by morell » Thu Jul 21, 2022 11:25 am
Thread should be tagged with "you know you're old when". Use some empathy ya old goats.
Society has moved to a point where even if people wanted to help, they can't. So many young people are time poor, disposable income poor and doing everything they can just to get by. Cooking the BBQ might mean they miss that cash job, taking their kids to their junior sport or heck just having some free time to themselves to unwind.
I've pushed a very strong player centric agenda this year. Football clubs should be a place to escape the laborious, enjoy yourself and socialise. Not be rostered on to do chores that in all likelihood you haven't had time to do at home, let alone the football club - a place for recreation. I don't blame people at all for not wanting to volunteer in 2022s society.
The traditional volunteer pool - wives, girlfriends, Mums, Dads - are in the same boat. Too ******* busy. So who's left? The rusted on locals. God bless them.
It's a broad social construct we're experiencing and inflicting on younger generations, not some boomer imagined level of apathy. It's dare I say it caused by a lack of real wage growth, changing market forces and generational wealth inequity. That's created huge pressure on the only commodity young people can own these days - their time.
Other than the macro social stuff, in my opinion we need more support from governments (all spheres), peak bodies (AFL, SANFL) and our league to provide more human resourcing and/or smart policy or regulation change to alleviate the volunteer burden. A good example is the umpiring changes this year in the reserves. It's worked great.