It’s a familiar conversation, usually happening among the same handful of people who are already doing too much. Another email goes out. Somebody agrees to take on one more thing, and the club gets through another season.
Those people deserve credit. They also deserve a better plan.
We assign responsibility for budgets, ice, registration, and coaching. Recruiting and retaining the people who take ownership of that work deserves the same attention.
Put your relationship builders to work
Think about the board member who remembers names, makes introductions, and gets people excited. They might be a terrific vice president or team manager coordinator. But they would absolutely be more valuable leading volunteer recruitment.
The president may be thinking, “I already do that.” They may even be the best recruiter in the club. But recruiting competes with every coaching issue, budget problem, and parent dispute that reaches their desk. When things get crazy, it becomes easy to say, “I’ll get back to this when things settle down.”
Newsflash: aside from the rink itself, your volunteer leadership group may be the most important asset your organization has. Finding and keeping those people deserves more than whatever time is left over.
A dedicated coordinator can give that work consistent attention and reach beyond the president’s familiar circle. The president should still help, while giving someone else responsibility and room to build those relationships.
Make it an established part of the organization: assign the responsibility, recognize it in the bylaws, and define the job. It needs to survive the departure of whoever happens to care about it today.
Get to know the people in and around your club
Look throughout your club and beyond it. Newer families and quieter parents may never nominate themselves. Former players, alumni parents, grandparents, retirees, and local professionals may have useful skills and a reason to care.
Use a few optional registration questions to learn about parents’ professions, skills, and interests, and ask whether they’d welcome a conversation about helping. Make clear that answering doesn’t commit anyone to a job. Parents should be able to mention graphic design skills without accidentally accepting a three-year appointment to run your website.
Team managers can help you discover people a registration form might miss. They know families, hear conversations the board doesn’t, and can make personal introductions. Give them a simple way to connect potential volunteers with the coordinator.
Once you connect, ask what the person would enjoy doing and what fits their life. An accountant might welcome the treasurer’s role—or appreciate an opportunity to do something completely different. Some people can take on an ongoing responsibility; others would prefer a single project or occasional assignments.
Use those conversations to shape the opportunity. Be willing to divide an oversized job or adjust the organizational chart to make good use of someone’s abilities.
Then follow up. Collecting information accomplishes very little if nobody acts on it. When a parent says, “Maybe after the holidays,” a good coordinator remembers that conversation after the holidays.
Have a place ready when someone raises a hand
Enthusiasm doesn’t follow an election calendar, so build mechanisms to capture it whenever or however it appears. Design your organization with places where people can contribute before a board position opens up.
A Hockey Development Subcommittee is one example. Someone with solid hockey experience could help with coach mentorship, goalie development, or practice resources without taking on the full responsibilities of a board seat. Communications, fundraising, and events can offer similar opportunities for people with different strengths.
Give those groups clear responsibilities and a way to bring recommendations to leadership. Within them, have manageable projects ready, with someone available to introduce and support a newcomer. That lets you respond to an offer of help with something more concrete than “We’ll keep you in mind.”
These roles give prospective leaders a chance to learn how the club works, build relationships, and demonstrate what they can do before deciding whether to pursue an elected position. The club gets to know them, too. Others may find that committee work is exactly the contribution they want to make.
Either way, give them meaningful work and a voice from the beginning. You’re building a group of capable people who are already involved when the next opening appears.
Make the commitment clear—and keep it
“You’d be great at this” means more when you can explain why and describe the commitment honestly.
People should know the responsibilities, likely hours, busiest periods, available support, and length of the assignment. Offer manageable entry points for parents who are interested but hesitant.
Once someone agrees, honor the agreement. Capable volunteers can become the default answer to every new problem until their job barely resembles the one they accepted.
Discuss added responsibilities before assuming they’ll absorb them. Give people enough authority to do the work, respect the boundaries around their role, and step in when an issue belongs elsewhere in the organization.
Also examine the work itself. Ask the current volunteer what they would simplify or stop doing. An inherited meeting, duplicated report, or fundraiser with little return may be consuming hours the club could put to better use.
If a position regularly overwhelms the people who take it, the job probably needs to change.
Give people a proper start
Look a season ahead at likely departures. If several board members have children in the oldest age group, prepare for that transition while they’re still around.
Invite potential successors to assist with a project or take responsibility for part of a role. Let them learn the work and discuss whether they want a larger commitment.
A handoff is easier when the next person has already had a hand in the work.
Provide the files, access, calendar, instructions, and introductions people need. Arrange an overlap with the outgoing volunteer whenever possible.
Useful knowledge often lives in someone’s memory: the deadline that sneaks up, the vendor who needs extra notice, the registration question that confuses everyone. Make sure that experience stays in the club.
Give newcomers an experienced person to call and check in before the busiest stretch. Help people in similar roles share resources so they aren’t each solving the same problems from scratch.
“You’ll work alongside Sarah for the first month” is a reassuring thing to hear when considering an unfamiliar job.
Show appreciation through competence
A sincere thank-you matters. A well-run organization shows people you mean it.
Start meetings on time and come prepared. Answer questions, make timely decisions, and give volunteers what they need to do the job. Fix recurring problems that waste their time.
Build enough support and coverage that someone can take a weekend away without the whole operation unraveling. Make the commitment sustainable beyond one unusually generous person.
Check in before frustration becomes a resignation. Is the workload what you promised? What would make the job easier? What needs to change for them to return? Act on the answers.
Leave room for friendship and enjoyment, and make it comfortable to hand the role to someone else when the time comes.
The best way to say thank you is to make volunteering here a good use of someone’s time.
Give required service its own attention
There’s another part of the volunteer picture that deserves attention: required family service hours. Clubs may use DIBS or similar systems to organize assignments and track completion.
Spreading concessions, tournament admissions, and other recurring work across more families can relieve the people who keep covering every opening. That can give your leaders more time to lead.
But working a two-hour snack bar shift and developing a sponsorship program involve different commitments. One has an established task and a finish. The other requires ongoing ownership, judgment, and creativity.
A club can fill every DIBS shift and still have nobody preparing to become its next president.
Where possible, assign service-program administration and leadership recruitment to different people. Managing schedules, credits, and cancellations takes different strengths and attention than building relationships with prospective leaders.
Publish clear requirements, provide enough opportunities, prepare people for their assignments, and credit their work accurately. Consider exempting volunteers with substantial leadership responsibilities from additional service hours. Explain those exemptions up front.
The experience still matters. A well-run shift can introduce someone to people and work they enjoy; a disorganized one can make them reluctant to get involved again. Some parents may become interested in a larger role. Others will complete their hours and return to the stands. Both are useful outcomes, but the controllable elements of the experience shouldn’t be the difference.
Build a reputation people want to be part of
Parents hear about the late-night calls, expanding responsibilities, and difficulty stepping away. They also hear when volunteering is manageable, enjoyable, and well supported.
Those conversations shape recruiting long before an email goes out.
A good experience gives current volunteers the confidence to invite a friend. It helps a hesitant parent think, “I could do that.” Experienced people stay, newcomers have someone to learn from, and fewer jobs need to be rebuilt every season.
So “we need more volunteers”? Put a good recruiter on the job. Take care of the people already doing the work. And give others a reason to raise their hands.
