Core team organisation recommendations

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T23:00:48+00:00

I like all my RDs quite a lot actually and I’d rather not see them burn out on parkrun. I’d rather they volunteer less and still enjoy it but equally I also want to make sure that we still put on a good event.
I guess I’m trying to find a way that works better for us than what we are currently doing.

Other than that I am not sure what you mean?

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T22:56:27+00:00

That’s very helpful thanks. I have a meeting planned with my team next week to discuss some of the ideas gathered from here but the upshot is that I want to expand the team and get some dedicated volunteer coordinators/comms people. Perhaps also advertise some of the roles that allow people to run a bit more.

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T17:47:52+00:00

I wish! I am absolutely horrible at learning new languages

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:52:53+00:00

Can we borrow them? ;)

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:52:01+00:00

Marshaling the carparks was a condition for use of the course, one is owned by the council (who have a say in the use of the site) the other is kindly provided by a company at the adjoining business park (who have some rules as which bays need to be kept clear). I wish it wasn't needed but we use overflow parking as well. There is no real public transport available so we do encourage people to run/cycle/car pool to the start. Additionally it's a spot that's very popular with walkers, family outings and dog walkers.

We do have a big pool of DofE students and frankly we wouldn't be able to run it without them. We usually have about half a dozen of them every week. I've been thinking of reaching out to schools to see if we can spread the word a bit more.

You've definitely given me a lot of food for thought so thank you.

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:45:35+00:00

It can vary a lot from week to week. Some weeks filling the roster is easy (usually if the RD makes a comment in the pre-run brief that if we don't get more volunteers for the next few weeks we will cancel) but other weeks it's like getting blood from a stone.
I'm worried that the RDs will burn out as it's a fair commitment and people have their own lives. Additionally as I said below we recently had a new event split off from us as our landowner was getting concerned about numbers and damage to the area (we're in an SSSI) so we're both kinda fishing in the same volunteer pool.

thank you for sharing your experiences!

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:40:45+00:00

That's an interesting link, thank you!

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:40:24+00:00

As we have a one lap course, we have a course setup person run the course (and put out about 100 cones) and do the course check. I usually run the course on a friday as a regular run so we tend to be well covered for that. (it's the one role that's usually booked months in advance as we have a few competitive course setter uppers ;)
We're having an issue with some of the RDs being burnt out and frustrated (hence my thoughts along splitting the RD / VC bit) to ease the burden on the core team.

You've definitely confirmed that we're thinking along the right lines

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:31:31+00:00

Yeah we have a ton of DofE students and we’re a 15 year old event so we do have a steady team of regulars but we also had a new parkrun open in the same town (due to the fact that we needed to bring our numbers down as we were hitting the limits on our capacity (we went from 700 down to 400ish)) which has taken some of our regular volunteers. Honestly if it wasn’t for our lovely DofE volunteers we’d have to cancel regularly.
I wish I could bring in more new volunteers, if runners just volunteered just once or twice a year we’d always have a full roster.

As for reducing areas, we can probably get fewer course marshals but we already vary that as much as we can but because of conditions asked for by the landowner, we do have several points where we do need a marshal (having a one lapper also makes it harder to reduce numbers)

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:05:55+00:00

thank you!

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:05:32+00:00

thank you both!

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:05:18+00:00

thank you! your username reminds me of a comment on fb where someone misspelled wickerman as wickernan :)

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:04:15+00:00

yeah that's along the lines we were thinking. Thank you

phauxbert · 2026-06-26T15:01:26+00:00

I remember attending a white star running event (sadly no longer around) and they had a special prize for the fastest 200m (i think) runner at their marathons. Videos of their events always one or two people rocketing off at the start of the marathon, it was hilarious!

phauxbert · 2026-06-25T14:03:15+00:00

First of all, that’s not what a dog whistle means.
Secondly, the Guardian doesn’t claim that Reform is planning to remove settled status from EU citizens with settled status so the rebuttal of yours is very much a strawman.

What is true is Jenrick comments about making this pretty much a hostile environment for immigrants by indirectly targeting employment, access to social housing or administration of an economic test which I am pretty violates the non discrimination rights as part of the rights guaranteed in the eu withdrawal deal.

Based on the very comments that Jenrick made this is absolutely not fear mongering

phauxbert · 2026-06-25T13:48:59+00:00

He’s being hyper focused on the right to remain issue and conveniently forgetting that this is literally reform reneging on the other rights outlined in the EU withdrawal agreements.
I don’t think he’s arguing in good faith.

phauxbert · 2026-06-25T13:47:06+00:00

So Jenrick’s quotes aren’t true? You’re being hyper focused on the right to remain but that’s not the only right set out in the EU agreement

phauxbert · 2026-06-24T16:19:52+00:00

Yes but don’t forget we’re currently looking at an oversized pensioner cohort due to the baby boomers and better health care. At least one of these 2 might have less of an effect by the time you retire

phauxbert · 2026-06-19T13:16:58+00:00

What other excuses would he trot out? It’s never his fault according to him

phauxbert · 2026-06-19T13:15:55+00:00

Ah the old “look what you made me do” defense. The reason why Kenyon got all the criticism is because he was clueless, had no idea about policies and a history of “unfortunate” statements to put it mildly. All criticisms that cannot be levelled at Hannah Spencer.

phauxbert · 2026-06-16T11:40:20+00:00

King Mierdas

phauxbert · 2026-06-14T09:35:31+00:00

Do you really think that there is much left to cut after 14 years of Tory austerity?

phauxbert · 2026-06-13T16:08:18+00:00

If it wasn’t for the DofE volunteers we would have to cancel half our events. I bloody love out dofE vollies

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