PDGA TD School | Episode 4 | Event Resources – Volunteers and Staff

Video Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of TD School. In today's episode, we'll be going over advice and tips for staffing an event and where to find volunteers. While it may be possible to run a tournament or a league by yourself, a team effort can elevate your event and provide more value to players through on course amenities, caddy books, course signage, vendors, sponsorships, and more. In today's episode, we'll go over what roles you should be looking for to fill your event. Most often, TDs, especially at the local level, will rely on volunteers to provide additional help in preparing the course and running the event. Before the event, volunteers can boost your efforts by assisting with course preparation, fundraising, designing and producing tee signs, caddy books and other printed materials, and even coordinating your other volunteers. During the event, volunteers fill essential roles such as managing parking, filling hydration stations, hole spotting, officiating, managing scores, running player check-in, distributing players packs, and much more. While some larger events like the Las Vegas Challenge and USDGC have massive volunteer bases, smaller events usually recruit volunteers from the local disc golf community. Local clubs or tag leagues are a great place to find volunteers who may be motivated to help organize tournaments and higher level competition. You can post on the club's social media page or any chat boards to start a conversation about your event and the kind of help that you may need. While volunteers are not paid by the tournament, it is important to make them feel valued and appreciated for their efforts. This may be as simple as shout-outs during the players meeting, providing lunch, handing out shirts to keep as souvenirs, or providing early registration for volunteers. If you are having trouble pulling in volunteers, don't worry. Many TDs build up their volunteer base slowly, year after year as they grow and develop their events. Although it may be a lot of work, smaller events like leagues and C-Tier tournaments can be run by a single TD. By putting in the effort, you will gain appreciation from your local disc golf community and inspire others to join along. At some point, your event may grow to the point where you need people to commit time and effort that goes above and beyond what you can expect as a donation of their time. That's when you...