Parkrunners, assemble!

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Millennial Pink said:
Henstridge Airfield ended up doing an untimed run this week so everyone got 59.59. I had a look at the run report and it veers off on a diatribe about volunteering and starts complaining about regular runners who aren't volunteering regularly. They even manage to get mentions of 'snowflake' and 'woke' in there 🤷‍♀️

I can't help but think that shaming people into volunteering isn't the way to go about getting more volunteers, especially when the finish times can be quite long now.

If they cancel the event on a Friday evening when it's clear they won't get enough volunteers, it might wake people up a bit more.
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I've just seen that Henstridge has now stopped for good. I feel sorry for them, they were obviously annoyed at never getting any volunteers (or the same volunteers) and it spilled out in that report. Clearly took its toll on them though 😥
 
emphiii said:
I've just seen that Henstridge has now stopped for good. I feel sorry for them, they were obviously annoyed at never getting any volunteers (or the same volunteers) and it spilled out in that report. Clearly took its toll on them though 😥
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Oh dear. They aren't the first event directors to throw in the towel. It is a shame that they didn't have anyone to pass the torch to, I suppose that's a big part of the event's sustainability. I think it probably needed to attract more runners to make the volunteer numbers work. A 1/5 ratio is fairly high.
 
Just slightly suspect to me that both the RDs have simultaneously said no more. If one didn’t want to do it there might have been a logical handover and then time to train someone up. I strongly suspect they’ve been at the sharp end of an HQ telling off and can’t be bothered organising an event with that in mind
 
I agree, the wording was something like 'we no longer wish to be EDs' or something. Not anything like 'we need to step down due to other commitments' or some other fluff. The mysteriously disappearing 'snowflake' paragraph must have come from HQ, who else would have asked them to remove it?
 
Runninggirl said:
Oh no hope it heals quickly. My parkrun buddy fell on her run yesterday and broke her shoulder 🤕
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Ouch! I’m so fortunate it’s my wrist and not my ankle! I have a 10K on Sunday 😂.
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Lastqueenofscotland said:
The cynic in me suspects that they got a bollocking from HQ and said sod this
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100% think this aswel. But I see so many people on 100’s of park runs and never once volunteer, so must be frustrating. I think HQ need to promote the volunteering abit more and maybe make it more attractive, not money incentive but discounts on merch.
 
Lastqueenofscotland said:
The cynic in me suspects that they got a bollocking from HQ and said sod this
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That would make sense alright. It kinda shows that parkrun HQ should be supporting events more. If events are struggling for volunteers, low participation numbers etc they should feel they have somewhere to turn to for support. Volunteer is often a thankless job and there’s only so long you can keep doing something for free that is costing you time and energy and getting nothing in return.
 
NotGonnaLieToYou said:
That would make sense alright. It kinda shows that parkrun HQ should be supporting events more. If events are struggling for volunteers, low participation numbers etc they should feel they have somewhere to turn to for support. Volunteer is often a thankless job and there’s only so long you can keep doing something for free that is costing you time and energy and getting nothing in return.
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I totally agree with this. Or HQ could privately remind people that it is ok to walk away if enough people aren't sharing the volunteering at an event. I appreciate people feel they want to make it a success or they may even feel they're failing if it doesn't work out but they're so dependent on others sharing the load, they should be able to feel they can just step back whenever.
 
Matisse182 said:
I totally agree with this. Or HQ could privately remind people that it is ok to walk away if enough people aren't sharing the volunteering at an event. I appreciate people feel they want to make it a success or they may even feel they're failing if it doesn't work out but they're so dependent on others sharing the load, they should be able to feel they can just step back whenever.
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Instead I feel the opposite is true.
I RD’d for about 7 years and stepped away after the covid return. I felt the expectations placed on RDs was increasing. The general attitude of parkrunners was worse. Was ever harder to get people to volunteer and HQ asking people to tone down the volunteer pleas… and someone admittedly, not in the best of taste, has had a public rant and suspiciously all the RDs have stepped down. I bet they god a proper bollocking and couldn’t be arsed with it anymore
 
It does seem to be very much down to the local events to find volunteers.

HQ must have such an extensive database of runners, they could easily do targeted emails about the benefits of volunteering at parkruns etc to those who have done say 10 parkruns but not volunteered. Or link into something like volunteers week to put the spotlight on volunteers etc. that make it happen, not just event volunteers but the ambassadors etc.
 
Cucumberthunder said:
It does seem to be very much down to the local events to find volunteers.

HQ must have such an extensive database of runners, they could easily do targeted emails about the benefits of volunteering at parkruns etc to those who have done say 10 parkruns but not volunteered. Or link into something like volunteers week to put the spotlight on volunteers etc. that make it happen, not just event volunteers but the ambassadors etc.
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They used to feature volunteers on their FB/Twitter feeds, as I've appeared a couple of times.
 
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