My new favorite social media saying is “if you’re not doing, you’re just spewing”. Hitting like, sharing and ranting on social media pretty much helps no one if action isn’t also being performed in the background.
A while back I wrote about volunteerism in horse sports and how necessary it is to keep things moving. Without volunteers shows can’t happen. In order to be a doer and not a spewer, I’ve decided to put together a way to entice others to put more time into volunteering.
Introducing the 2018 Call To Volunteering.
Here’s how it works:
1) Sign on up by commenting on this post. You have until January 12th to do so. I had meant to do this before December ended but um…I got a bit busy.
2) Keep track of your volunteer experiences throughout the year. You’ll need to give me the name of the event, the position worked and the number of hours worked. You can do that by adding a comment on this post, on any other post throughout the year or on the page I will be creating once I have the names of those joined. Get the time sin as soon as possible after the event, but at the very least they need to be in by the end of each month.
3) Every hour of volunteer time equals one point. So a four hour dressage scribe position grants you four points.
4) The event can be local, schooling, fun or recognized but must be a real event. Clinics and camps don’t count. I reserve the right to contact the event to verify that you worked it though that will be unlikely.
5) Any equestrian discipline counts. It doesn’t have to be one you compete in and you don;t have to compete at all yourself.
6) This must be volunteer time, so if you get paid to do it it doesn’t count. Food, a swag bag, t shirt is fine, but if they had to pay you to volunteer it isn’t volunteering. ***EDITED: If you get awards towards your local club or association, discounted schooling days or events, or event entries for volunteering IT WILL STILL COUNT. The only thing that doesn’t is cold hard cash in exchange for hours worked***
What you get
Besides a feeling of warm fuzzies for giving back you mean?
This contest is in its infancy and my dream is to grow it pretty big over time, but for now it’s being funded by yours truly with a smaller than I’d like budget. I’m working on getting sponsors and will be reaching out to various companies. Again, meant to already do that but time slipped away.
Prizes:
1) Each month a random drawing will occur of all those who submitted times for that month. These prizes will be small, under $20 or so, and will be announced at the end of each month. This will reward anyone who got out there and give everyone an equal chance to win something regardless of how much time they can donate.
2.) Each quarter the participant with the most points for that quarter will get a prize package. Currently it is a Riding Warehouse gift package valued at $50 for the first quarter. As time goes on I will announce the following quarters. If I can get sponsors as planned, this package will grow and grow and grow.
3.) Overall yearly points will continue to accrue, so don’t worry if you have a slow quarter or two. You can always pick back up!
4) Year end will see the person with the most number of volunteer hours spent receive a monogrammed horse cooler. It will have “2018 Volunteer Challenge Champion” or something like that on it.
5) Year end reserve champion will get a nice leather halter with an engraved plate.
So that’s it. I’m very passionate about volunteering and giving back and this is my way of enticing others to get out there and spend some time working these events. Hopefully it is a fun way to grab some cool prizes too. Remember, it can be any position at any event in any discipline. Get out and volunteer people!
Oh and feel free to share this far and wide. The more who participate the better it will look to sponsors and the better the prizes will be. I can only spend so much on my own.
Sign up by 1/12/18!!!!
The Roaming Rider 