{"id":58799,"date":"2026-09-28T11:14:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/?p=58799"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:14:41","slug":"on-the-importance-of-volunteers-at-sporting-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/on-the-importance-of-volunteers-at-sporting-events\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Importance of Volunteers at Sporting Events"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

In recent weeks I volunteered at two events. The Triathlon de Divonne and the Crit\u00e9rium de C\u00e9ligny. At both events there is a social need that people need to be made aware of. That social need is for people to volunteer at sporting events, not just participate. The Course de l’\u00e9scalade is 42 CHF and the Triathlon de Nyon is 110+ CHF. The Crit\u00e9rium was a reasonable 20 CHF for people to participate. I don’t know the price for the Triathlon de Divonne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases friends that I either cycle with, or do other activities with asked for volunteers for events they are connected and that is why I volunteered for both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I, and plenty of other people don’t realise is that events need volunteers to be authorised to go ahead. If the number of volunteers is too low, then, it is possible that an event is cancelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers are crucial for two key reasons. The first is that they’re cheap. If you provide them with food, and a parking space, they’re okay to give their free time to help out. The second reason, and this is crurcial, is that an event, full of paid, professional staff would cost far more. The more people are happy with a free t-shirt, free accomodation, and more, are willing to participate, the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flipside is that the more volunteers you get, the healthier the working hours are. At Vision Du R\u00e9el you get four hour shifts every few days. When an event has too few volunteers then managing traffic, or helping people that come to an event is more intense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the World VR forum there weren’t enough volunteers, so from 8 in the morning, or earlier, until late you’re helping people with VR headsets. Some are natural, understanding instantly, but others have no clue, and it’s exhausting. With enough volunteers you get breaks. With too few, you don’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Crit\u00e9rium I helped for half a day, got a free lunch, and got money for returning the reusable plate and glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you volunteer at Pal\u00e9o you’re working according to a twenty four hour clock for a week, but at the end of the event you get paid for the hours you did so you’re not working for “free”. It’s not a salary, but it is financial compensation, whilst enjoying a festival for a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth highlighting that if you’re an introvert like me, then the prospect of checking tickets at film screenings, or controlling people during a Triathlon is anxiety inducing. Imagine having a crowd of 150 people waiting to have their tickets checked before entering a film screening, or controlling traffic at a cycling event, or pedestrians, to ensure they don’t accidentally get hit by a cyclist or runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn’t comfortable for the first few minutes, but it’s a skill you learn, and once you do this once, it sticks with you, and it becomes simpler for future events. It helps you grow and mature as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Vision Du R\u00e9el and the Triathlon de Divonne I was out of my comfort zone, but with time I became familiar with the situation, and it became less stressful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without volunteers events would be more expensive. The more volunteers offer to help, the shorter hours can be for volunteers, but it also means that you can have two or three people, rather than one. It reduces the hours, and the load, and improves the experience for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you’re two, it allows people to alternate and share the load. If there are enough volunteers then people can take shifts, and breaks. That’s why it’s good to have three or four spare people, to help where it’s needed. Sometimes you need help for a few minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think volunteering has value, and I will continue, because it provides me with free access to events like Vision Du R\u00e9el, and to practice skills that are not natural for me to do. Like crowd control, or ticket checks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>In recent weeks I volunteered at two events. The Triathlon de Divonne and the Crit\u00e9rium de C\u00e9ligny. At both events there is a social need that people need to be made aware of. That social need is for people to volunteer at sporting events, not just participate. The Course de l’\u00e9scalade is 42 CHF and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[255],"tags":[2527,93,1714,49,414,9015],"class_list":["post-58799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-swiss-walks","tag-community","tag-events","tag-local","tag-social","tag-sports","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58800,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58799\/revisions\/58800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.main-vision.com\/richard\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}