a burden on volunteers to continually find people to fill these roles, particularly the last one, which is required at each event, because members did not want to learn how to use the computer.

Using the SI schools printout system means you don't require a computer at events. The only drawback is that if you want splits extracted then someone needs to learn to interrogate the box after the event using SIME. You can then create results, splits, routegadget input and splitalyser input. If you employ someone to do this, they don't need to be at the event, as long as someone drops off the box for them to interrogate. If you don't have volunteers for this, you still have the event with electronic timing. !
See here for an example.
http://www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au/mediawiki/ind...

I think the above described system is fantastic. I've used it as a course setter/event director and as a runner. Having a computer at local events just seems like overkill.

But the original question was about the logistics of hiring help. I think I remember that ROC already compensates orienteering volunteers with perks, so paying people seems like the next logical step. I actually have no experience with that, only a hunch that you'll likely go the independent contractor route if you do pay people. However, I have a different suggestion - offer other groups a donation if they can provide some people to help out at an event. ie, "we'll give your troop/club $200 for volunteering to do abc at xyz events."

Maybe this isn't worth the effort if you already have people you can pay individually, but often people are willing to volunteer at random events if their friends are doing it and their organization will get some cash in return. The payment for the group seems better than the small payment an individual would ge for working for a few hours alone.

When you say legal, I would guess you just need to square things up with IRS?

http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-S...

And then the club treasurer should probably know what he/she is doing in that area?

Work through some sort of temp/staffing agency, where the people are then technically employed by that agency and not by the club? I had a small, part time job in the past where I was called in as needed. I was interviewed and hired by the company but all my paperwork and time cards went to a temp agency and my paychecks came from the same agency. Basically they just managed the payroll.

You could hire people through taskrabbit.

I really don't think you or the IRS have to concern yourself with the small amounts you'd be paying for event help- No more so than anyone worries about reporting their babysitter's wages to the IRS.
I hope you can avoid having to switch from a volunteer base of helpers to a paid one. Our local triathlon series organizers pay their helpers: Registration >$50
Local orienteering helpers are volunteers: Registration <$7
However I like the suggestion of when all else fails going to other organizations to get help. I'm going to be trying it with JROTC groups in SW Florida this winter.
I also like the idea of registration fee credits for events worked.

Most clubs already hire people. For mapping. For day-of-meet help, the dollar amounts would be smaller, and I would think that they'd almost always be people who don't have visa issues with regard to getting paid. (I think it's the case that, provided the totals are below some threshold, the club does not need to report the payment to the IRS by way of issuing a 1099 form.)

I found a great resource through ViaSport (formally BC Sports Agency), which has information for hiring employees in the Sports Sector. Maybe your state has a similar organization that would have specific guidelines?

Sometimes JROTC groups work really well. But they need to be very clearly informed of their duties and in my experience close supervision or follow up has sometimes been needed. They are often enthusiastic, but problems we've had include not as many kids showing up as promised, kids getting bored and abandoning a snack / water control before all runners passed, cadets getting overly enthusiastic and doing things that were counterproductive (like picking up controls other than ones they were assigned or disassembling equipment that we normally do not disassemble such as taking ALL the string out of a control flag.)
With good instruction and supervision such helpers can be very useful but beware potential pitfalls.

In the US ....

An organization (or business) has to report to the IRS payments exceeding $600 in total during a calendar year to any given person or entity on a Form 1099.

As for the individual receiving the payment, the IRS hopes that all income is reported, regardless of amount.

An organization (or business) has to report to the IRS payments exceeding $600 in total during a calendar year to any given person or entity on a Form 1099.

I thought that requirement was repealed, because it was viewed as an excessive burden on small businesses.

Looks like you still do. This might be of use to the original poster: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf

I didn't understand a word of that clip.

No surprises there.

Although spending all day yesterday building a retaining wall in the yard has left me a bit delirious.

Our club flips it around for one of our larger events. We have an agreement with an experienced race organizer who has his own company. He pays the club a fixed fee for every participant to cover registration services, website, promotion and maps, which we provide. He does the rest of the planning and wrangles some volunteers for event day. He has the skills to set courses and run the SI software himself, but I imagine there would be a way for a club to provide a different set of volunteer services to an event organizer with a different skill set, e.g. the club could provide the course setter as well as the maps.

Apparently, being a race director is a dream job. Should be all sorts of people waiting to be hired, right?

Wow, need to go to college and then internship, and then get hired by some three large companies. Will take some time to get that rolling.