Your club, your community
Kilmarnock Rugby Football Club is a club run by amateurs for amateurs. It is not a golf club with a high membership fee which is then used to hire employees to perform the tasks needed to run a club.
A club is a sum of all the efforts from all the members. We stand or fall together. It is not a creche or a child-minding facility. It is not a bring your boots on Saturday and do-nothing else kind of club. In short, Kilmarnock Rugby Club is about all of us and what we get collectively, not just the individual player experience. To not understand that a club is a collective effort greater than the sum of all the individuals is not to understand a club.
The membership fees paid at KRFC only pay a proportion of what is needed to keep the club going. The rest is raised from sponsorship, fundraising, bar income, grants and donations. To make this work, volunteers give off their time to carry out the tasks needed.
There are volunteer coaches, volunteer administrators, volunteer groundsmen, volunteers to do the maintenance, to run the bar, to order the food, to serve the food, to prepare the pitches, to write and distribute the programmes, to carry out first aid, to clean the changing rooms after games, to wash the strips, to coordinate games, to coordinate players, to deal with correspondence, to manage sponsorship, to manage events, to order bar stock, to handle grants, to provide child protection, and a myriad of other tasks.
While there are many tasks, there are unfortunately a relatively small band who carry out these multiple tasks every week. Consequently, some things do not get done.
Firstly, our club needs help. For example, someone to pick up the food on a Saturday or a Sunday, volunteers for a rota to serve after match food to players, someone to pick up strips from the laundry, or drop them off, tidying up around Bellsland, care and maintenance of our facilities. All these tasks, and many others would take less than an hour a week. If you want to help support the club, please let your convenors, or any of the committee know. Any help will be welcome.
Secondly and more importantly, those who are volunteering need and deserve the support of everyone in the club. Sometimes things go wrong. That happens. When someone is trying to carry out a lot of tasks then it is more likely to happen. If things do go wrong, then what we have to do as a club is learn from it and look to get it right the next time. Everyone is doing their best. The club doesn’t need abuse or finger pointing at volunteers who make mistakes. They are doing their best. It is against the club code of conduct, sets a bad example and is likely to drive volunteers away. It is also against the whole concept of being a member of a club.
If you want to help make things better, take some of the strain. Be a volunteer. Help make your club better. If you have suggestions or ideas then share them with the club, put yourself forward and help us progress. Please be generous to those who are generous with their time to contribute to the running of the club. Many of us contributing to make the club work smoothly will benefit us all as a rugby community. Be part of the solution.
Can you help in any of the following areas?
• Matchday preparation on Saturday or Sunday
• Clubhouse Maintenance
• Ground Maintenance
• Kitchen
• Match reports