Parent volunteers

Coach L:

I think that if try to involve the parents in the program more you will get more help. Most everyone will help/do more if they have some ownwership.
This should have been explained at the sign ups and should have been a condition of the team. Make them understand why you need their help, what you are doing with the funds you are raising and what could happen if they do not help out.

There are informal leaders in every group, engage them and the rest will follow. Have the parent leaders assign shifts and duties for each game. This is why boosters group should exist.

The other way is to have a two tiered system. One fee with no volunteering and another fee to buy your way out. This of course assumes that you can still run your event if everyone buys their way out.

Coach L, I was spoiled by my parents. I needed several things done and so, noticed I had parents with special skills WHO ALSO WANTED TO HELP. For example, we had portable restrooms and the school was supposed to build a facility. It just wasn't happening. One of the Dads knew what was going on and approached me one day about getting the ball rolling. The next day we had a grader on site and the next thing you know, we had a building, storage area, restooms concessions ... 4 Dads did about 95% of the work. They never said a word about their sons during this entire process. We had some Moms that wanted to help and before I knew it, they had a parent rotation set up for the concessions stand (Including Dads) and at the end of the school season, they have always handed me a big bag of money. We use that to participate in a tournament, stay overnight ... Again, and pointed out by others, parents are a major resource. They want to be involved. Let them.

we do the $150 thing too. except we dont call it a fee or pay to play - thats the amount we require to be raised through fundraisers for each player. we provide plenty of fundraising opportunities to do this - but many choose to just write a check. $150 is the basic fee. for varsity it can vary. last year we went to disney and we required $900. this year the varsity fee will be $500 - we are going to myrtle beach.
im thinking about raising the basic fee to $200 - and thats not enough.
we hosted the usssa 14u world series last summer. i had the varsity parents/kids work it to count as their 150 so that the other fundraisers would go toward disney. we always host an aau or usssa world series and that was the first time i asked kids and parents to help and it worked out good.
this summer we hosted a high school tournament( we played) and had parents do concessions, gate, etc. it didnt count toward the 150 but everyone of them worked.
im not big into parent involvement. i normally would just as soon they stay away and do everything myself. but this group i have right now are people i went to school with, coached, etc. they are still "parents" but people i"ve known before they were "parents" and like. we've got a pretty good family thing going on.

I am not a coach, but I am a parent whose son just graduated from a program that has no booster club. The issue is tough, because if you do form one, the objectives sometimes get skewed - "because I put in all this time, my kid better start, etc" but if you form it with a strong motto of doing this for the good of the TEAM and the TEAMS to come, and make this a reminder through the way you present and work with the booster club, then it can work. I know that our young coach was very leary of forming a booster club, but it also caused much frustration for him because he tried to run everything himself.
THis past year he required more help from his coaches, assigning them different roles in our fundraiser dinner (one for silent/live auction, one for decorations, one for catering, one for ticket sales,etc) and that worked better. We did have participation form a core group of sr parents who were I think pretty good about separating the playing time types of issues form the parent involvement. THe jr parents were helpful too, but after that the participation falls off. I would strongly suggest that the biggest push for parent involvement be at the fresheman level (train em up right! ) because by the time parents get to be a parent of s sr, the last thing they want to do is sell hot dogs while Buddy hits his HR. By this time, they should have put in their time so that they can enjoy that last season doing what parents do best - watching thier kid, who might be playing thier last season of any hs sport. Explain to those younger parents that they are investing in the program, and if they want a first class team by the time thier kids get to be srs, they better put in the time now.For instance at the snack bar - Yes, it is a pain to go to the JV game one night and work at the varsity the next, but it's the one activity you can do with your family that doesn;t require a sitter, it gets everyone out to watch the game, and the younger players get exposed to the "BIG" game. Can you tell that we had NO participation form the yougner parents?!
I think that if I were a coach, I would assess what I needed in the way of equipment, travel expenses for the team and other team related stuff along with deadline for when it is needed, then either give it to my booster club and let them duke it out, or if I didn't have a booster club, make it clear at the start-up meeting that every parent is responsible for claiming a job and they need to sign up and be responsible. Either way, the coach must point out that putting in time, effort and/or money DOES NOT buy a student a lace on the team or on the field - that is their job to earn it.
In the same breath, a coach needs to explain in a positive manner when it is a good time for parents to discuss their individual son - what can be done to get better (there is a whole interesting thread elsewhere on this matter).
Getting back to the sign up - have a place there to indicate what special talents the family brings to the team - marketing skills, broadcasting, construction, seamstress, travel agent, catering, personnel management, printing, photography/video, scorekeeping, baking. Ask what business they are in - you never know what you might come up with for a fundraiser. Most parents respect the coach and if they can contribute their special skill, gives them "ownership" to the team, and they might leave you alone on the playing time issue!
Finally, if you want parent volunteers, COMMUNICATE! Find out what is the best way to communicate with the families. Most teams have a phone list of cell numbers for the kids, but the kids aren't a very reliable source of information... so build a phone tree, get every parent's email (all of them), get a marquis for the field or a board where you can post notices.DON'T SEND HOME NOTES - I am still finding half-sheets of paper in my son's vehicle - and it's been two months since season is over. Our school has a leave a message system where the coach can record a voice message, program a list of phone numbers in it, and it sends the message to all the numbers programmed into it. THE EASIEST way to tick off a parent and generate ill feeling in the stands? DON'T TALK TO THEM.
Just one other way to get families involved - we had Thursday night dinners this year before every Friday night game. Each of our sr parents either hosted by themselves or teamed up with another family to feed teh boys a healthy, carbo dinner (spaghetti, tacos, lasagne)- it was a great team building thing fo rth eboys and the parents. Nothing fancy required, had them in the back yard of one gracious parent, some at a few other homes, and it got people talking to one another. There was no coach involvement - coaches didn't come to any of them - no motivational speeches, just boys having a good time (bonding, I guess)
That's all I can think of - good luck.

quote:

The issue is tough, because if you do form one, the objectives sometimes get skewed - "because I put in all this time, my kid better start,

Not having a booster club during my tenure I have to ask the question to those who coach now. Does this happen. Do some parents try to use this as leverage.

Will, we did not have a booster club for the baseball team. I looked at my skills and knew I could do coaching clinic for coaches, do clinics for players and private lessons. I put every dollar back into the program. That got us through. I had to compete with at least two programs in our area that had $30,000+ in their coffers. They are good guys and good coaches but they always made fun of me trying to run a program on my own sweat.

I did it for a long time. all i wanted was a bus for away games umpire fees for home games. game balls. We had the same uniforms for 20 plus years. We replaced a couple of pants and jerseys each year. nobody complained. give me a bucket of balls and a fungo and let it rip. We were successful.
Now I talk to people and it is raise money for this raise money for that. kids buy their uniforms. warm up jackets batting practice jerseys equipment bags.pop up machines. Of course on the budget i was provided I could not have done that. somehow a fancy uniform or an equipment bag has nothing to do with if a kid can throw strikes or run or throw or pick up a ground ball. I see programs where they have 11 12 coaches for freshman jv and varsity. Web sites list them as pitching coach hitting coach bench coach. How did us old guys ever manage? Well not to be biased but we did. And the baseball was pretty **** good too.

I always thought we should order t shirts from a local company and let it go at that.....
In our case, we are a brand new high school and we had pretty much nothing for equipment, uniforms, - so we had to raise money. The coach had a loan through the district (or soemthing like that) to buy the stuff the kids needed but had to pay it back with fundraiser money. Also, it went to fund fall ball leagues that all the schools participated in - balls, umpres, etc. I agree pretty soon we should not have to push so hard to raise funds once that big stuff is paid for that the district wouldn't fund.