The state of golf volunteering

I’ve just had an update from Mark Timlett on how new child protection guidelines are reducing volunteers in junior golf. (These guidelines, posted here, include gems of wisdom including: to call the police if a child’s parents are late collecting them – on no accounts must you take them home! – and also that clubs organising junior events should attend a ‘Safe Sport Events’ workshop and purchase the ‘Safe Sport Events Pack’.) Mark writes:

‘I am hearing of more cases where Junior leagues in golf, and other sports, are suffering because of Clubs finding it harder to replace Junior Organisers/Leaders who have left because of Child Protection and/or CRB-checking related red-tape. The people being lost are probably experienced men and ladies who not only run teams but represent Junior sections on Club Committees to maintain Junior rights.

'What really concerns me now in our sport is that the new ‘Golf Volunteers’ arm of England Golf is claiming how successful it has been in recruiting volunteers to the game. These new volunteers are mainly those who are running Tri-Golf and Extreme-Golf schemes and other non-Club activities. It’s doubtful if many of those will go on to be Club Junior Organisers (J/Os).

'We won’t be hearing from ‘Golf Volunteers’ about the J/Os who are leaving their Club roles. It’s all very well having a host of well-intentioned, good-hearted volunteers running these school-based schemes, but without J/Os with knowledge of Club politics and systems there will be fewer opportunities for good Junior players to progress through Club golf into representative golf. This surely can’t be what EGU/EWGA want, but they are not publicising what, if anything, they are going to do about it.’