Today was my 7th at my internship as an events assistant working on the Chevron City to Surf for Activ. Today we had the huge task of assembling and posting out our race packs to all of the participants who elected to have their race packs posted to them. The race pack includes the participants race bib as well as important information surrounding the event such as fundraising and transport. We had around 12,500 race packs to send out. Packing all of these would have been a huge, almost impossible task without the volunteers that came in to help pack.
Alison, our volunteer coordinator, is solely responsible for sourcing and briefing thousands of volunteers for a wide range of roles leading up to the Perth City to Surf as well as the regional events that occur in Karratha, Geraldton, Albany and Busselton.
The City to Surf is fortunate in the fact that because it is a well established and respected event, people are eager to be involved with such a large community sporting event. Volunteers are therefore a huge stakeholder to consider whilst organising events. Without volunteers, large events such as the City to Surf would literally be impossible to hold! A common issue that is often experienced with volunteers is a lack of appreciation felt by volunteers. A key goal of our volunteer coordinator is to change the general attitude staff have towards volunteers so that they do feel like valued members of the events team.
From what I have observed over the past couple of weeks it is evident that this attitude is paying off. Many of the volunteers that helped out with the race packs are today are returning tomorrow to continue helping out. Several will also be returning to volunteer at the event expo and of course, on event day! As we all know by now, the key to positive public relations is communication! Positive communication with volunteers in integral to maintain the success of any event, big or small!
(Written on 1st August)
4 comments:
Hey Laura,
Your internship seems to be going well by the looks of it!! I have done some volunteering in my past and I really agree with what you have written in your blog post. At the end of the day you are there in your time and if its not going to be a positive environment o work in there is no point in going back... well thats how I look at it!
Keep up the good work :)
Sandra
Hi Laura!
So glad to hear about your internship. Looks really interesting and I can't wait to read more about how your time at the City to Surf goes.
I read your post and wanted to find out more about what motivates people to volunteer for events as there is no real financial benefit to participating. I thought it must be for experience, gaining a sense of fulfilment in contributing to society or even just to meet new people.
Check out this link below that further explains what I found out about it.
Jamie ;)
http://www.ijemr.org/docs/Vol3-1/BaumLockstone.pdf
"Volunteers and mega Sporting Events: Developing a Research Framework." 2007. International Journal of Event Management Research 3 (1): 29 - 41. http://www.ijemr.org/docs/Vol3-1/BaumLockstone.pdf
Hi Laura,
Your internship sounds interesting as I am too helping organise events for the organisation I am interning at currently. I understand what you mean about the importance of considering volunteers as a stakeholder especially for not-for-profit organisations as they rely on them to run their events. Also I think volunteering is incredibly valuable as your receiving experience that will help you obtain your future job. Although unfortunately there are organisations that are known for using volunteers as free labour but not interested in teaching. So that is why I think some people are reluctant to volunteer. I look forward to hearing about the rest of your internship.
Ashleigh
Thanks for your thoughts Jamie, Sandra and Ashleigh!
I'm glad I inspired you to do some research Jamie and thanks for sharing the journal article, what a great read! Think you may have just found me a fantastic academic reference to use in my final report ;)
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