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Originally Posted by ehochstein
I said it once and I'll say it again, the biggest issue with MN not going to districts at the moment is the fact we don't have a non-profit. We could have all of the volunteers in the world but if we don't have an organization running it, we will still not have districts.
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The mechanics of setting up a non profit is not a big deal, it is having the people who are willing to step up and do it that is the issue. I'm pretty sure that before joining the District system IN didn't have a non profit. I know you know the Executive Director of that organization and she stepped into the job as part of the switch to the District System.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis
The issue isn't a "number of bodies" thing - switching formats means reducing the number of vacation days and (hopefully) decreasing travel distance to events. The problem is the number of experienced and trained Key Volunteers. I don't care how many new volunteers you get, you can't take someone with no experience and make them an LRI, Head Ref, or FTA overnight. It takes experience at events and some amount of training from people already in those roles before you can step up.
Plus, most volunteers get signed up in VIMS and committed in the December-February time frame... I know myself and the other MN LRI's were asked to commit last month for specific events this upcoming season - that's at least 6 months in advance, if not more. It's hard to find that level of commitment, to find people willing to commit for events well before their teams has even decided where it's going.
If MN had switched to districts 2 years ago, I would have been asked to be LRI at an event every weekend. As it stands now, I've been able to recruit enough other LRI's that I would only need to do 3 district events this year (and with the other identified LRI's we're starting training plans for, pretty soon that will be reduced to 2, even if the number of potential district events increases). Other Key Volunteer positions aren't in as good of shape here, not yet.
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When the PNW district was formed we had 2 LRIs, I FTA, 2 head refs. We recruited the FTAs who did their basic training at our off season events. We had people who had been RIs and Refs step up and agree to those lead positions. The first season we did have a couple of those key volunteers do 3 events, including CMP with 11 events. Last year no one did more than 2 other than our Chief LRI stepping in at an extra event when the LRI at one event was very sick and she was sent home.
In the PNW it really was a case of build it and they will come.