16-01-2015, 03:15 PM
George
To expand on my point, there are different levels of volunteering. The fact that you wish there were more weekend events you could play in indicates that you do have some time to spare, on some weekends at least. I agree that taking on a tournament director role would be a strain on 50 hours a week.
Each Saturday morning at 9.30am a free, timed 5km run takes place along the seafront between Cramond & Silverknowes (the Parkrun). About 500 people take part on average (including at least one FM). There are similar events across the country. This would not happen without a weekly team of volunteers. Some of these just need to turn up on the day and marshall, and some have more time consuming roles (e.g. preparing the list of finishers). People are encouraged to volunteer at times that suit them. You don't have to be an organiser: you can just stand and point the way and shout encouragement.
The point is that the event would not happen without this volunteering. If the same principles were applied to - say - chess in the South East of Scotland, then the number of weekenders could potentially be increased. Say you volunteer a couple of hours to help a weekend event and a number of other people do the same - the result should be a number of additional events coming onto the calendar. By giving a bit of time you would get a lot more weekends of chess in return. I wouldn't recommend the shouting though.
This obviously doesn't solve the issue of identifying organisers in the first place, but it would make events more likely to happen as it would make their job easier.
To expand on my point, there are different levels of volunteering. The fact that you wish there were more weekend events you could play in indicates that you do have some time to spare, on some weekends at least. I agree that taking on a tournament director role would be a strain on 50 hours a week.
Each Saturday morning at 9.30am a free, timed 5km run takes place along the seafront between Cramond & Silverknowes (the Parkrun). About 500 people take part on average (including at least one FM). There are similar events across the country. This would not happen without a weekly team of volunteers. Some of these just need to turn up on the day and marshall, and some have more time consuming roles (e.g. preparing the list of finishers). People are encouraged to volunteer at times that suit them. You don't have to be an organiser: you can just stand and point the way and shout encouragement.
The point is that the event would not happen without this volunteering. If the same principles were applied to - say - chess in the South East of Scotland, then the number of weekenders could potentially be increased. Say you volunteer a couple of hours to help a weekend event and a number of other people do the same - the result should be a number of additional events coming onto the calendar. By giving a bit of time you would get a lot more weekends of chess in return. I wouldn't recommend the shouting though.
This obviously doesn't solve the issue of identifying organisers in the first place, but it would make events more likely to happen as it would make their job easier.