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Where the Boys (and Girls) Are: Volunteers at Little League International
On June 6, 1939, youngsters who loved to hit a ball and run some bases played the first Little League baseball game at Park Point in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Today, what began as a three-team organization has grown into Little League® International (LLI) – spreading across the United States and into 100 countries, involving nearly 1.5 million adult volunteers committed to helping young Little League players develop athletic skills alongside concepts of character and loyalty.
Despite its world-famous work and engagement of volunteers, there has been little exchange between LLI and the volunteer management field. In this Voices, Lori Renner Larsson sets out to fill this void with her review of Little League volunteers, answering questions about their structure and how they are coordinated while sharing insights about the lasting appeal of volunteering around children and baseball.
Miami Dolphins Special Teams: A New Game Plan for Volunteers and Community Service
When it comes to professional football in America, most people associate “special teams” with players who take the field for kick-offs, punt returns and kicking an extra point. But for the Miami Dolphins, an American football team based in Florida, “special teams” means so much more. The Miami Dolphins Special Teams, Driven by Chevy, is a new volunteer program that serves as one of the cornerstones of the Miami Dolphins Foundation. Although not the first volunteer initiative in professional sports, it is the first and only full-time volunteer program operated by a professional sports team. Started in 2009, the program is specifically designed to engage episodic volunteers in community service using the unique incentives and branding only available to a professional sports team. To date, the program has attracted 3,204 volunteers who have logged 43,835 hours of community service.
In this feature story for e-Volunteerism, Leslie Nixon, the Manager of Volunteer Programs for the Miami Dolphins, takes readers behind the scenes to show a business model of volunteerism from a decidedly unique perspective. Whether you’re a football fan or not, this story will give you a new way to think about volunteer opportunities.
No Matter Where: Volunteering for the Olympic Games
Every four years, the local organizing committee of either the summer or winter Olympics faces the challenge of recruiting and deploying thousands of volunteers in support of the massive event. And every four years, the committee seems to reinvent the system from scratch. Various news items have already surfaced about volunteering for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and the 2012 Summer Games in London. In this Points of View, Susan J. Ellis and Steve McCurley ponder what, if anything, is different about volunteer involvement and management for the Olympics as compared to any other volunteer activity. They also consider some of the philosophical/ethical issues emerging about the role of Olympic volunteering in different societies, and what this all might mean for the time between the Games.
Finding and Keeping Volunteers in Sport and Recreation: What the Research Tells Us
Surveys in different countries show that people often choose to volunteer in the sport and recreation field. During 2006, Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) commissioned research to look at how to motivate and recruit more volunteers, and successive SPARC studies show how important volunteers are to sport in New Zealand. This edition of Research to Practice considers how this detailed research can be applied across all volunteer-involving organisations.
On the Same Wave: The Story Behind Australia’s First Squad of Muslim Surf Lifesavers
In December 2005, an assault on three volunteer surf lifesavers led to violence and what are now known as 'the Cronulla riots.' In the aftermath of these events, a number of parties (including the Australian Government, Sutherland Shire Council, Surf Life Saving Australia, Surf Life Saving NSW, and various other groups) representing Muslims proposed a program which would attempt to bring harmony back to the Cronulla beaches. Ultimately, this program has seen almost 20 young people of mainly Lebanese Muslim background undergo the arduous training to become volunteer surf lifesavers. But is this mere tokenism or a genuine attempt by those involved to make a difference?
Major Events Volunteering
With the world’s largest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, recently winding up in Germany, we at e-Volunteerism decided it was time to turn our attention to the nuances involved in volunteering and volunteer management practices within the context of hosting major events.
Major events utilize the support of thousands of volunteers which, by sheer weight of numbers, creates management complexities not experienced by volunteer managers working in more conventional kinds of volunteering. Some of these issues, which we discuss in this Roundtable, include:
- Infrastructure and planning required for handling such a vast workforce
- Transference of volunteers, skills and knowledge across nations
- Pressures of working to complex and finite time lines
- Importance of reward and recognition of major event volunteers
- Utilization of volunteers themselves in the management and training of other volunteer team members
This Keyboard Roundtable offers a variety of opinions from volunteerism leaders around the world, involved in coordinating volunteer effort across a wide range of major events. We invite you to learn about this unique style of volunteer involvement from their experiences.
The Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games Volunteer Program
David Brettell was the Manager of Venue Staffing and Volunteers for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games ('SOCOG"). This article includes excerpts from keynote speeches David Brettell gave at three volunteerism conferences in July and August 2001, in Singapore and in Adelaide and Fremantle in Australia.
Excerpts from Speech:
You have, I'm sure, heard the expression "from dreams come realities." Sydney has just been through the dream and the experience of its life, as have all the citizens of my country. A slightly cynical Australia went "soft" in September 2000 and embraced the Olympics and Paralympics with exactly what they needed: PASSION. We were genuinely "touched" by the Games and what they represent. Our CEO says it much better than I. He says that Sydney and Australia "brushed the sky" for that short period in September last year.
Volunteers from all round Australia and some from overseas as well were amazingly supportive of the Games. The Sydney Games saw the largest gathering of volunteers at one time, in one place, in Australia's post-war history: 62,000 volunteers (47,000 for the Olympics and 15,000 for the Paralympics) gave their time, skills, enthusiasm, warmth, and never forgetting their passion, to make the Games a great success. They received lots of acknowledgment and recognition but nothing matched what was given to them at the Closing Ceremony of the Games. On the 1st of October, 2000, Mr. Samaranch (CEO) awarded them the ultimate recognition, calling them "the most dedicated and wonderful Games volunteers ever."
Audio Interview with David Brettell
David Brettell was the Manager of Venue Staffing and Volunteers for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games ('SOCOG"). Susan Ellis interviewed David while she was in Australia and taped the interview for e-Volunteerism.
Questions Asked in Audio Interview:
- What - if anything - was done to let Games volunteers know about how they might continue volunteering somewhere, somehow once the Olympics were over?
- What connections - if any - were made with existing volunteer-involving organizations to offer ongoing opportunities?
- What advice David might have for other organizers of major events about harnessing and re-channeling such a large outpouring of volunteer interest.