Volunteering
There are many ways to get involved in volunteering within Kendal Cycle Club.
Volunteering is about choosing to help other cyclists within the Club by giving up your time or expertise. There are many different types of volunteering activities and the different opportunities can involve people giving up several hours a week, or helping at one event when it is convenient for the volunteer.
Why volunteer?
Every person’s motivation to volunteer is different and there are a lot of great reasons to make a contribution to the running of the Club and the its activities. We would encourage you to volunteer as there are many benefits to you personally, which include:
- making a real difference to the Club and your fellow cyclists
- gaining a lot of satisfaction from helping others
- meeting people and socialising
- developing existing and new skills
- giving something back to the sport
The three main areas of volunteering within Kendal Cycle Club are coaching, officiating and club management. Have a look at the information below and see which area of volunteering interests you.
Coaching
Coaching is at the heart of cycling performance at every level from teaching basic bike handling skills to training riders for specific events, disciplines and competitions. Coaching courses are available through British Cycling which will allow you to achieve your coaching goals; coaching at the level and in the discipline you want.
For more information about British Cycling’s coaching awards including the discipline-specific Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 awards, please speak to one of the committee members or look on the British Cycling website.
Officiating and Marshaling
There are many cycling events within our Club’s geographical area every year and they all rely on officials and marshals to ensure that they are safe, fair and most importantly fun! As a club, we would like to support these events and soon even host some of our own!
Helping out with officiating and marshalling could include any of the different cycling disciplines such as road racing, cyclo cross, mountain biking, sportives and even sessions down at Salt Ayre where riders train and practice on the track.
Kendal Cycle Club has already helped out at the Tour of Britain and will this year be well represented in marshalling the Fred Whitton Challenge, but these are just two of the higher profile events, there are of course many others smaller events that require volunteers.
Club management
For those of you intrigued by the workings of the Club, its activities and all of its different volunteers then club management may be the option for you. Whilst the committee is at present fully represented, there will in future be a need to replace existing positions as members move on or no longer wish to continue with their role.
As well as being on the committee, there are also some sub-committee such as the social sub-committee, or the ‘rides’ sub-committee where the responsibility is less onerous, but you can still help out with helping to organise routes and of course our ‘Saturday Social’ rides.
As events requiring volunteers are made known to us, we will publish details on our Club App. Wherever possible we will inform you well in advance of the event venue, the amount of time that you are needed for and provide any instruction and training needed.
Please help!
The Club will only ever be as strong and successful as the people in it, and that’s you! Volunteering is immensely satisfying and rewarding, and if everyone takes a turn occasionally and doesn’t just leave it to the minority, then we really will go places! For more information about volunteering contact our volunteer secretary.