"I'd love to help, but I haven't got the time, you see"

Maybe I have been unlucky. Maybe I’m just too naive. Maybe I expect too much. Maybe I’m simply wrong. But, whatever, I do sometimes lose a little faith in mankind. This is not the greatest issue on the world – and as I say, perhaps I’m wrong – but just sometimes I do despair.
For many years now I have been involved with a local football club here in the Nottingham area – not one of the great names of football, just a very local side who attract round about a hundred spectators to each of their games. My son played for the team when he was a teenager and since then (about twenty years now) I have been involved in a number of capacities – committee member , club secretary, programme writer, raffle ticket seller, bar man, sandwich maker....... . I made many friends, hopefully helped the club, enjoyed the football and the camaraderie and felt I had put something back into the sport that I have loved all my life and  the club which has given me pleasure and opportunities for my son. Since then he has moved on and played at a number of clubs most recently for Marlow near where he lives in Berkshire.

Elms Athletic- 1982! - the little team where John's football all
 started.John is second from the right on the back row.
When Stuart Litchfield volunteered and began his little team
he didn't know what he had started!

Sadly, after about  twenty years I have told the club here in Nottingham that I am  leaving. For the past few years it has been increasingly difficult to get people to help with the many jobs that have to be done in the running of a club, which has several teams. We recently sent a mail out to club members and other interested parties pleading with them  to attend a meeting  to discuss finance and importantly the filling of a number of important posts. Out of the hundreds who have some direct or indirect link with the club, in the end only about ten people came - and half of these were the existing Committee. No-one volunteered for any of the posts - except existing Committee members, who, perhaps understandably  unwillingly, agreed to take on extra because no one else would offer. To add insult to injury in the fan's newsletter the following day the jobs were described as "not too onerous". Feeling rather aggrieved I challenged the writer of the newsletter - "If the jobs are indeed 'not too onerous'  I asked "why then would people not step forward to fill them. Why was it again left to "the Committee"? It all went down hill from there!  Like others I had offered to do more but in the light of the response from other people I have become very disenchanted. I do not feel that I can (or indeed should) do more when no one else will step forward to fill the spaces and take over when other, perhaps older,  people can no longer continue or feel they have done their share.
This is not, I believe, a thing confined to one football club. I have spoken to other people in other clubs and organisations and they, too, seem to be finding it increasingly difficult to recruit help. Younger people, are it seems, keen to enjoy the facilities that the club or whatever provide but not so willing to help with the administration and back room work that has to happen in order that those facilities can be provided. Indeed, before I retired from teaching I saw it in schools; parents  asked for or demanded that the school provide particular events for their children – a sports day, a disco, a party – but when it came to helping at these events we were usually struggling. Of course many parents did help – but it was the same ones each time. The majority were not available - they didn't have time.

Notts. County Youth Team from the early 1990's John, my son,
is fourth from the  right on the back row. Most of the team, like John, began by
playing in small local clubs run by volunteers. And it impacted on the rest
of their lives. For example, the boy on the extreme left of the back row -
Paul Smith - later took a sports scholarship at an American University and
now teaches sport in Carolina. The boy fourth from the left on the back row
- Micky Galloway - stayed near to home and is now the manager of a local club
- Long Eaton United .The last time I saw him a few weeks ago he was busy
coaching youngsters just as he had been coached all those years before. 

Of course, people have to be selective - they cannot play an active role in  everything. The football club is only one call on the time of busy people but, that said, I am of the firm belief that far too many people want others to provide so that they can enjoy. Equally, I recognise that  there are many millions of people who are involved in volunteering to assist good causes. One only needs to watch something like the London Marathon to see how many people will involve themselves in this type of  sponsored event to raise much needed funds or publicise good causes. Similarly, many thousands  - or indeed millions – are involved on a daily basis providing unpaid care for sick or aged loved ones. Often this is with little support and at a great cost to themselves and their own lives.
But, I would argue, these latter examples are a little different from the situation that I am describing. For someone to train for and run a marathon to raise much needed money for a much cherished charity or to care for a loved one over many months or years are very personal undertakings. They are about them doing something for a cause or person about which they feel passionately. What I am describing are more the ordinary, small things of life – helping at the local football club, helping at the village nursery group, assisting at the school disco, volunteering for something needed at your church or within your local community. These are not life and death things or things that will carry  great glory - maybe they are amongst life's luxuries. They are probably not the great issues of life and will  probably be largely unrecognised but will be done in the background, week in week out in order that some organisation or group can quietly get on with its task and that others can enjoy the benefit. When I was secretary of the football club, I often used to say that in order for a game to take place on a Saturday afternoon a huge amount of work had been done by unknown people during the previous week – teams and players contacted, match venue and details arranged with all concerned, kit washed and arranged and available, match officials sorted out, balls pumped up, pitch marked out, programme written and printed, refreshments made, opposition informed.......the list is endless. On the day of the game, the spectators got the pleasure, the players perhaps got the glory – but both of these only occurred because others, unpaid and unrecognised in the background had worked very hard - for the love of it! 

It started as Elms Athletic and moved up
 to Old Trafford and David Beckham and co.

These  everyday events like helping at the nursery or the football club, compared with the big charity donations and so on, are perhaps small – but, I would argue strongly  they are, in their way, equally or more important.  They are the things that bind a society - certainly at a local level - together week in week out. And this is important. Most of us live our lives "at the local level" - what happens in our street, in our village, in our area of the town is what matters most to us in the short term. And of course in its turn what happens at a local level is reflected in the national picture. And the voluntary groups, the sports teams, the nursery group, the village band etc. are part of what we  live with every day.  Whether or not we actually use them - they are part of our real world.  In my village alone we have cricket and football teams, a choir, Scout and Guide groups, a local history museum, various groups that meet to support old people by providing a lunch or a meeting point......... and the list goes on. 
Local groups, clubs and organisations are vital because they not only provide opportunities for involvement and personal fulfilment they more often than not set people off with a new life interest which can often develop into a skill. This has certainly been true for me in the various things I have been involved in. For example, in writing newsletters and the like for clubs I have slowly developed skills in the use of my computer and word processing - the task  had focused my attention and gave a point to using the computer rather than just playing with it! But perhaps more important the opportunity to be involved in say a local  club can often set in motion interests that will be life long interests. This morning, for example, I read in my newspaper an article about the ex-England cricketer Andrew Flintoff. I knew that he had been born on the same town as myself and had attended the same school as me (although many years separated us!). The article explained that his first experience of cricket was playing as a young boy for the Dutton-Forshaw club in Preston. I know Dutton-Forshaw well and the club gave him his first chance to shine - probably because lots of volunteers played their part. The rest, as they say is history -    playing for Lancashire, England, captaining England, winning the Ashes, international superstar...... -  all because a few volunteers had a small inconsequential club that gave him a chance to play and shine. 

Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff in full
flow for England - but it all began
with a little local club and volunteers
who gave him his chance!

I have a similar story - not as illustrious as Flintoff's tale but equally telling - in relation to my son, John. When my son was about seven his first experience of football in a team was playing for the village team of youngsters - it was the start of thirty years of playing the game. It lead to representing his school, his county, to having a trial for England school boys, playing for a professional club (Notts. County), turning out at Old Trafford against the young David Beckham and other Manchester United greats in the FA Youth Cup and, in the intervening years, playing for other clubs where he has gained friendship, sport and respect. And it all began because a guy in the village decided to start up a little team for kids  - Elms Athletic - named after the park near which all the kids lived. He (Stuart) would squash what seemed like hundreds of youngsters into the back of his little car to take them to the playing  field, he would make sure he brought orange for them to drink and that they all medals at the end of the season. In doing all this Stuart unknowingly started a life time interest and love.  My wife and I still have horrors about all the kids squashed into the back of the car (this  was before seat belts and children's car seats!) but it has become part of our life and memories. We still laugh about it  - especially when we see a much older and tubbier Stuart walking though the village! And only a couple of weeks ago when we were down at my son's house he turned out for what he says is his last game - his body can no longer take it!  Pat and I stood and watched him and remembered all those years that were made possible because people like Stuart who started that first little team, bothered to get involved and provide the framework and the opportunity for him to play.  And over the years I too became more and more involved - starting with Stuart's  team of little  kids but leading up to bigger situations and indeed now to being secretary of a whole league running football for the under 19s throughout the East Midlands - it was  to put something back.
There are indirect spin offs too. My daughter Kate was never a great sportswoman but as a young teenager did a bit of rowing and kayak paddling at a local club here in Nottingham. She wasn't interested in becoming and Olympic champion or the like but just enjoyed the fun and friendship of it. When she went off to university she joined the kayak club there - it gave her an immediate circle of friends of similar interests and a good pastime. But, as many of the club were also computer scientists (a pure coincidence) she also got sucked into that circle as well. The result, she is now has a well established and rewarding career in IT - not what she went to university to study and something which we (or she!) would never ever have envisaged when she was a teenager - all, indirectly, because of a local club!
No, local clubs and organisations might not be filled with glory or be life and death passions but they do important work and provide a focus for local life, often provide important services and contacts for people. And, I think, equally importantly,  provide a framework for ordinary people to be involved and to feel worthwhile. They also perhaps provide the “extras” that would make the local society a very different and perhaps a lesser place if they were not there. It is these sorts of groups that, sadly I believe, are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit people – people are simply too busy, or don’t see it as their responsibility.

Marlow FC's programme - my son played for Marlow
for several years until quite recently. A lovely club where
 we are alwaysmade very welcome. I try to go each time we
 are in the Reading area. It's a very old club (1870)
 - run for all those years by willing volunteers!

There is another dimension to this - and that is the criticism that one gets - usually from those who do little. When things go wrong or don’t meet expectations it’s the “committee’s fault” or “they (those who run the organisation) should have thought about that.....” Everyone is good at giving advice and criticising but not so good at actually putting their shoulder to the wheel and helping.  When a committee has been criticised for failing to provide what is required or when the organisation is struggling I have occasionally said to people – “well join in and you change things......”. That has usually been met with a look of disdain. Of course, when put on the spot and when asked “Will you take on this role?” We too often hear the plea “Oh, I’d love to but I just haven’t got time......” Or occasionally I’ve heard “Oh, I don’t do committees”. Or another old favourite response is “I don’t have the skills or you’re so much better at it than me”.
There is, however an important point here. It is my view that Committees and their like should, indeed must, change their composition on  a regular basis – not simply to share out the work load and to involve others – important though that is – but to make the organisation a vibrant and living thing  and responsive to the needs of  those availing themselves of whatever the organisation offers.  I have often thought, and said, that, for example, as my football club (and other organisations with which I have been associated) are increasingly run by older people (because new blood will not step forward) then the organisation must increasingly move away from the needs of those actually using  it. It becomes calcified and stagnant too closely linked with the ambitions and prejudices of people who “had their day” many years ago. I know that this is true of my role at the  football club from which I have just resigned – my aspirations, beliefs and ambitions for the club and football are very, very different from those of the players and the young members of the club. In short, I am increasingly a footballing dinosaur  out of touch and yet I was helping to run the organisation! No wonder committees are criticised!
A final point on committees – and this is true I think at all levels of sport, from top to bottom. In this country there is an almost healthy (or maybe unhealthy) scepticism of committees – or rather those “in charge”. In football the committee or the organisers are often scathingly referred to as “the men in blazers”. In rugby, players and fans often refer to them as the “old farts”!  And yet, the people on these committees are almost universally people who have given their life to the sport in some way or another. They may be old – but again, that comes back to the fact that younger people often won’t devote the time to being involved and view those on “the committee” with some disdain. For me, I can’t understand this attitude. When, twenty years ago I was invited to join the committee of my football club and asked “what can you do for us” I was over the moon and felt it a great honour – I don’t understand why other don’t feel the same! The surprising thing, however, is that I’m not aware of there being the same disdain and scepticism of committees and those in charge in non-sports organisations such as choirs. Maybe I'm wrong on that one!

At the end of what is allegedly my son's
 last game two weeks ago (for Hambleden FC).
His football began when when he
wasn't much older than his own son, Sam,
who came to watch his dad's last game!

Of course, as is always the case – especially in the modern world – money, too,  raises its head. Many of the situations that I am describing revolve around the availability of cash. My football club is desperately short of cash and on a weekly basis is in danger of closing. When people raise money for us that is a real boost. The other side of that coin, however, is that I believe that too often people will give cash – make a donation – rather than give their time. Money is an easy salver of conscience!  I believe this is especially true in the modern world where money is often seen as the panacea for everything. Indeed, football is a good example of this. Occasionally a football club will find a wealthy sponsor who will pour money into the club. This is, in some respects, great – it solves many immediate problems. It doesn’t necessarily, however, solve everything. For, example, a club that I know well was “bought” by a local business man. He has poured money into the club and has created a wonderful sporting environment, attracted  good players, excellent facilities and a very happy set of supporters. Staff at the ground are paid (as opposed to unpaid volunteers which is the norm) and provide an excellent service. But in doing that the opportunities for committed volunteers are limited; and what happens if the business man leaves  and there is no  framework for the involvement of others. It is not uncommon in this situation for a club to close after being bought out by a “sugar daddy” and he subsequently withdraws his cash support – almost as if people have forgotten how to play a part!  Money doesn’t always solve everything. This doesn’t mean I’m against it – but it is only one part of the picture. For me, it is people that matter – a healthy support of lots of involved, hard working people is more important than lots of cash for the long term future of the organisation.

"Ask not what your club can do for you
but what you can do for your club" -
pretty close to what JFK said
all those years ago!

This apparent unwillingness of many to play their part or  put something back in is, for me, saddening. I don’t know if it is a peculiarly English phenomena or whether it is more universal. I wonder if people in other parts of the world find this problem or is it true only of my experience in my bit of England?  Perhaps half a century ago in the USA John Kennedy had observed something akin to it. In his Presidential inaugural address in 1961  Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. In trying to drum up support and involvement I  recently re-stated Kennedy’s great “sound bite” –  “Ask not what your club can do for you but what you can do for your club” – it went down like the proverbial  lead balloon. Those present were not amused. 


I thought it was a perfectly reasonable question to ask – but those who were not of a mind to give us a bit of their time and gave me short shrift. I find that very sad.