I am a true believer that without this fabulous army of volunteers across the globe, netball just would not be in the great place it is currently. Whether it’s someone offering to wash the bibs each week for the local, social team to the Regional Chair dedicating so much time and energy to the governance and administration of netball, as well as everyone in between. You are all worth your weight in gold and ‘thank you’ will never be enough.
It has also got me thinking about the ‘non-volunteers’ and the essential role they play in netball across the globe.
A ‘non-volunteer’, in my eyes anyway, is someone who is paid to do a task or tasks. Volunteers do not get paid.
Until quite recently I think payment in netball was quite controversial. Especially at grass roots.
I remember in my previous role, strongly backing a local league organiser against a plethora of criticism from my colleagues and local netball volunteers, because she made a bit of money for it! She was (and still is!) doing a fabulous job. It wasn’t by any means paying her mortgage or even a small percentage of her bills but she saw a niche and went for it. We should be celebrating a women’s entrepreneurship. She was clearly doing a much better job than her competitors (corporate and voluntary run) proven by the fact so many teams went from those competitions to hers! It also continues to grow and I say good on her!
I had to really fight her corner to the ‘powers that be’, many of whom didn’t like the evolution of netball or something done differently. I say ‘embrace change, or be left behind!’
I also remember the angst I felt, before I asked for remuneration from the club I had been coaching voluntarily at, for a number of years! It was such a big decision for me to ask and I felt so guilty even contemplating it!
The facts speak for themselves though. For every £20 I earned coaching a 90minute session, I offered (and still do!) free planning & prep of those sessions, review and reflection, out of training communication with players (mostly at times not convenient to me!) as well as more CPD undertaken than a lot of my coaching peers! Coaching at games wasn't (and still isn’t) paid for, so the majority of the work that went in to ‘paid for’ coaching is still voluntary.
My point is this. Yes, we have an amazing army of netball volunteers who should be much more appreciated than I feel they currently are. We also have a spectacular array of ‘non-volunteers’ - those netball stalwarts who do so much for our great game, get less then a little in return, but still go above and beyond to make netball happen!
What is amazing, to me at least, is that these ‘£20 per hour’ coaches, those league organisers who make a little extra for their holiday funds or ambitious umpires who travel the country for expenses, for more court time experience, think they are the luckiest people ever for ‘getting paid’ for doing something they love! It’s the participants they are coaching, the players who compete in their leagues and the athletes these umpires officiate, who are the lucky ones, if you ask me!
I’ve been thinking about this a lot more during lockdown as my ‘little project’ that’s been around for a couple of years, ‘Netball in the Community’ has had more time dedicated to it and as such is just starting to get a bit busier!
Before lockdown I offered some freelance coaching and organised fun & friendly festivals within the ‘Netball in the Community’ project. What I made didn’t warrant registering as self employed, but I do like to do things properly! Most of the festivals I organise are for Children in Need, Sport Relief or local good causes anyway!
The netball void in recent months has been vast, but the 1:1 sessions and more recent small group restrictions being lifted, has seen my coaching engagement go from 0-60 in a matter of hours! I have never been so popular on Facebook!
Even the fact that I’m ‘providing something that local players want and charging for it’ is completely out of my comfort zone!
But, you see, that’s what I think myself and my fellow ‘non volunteers’ have in common: we’re still volunteers at heart and like all volunteers do it for ‘love’ first!
No comments:
Post a Comment