• To help others
• For personal satisfaction
• To do something worthwhile
• Fun
• Be with family and friends
• Social contact
• Meet new people
• To be active
• Gain work experience
• Learn new skills

These are all brilliantly positive aspects, so let’s create an attitude of enthusiasm, motivation and opportunity when talking about volunteering!

Here are 7 points that will help your club attract and retain an efficient crew of happy volunteers.

Appoint a Volunteer Coordinator

You have coaches that train your players, you have a president that organises the club, you have first aid officers responsible for injuries, so appoint a volunteer coordinator to look after all your volunteers.  It makes sense doesn’t it!

Obtain Information from Members and/or Parents

Registration forms should include questions like:

• What is your occupation?
• Do you have a coaching or officiating qualification?
• Do you have a trade or specific qualification?
• Do you have experience in volunteering with other sporting clubs?
• What aspect of our sport or club administration would you be interested in learning more about?
• In what way would you be comfortable to assist the club?

If you are registering junior club members, include these questions for parents to complete.

Develop a Volunteer Register

Take all the information from your registration forms and summarise it in one document (an Excel spreadsheet is a good format) so it’s easy to scan and find people who would suit specific volunteer roles.  Something like:

Outline Position Descriptions

What roles need to be undertaken in the club and what do each of these incorporate?  Make a list and develop a range of position descriptions so that people are aware of the skills and time required to volunteer.  You wouldn’t apply for a job if you didn’t know what it incorporated would you?

Approach People to Volunteer

The volunteer coordinator now knows what specific positions need to be filled, what they incorporate and a database of who within the club may be able to assist.  They can now approach people individually over a coffee, beer, before or after training, to have a chat about being involved in a volunteer role that suits their skills, interests and availability.

Up-skill Volunteers

There are plenty of grants programs available to accredit volunteers with coaching, officiating, first aid, administrative and management qualifications, so that individuals learn new skills without being out of pocket.  Also look at training programs around strength and conditioning, marketing, grants writing and event management.

Reward Volunteers

A simple and sincere thank you goes a long way, however, you can take rewarding volunteers further through public recognition, a volunteer end of season party, providing gifts such as a club shirt or hat or nomination for Council awards.  You can be imaginative and creative, but whatever you do, just don’t forget!

You can tap into more volunteer management insights by giving Luke a call.

What constitutes being a winner?  Success?  Coming First?  Achieving personal goals?  Recognition?  Representative honours?  Attitude?  Trying your best?  Fame?

What constitutes being a loser?  Failure?  Not winning?  Coming last?  Giving up?  Not being as good as someone else?  Poor sportsmanship?

For mine, whether it’s in sport or life, a winner will always take responsibility for their own actions and do everything they can to the best of their ability.  Giving up or not trying your best is simply not an option and is largely a result of your attitude.  If you’re going to go to the effort to do something, then do it well.  Choose your attitude and put everything you can into it.  If it doesn’t work out as planned, then look at how you can improve for next time.  Is there extra training, practice, research or time required to progress and do it better?  If yes, then do it.

Ricky Ponting didn’t just score his first 100 in almost 2 years (while I’m writing this blog) under enourmous pressure without working hard, not giving up and not believing in his ability.  Australia II didn’t break the longest domination in world sporting history to win the America’s Cup, just by using a cutting edge new winged keel.  They raced in previous years, lost, then focussed intently on improving in every way possible.  Steven Bradbury, Australia’s (and the Southern Hemisphere’s) first ever gold medal winter Olympian, didn’t just happen to be in a short course speed skating Olympic final where the other skaters all crashed.  Many years of hard training, overcoming serious injuries that included a broken neck and a gash that bled 4 litres of blood and required 111 stitches and 3 previous Olympic Games all lead to that ultimate moment that he crossed the line first.

Success is also relative to a person’s goals and expectations and what one person may percieve a failure, another will percieve as a success.  The media is great for sport, however, their perception of an athlete winning can be very different to the reality of the situation.  Ian Thorpe, our most successful ever Olympian was perceived to have failed by a number of high profile media outlets in his comeback to international swimming last year, as he didn’t win a final.  But is representing Australia and making the final in an international race really a failure, particularly for a person that hasn’t raced at that level for 5 years?

On a lighter note to finish with, here’s a few good winner and loser cliches that are actually a pretty helpful guide to keep a check on your attitude.

• The winner is always part of the answer, the loser is always part of the problem.
• Winners say “There ought to be a better way to do this”, losers say “That’s the way it’s always been done.”
• A winner feels responsible for more than their job, a loser says, “I only work here.”
• The winner sees an answer for every problem, the loser sees a problem for every answer.
• The winner says, “It may be difficult but it is possible”, the loser says, “It may be possible but it is too difficult.”
• When a winner makes a mistake, he says, “I was wrong”,  when a loser makes a mistake, he says, “It wasn’t my fault.”
• A winner makes commitments, a loser makes promises.
• Winners have dreams, losers have schemes.
• Winners say, “I must do something”, losers say, “Something must be done.”
• Winners are a part of the team, losers are apart from the team.
• Winners see the gain, losers see the pain.
• Winners see possibilities, losers see problems.
• Winners believe in win-win, losers believe for them to win, someone has to lose.

Print them out and stick them to your wall - I have.

We know when the North Queensland Cowboys play, Matt Scott is going to take the ball forward all game, Dallas Johnson is going to make a thousand tackles and Jonathon Thurston is going to create attacking opportunities from all parts of the field. The individual contributions of each player culminate to produce a positive team performance. If one person is carrying an injury or hasn’t prepared themselves at training, they won’t do their job effectively, meaning another won’t be able to do theirs. If any athlete turns up to their game or event knowing in their mind that they didn’t do every sprint, lap, push up or drill at training, then they are prepared to lose.

So adapting this analogy into a workplace, as business leaders, we need to make sure that our people are looking after themselves and enjoying what they are doing. Being physically active and healthy will make an enormous difference. Those that are, know that it makes you feel more energetic, you are more focussed, the attitude you choose when life bowls a bouncer at you is more positive and you’re more productive in everything you do. Imagine your workplace with a whole team of healthy people, how up-vibe and electric the atmosphere would be, the number of creative and innovative ideas would emerge, how productive your team would be and how much fun you could have whilst doing the everyday routines that with the wrong attitude can be perceived as monotonous and boring? These workplaces do exist and are the ones that have not only seen the light in knowing that our people are our greatest asset, but have actually acted on this. Have a read of the book ‘Fish!’ or pick up one of Wayne Bennett or Richard Branson’s autobiographies and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

As much as business leaders can provide motivation, inspiration and opportunities for staff to be active and healthy, of course the individual needs to also take responsibility for themselves. This time of year after the fun and indulgence of the festive season, we have so many great intentions to hit the streets running, climb Castle Hill’s goat tracks every day of the week, bust a poofoo valve in the gym, ride to Woodstock and back, eat nothing but rabbit food and cut out all forms of alcohol and sweets. For sure, this may be achievable for a few weeks, but if you want to be fair dinkum about being healthy and active, you need to approach it from a sustainable, lifestyle perspective.

Make your exercise sessions enjoyable by:

• Incorporating other people
• Playing sports
• Walking or running scenic routes
• Simply choosing things you like doing

Incorporate these into your everyday routine, so that exercise is something you look forward to and is not a chore. Think of it as an opportunity to catch up with friends, clear your head, enjoy some family time, get some peace and quiet or blow away the stresses of the day.

When eating, aim for 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day and do a bit of preparation so that each meal includes the 5 food nutrients:

• Fats (the good ones, not the evil saturated ones)
• Carbohydrates (lower GI complex carbs get a big thumbs up)
• Protein (the lean/low fat types)
• Vitamins and minerals (fresh fruit and vegies are the go)
• Plenty of water

My whole life pretty much revolves around sport and being active, however, I know personally that if I don’t set short and long term training goals I can very easily fall into bad habits. Lifestyle and creating healthy opportunities in both your workplace and home life is the key. A rather famous basketballer once said, ‘some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen’. Go Jordan!

Which Christmas treats do you indulge in each year?  My wife (aka admin manager) makes an impressive rum ball and they are my Achilles’ heel of all the treats on offer during the silly season.  Remember, you don’t have to miss out on the culinary yummies on Christmas day and you can get creative and substitute ingredients if you prefer a less fat, no alcohol or gluten free option.

Sporting Advantage Rum Balls

While you are exercising your self control at the dinner table, don’t forget to aim for some exercise on Christmas day too.  Noooooooo I hear you scream, but this can involve running around in the mandatory game of backyard cricket, a pool volleyball challenge, going for an early evening walk or running after the kids on their new bikes!

Just remember, anything in moderation!  Train hard during the year and you can enjoy a treat or two on Christmas day (you may want to attempt to hide the sweets in the freezer like my wife does, so they actually survive until Christmas day).

• Get as many different ideas from as many different people involved with the club as possible.  This will give you different perspectives and hopefully some original ideas.  It will also help to make people feel included in the club and its future direction.
• Look at what other clubs or sports in your town are doing.  What’s working for them and what’s not?  Also look at similar clubs in other towns.  If you know people from these places, don’t hesitate to give them a call and pick their brains.  There’s no harm in replicating what’s working for a different club.
• Aim for a blend of ambition and achievable.  If you set the bar too high, you may burn out a lot of good volunteers and cew through a lot of money trying to reach your lofty goals, but if you set the bar to low, well, what’s the point?  I’d rather err on the side of ambition.
• Consider all aspects of your club, making sure you don’t forget membership numbers, teams, community demographics, growth, income, expenditure, volunteer recruitment, education and training, facility development, equipment, image and culture, support networks, policies and procedures, risk management and communication.
• Try to keep your overall number of goals limited to 6 or 7 main points.  Break each goal into a number of individual targets/projects that become the responsibility of someone in the club to to set in motion within a given timeframe.
• Look for resources such as templates, websites, blogs (I know a good one!), development officers, Council S&R officers or other club volunteers that can help out with the running of specific projects.

Once you know what your club wants to achieve, when you want to achieve it and how you’re going to go about achieving it, then you’re already halfway along the road to success.

Just promise you’ll remember to do two things, use the plan to its fullest and enjoy the ride along the way!

Review and update the club’s strategic plan
What has our club achieved this year, what projects still need to be started, where have things changed, where can we improve and how does this place us for 2013?

Recruit volunteers
What roles do we need volunteers filling, how can we create a volunteer coordinator role, who do we know that would be good for a specific role and where’s their phone number?

Outline a calendar of events
What social, fundraising, competition and carnival events do we need to organise next year, how can they be improved from this year, when should we run them and how can we create the wow factor?

Increase income
Have we contacted all our 2011 sponsors to thank them and provide a summary of the year, have we asked them about backing up next year, have we identified grants programs we can apply for and are they open?

Keep in contact
Can we organise a social off season event to catch up with everyone, are there any social sporting competitions we can join to keep the players together, can we email, facebook, text or tweet the team?

The start of next season will creep up quickly and appear from nowhere if you are bold enough to ignore this list. A little bit of preparation now will make your life so much easier when that first whistle blows next year.

• Organise a ‘come and try’ afternoon with a local sporting club.  Sailing, rifle shooting, broomball, outrigging, archery, bocce, the list is almost endless.  This gives people a chance to try a new sport and most clubs will probably be more than happy to fire up the BBQ and throw a few cold ones in an esky for you too.
• Hit the beach, where you can play beach cricket, have flag races, sand castle art competitions, dig for treasure scavenger hunts, beach volleyball, flipper relays and strategic water fights.
• With a bit of pre planning, organise a race around town, whereby teams are given a series of clues that will take them around a course and to a finishing rendezvous point for a few quite ones.  Incorporate some history and tall tales of your town, encourage public displays of silliness and of course, get as much photo evidence of team antics as possible.
• Head to a park, or use a decent sized air conditioned conference room to play an hour of fun team building games such as circle dodgeball, ten pass, ball tag, clap catch, noodle hockey, hit-kick-throw-go, octopus, fish net and run the gauntlet.  Everyone will have a laugh and work up a good hunger and thirst to kick on.

If you’re running out of time to organise an awesome Christmas staff party, give us a call and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out on any of the festive fun.

Resources that can help make your club and sport a positive experience:
Play by the Rules
Good Sports
Positive or it’s Pointless

Read more about poor tennis, cricket and commentator behaviour.

Maybe I’ve become a little too idealistic, but I was adamant after that game that I wouldn’t go back to support a competition that accepts poor sportsmanlike behaviour.  So why do we accept this rubbish on a sports field and not in the general public?  Serena Williams’ outburst at the US Open recently would have dire consequences if this tirade was directed towards someone of authority in the community, and rightly so.  Was it mere coincidence that she was losing?  Go Sam!

There is definitely a level of sledging and niggle that’s acceptable in sport (and I’ve enjoyed partaking in this over the years in scrums or after bowling a bouncer) and cricket is a great example of this.  But where is that fine line?  Is it ok to give a batsmen a mouthful after you’ve got him out and even though technically in the rules of the game, I hate that it was Australia that delivered that under arm bowl (though we did win the game…)  On a brighter note, not being given out for caught behind, then walking as Adam Gilchrist did, shows true sportsmanship, though I wouldn’t say not walking is bad sportsmanship.

How on earth are we going to sustain current sports officials, referees and umpires when these standover and abusive tactics (that actually do work) are taking place?  We hear commentators on TV every week criticising decisions referees and umpires make (no need for a You Tube clip it’s that common), with no accountability for their comments.  It makes me sick and leaves a very sour taste in my mouth for certain sports.

Just for the record, I couldn’t let my mates down, so I’m still playing.

Who’s Behind the Carnival?
Sporting Advantage is a small business in Townsville that organises the Carnival, hence why it’s called the Sporting Advantage NQ Corporate Carnival and our name’s on pretty much everything.

What’s Sporting Advantage?
We (meaning myself [Luke] and wife Tamra) provide team building opportunities for business through fun sport and health programs, along with volunteer training and strategic planning for sporting associations, with a bit of grants writing in there also.

Why the Carnival?
What better team building opportunity than a day of social sport mixed into an entertaining carnival atmosphere.  Building team morale in a workplace has so many benefits for businesses.  I also have fun and enjoy the buzz of organising sporting carnivals.

Inspiration
At the time I was mulling the idea for the Carnival over in my head, I was reading a couple of Richard Branson’s books, ‘Screw It Let’s Do It’ and ‘Business Stripped Bear’.  Starting a new event seemed like a good challenge, I got excited and thought, screw it, I’ll do it!

Experience
I organised something pretty similar to the Carnival when I was in year 12.  I ran a different lunchtime sporting competition each term – handball, 3-on-3 basketball, paddle tennis and 3-a-side volleyball.  I only played once, in the volleyball competition and we lost the final to a team of grade niners – whoops!

A Friend and Family Affair
I pretty much call in favours from as many family and friends as possible on the day of the Carnival, so you’ll see my brothers, sisters, in-laws, friends from school, nephews, nieces and parents all helping out.  I’ll leave it to you as to who got the looks and the brains in the family.  JCU Student Association sport and rec officers also help out, my bank advisor, former boss and volunteers from JCU’s Sports Science degree.

The Goal
We want every single person in the Carnival to have a great time.  I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so we won’t stop until we make sure there are smiles all round!

Watch Noodle Hockey in Action

What you’ll need

• Two pool noodles – cut them in half to create 4 noodle hockey sticks
• 2 big balls (soft soccer balls or small beach balls are the go)
• 10 x markers
• 2 small goals (you can also place two markers 1m apart to simulate a goal)
• An even number of people keen to have fun

Setup

• Place 5 markers in a straight line, all about 1-2m apart
• Line up the other 5 markers in parallel, creating a rectangular court that’s about 10m x 5m
• Place a goal up each end of the court

Play, play, play

• All players stand on a marker, creating one team on one sideline and another team on the other sideline
• Give each member of each team a number from 1-5.  This means that there will be a 1 on each team, a 2 on each team etc.
• Place 1 ball and 2 noodles in the middle of the court
• The ref calls out a number in which that numbered person from each teams runs to pick up a noodle and starts whacking the ball towards their goal.   When the goal is scored the ball and noodles go back to the middle and the players to their markers, ready for the next number to be called

Extreme noodle hockey chaos

• Use two balls and 4 noodle hockey sticks
• Call out 2 different numbers, so that 4 people are trying to score with 2 different balls