I don’t know why they cannot do half days. Heck, jump judges numbers decrease all day. Each division needs a few less than the one before. They need more in the morning. Sometimes when they are short, I have done two, and once I did three jumps in one division. I do not actually know if the local events here make money, and while years ago, when there were no computers to do the heavy lifting, the secretary worked as a volunteer. I do think they are paid now.
One more thing I used to do is pick up officials at the airport and drive them to their hotel or the show grounds. I loved doing that. I think they mostly just rent cars now. But I would happily do that now.
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Passing this on to Emily.
Thanks FlightCheck! I will definitely reach out at the next opportunity.
Beth Jenkins was the show manager for many years, and that woman knew how to run a show and treat volunteers.
There was often a waiting list for volunteers for that show.
There was a tent reserved for the volunteers with a wonderful lunch buffet and a chocolate fountain for dipping strawberries.
Beth was one of the reasons I stayed on the board as long as I did! Such a great loss to the dressage community.
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I support this. One event I looked at (hunter trial) stated that I MUST provide a volunteer. So, who am I going to hold hostage for the weekend? No way my DH would do it (horse events give him PTSD), my mum is elderly, none of my horsey friends would be interested in working so I could trot a few logs.
Some of us do not have the social circle to provide unpaid labour during times when we are riding. I would happily pay more to entice someone else to volunteer-with-benefits. Most of us aren’t kids being dragged around by doting parents. We work, we often ride without much hands-on support of our non-horsey family / partners (and no, I don’t blame my DH at all for not wanting to attend. He brings me a coffee, pats the horse, and leaves.), and some of us ride alone, or with other “alone” people.
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This is why I stopped volunteering where I had, and don’t offer at other venues: they have one bad egg that just makes the job miserable.
Maybe these events need to ask volunteers for anonymous feedback, suggestions/critique?
So a bad egg hurting their volunteering could be outed
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You could give them feedback with out them asking.
An email or a letter or such would do the trick.
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I simply can’t get there that early and can’t commit for an entire day. If they would have morning/afternoon shifts, that would help a lot, at least for me. I can usually get there by the time XC starts, but running the dressage or stadium just wouldn’t work for me. Most want you there all day or not at all.
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What I see when I read this thread is that:
-We are all too busy and it becomes a choice of competing or volunteering
-We don’t have “disposable people” in our networks who can volunteer in our place
-Many people would be happy to volunteer if we could adjust the logistics (shorter shifts, accommodations like stalls for competitors and their horses)
-“Bad eggs” are a real problem
To me, there are some options that won’t break the bank. For example, a free stall for competitors who volunteer (you clean and provide bedding) is a minimal cost/minimal effort incentive. To ensure the volunteering happens, it could be done as a refund.
I don’t understand why volunteer shifts can’t be broken into shorter ones. Some places I volunteer already do this. It’s a pretty easy solution and I know you can do it through the eventing volunteers app.
It seems like USEA could step up to aid with this. I’m not trying to throw extra work their way, but wouldn’t it be easy enough to say you need to complete one volunteer shift to be eligible for year-end awards, qualify for YR or AECs, etc.? I’m sure someone would get their panties in a wad, but it seems like an attainable option to me. They already have the volunteer incentive program, but it would be nice if there were something to bridge competing and volunteering.
I also think better education and training will limit the negative impact of bad eggs. There is no way to eliminate them, but if volunteers feel more confident and empowered in their job, that mean girl Negative Nancy isn’t going have as much fodder.
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In my area, ALL volunteers go thru a volunteer dashboard. There is no contact at all with a human. Now I know organizers and secretaries are far too busy and this helps them tremendously, but, when they need things not in the exact days of competition, there is no way to volunteer for those. I have asked on their FB pages, and all I ever get back is to offer me merch that I do not want or need. I have been very uncomfortable the last few times I have painted jumps. The painting is usually done in late August, think heat and humidity! I just can’t take it like I used to, so my painting days may just be behind me. But I loved doing that.
We have also switched to the volunteer dashboard, it’s easier because tech savvy people sign themselves up, but it’s up to the tenacity of the volunteer coordinator to chase down anyone who isn’t comfortable with the website, or people who need special consideration. We used to pay a farm sitter and camp at a show and volunteer for 3 days, my husband never used the dashboard because it was my thing, I just worked with someone and they’d text him and move him around as needed. He worked an entire weekend doing all sorts of things and he wasn’t allowed to have a lunch or a T shirt because he didn’t have his own volunteer account and someone wasn’t very nice when they said it. He hasn’t volunteered since then. It wasn’t about the T shirt, it was about the appreciation. I got stuck in traffic once and missed half a half day volunteer shift and was told they wouldn’t log the hours I was able to make it for because only the full shift counted. Now unless I can sign up for a 4 hour shift I don’t sign up.
I do see people being pretty blunt about why they don’t volunteer on FB, and I think it’s a missed opportunity for organizers who just get blunt back. The way you get more volunteers isn’t by berating people who don’t. I also see people saying volunteering should be a sacrifice, and you should do it out of a desire to serve and not expect things like T shirts and lunches, but I’m not sure these are the right approaches.
When someone says “I can’t JJ because I need to go to the bathroom, need shade, can’t drive 3 hours and work a 13 hour shift, can’t afford a hotel” the answer shouldn’t be “toughen up the sport is about sacrifice.” We shouldn’t expect a senior citizen to pee behind a tree but we do.
I will also add that you see a lot of people volunteering who only show at schooling shows so they have the free time for volunteering for recognized shows but I’ve sat next to show officials and heard them complain that the only reason they added Starter was to support the upper levels and it’s usually a shit show.
When you have less than 10 prelim riders, and 6 divisions of BN and 6 divisions of Starter AND all the BN and Starter people are also volunteering, it stings a bit when you’re financially supporting the show with entries AND With volunteering and people STILL complain the only reason you’re around is to fund the big leagues.
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This has been my experience as well. Not gonna work with people who treat me and my friends like crap. I used to love to volunteer- I quit doing it.
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I quit volunteering because it was eight hours in the sun with no breaks, and the last time I volunteered there was one guy by himself at a XC jump I was assigned to join near the end who was insisting not to count a refusal because there was mud. I was trying to tell him that he couldn’t do that, just to record what he saw. I honestly couldn’t believe, I mean it hit me, that a lot of professional riders were in the hands of a wonky volunteer and there must be a better way than relying on complete amature volunteers for something that could be important. I think we would get some stale baloney sandwich or something and started bringing a cooler of food for ourselves. Okay, we also started packing some sangria. But honestly, they called me wanting me to volunteer again and when I told them it was hunt season and I couldn’t, they got kinda snarky. Nope.
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I have volunteered a few times at a large, recognized venue. It’s a 6-8 hour round trip (depending on traffic), and I paid for a hotel room as well. I stopped doing it because I got kind of tired of the clique-ishness. Lots of locals and the event organizers all knew one another and always had a merry old time and never offered to include me in their chit chat or what have you. I make conversation easily, but there was a definite clique, and I can stay home for free instead of tolerating rude behavior in order to help you pull off your event in which I’ll never participate. I get it. I’m not there to socialize; I’m there to work. But I don’t do snotiness.
To smaller event organizers, as someone who has run other volunteer activities, I suggest you use everyone who asks if they can help. Find something for them to do, no matter how small. The kiss of death for any volunteer-dependent organization is not finding something to do for a person who willingly offers their time.
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True leaders set the example for their kids/students/clients in any situation, not just eventing.
Maybe organizers could encourage volunteering on a group basis and encourage the trainers to get on board and encourage it as well. Make it a little competitive between barns/trainers.
What about an (year end) award for the barn/trainers’s group that has logged the most volunteer hours. The prize should be something substantial - free entry for a future event, free stall for a day or weekend, something useful to that group of people.
Hopefully the trainers would get behind it by offering some additional incentive to the most active volunteer in their group; a free lesson maybe or free hauling to a future event that their group attends. It could be good PR for the barn/trainer even if the trainer themself puts in minimal volunteer time, but hopefully they would be prompted to set an example. If everyone in the group/team/barn collectively put in time a few hours a piece it might also help build back that sense of community that seems to have become lost in recent year.
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I totally understood your point. I know you weren’t dismissing SAHMs as having it easy, but sadly some people still do and don’t want us to forget them. I was both a work at home mom and a SAHM simultaneously. It took tons of juggling, but as you point out one of its great benefits was flexibility. I was so lucky to have that. My mom was indeed an amazing, pull up her boot straps and get the job done women, but I growing up literally in Europe during WW ll did that to a lot of people. My MIL (w/ 8 kids was much the same). We truly have it easy in comparison.
I stand on my comment. As an Olympian their accomplishment is certainly worthy of recognition, but it does not give them any more right to be rude.
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I volunteer and my kids volunteer on the regular. Just not at eventing shows. An ALL DAY commitment isn’t reasonable for many folks, I’m not dragging my kids to volunteer for 8 hours. 4 hours absolutely.
The last time I volunteered at a horse show I wasn’t really included in the same things as the regular volunteers, it was very lonely. I also didn’t have a rideable horse and they were giving out schooling passes cause they ran out of shirts- very cool! - so I asked if my friend could use it, big nope.
I’ll probably volunteer again once works slows down and I’m not the weekend taxi for kids.
This suggestion needs to include - something to do that they want to do.
I say this because I have met/know more than one person who has held a grudge about their volunteer assignment. They very much felt (out loud, to others) “how dare they put me in this job”, even when they were a last minute offer to volunteer and their list of restrictions were a mile long so it was either this job or remove someone from a job that was already assigned.
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CHP would send the volunteers a questionairre at the end of each event. They never followed through with any suggestions. When i started volunteering there we got great incentives such as small tyravel bags, insulated lunch coolers, insulated mugs. This was every event (now keep in mind they didn’t have the amount of events they have now) We got t shirts for the big events Southern Pines 1 and the Carolina International-they stopped doing shirts 2 years ago. They then went cheap and gave resuable grocery bags-I have a gazillion of those. Then they stopped doing that. the volunteer vouchers they gave finally went up from $15 up to $30 but they put a use by date a year from the event date. That doesn’t help if your horse coime up with an injury that needs rehab. They also did one year if you volunteered for 2 horse trials they woulkd give you a free XC schooling with a “celebrity” coach. These were local coaches who volunteered thier timne for this.
I occasionally miss voluteering there-miss seeing my friends and I know Bobby Costello is missing me supplying him with chocolate. I do still volunteer for my friends dressage shows where her volunteer vouchers are $60 for a full day and $30 for half day plus merchandise if we can’t use the vouchers. I also volunteer for our local Polocrosse Club. No incentives but they feed me-really good stuff.
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