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It is also useful to consider how/where you will publicize your volunteering opportunities. Clubs will most often recruit volunteers from two sources - their existing membership and parents who attend their children’s sporting events. This represents a relatively narrow recruitment base from which to draw the volunteer cohort. However, by promoting volunteering opportunities more widely, clubs will immediately increase the numbers of potential volunteers and may also attract people with a wider range of skill sets and experiences. Some steps that you should consider taking include the following;
- There may be opportunities to promote your volunteer needs through the relevant Local Sports Partnership (LSP) which would have access to a broader range of information about sporting activity in the wider area. Details of LSPs are included in the links at the end of this document.
- Produce leaflets, flyers and posters to display in your local area, for instance, libraries, community centres and health centres.
- If you have a club newsletter advertise your volunteering vacancies in it. You might be able to have a short article included in the local community paper to highlight the role of volunteers within your club.
- Liaise with Volunteering Ireland – website details are included in the links page
- The local volunteer centre will advertise on your behalf and may be able to put you in touch with interested people.
- Register with Volunteering Centres Ireland - website details are on the links page
- If your volunteering requirements are in respect of Board or committee work, you may wish to register your club with Boardmatch Ireland which provides a “matchmaking” service for these types of roles for the not for profit sector – website details are included in the links page.
- It may be beneficial to have your annual recruitment meetings / fair linked to a social event. In this case it is important to make sure that potential volunteers know who to contact to follow up their initial interest, and find out more about the job and know what steps to take next.
- Look outside the club - what about parents, partners of members, local schools or colleges where sport leaders courses are run? They need places for young leaders to practice their skills and to complete voluntary work.
- Use your club or National Governing Body website. If it doesn’t have one, your local authority might be able to offer you a page on their website to promote your club and advertise volunteering opportunities.
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