Ulster Rugby vs Connacht

KERRY SPENCE: “A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR VOLUNTEERS”

I am the Volunteer and Policy Development Officer here at Ulster Rugby, I started in March 2013 so I have been in this post now for about 21 months.

THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS

getting to know other people, doing something really worthwhile but they also get to feel a part of the Ulster Rugby family. Volunteering is great for confidence, I have noticed a lot of people have really changed and they have gotten involved with other projects as their confidence has grown and many people have made new friends which is great to see. The biggest challenge so far has actually been having enough projects for the volunteers to get involved in and having the time to think of other creative roles while trying to meet people’s expectations, we would love to be able to offer more volunteer roles but it is a lot of work managing all of the volunteers that we currently have. I’m really keen for people to think about volunteering with their local rugby club, there are lots of great opportunities to volunteer and I’m working closely with clubs to increase these numbers all the time. The event last Wednesday was really a way for us to say thank you to all of the volunteers who are involved with Ulster Rugby – those who have been recruited as part of the DSD or DCAL programmes, but also the club volunteers. It was a great opportunity to get everyone together in the one place to share experiences and just have a bit of fun. We really wanted to show our appreciation for all the work that our volunteers do. The volunteers get out there and do so much work, and sometimes people just forget to stop and say thank you, which is the simplest thing to do, so the event was really our way of saying thank you. We really do value our volunteers whether they contribute one hour, 100 hours or 20 years – any commitment is valuable. Any of our volunteers aged 15 to 24 can participate in the GoldMark Programme, which is a nationally recognised scheme administered through Volunteer Now. Participants can get a certificate for 50 hours, 100 hours and 200 hours and they also get invited to a special GoldMark Awards Ceremony. One of the main benefits of this is to demonstrate to universities or potential employers that they have developed skills and given something extra which could give the candidate an edge over others. If anyone would like to get involved in volunteering at Ulster Rugby or their local rugby club please visit http://www. ulsterrugby.com/domestic/Development/ Volunteering.aspx or email Kerry Spence at volunteer@ulsterrugby. com THANK YOU TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO RUGBY IN ULSTER!

There are three main elements to my role, one part is all about policy development and putting in place good practice and procedures within Ulster Rugby for our volunteers. The second part is about recruiting volunteers and supporting the staff who work with them and thirdly helping all of the clubs within the Ulster Branch to recruit and support volunteers. I thoroughly enjoy what I do here at Ulster Rugby but I would say one of the most rewarding things has been recruiting large numbers of volunteers to support our charity partnership. We wanted to have a big presence in the stadium on match nights, promoting the work of the charities and last year I recruited 30 volunteers for that purpose alone. Last year, the volunteers helped to raise over £34,000 for Cancer Research which was a great achievement and this year they have raised over £6,000 so far for our Charity Partner of the Year, Mencap. Another group of volunteers that support the work of Ulster Rugby are the ‘Rugby Crew’, they were recruited as part of an initiative to engage young people within rugby, it is primarily aimed at 15-24 year olds and works to develop their skills in sports management, community rugby and helps to get them involved with clubs so that we can help to sustain the development of club rugby across the province. The Rugby Crew have helped out with Easter Road Shows, Centra Summer Camps and special events such as the Wooden Spoon International Tag Festival which was held at Kingspan Stadium in June. Since I took up my role as Volunteer and Policy Development Officer as part of the DSD ‘Sport in the Community’ programme over 240 volunteers have been recruited. The main areas are of course the Charity Action Team, the Rugby Crew and the Volunteer Fitness Development Coaches but there are also smaller groups of volunteers such as OUR Club who look after the Ulster Rugby Kids Club, match night volunteers, Age Grade Coaches and Women’s game, to name a few. I would have to say the thing I enjoy most about my role is getting to meet lots of different people, I am a social person so I like to be around all the volunteers and seeing the passion that they bring to whatever role they choose to be involved in, it’s great to see people from all walks of life getting involved. It is also encouraging to see the numbers of female volunteers involved in rugby on the rise. It’s great for the volunteers, whether they are involved on a match night or out and about in the community, it’s a great experience, it’s all about

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