I am so proud of the award that I have been given … apparently there is a trophy which hadn’t been found in time for the presentation, but I’d been warned not to touch it so I was quite relieved.
So what does the Volunteer of the Year do? Well my official role in the club is Director of Communications which is a relatively new role that was created about two years ago and has grown overtime .. I think mainly as I keep volunteering to take more on!
The main purpose of the role is to keep members in touch with what is going on throughout the year. When I joined the club 4 or so years ago, when my boys started playing, there was a massive divide between Senior and Age Grade players and members which was where the focus is to bring us all together as one club. It was a year ago that the Facebook group was set up and that is flourishing with 390 members and daily interaction from lots of members so we’re evolving all the time.
So what does it entail to “keep members in touch”? Here is a glimpse of the things that I do at the club.
Recently I have been helping Dave with the sponsorship role too, selling 13 new pitchside hoardings and helping with the new mini/midi shirt sponsorship.
And new for this coming season I am in the process of organising and updating the members handbook and fixture cards.
I also as a full time job own and run Bronco which is a search marketing and web development company that Dave and I set up in 2003. Bronco is also a main sponsor of the club supporting both the Adult and Age Grade teams. I have 2 boys and 2 dogs and in my spare time I also help run the Yorkshire VW Club and in the off season am away quite a bit camping in our splitscreens. I’m not quite sure how I manage to fit it all in but it happens, and being a volunteer at Ripon Rugby Club is very rewarding and I love it.