Volunteer Committees - What and Why?

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In February, the Quadball Australia Board of Directors had a two-day meeting to discuss our plans for the year ahead. This involved brainstorming new ideas and analysing pre-existing systems to see if there were any changes we could make. One of the topics we discussed was how to best engage and utilise our volunteers. 

At the 2023 Strategic Forum, held in February at Quadcamp, community members were asked to consider the biggest challenges for Australian Quadball and what QA’s focus should be for the next year. In response to both of these questions, the topic of volunteers was raised. 

A key challenge related to volunteers is a tendency to burnout and there were several suggestions as to why this was such a problem:

  • Active volunteers are often overly involved, applying for multiple positions and involved with several projects

  • An ‘all or nothing’ perception, which applies to several different domains eg. volunteer positions appear to be either high level, large commitment roles or limited impact roles; you can play or you can volunteer; you can focus on individual development or assist in a supporting role; etc

  • Volunteer pathways and opportunities are unclear and/or limited, and the roles lack definitive structure and/or goals

Similar thoughts were raised in relation to QA’s focus for 2023, which saw community members discuss different ways we could support volunteers this year. Some of these suggestions included:

  • Better, more regular advertisement of volunteer roles

  • Minimising barriers to volunteer

  • Clear expectations for volunteers

  • Developing more opportunities to volunteer

  • Better training/preparation for volunteers

Another key area of interest for the Board is a push for transparency. Particularly after meeting with the Gender Engagement Committee in 2022, where concern about a lack of transparency in Board decision-making was raised, we would like to focus on developing standardised procedures for QA operation, which will be documented in formal policies. A shift towards policy-based operation is a large, ongoing project, and you can view the policies we have developed so far here: https://quidditchaustralia.org/official-documents

With all of these considerations, as well as Developing our People as one of the priorities of the Strategic Plan, the Board would like to introduce our new structure for volunteer committees.

What Are Volunteer Committees?

Volunteer Committees, Committees for short, are groups of volunteers with a broad focus area related to a specific area of development and/or engagement in the Australian quadball community. Historical examples of similar groups include the Gender Engagement Committee and the Gameplay Committee. The structure of a Committee will generally look like:

QA Board → Director → Senior Staff → Junior Staff

Essentially, the Board will determine the overarching goals of and approve major actions taken by a Committee, with one or more Directors specifically overseeing Committee operations. Volunteers within the Committee can hold senior or junior positions, which are distinguished from each other by opportunities for leadership and overall level of involvement. Typically, senior volunteers will lead initiatives, delegate tasks when required and lightly manage junior volunteers, while junior volunteers will complete tasks assigned to them.

A Committee must provide the Board and wider community brief progress reports in a Slack channel dedicated to Committee updates. They must also comply with deadlines when applicable. Aside from this, Committees are welcome to determine their own methods of functioning, such as the frequency of meetings and projects of interest on top of those provided by the Board, among other things.

Why Now?

Committees are one of the ways the Board is addressing the needs and interests of the Australian quadball community, specifically in light of the feedback received from the 2023 Strategic Forum. 

By distributing the workload related to specific focus areas, we believe that volunteers are less likely to experience burnout and more likely to be passionate and actively involved in the volunteer work they engage in. We also believe that Committees are a sensible way of organising the development areas of Quadball Australia. Discrete groups of volunteers working on one specific area of interest is more conducive to productive action, as they can commit themselves to tasks more wholly, rather than spreading their attention across multiple themes. This is also beneficial for us as Directors, as it allows us to focus on the more operational aspects of our organisation, such as NSO Recognition, sourcing grants and developing initiatives for growth and improvement.

So, What Committees Can You Join?

We currently have 8 Committees that are available to join. They are;

  • Diversity, Inclusivity and Community Engagement

  • Gameplay

  • Events

  • Recruitment & Retention

  • Media & Communications

  • Fundraising

  • Governance and Policy

  • Grassroots

Further details on each of these committees can be found on the volunteers page on the QA website here