#47 One Awards

I’m sure like many coaches, I sometimes feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall! 

Like many good coaches, I try to reflect on this, change my language or try a different approach - being a better coach as a consequence and meeting the needs of participants. 

In terms of advocating for Netball volunteers I feel like I’ve been banging my head on a brick wall for a much more significant amount of time - the wall is crumbling! Not because of the hardness of my head though, but through age!

I’ve long held the strong view that Netball doesn’t happen without volunteers and therefore they should be appreciated, nurtured and made to feel valued, at every given opportunity. 

I have this view from experience - both as a volunteer and as someone who relies on volunteers. 

I am incredibly frustrated at the lack of acknowledgement and treatment of volunteers and feel that I’ve come to a crossroads in my lobbying for better treatment. 

My region held their One Awards recently (previously Goalden Globes) and for me, as a very grateful nominee, it was one disaster after another. 

I received an email inviting me to the event on a certain date and time but at a venue to be confirmed. My ticket would be free but any one I brought would need to pay - not exactly the vibe of a celebration or appreciation! 

Based on this lack of information I moved Heaven & Earth to be able to attend - childcare, cover for a festival I was organising and transport (of sorts when it could be at one of two venues in different cities!) It cost me money as well as time. 

A week later I read on social media, no less, that the venue had been confirmed but the date changed! Not even a personal apology or notification! I was livid. (TBF though all tickets were now free!) 

Not exactly how awards and acknowledgement is meant to make a volunteer feel! 

I was even less enthralled with the response I had when I complained about the lack of communication and inconvenience. 

When is our NGB going to invest in some proper customer service? 

The One Awards have had a revamp. I was a critic of the previous incarnation, Goalden Globes, as they didn’t reflect the evolution that Netball has had in recent years and you also couldn’t nominate people who are not affiliated. 

I was delighted that the awards had been rebranded - what an opportunity to review the award criteria to reflect what’s happening in netball right now and even future proof it so it stays current! I was visualising an award for supporters, maybe social media influence and reflecting programmes such as Back to Netball and Walking Netball. 

Upon investigation I was to be disappointed. 

You still have to be an affiliated member of England Netball to be nominated for a One Award. I think this is very short sighted. 

According to the NGB website there are 100,000 affiliated members in the country but 1.3million people playing. That’s 1.2million people having netball delivered for them in some other capacity other than through the NGB. 

How many netball volunteers are we ignoring because of this decision? Could the One Awards be used to engage with this huge amount of Netballers?! 

I have several deserving volunteers in my Walking Netball group. They’re not affiliated and have no reason to be. I can’t nominate any of them for a One Award. 

I’ve been watching & applauding the Queen’s Baton Relay in the run up to the Commonwealth Games. 

I was ecstatic that a local netball volunteer, one of many I nominated, was chosen to carry the baton - outside Charles Dickens Birth place no less! (Disclaimer that volunteer also happens to be my Mum) 

Through social media I saw that other netball volunteers around the country had also been given the honour. You’d think that would be a great opportunity for netball nationally to celebrate the CWG and our amazing volunteers chosen to be baton bearers. No such luck though, there was an ‘after thought’ tweet that may or may not have been written after a little social media persuasion! 

Just because the NGB isn’t nationally going above and beyond to ensure volunteers are given the recognition they deserve, doesn’t mean to say it isn’t happening. 

Some of the social media content from regions other than my own regarding One Awards has been superb! There has been live tweeting (took me 24 hours to know whether i’d won or not as an absentee!), videos and some superb photographs. This will all add to the celebration and the feeling of appreciation felt by volunteers, I am sure. 

I have long admired some of the work franchises are doing in this space. Manchester Thunder never miss an opportunity to show appreciation to their volunteers - if you listen to Debbie Hallas, Karen Grieg and Tracey Neville it is clear they sing from the same hymn sheet and stay ‘on brand’ with a tonne of appreciation for their supporters. 

London Pulse are also another franchise doing great things in the community - real trailblazers in the disability and diversity space and you can’t do that without buy in and significant support from volunteers. 

It’s clear there are some fabulous ideas to support and appreciate our netball volunteers from all different areas of the netball family - they just need to be pulled together! 

The NGB need to start listening to hear rather than listening to respond. 

To be fair it not just our National Governing Body who doesn’t understand ‘awards for volunteers’. 

UK Coaching launched their 2022 awards recently - the criteria for each award itself is like War & Peace. Great if you are having trouble sleeping but not really helpful if you are a volunteer wanting to nominate a fellow volunteer! 

I follow these awards intently each year and have even made some nominations - not an easy task and this is what I take exception to. 

Why do we make it so hard to acknowledge our volunteers? I understand that we want to reward the ‘right’ people but why does that mean it has to be such a time consuming task…… no doubt it is normally fellow volunteers doing the nominating! 

I call on these big national organisations to do what all good coaches should do - reflect on your most recent volunteer awards, change language or try a different approach - being better as a consequence and meeting the needs of volunteers, as well as inspiring new ones! 

https://www.ukcoaching.org/events/our-awards/criteria

#46 Let’s talk about the booing!

Conservative guesstimate, 75% of you reading this will have volunteered at some point in your lives. 

Whether it’s coaching, umpiring or as a committee member. Maybe you book the venue for training, wash the bibs, order kit or equipment or organise your team socials. 

Perhaps your volunteering doesn’t take place within netball or sport - you might listen to children read at the local school, visit a vulnerable pensioner or help out at a community centre - I suspect we’ve all completed some sort of volunteering at some point in our lives. 

Now imagine completing your volunteering with a baying crowd all booing at you! 

That’s exactly the treatment of umpires I have been witness to this Superleague season. 

I had an interesting (and good-natured, polite) debate with some of my fellow Surrey Storm supporters at one of the last home games of the season. One very passionate Storm fan thought standing, gesticulating and booing the umpire, was acceptable. She was probably far more surprised that the said umpire was a volunteer, than she was at me, calling her out for the booing!

I’ve thought on more than one occasion this season that the Vitality Superleague, National Governing Body or even the franchises should possibly do something about the booing - I really feel that it’s not in keeping with the game. Not sure what though and for the umbrella organisations, at least, fan engagement hasn’t really been a strong point! 

No doubt we will hear booing at the Commonwealth Games next month. We hear it on TV watching the Suncorp Super Netball and ANZ leagues. 

I heard booing at the 2019 World Cup although I much preferred the crowd’s voice used for more positive reasons - ‘we want Dunn’ for example! 

All of these competitions’ umpires, (and table officials for that matter) are volunteers. They do not get paid for their umpiring. They may get ‘expenses’ towards their travel - but I doubt very much that covers petrol, wear & tear on vehicles, public transport, food and accommodation. 

Whilst we’re on the subject, umpires do not get paid for their physical training to make sure they are in peak condition to ‘keep up’ with mostly professional or semi professional athletes. They may get funding for qualifications and CPD if they’re lucky, but the form filling for funding and time spent undertaking practice and qualifications, will be voluntary. 

Ideally our umpires, table officials and other volunteers who make the game happen, will be recompensed appropriately, in time. Will I find booing acceptable then? Probably not, but that’s a debate for another day! 

Netball can’t happen without umpires. 

Let’s see if we can remember that in the CWG final when the GK is pulled for obstruction with a matter of seconds to go. 😉 

Footnote: in looking for an appropriate image to accompany this blog there was not one image of a specifically netball crowd ‘booing’ to be found! Long may that continue!