V4V Good Practice Case Studies: Miskolci Egyetemi Atlétikai és Futball Club (MEAFC) (Sports Club of Miskolc University)
Sport / Activity: Multi-sport university club | Country: Hungary
Which of the four pillars does the example cover?
Pillar 1 – Volunteer strategy and planning
Pillar 3 – Volunteer management and retention
Pillar 4 – Volunteer development and training
Focus of volunteer intervention: Volunteer recruitment and management
Objective(s):
The focus of this initiative was to gain theoretical and practical experiences in field of volunteer management, while recruiting and training ‘future volunteers’ targeting Generation Z – for future university sport events, their focus was to involve students of Hungarian higher education institutions as volunteers to obtain valuable feedback from the target group.
The initiative brought together 3 partner agencies to develop guidelines for the recruitment and management of volunteers to support the delivery of the European Universities Games 2024 due to take place in Miskolc, Hungary. Further partners of the Erasmus project were EUSA (European University Sports Association) and MEFS (Hungarian University Sports Association).
The focus was to represent good governance in sport, non-discrimination, healthy lifestyles, and the notion of a ‘dual career’ – balancing volunteering alongside a main career. It also aimed to overcome prejudices about volunteering and restore its
values as a useful and recognisable job experience, which can be a drive for development of individual competencies and employability.
Activities undertaken:
Students were supported to engage in different volunteering roles at the Games, thereby gaining valuable experience and gaining new skills that would add to their employability. Volunteers were first supported to volunteer at a domestic multi-sport event before being deployed to volunteer at the European Universities Games.
An induction programme was provided for all volunteers including a Welcome Event which included presentation of the volunteers’ obligations and benefits undertaken in the project. Prior to the domestic event, MEAFC as the project leader organised an in-person workshop for the volunteers including motivational training, teambuilding, and presentation about university sport. Volunteers were also supported by mentors before the international event.
Impact:
The experiences from the programme were used to develop a written ‘Guidelines for Volunteer Management of Multisport Events’ to support volunteer management at future events. It is also hoped that many of the volunteers continue to volunteer and use their experiences to help evidence their skills and competencies for future employment.
