Assessing the determinants and impacts of and relationships between, sports club and sports event volunteers'behaviour: The Case of Women's rugby in England

The purpose of this study is to examine if the experiences of volunteers within women s rugby at both rugby clubs and at the 2010 Women s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) in England provide the basis for the continuation of such activities as well as the transfer of volunteer effort to event-based or club-based activity within the specific sports concerned or across sports to contribute towards society s broader sporting needs. Sport volunteering in the UK accounts for 26% of the total formal voluntary activity, and largely takes place within the Voluntary Sport Club (VSC) system (Sport England, 2003). It provides the basis for the development of grassroots sports. Sport volunteering also takes place at sport events which provide the foundation for elite level sport development. It is known, however, that if the volunteering experience is satisfying then this may lead to higher levels of commitment with the sports organization, the event or the voluntary cause, which may affect volunteers longevity and intentions to continue volunteering (Doherty, 2009). Women s rugby was selected as a case study, as the 2010 Women s Rugby World Cup was held in England. This facilitated comparisons between club and event volunteers. With the cooperation of the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW), research participants were identified and recruited via an email invitation including a link to an internet-administered questionnaire. A total of 70 individuals that volunteered for the 2010 WRWC and 168 volunteers involved in the women s rugby clubs completed the online survey. The results indicated that overall and despite some variation in the emphasis of the findings there is evidence in support of the relevance of the widely known determinants of volunteering such as motivation to volunteer, socio-demographic characteristics, satisfaction with the volunteering experience, engagement to sport and volunteering at to the continuation of future club or event volunteering as well as its transfer to other rugby and other sport events. Consequently, event organisers should work closely with club authorities to help volunteers to make a better connection from their club to the sport more widely and with the role of clubs and events to support the sport generally, to develop a shared identity in both clubs and events, that is across the whole sporting experience and to increase volunteers development opportunities through deploying their efforts in more than one setting which may then lead to the development of social capital.