July 2022
A warm welcome to the Volunteer Hub and to the volunteer update for July.
With over 1 million instances of walking, jogging, running and volunteering since the previous volunteer update was published, parkrun continues to make a major impact in providing physical activity opportunities and contributing to public health outcomes globally. All whilst helping to create thousands of inclusive and supportive communities around the world.
Event teams removing results
parkrunners receiving their results is a fundamental principle of what we do but there are some rare occasions when we need to remove a participant's result.
This could be due to a genuine scanning mistake; however, we also reserve the right to remove a participant’s result where we feel our code of conduct has been breached. Such breaches may include repeat occurrences of an unaccompanied Under 11 at 5k events, anti-social behaviour or taking part with a dog on a waist-harness.
Where an event team feels there has been a breach of the code of conduct they should not remove the participant’s result themselves. In all cases, the participant, (and their responsible adult if necessary) should be communicated with, preferably face-to-face, to discuss the situation.
In most circumstances, results should not be removed for a first-time occurrence. An incident should be recorded via WebFMS detailing the individuals involved and the nature of the issue. If it happens again, a further incident should be raised and Head Office will investigate, which may result in a result being removed.
The key message here is that event teams should not remove results in any circumstances other than admin errors.
Incidents
Safety at parkrun is paramount, and we rely on our teams to report all incidents which gives us valuable insight and enables us to assess patterns of risk at individual events and across parkrun as a whole.
Every week we review every incident that has been logged with us and categorise each one as either a dispute, medical, operational or safeguarding issue, or sometimes a combination of several of those. They are also graded for severity.
All incidents should be recorded by completing the incident report form available via WebFMS during results processing. If you discover that an incident occurred after processing results, or you wish to make any edits to one already submitted, please use the ‘record incidents’ option available via the menu on WebFMS to do so.
Please record one incident at a time and use the ‘Add Additional Forms’ button to report any further incidents.
Please also ensure that you provide plenty of information, in particular the names of the people involved and their parkrun ID (whenever possible), and consider the wording carefully as the report may need to be referred back to at a later stage, such as in the case of a serious incident.
You may hear from one of us at Head Office if we consider your incident warrants further investigation, and you are equally welcome to contact us via Event Support if you have any further information to add to one of your incident reports too. After review and/or once we are satisfied with any follow-up activity, we archive them and they remain available for future reference if required.
Repeat incidents may need to be linked to your Risk Assessment and/or you may need to consider altering your course to negate a perceived risk.
parkrun defines a critical incident as a threat to life or immediate threat to the welfare of an individual. If a critical incident occurs at your event, it is very important that you follow parkrun’s Critical Incident Protocol and ring the Critical Incident Line which is always available on event days.
Please continue to log all your incidents with us. The information is invaluable.
250 junior parkrun club
At junior parkrun events (currently in the UK, Ireland and Australia) we are delighted to announce that the 250 junior parkrun club is now live.
Wristbands will be available very shortly and can be ordered via Event Support as singles.
Eleven juniors have already reached this milestone and we look forward to welcoming many more to the 250 junior parkrun club over the coming months and years!
Pre-event set up
We continue the series of our volunteer videos with the volunteer role of Pre-event set up. The Pre-event set up volunteer(s) help the Run Director prepare for the event. This may include: the placement of markers and/or signage around the course, setting up the start/finish area including the finish funnel, and placing signs and/or cones to indicate the route. Pre-event set up is a terrific entry role into volunteering and everyone who helps set up should receive a volunteer credit.
If this role is combined with Event Day Course Check a volunteer credit should be given for both roles.
Please share this video and the other videos in the volunteering series on your social media channels to let your communities know all the different ways to volunteer at parkrun.
Update to the parkrun dogs policy regarding assistance dogs
Following the recent update to the parkrun dogs policy around the use of waist harnesses, an adjustment has been made in relation to assistance dogs.
Full details of the separate considerations that apply in relation to assistance dogs can be found in the dogs policy on the Volunteer Hub, towards the bottom of the page.
Meet parkrunner Hayley
I have been volunteering with Anchorsholme junior parkrun since Christmas and have now got my 4-year-old and 7-year-old volunteering too! Will shortly be earning our first volunteer milestones (10 for them and 25 for me). We love turning up early every week to help with the pre-set up and closing down of the event, we now take our litter picking equipment too!
Wherever you are in the world, enjoy volunteering, walking, jogging, running or spectating at parkrun throughout July.
James Kemp
Global Operations Manager