UKLA Chair Blog #80

Mar 4

How often do we consider – who is organising and running racing today? Who answers my email query on training or membership? Most often the answer is a volunteer. Modern society is most definitely a service-provider culture. We expect our services promptly and accurately, often online from our desks. And complaining is now so easy – send an email and you don’t even have to deal with an issue face to face. While not quite keyboard warrior territory where identities are kept hidden, it does see us sometimes send messages which are more aggressive or abusive then they should be. Volunteers do not work full-time and are not available 7 days a week. They are giving up some of their valuable time to help us.

It is important that people are prepared give something back, otherwise one of the consequences in the long run is higher prices and the exclusion of some who can’t afford it (or in society in general some people just don’t get the services they need).

But studies also show that there is a correlation between those who volunteer and their mental well-being.

I think we all recognise that volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport (most sports in fact) in clubs and classes up and down the country. UKLA is not a service-provider but an association of members that have come together to provide services to their members. Of course, we want to provide those services competently and efficiently, but it is mostly members doing that on behalf of members. I certainly appreciate all the time our volunteers commit to the UKLA, and there are very many of them. As well as the UKLA Committee of fifteen members, we have five sub-committees with additional members and many of us on those committees are helped, supported and advised by others who give up their time. And this is all before the volunteers on and off water at our events and training.

It goes without saying that our volunteers should be treated with respect (and mostly they are) and good relationships between volunteers matters a lot. Providing two-way feedback in the right way both helps to achieve this, while improving the way we do things. Race officers and Jury members don’t always get it right and it is reasonable to provide this feedback in a respectful way, bearing in mind that emotions often run high amongst us competitors when results have not gone the way we want!

Of course, there is no expectation that everyone will agree with all of our policies, whether they are a volunteer or not, but it is important to stress that policy comes from the UKLA Committee and its sub-committees not individual volunteers. Where there are concerns about policy these should be raised with UKLA committee members. We are always open to refining our policies in the interests of the class as a whole.

NOW for the ask - we need a volunteer to help organise our next Masters event at WPNSA in July. The race management documents and prize-giving are already accounted for (my thanks to Alan Davis and Guy Noble) so the effort is not significant and it is a one-off. I look forward to hearing for you.

Snippets

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