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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.
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
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
ulsterrugby.com/domestic/Development/
Volunteering.aspx or email
Kerry Spence at
com
THANK YOU TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS
WHO CONTRIBUTE TO RUGBY IN ULSTER!
www.ulsterrugby.com 41 ULSTERRUGBY
THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS
KERRY SPENCE: “A BIG THANK YOU
TO ALL OF OUR VOLUNTEERS”