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Redgum Plains Junior Netball Club is a regional club of 186 participants, 88% of them juniors, run entirely by volunteers. Six of our 41 volunteers carry most of the work, and they are tiring. When they step back, teams lose coaches and girls stop playing.

Over two years, Many Hands will spread the load. We will create clear short-term and game-day roles, recruit parents and older players into them, train and accredit new coaches, umpires and team managers, mentor young leaders aged 15–17, and recognise every volunteer's contribution. A part-time volunteer coordinator will drive the work.

We are requesting $64,000 from ORSR, with $6,000 cash from our club, $5,000 from Redgum Plains Community Bank, in-kind support from our council and association (to be confirmed), and free onboarding, setup and volunteer training from TidyHQ ([ORG_INKIND_VALUE — to be confirmed by TidyHQ]). We will measure volunteer and junior participation using our TidyHQ data and report to ORSR [reporting frequency].

This project applies to the Targeted stream: Workforce and Volunteering. It responds directly to the stream's focus areas:

• Reducing reliance on a small number of volunteers: we will move routine game-day and canteen tasks from six core volunteers to a rostered pool of short-term roles.
• Attracting and retaining a broader, more diverse volunteer base: we will recruit parents, grandparents and players aged 15+, including families who haven't volunteered before.
• Creating short-term or event-specific roles: game-day, carnival and canteen shifts of two hours or less, booked through online rosters.
• Recognising volunteers: a recognition program with milestones, end-of-season awards and public thank-yous.
• Building leadership and future readiness: accredited courses, a youth mentoring pathway and handover guides for every committee role.

The project supports ORSR's 2025–2030 priorities. Workforce and Volunteers is the core. It also supports Active Kids and Youth, because juniors keep playing when every team has a coach and a team manager, and Welcoming Communities, because short, clearly described roles make it easier for new families to get involved.

Volunteers, coaches and umpires count as participants under the program, so growing and keeping our volunteer team is a participation outcome in its own right.

It also delivers on our own [name and year of your club strategic plan], which aims to [insert the relevant goal, e.g. "have a coach and team manager for every team"].

Redgum Plains is a regional town where netball is one of the main activities for girls. Our club has 186 participants, about 164 of them juniors, and no paid staff. Everything from registrations to umpiring rosters is done by volunteers.

The problem is concentration. Of our 41 volunteers, six do most of the work: [describe their roles, e.g. president, secretary, registrar, umpire coordinator, canteen lead]. [Insert an example, e.g. "our secretary spends about X hours a week on registrations and rosters"]. Two of these six have told the committee they plan to step back [check and confirm]. We have no succession plan for their roles.

The effect reaches players. In [season], [number] teams started the season without a confirmed coach and [number] games relied on [describe, e.g. parents umpiring without accreditation]. Our records show [insert junior retention numbers for the last 3 seasons, especially girls aged 13–15]. [Cite a relevant AusPlay or SA Government statistic on girls' sport dropout in early teens.]

Our target groups are:

• Volunteers, coaches and officials: the 35 people outside our core six, and new volunteers we will recruit, especially parents of juniors and players aged 15 and over.
• Juniors, particularly girls aged 13–15, who are most likely to stop playing when teams are short of coaches.
• Low-income families in our district, for whom [describe a barrier, e.g. travel to away games or fees]. [Insert evidence, e.g. the share of families on fee assistance.]
• Our regional community, which has [describe local context, e.g. limited alternative activities for girls; travel distances].

We have heard this directly from our members: [summarise feedback from parents, players or volunteers, e.g. end-of-season survey results or committee minutes].

If nothing changes, we expect to lose [number] core volunteers within [timeframe], with fewer teams able to take the court and more juniors leaving the sport.

Many Hands runs over 24 months across two netball seasons, led by a part-time volunteer coordinator who reports to our committee.

• Activity 1: Role audit and redesign (months 1–3). We will list every task our core six do and split them into clear roles with short descriptions: committee roles, season roles (team manager, coach, scorer) and short game-day or event roles (two-hour canteen shift, court marshal, carnival helper). Each role gets a one-page description and induction checklist.
• Activity 2: Volunteer recruitment drive (months 3–5, repeated before season 2). The coordinator will run a recruitment campaign at registration, through team group messages and at school pick-up events, aiming to fill short roles with parents, grandparents and older players. Families who haven't volunteered before will be invited to start with a single shift.
• Activity 3: Rostering and communication (from month 2). With TidyHQ's free onboarding and setup, we will move registrations, volunteer roles and game-day rosters online so volunteers can see and swap shifts, receive reminders and see their own contribution. This replaces [describe current tools, e.g. spreadsheets and phone calls].
• Activity 4: Training and accreditation (months 4–20). TidyHQ will run volunteer training sessions on rosters and communications. The club will fund accredited coaching, umpiring and team manager courses for [number] volunteers, with umpire coaching from Redgum Plains Netball Association (to be confirmed).
• Activity 5: Youth leadership and mentoring (months 6–24). Players aged 15–17 will be paired with an experienced coach or umpire as assistant coaches and young umpires, with their own development plan.
• Activity 6: Volunteer recognition (ongoing). Service milestones, an end-of-season volunteer awards night, thank-you posts and a recognition wall at our courts, using volunteer hours recorded in our rosters.
• Activity 7: Succession and handover (months 18–24). Each core role will have a handover guide and a named deputy, so knowledge stays with the club.

We expect the project to change who volunteers, how much they carry and how long juniors keep playing:

• More people volunteering, with the workload spread more evenly.
• New volunteers staying for a second season.
• More accredited coaches and umpires, including young leaders.
• Better retention and less dropout among juniors, especially girls aged 13–15.
• Lapsed players and families re-engaged.

Scale and reach: 186 current participants and 41 volunteers at [number] courts at [venue name], plus [number] new volunteers and families reached through recruitment.

How we'll collect and report: registrations, volunteer roles, rosters and hours will be in TidyHQ from month 2, so baseline, progress and final figures come from the same records rather than manual counts. We'll take a baseline once rosters are set up, report progress to our committee monthly and to ORSR [at the reporting points in our funding agreement], and include the data in our final report.

• District Council of Redgum Plains — venue hire waiver for recruitment and come-and-try events, valued at $3,000 in-kind (to be confirmed). [Name of council contact].
• Redgum Plains Netball Association — umpire coaching and mentoring for new and young umpires, in-kind [$ value] (to be confirmed).
• Redgum Plains Community Bank — $5,000 cash toward volunteer recognition and training (confirmed).
• TidyHQ — project partner. TidyHQ will provide free onboarding, setup and volunteer training valued at [ORG_INKIND_VALUE — to be confirmed by TidyHQ], and support us to set up the participation and volunteer reports we'll use for ORSR reporting. We will pay our standard TidyHQ subscription. TidyHQ's Evidence of Partnership is attached.
• Our members, parents and players — consulted through [describe, e.g. an end-of-season survey and a parents' forum], and represented on the project working group.

We [describe how and when you engaged each partner]. Letters or Evidence of Partnership forms are attached for each partner.

The project is overseen by the club's committee of management, which meets [monthly]. A project working group (president, treasurer, volunteer coordinator, a parent representative and a youth representative) meets [monthly] and reports to each committee meeting.

The volunteer coordinator is contracted by the club and reports to the president. The treasurer manages the project budget as a separate line in our accounts, approves spending under our [financial delegations policy], and reconciles grant spending each quarter.

All volunteers working with juniors hold a current Working with Children Check, and the project follows our [child safe policy name]. [Confirm your club's screening process.] The committee will approve the final report to ORSR before it is submitted.

The project starts at [project start date]. Recruitment is timed for registration periods before each season.

Value for money: about 47% of the ORSR request funds a coordinator whose job is to leave the club with a larger, trained volunteer team that keeps going after funding ends; the rest goes directly to training, recognition and junior participation. Our club has managed [describe past grants or annual turnover, e.g. "an annual budget of $X and a previous grant of $Y"], and our cash contribution is approved in [committee minutes, date].

Many Hands is designed so the club doesn't need a coordinator forever. By the end of the project, the work the coordinator does will sit in clear roles, rosters and guides that volunteers can run themselves.

What stays after funding ends:

• A volunteer team of [target number], with short roles that fit busy families and a recruitment routine built into registration each season.
• Every role described, with handover guides and named deputies for committee roles.
• [Number] accredited coaches and umpires, and a youth leadership pathway that produces new ones each year.
• Online registrations, rosters and volunteer records that show the committee who is carrying the load, so it doesn't drift back to six people.
• An annual volunteer recognition night, funded from [describe ongoing source, e.g. sponsorship or canteen income].
• Stronger relationships with our council, association and sponsor.

After the project, the club will fund its TidyHQ subscription and recognition program from [membership fees / sponsorship], and the youth leadership pathway will be run by [role]. We will share what we learn with other clubs in the Redgum Plains Netball Association [describe how, e.g. at the association's annual forum].