Sport volunteers – The Searle family

Family volunteering

The Searle family includes parents Craig and Annette and Travers (18), Krista (16), Dion (14), and Shannan (17).

"As the club grows, more families see what we get out of what we do and this motivates them to volunteer as well."

What do you do?
Craig - I am the Club and Association President of the Townsville Indians Baseball Club as well as North Queensland secretary, selector and coach, club head coach, coach rookie ball, under 14, under 16 and seniors and do ground maintenance, umpiring, scoring.

Annette - I am the club treasurer and attend to all administration, communication between players, coaches, parents, state body, run the canteen, club contacts and everything girl.

Travers – Between university and part time work, I coach rookie ball and little league, under 14 and under 16, play in our senior comp and represent North Queensland, umpire and do ground maintenance.

Shannan – I listen to the rest of the family discussing baseball.

Krista - I volunteer as the head canteen person, assist Rookie ball coaching, and care for children of parents who play or score.

Dion – I volunteer as a rookie ball coach, play for North Queensland and in our senior competition and do ground maintenance.

How much time do you commit?
The family members volunteer for atleast 20 to 30 hours but Annette and Craig contribute up to 30hrs a week.

What motivated you to volunteer?
We did not agree with the direction our former club was going so we all committed to form a new club to focus on promoting baseball in Townsville. In 2008 we formed the Townsville Indians Baseball Club. With any new club it was difficult to get people to volunteer so we took up the challenge to develop the baseball club as a family.

What do you get out of volunteering?
We get satisfaction from watching our sport grow and our players progressing to the representative level. As the club grows, more families see what we get out of what we do and this motivates them to volunteer as well. With the addition of new families helping we have developed long lasting friendships.

Are there benefits volunteering as a family?
We are able to assist each other in our own roles without too many differences.

Any advice for families considering volunteering together?
There is a lot of hard work and it does take up a lot of your spare time, including your holidays. You need to be considerate to everyone else's role within the club and discuss different ideas together. Just because a family member is available to step in someone else's shoes does not mean they should, you can take too much advantage if not careful. There is a lot of satisfaction from doing it together, but if you have another child not involved in the sport as we do, you need to take notice of their needs as well.