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Post by soccernotfootball on Sept 22, 2015 7:48:09 GMT -5
Does your club require or ask parents to commit to a certain number of "volunteer" hours per year (or season)?
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Post by jash on Sept 22, 2015 8:12:13 GMT -5
Not ours, but I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with it as long as I knew the club was keeping their fees as minimal as possible given their budget, and that there wasn't a lot of padding in any paid staff's salary.
Most volunteer hours are covered by scholarship families, in my experience.
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Post by SoccerMom on Sept 22, 2015 8:38:57 GMT -5
Does your club require or ask parents to commit to a certain number of "volunteer" hours per year (or season)? Only scholarship famlies are required a number of hours. But clubs are always asking and needing help with things, lots of non scholarship families volunteer as well
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 22, 2015 8:46:15 GMT -5
Same our scholarship families are required to do a number of hours also. However, 95% do not. There are many reasons why, but then there are also plenty of opportunities to help out and very little do. We are all busy, so I'm sick of the excuses to be honest. I could go on a rant about this one, but I won't...... The club is mostly to blame for this one, not the parents. Should be mandatory/required, or player pass is pulled... I'll shut up now.... jash has good point though, I see clubs often asking for volunteer support that there 4-5 employees should be able to handle during their normal work day. Again, I could go on a rant about this one, but I won't.....
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Post by goteam on Sept 22, 2015 10:34:38 GMT -5
Our Club "says" that they require scholarship families to volunteer but I agree 95% do not. Yes, parents are asked to volunteer and they help to make the club actually operate. I'll add these same parents are asked (really "required") to donate ALOT of money to their scholarship fund.
Rant On Soccerhouse Admin!
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Post by spectator on Sept 22, 2015 11:32:41 GMT -5
OK - playing devil's advocate here....
Scholarship families are usually families that have kids who want to play, are good players and for whatever reasons, the family is economically unable to provide the funds for their kid(s) to play at the level they should. So clubs offer scholarships to allow these children - and that is what they are - kids who want to play this game not freeloading adults - to play for their teams. In return, the clubs state in the scholarship form that parents are required/encouraged/mandated/whatever to provide volunteer hours. The statement that 95% don't is a bit much in my humble opinion - I've known families who accept scholarship or reduced fees for their kids to play and they fulfill their volunteer obligations. I have a hard time thinking that only 5% of the parents do this.
BUT - back to devil's advocate - families who need scholarship opportunities for their kid(s) may well be single parent or dual working parent households - with limited income and as such, may have schedules that don't allow for the volunteer times clubs have. In some cases there may be a language barrier so ask yourself how hard are the clubs working to be flexible for these families to fulfill their volunteer hours. And what do those hours entail - working at tournament? working concessions? those are set days and times that may conflict with work. Do clubs have other volunteer opportunities for these families that work with the abilities and means those families may have? I had a friend - single mom - who flat out could not do the tournament field Marshall volunteer duty but proposed that she work with club communications since that was her background. She was turned down and told the only volunteer opportunities were what she was given - take it or leave it. She had no choice - but she tried to give her time in another way so who is at fault there?
It just seems very elitist and snobbish to assume that scholarship families are refusing to do any volunteer hours and the rest of us are 'required' to donate 'a lot' of money to a scholarship fund. Y'all can rant now - but try to walk a mile in someone else's shoes before making an assumption or blanket statement about their intentions. I know my friend tried very hard to do something to give back to the club that was helping her sons play soccer but she couldn't do the limited things they offered for parents to do.
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Post by SoccerMom on Sept 22, 2015 14:44:44 GMT -5
I agree with spectator, to say only 5% help is outright ridiculous. Our club offers lots of diff opportunities for volunteering and they do keep track of who does and who doesn't. If you dont fullfill your hours, then the next year you are denied a scholarship. Yes people can volunteer more, but we dont know what their circumstances are. We have volunteers that run the store, set up/take down goals, line the fields, and help with various actitivies throughout the year. Just because you don't see when or how they help, doesn't mean they're not helping.
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Post by paterfamilias on Sept 22, 2015 14:56:06 GMT -5
To spectator's point, in my opinion, it is not a scholarship if it must be earned via hours. Also those hours are not volunteer, they are sweat equity or something similar.
A scholarship should be limited to no payments, no hours traded, just a scholarship.
Second, this was received by a Concorde parent prior to the Concorde tournament, who passed it along to me. It seems a bit ridiculous to me. It seems like heavy handed strong arming to me.
"Please see below regarding volunteers for the Nike cup. Each team must provide at least 3 volunteers. Please our team parents know they can sign up thru the signupgenius app below.
This is an important part of running a successful tournament, please help me get the parents properly signed up until we fulfill our team's requirements."
What do you all think?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2015 15:07:21 GMT -5
To spectator's point, in my opinion, it is not a scholarship if it must be earned via hours. Also those hours are not volunteer, they are sweat equity or something similar. A scholarship should be limited to no payments, no hours traded, just a scholarship. Second, this was received by a Concorde parent prior to the Concorde tournament, who passed it along to me. It seems a bit ridiculous to me. It seems like heavy handed strong arming to me. "Please see below regarding volunteers for the Nike cup. Each team must provide at least 3 volunteers. Please our team parents know they can sign up thru the signupgenius app below. This is an important part of running a successful tournament, please help me get the parents properly signed up until we fulfill our team's requirements." What do you all think? Having helped with a bunch of tournaments, I'm surprised they only ask for 3 volunteers per team. It takes a lot of people to make a tournament happen. Hopefully clubs are good about letting families know up front (maybe at registration time?) that an hour or two of their time helping at the club's tournament would be appreciated. It's really easy to give an hour of your time. Players usually need to be at the field an hour or so in advance anyway - sign up for that time to keep things easy.
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Post by jash on Sept 22, 2015 15:10:01 GMT -5
To spectator's point, in my opinion, it is not a scholarship if it must be earned via hours. Also those hours are not volunteer, they are sweat equity or something similar. A scholarship should be limited to no payments, no hours traded, just a scholarship. Second, this was received by a Concorde parent prior to the Concorde tournament, who passed it along to me. It seems a bit ridiculous to me. It seems like heavy handed strong arming to me. "Please see below regarding volunteers for the Nike cup. Each team must provide at least 3 volunteers. Please our team parents know they can sign up thru the signupgenius app below. This is an important part of running a successful tournament, please help me get the parents properly signed up until we fulfill our team's requirements." What do you all think? Hmm, hadn't thought about tournaments. We have been asked for similar volunteer hours for tournaments. But "must" means "we really want it" not "we are going to throw out every single player on the team if the team does not provide 3 volunteers" :-) I think scholarship players and/or parents should do everything possible within reason to work to help offset the cost of providing the scholarship. Of course they shouldn't lose a job over it, but I personally like the idea of working for what you get.
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Post by spectator on Sept 22, 2015 15:56:45 GMT -5
We've been part of a club that 'strongly suggested' each team have a certain number of parent volunteers available for tournament duty. it wasn't as heavy handed written like the example above but we did feel compelled if not required to volunteer. It was not limited to anyone with scholarship players but all of the members of the club.
I hadn't thought about the actual meaning of 'scholarship' with regard to any required hours of families - it does go against what it actually is if it's tied to required hours to 'work off the debt'. If a college doesn't require a scholarship athlete to volunteer or do anything to 'pay back' the scholarship money, it's ridiculous to expect soccer clubs to do that or to even call it a 'scholarship' in the first place.
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Post by rifle on Sept 22, 2015 18:06:24 GMT -5
While I do know what you're all discussing.. I think the term "Scholarship" is used way too generously in this context, and incorrectly.
Suggestion: call it financial assistance or sponsorship.
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Post by jash on Sept 22, 2015 21:44:45 GMT -5
Suggestion: call it financial assistance or sponsorship. Good point, because in this context scholarship doesn't make sense anyway. I still have zero problem with expecting some payback in the form of helping out with simple tasks, within reason.
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Post by spectator on Sept 23, 2015 9:38:11 GMT -5
I appreciate the responses. In this regard, I'm not referring to "scholarship" recipients. Growing up, I remember parents had to contribute and hour or two for any sport we played. So, outside of scholarships, does your club require volunteer hours? (Not the big clubs with plenty of paid staff but with the mid-size to small clubs.) Thanks. We aren't required to do anything - we're encouraged to give some time to help out by either working concessions at a time our kids aren't playing or helping out at the tournaments the club puts on. Players are also given opportunities to volunteer with younger teams if they want to. It definitely helps the high schoolers who need service hours for graduation honors.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Sept 23, 2015 12:07:39 GMT -5
I appreciate the responses. In this regard, I'm not referring to "scholarship" recipients. Growing up, I remember parents had to contribute and hour or two for any sport we played. So, outside of scholarships, does your club require volunteer hours? (Not the big clubs with plenty of paid staff but with the mid-size to small clubs.) Thanks. We aren't required to do anything - we're encouraged to give some time to help out by either working concessions at a time our kids aren't playing or helping out at the tournaments the club puts on. Players are also given opportunities to volunteer with younger teams if they want to. It definitely helps the high schoolers who need service hours for graduation honors.
Wow, I really like that idea of having older players volunteer with younger teams!! especially the ones that have an interest in coaching. Great idea.
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Post by spectator on Sept 23, 2015 19:58:07 GMT -5
I wish more clubs would look at current players to help coach the younger ones. My daughter has loved helping out with the little kids. I don't think the parents want a 'kid' coaching their kids but none have an issue with the older club players being part of practices and on the sidelines at games when they can - it's 'free' babysitting and lets the volunteer/parent coaches focus on the game not the juiceboxes LOL.
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