To All Parkrunners - Little Stoke Parkrun Needs You

6 watchers

FenlandRunner Apr 2016 9:48am, 15 Apr 2016 8,233 posts	0 FenlandRunner What at 9am in the morning! Most people are still in bed
HappyG(rrr) Apr 2016 10:48am, 15 Apr 2016 25,494 posts	0 HappyG(rrr) Wars are conducted 24 hours FR. Let's not have a battle! Plenty of dog walkers, families and other legitimate pedestrians in parks in summer at that time. (Of course, you mean 9am in England (and Wales and Northern Ireland?), 9.30 in Scotland). And tidy up probably doesn't finish until 10.30 so impact period is beyond 9, certainly. Does no one else think that we, the parkrunners and parkrun supporters, should be considering what more we can do to make non-parkrunner park users love us and to happily accept parkrun as a good think in their local park? G
KatieB Apr 2016 11:31am, 15 Apr 2016 6,825 posts	0 KatieB Yep, totally agree :-)G. I think we do need to show some love to the park we run in and to those people who happen to be using it at the same time. It's quite intimidating when 300+ runners head towards you at the same time. I like your thinking, I guess the trouble is the volunteers are already giving up so much time to run the event, asking them to give up more time to volunteer in the park could be a big ask.
HappyG(rrr) Apr 2016 11:45am, 15 Apr 2016 25,496 posts	0 HappyG(rrr) So maybe it should be different volunteers?! When I worked at a volunteer heavy club once before (sailing club) and actually same is true at our running club, where it's all voluntary and no paid staff, we have "duty rotas". You have to do at least one or sometimes two duties per year. In sailing it was to man the rescue boats for a few hours at weekend during weekend races, and there was one repair bee weekend where people would help to do odd jobs, clear ups. And our running club we do 2 evenings a year where we act as run leader for the night, to organise that night's run. I've often wondered why parkruns struggle with getting enough volunteers each week. I think some form of compulsion (or at least expectation) should be made to volunteer at least once per year or once per 10 runs done or something. And enforcement is easy, because the stats are there. The sanction wouldn't be anything nasty, like stopping them running. It would just be that your name and time wouldn't be recorded - it would show as Unknown (or if a bit of gentle shaming were required, then perhaps as "Unhelpful" ) So, then there would be 300 (or more) volunteers available to do extra duties like occasional park clean ups or whatever else the local community would appreciate? G
HappyG(rrr) Apr 2016 11:45am, 15 Apr 2016 25,497 posts	0 HappyG(rrr) Oh and hi Katie, btw! waves G
KatieB Apr 2016 11:49am, 15 Apr 2016 6,826 posts	0 KatieB Hi.
Ulric Apr 2016 3:24pm, 15 Apr 2016 190 posts	0 Ulric Would there be a T-shirt when you have been Unhelpful 50 times?
Silvershadow Apr 2016 3:54pm, 15 Apr 2016 1,004 posts	0 Silvershadow How about no actual sanction, just a gentle email reminder when the stats trigger a threshold.
Wriggling Snake Apr 2016 4:06pm, 15 Apr 2016 11,643 posts	0 Wriggling Snake I helped set up the swindon parkrun way back, numbers were rubbish for a year. There is a suggestion of volunteering 3 times. I even met the founder!!! He is a VERY driven person. The other day he was talking about community rather than a run. I am not so sure of that, it doesn't exist without the running. Swindon had a big problem early on as it was seen as intimidating towards the rest of the users of the park, ie. as above a lot of people charging about. It is for a reason you are always asked to respect others users. HappyG is correct, a charm offensive is in order, we were always smiley to other people down at swindon and early on we got called all sorts of stuff. It stopped being an issue once there were 100+ people running about. Also, and I have said this elsewhere, I can see the argument of wear and tear, football and cricket teams pay for use of facilities. I don't see Stoke Gifford parish council as having the problem, I think it is the lack of local and national policy for the individuals health that is the problem. Compulsion would not work, Parkrun works of off reciprocity, you get something back for putting something in, i.e you volunteer, someone else volunteers, you get your free run, the second you say you must do something, it will fail. All the same, charm first.
UsedToRunaBit Apr 2016 4:17pm, 15 Apr 2016 131 posts	0 UsedToRunaBit It's no surprise they did it really, some short sighted folks was always going to, it's not up to them to worry about the health of the locals is it? The reason running is different to football, cricket and all the other examples being used as "well they pay" is that those sports aren't inclusive. With running anyone from a small toddler to a hundred years old can turn up and run at parkrun with zero experience, skills or equipment, it takes an hour of the parks morning, and when the nation is growing all the time (round the belt buckle) we need grass roots initiatives that have zero barriers to them.