September 2022

A very warm welcome to the volunteer update for September 2022.

Over 7,000 people volunteered at parkrun for the very first time in the month August - welcome to the parkrun volunteering family!

Volunteer Experience Survey

A big thank you if you were one of the 20,000 parkrun volunteers from around the world who took part in our most recent Volunteer Experience Survey in June this year. The survey gives us great insight into all aspects of volunteering at parkrun, including everything from how and why people get involved, through to the support and recognition they feel they receive when volunteering at an event.

Over 99% of people said that their overall experience of volunteering has been positive, and over 98% of people felt valued by their local event team and the parkrun community.

The survey helps us to understand where we can provide further help and support to the 30,000+ volunteers that help to deliver parkrun events every week.


Volunteer credits/occasions vs Volunteer tasks

There can sometimes be confusion around the difference between ‘volunteer occasions’ and ‘volunteer tasks’, so we will attempt to clear that up here!

Every time you volunteer at a parkrun or junior parkrun (including roles that take place outside of the actual parkrun day, like Volunteer Co-ordinator or Communications Person) you will receive a volunteer credit for that occasion.

However, as volunteers can perform more than one task at each event (for example both ‘Event Day Course Check’ and then ‘Timekeeper’), the number of volunteer tasks you carry out may exceed the number of volunteer credits (that count towards your milestone totals) you earn.

This is shown on the volunteering summary table that you can find on your parkrun profile. A good example can be seen in the image below, where this volunteer has a total of 76 volunteer credits (i.e. this person has volunteered at 76 different parkrun events) but the total number of tasks is far higher (149 different tasks in total) as they will have often carried out multiple tasks on the same day.

Volunteer appeal/reminder templates

Under the Event Actions tab in the Volunteer Roster in WebFMS you will find two useful functions - ‘Volunteer Appeal’ and ‘Volunteer Reminder’.

The ‘Volunteer Appeal’ sends out an email to everyone registered to receive volunteer appeals for that event, and we encourage teams to use it regularly as a tool to help to recruit volunteers and promote all the great volunteering opportunities at upcoming events.

The ‘Volunteer Reminder’ sends out an email to everyone listed on the Volunteer Roster for the upcoming event, and this reminder can also be used to inform rostered volunteers that an event has been cancelled.

Did you also know that you can create your own templates for the Volunteer Appeal and Volunteer Reminder? On the main menu in the webFMS, click on ‘email templates’ to create your own templates which can be tailored specifically for parkrun events. Here you can add additional information that is relevant for a specific parkrun, and you can create several templates to cover different circumstances.

Meet the parkrun team at Wimmera River parkrun in Victoria, Australia

The Wimmera River parkrun is located in Horsham, Victoria, Australia. The course is a flat, out and back along the banks of the Wimmera River.

We have a wonderful mix of regular volunteers, some who also enjoy walking and running at parkrun and others who love volunteering and joining for a social chat. So many friendships have been made along our four year journey!

We have a volunteering whiteboard available every Saturday morning so people can write their names up for a role and a date that suits them. We encourage people to volunteer with a friend if they’re nervous about a role, or suggest they can talk to one of the volunteers or watch how volunteering works before signing up themselves.

The volunteers always comment on how easy all of the roles are!

Wherever you are in the world, I hope that you enjoy your parkrun experience - whatever that means for you - at parkrun throughout September.

James Kemp
Global Operations Manager