# How to increase work party attendance?



## bobdole (Mar 13, 2008)

Posing a question to those involved with trail maintenance/construction, how do you get greater attendance and more consistent attendance at your work parties?

A bit of a background on our organization, we are exercising purveyance over sixty or so miles of single track spread out over a reasonably wide area and has about fifteen more miles worth under construction and opportunity to make legal five to ten more miles. The organization has around five hundred members and the contact information for another thousand more and we do NOT require membership to participate in the work parties. The organization provides all tools, direction and will generally provide food/drink to participants. Our trail soil/surface type requires a lot of maintenance (gulf coast forest, vanishing sand, etc) and we have many large projects such as bridges to be built.

The state mtb racing association does offer pay dirt type programs which typically spike our volunteer hours in the spring for a month or two but they rapidly taper off and then we're back to the same work parties consisting of the one or two "die hard regulars" and no one else. Example, a work party last spring had 23 people attend a two hour weekday evening work party on a trail very close to residential/work areas...normal attendance for this monthly work party is around 3 people.

So what have you found successful or unsuccessful on generating work party attendance and consistency?


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

When someone subscribes to the workparty email list, he should receive a confirmation email acknowledging that he has been added to the list, and maybe thanking him for signing up. The email should also contain a preliminary workparty schedule, and also refer to the group's website.

Have not yet been to one of your workparties, so this is no reflection on you, but I have done volunteer work before where there was lots of stand-around time, waiting for the leader to show up, waiting for the tools to show up, getting everyone together while some guy talks blah blah blah. And we ended up getting 1 hours worth of work done in 3 hours. Which doesn't really fire me up about coming back. I would like to show up, grab something to drink, be assigned to a crew leader, and be on the trail heading to my work location within 8 minutes of showing up. Maybe other people enjoy the jacking around aspect more than I do, though.

See you at the workparty!


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## Lewisnott (Nov 8, 2011)

try ringing people you know and make them commit to coming a week before the event, if you do this they will guilty if they don't come


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## pinkrobe (Jan 30, 2004)

We run into a similar problem every year. Our organization has ~150 people, and we draw from an email list in the 500 range. The first two trail days of the year we'll get 30-50 people, and then we see a rapid decline to around 10 for any remaining sessions unless we recruit from other user groups. It's just volunteer fatigue - coming out every month to dig for 6 hours when you could be riding is a tough choice for a lot of people. Work, kids, other volunteer gigs - they all cut into the free time.

We have had a lot of luck with sourcing volunteers outside of our core group. There are many volunteer groups out there that are keen to support non-profits like us, and as long as you make it fun, they'll come back.

BiH, the standing around part is often necessary because it's rare for everyone to show up on time, people need to sign in, the safety meeting needs to happen, etc. Of course, if there's only 10 people and two crew leads, and all the volunteers are experienced then there's no reason not to be getting to work right away.


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## dhouskee (Oct 20, 2007)

(After re-reading the OP it seems like you have more success than we do in our area. If we get 5-10 to a work day...that is successful for us. To really get large amounts of trail and to get it faster, we rely on grants and raising money (race program) to contract out.)

Some things you have no control over. The socio-economics unfortunately can play a big part some times. Some people just don't like working physically hard somewhat labor intensive trail building.

Aside from that...what was all ready mentioned. What does IMBA suggest? Is it no more than 4 hours? Don't have my resources in front of me but I like a STRICT 3 hour work day. Start on time, end on time. Make sure you have enough work for everyone. This one is hard for me but as the crew leader, you just can't participate in the work too often, depending on the size you have to wander the trail building section and monitor for people who need to be directed or advised on doing the work the correct way. Make sure that the section is completely done before you move on.

Have your work day well planned out with room to dish out more work if more people show up than you thought.

When it's time to quit you quit. A lot of riders drive a certain amount of distance and would like a ride to go with the work day to make the drive time worth it. Not all of them are happy just building trail all the time...surprisingly .

I got with the local bike shops (who routinely ride the trails) and pitched a co-sponsorship work day with them. 25% off for tires at any of the local shops and then I advertised everywhere which helps me to get people out and helps the bike shops for business.

Here are a couple links the automatically feed to all our other club sites (FB, Twitter, TORC's webpage and the local public website\forum:

Briar Chapel New Year trail building work day - Triangle Off Road Cyclists (TORC) (Raleigh, NC) - Meetup

-TORC & Bicycle Chain\Clean Machine Briar Chapel work day - Triangle Off Road Cyclists (TORC) (Raleigh, NC) - Meetup


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

pinkrobe said:


> BiH, the standing around part is often necessary because it's rare for everyone to show up on time, people need to sign in, the safety meeting needs to happen, etc. Of course, if there's only 10 people and two crew leads, and all the volunteers are experienced then there's no reason not to be getting to work right away.


Yeah, I'm just dreaming and wishing for what I would like to see. Given the realities, I usually just intentionally show up late for volunteer stuff. I suspect I'm not the only one.


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## bobdole (Mar 13, 2008)

Thanks for the ideas, having the bike shops sponsor a work day with discounts/etc sounds pretty interesting. Tons of shops throughout the area here, might be able to swing something from there. Could definitely see that adding a draw to the work days.

Really wanting to start "spreading the load" around the member base, as is right now about nearly 100% of the work is done by ~5% of the member base. Opportunities abound but need the manpower to get it done.


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

If you had a bike shop sponsor it, maybe you could have a drawing at the end of the workparty and give away small gifts like gloves, bottles, GUs, something bigger like a free tune up, up to something like $100 off of a bike over $1000. I don't know how motivating that would be, but it could be fun.


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

We have 6-8 work days a year for our group of 130 members. We get maybe 40 people during the year and a core group of 10- 20 on a regular basis. Our days are on a sat or sunday morning. Work 3-4 hours, club provides lunch and then ride. Great way to learn about new areas to pedal, with guides. For our 4 yearly meetings, we ride for 2-3 hours and then have our meeting. Food and beer supplied by our club. Are your members stoked about new places to ride? Clear trails to pedal on? What gets them off the couch?
We also have had some luck with other volunteer groups. Our local high school students need volunteer hours, local forest friends groups, other user groups like runner/ hikers. We have had good participation/ support from our bike shops, It easier on them to have sunday work day than on saturday.


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## rob_co2 (Apr 23, 2004)

dhouskee said:


> Some people just don't like working physically hard somewhat labor intensive trail building.
> 
> Aside from that...what was all ready mentioned. What does IMBA suggest? Is it no more than 4 hours? Don't have my resources in front of me but I like a STRICT 3 hour work day. Start on time, end on time.


Sorry, but I'm not quite comprehending this. How on earth are you supposed to accomplish anything in 3 hours per day (assuming once per month) ?? I mean its going to take like 4 years to build 5 miles of trail!

Maybe you would accomplish something if it was the same 5-10 people showing up every time and digging hard. But as you mentioned that is rarely the case- the leader has to spend a lot of time managing the group, teaching people how to use a tool effectively and how the bench cut needs to be shaped, etc. 3 hours in I usually feel like we are just starting to get the hang of building (and so the next 3 hours is when majority of trail will actually get built).


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

rob co2, where are your trails and what kind of dirt/ topography do you have to work with? Are you benching all of the trail? Our core group of say 20 people are all skilled at what needs to be done. Prior to a trail day, the area has been walked, approved by local mgmt, and flagged. Here in New England we are blessed with lots of ROCKS and trees too. Usually we scrape off the duff and grade, some benching too. Usually a boardwalk/ bridge for wet/ vernal pool/ stream is needed. Some of our work is rerouting/ repair not new trail all the time. For the new folks, we usually pair them with someone more skilled to show them the ropes.


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## ronski (Jul 28, 2009)

#1 incentive: Beer

Normal stats would be that 95% of the work is done by 5% of the people. Nothing unusual there. Those 5% get a lot of beer.


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## rob_co2 (Apr 23, 2004)

I'm in the NW, not many rocks, tons of trees, thick layer of duff, occasionally some patches of vine/brush that need to be pulled. We do a lot of bench cutting. 

This winter we have a group of 5 non-mtb volunteers that come out every week and bust their butts, and then we are doing 1 build day per month for the club that has had minimal turnouts thus far (no repeats other than the 2 stewards and 1 park host). If not for those 5 guys showing up weekly, we would have only about 500 feet of new trail for this season, rather than 1/2 mile. 

I suppose part of the problem is that its a new park and has not gained popularity among the mtb crowd, as we only have 1 mile of rideable trail so far (another mile is finished by unopened). We plan to have a grand opening this summer with 3-4mi of XC and several FR runs, so hopefully it be on everyone's radar next winter. But whats out there now has great flow and descent scenery and it just seems like the new comers would realize that and become regulars, or word would spread or something. Everyone flocks to build days on the popular trails (which only need a little maintenance), and others are doing rogue building on privately owned land, but nobody comes to help on the legit trail that really needs it. 

We provide microbrews, and have stepped up the food from just sandwiches and chips to hot homemade meals, and the park is providing us free use of a cabin for after-work events.


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

Maybe some more publicity/ outreach? How big is your club membership? I am a member of NEMBA, (new england mountainbiike association) 20 chapters and thousands of members. There is a lot of crossover within the various chapters. For bigger projects we will reach out to the greater population. Do you have a lot of led rides? Most chapters have scheduled rides every week. Have you ever hosted an imba trail crew/ school? Maybe someone else can chime in here. Any " friends of the forest "organizations ? What about high school kids needing community service credits?


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## mtbikernc69 (Mar 23, 2004)

If you are doing once a month, you will usually get a fair size turnout. We've been successful with work parties at Lake Norman State Park over the last year. Any where from 10-50 per day on Sat and Sun. One word usually get's them out there..."Food". We have provided food and drinks every work party and the workers are always appreciative. It also gives everyone time to socialize and talk about their bikes, the trails, etc. I can usually average 5-7 per day working every Sat and Sun in the Fall months. Winter tends to peter out and then will pick back up in the Spring.

It's true about the 5% doing 95% of the work. We've tried for 20 years to improve that but I've accepted that that's just the way it is, here.

Mark
Tarheel Trailblazers


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## playdead (Apr 17, 2009)

food and beer


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

Looking around at local forums, it seems like the local riders are often at odds with the local mtb people who say they are in charge of building and maintaining trails, and the bitterness of the relationship keeps a lot of people from showing up. Not sure if that is going on in your area.


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## Visicypher (Aug 5, 2004)

Damn! Where is the like button for that! This is why I like the SBTS!!!


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## soccerdude (Aug 6, 2006)

ronski said:


> #1 incentive: Beer


Can't agree more. Beer plus any swag/incentives. This day and age people don't want to do volunteer work unless they get something. There are a few that will do trail work because they enjoy it and a few who really like giving back to the community but most want something. It can be something cheap like Little Caesars pizza which is $5 for a large or maybe some cold beer. If you have a budget I recommend t-shirts for those who work 10 hours, 20 hours, etc. I read a thread here on MTBR about a guy who had shirts made up with rank such as Trail Gnome, Trail Ninja, Trail Assassin and so on. As you worked you upgraded rank and earned a new shirt. If you have a little extra money have the shirts made with some sort of dry-fit material so they can wear it while working or riding. A custom shirt is something that lets them brag about all the hard work they've done and others have not. You can also put your club logo on it and use it as advertising.

Mike S.


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

Bill in Houston, can you explain/ elaborate on your comment, I'm not quite sure what you mean. Our local trail work is done by our local riders.


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

leeboh said:


> Bill in Houston, can you explain/ elaborate on your comment, I'm not quite sure what you mean. Our local trail work is done by our local riders.


Poke around on the GHORBA discussion boards and you'll see. Different people (who all love to ride) have very different opinions on how to build and maintain trails.


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## 475856 (Feb 6, 2010)

soccerdude said:


> Can't agree more. Beer plus any swag/incentives. This day and age people don't want to do volunteer work unless they get something. There are a few that will do trail work because they enjoy it and a few who really like giving back to the community but most want something. It can be something cheap like Little Caesars pizza which is $5 for a large or maybe some cold beer. If you have a budget I recommend t-shirts for those who work 10 hours, 20 hours, etc. I read a thread here on MTBR about a guy who had shirts made up with rank such as Trail Gnome, Trail Ninja, Trail Assassin and so on. As you worked you upgraded rank and earned a new shirt. If you have a little extra money have the shirts made with some sort of dry-fit material so they can wear it while working or riding. A custom shirt is something that lets them brag about all the hard work they've done and others have not. You can also put your club logo on it and use it as advertising.
> 
> Mike S.


That is a good idea about those shirts!!:thumbsup: The problem we have down here is the same as in all the parks. 
10 volunteers to maintain 10 miles of trail and a million riders whining about us doing the work on a weekend..:madman:

You can't even shame people in helping out. It is all very frustrating but what keeps me going, is the satisfaction I get from riding what I helped build/maintain...


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## Mark E (Feb 7, 2006)

Here's some advice from IMBA's resources section:

_Note: this was written a few years ago, so the updates on the progress of the AZ trail are out of date._

How to Organize Volunteer Workdays: Advocate Mark Flint's Success Story on the Arizona Trail

Tucson, Arizona mountain bike advocate Mark Flint has been a leader in volunteer trail service for more than 15 years. He has worked with countless local and state land managers to help build and maintain trails, including one of the biggest projects to date, the 800-mile Arizona Trail. Providing a cross-state route for non-motorized users, the Arizona Trail is more than ninety percent finished. Mark is volunteer coordinator and steering committee co-chair in a project to build a 25-mile segment of the trail in the Tucson area. The group organized a very popular series of volunteer workdays that are so successful they have had to limit the number of registrants! Read on to hear more of Mark's story and learn ten valuable lessons for making volunteer workdays fun and productive for all:

I'm involved in a mountain bike club in Tucson, the Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists. I've also served as regional steward for the Arizona Trail, an 800-mile cross-state trail for non-motorized users. The trail lacks about 70 miles of being complete.

One of those incomplete sections is here in Southern Arizona. Members of the bike club got together. We knew we wouldn't be able to build it within the membership, no matter how dedicated and ambitious the mountain bikers are, so we decided to make it a community project.

Using personal contacts and guerilla marketing, we gave the snowball a gentle push.

We had been gleefully anticipating 30-35 volunteers per work event. The first event had 45, then it was over 50, then 80. Now we limit it to 50 people, and events can fill up as far ahead as three weeks!

After one of the events, Larry Snead, the Arizona Trail Association executive director at the time, came up to me. What Larry told me blew me away. 'Mark, I looked around at the people when they met at the carpooling site,' he said, 'and I realized something. You had people of every age, from children to people in their 70s. You had people driving up in luxury SUVs and in old pickup trucks. You had black people, brown people and white people. There is incredible diversity, and all of these people have come together to build a trail.'

I realized then that we were building something a lot more important than a path. We were bringing people together. You could say our trail is a bridge. That bridge has connected me with some people whom I now consider good friends, and I'm sure this has been true for most of the people in the project.

One of the reasons it's so successful is the way we treat the volunteers. Here are a few of the ways we make sure they feel appreciated:

Keep the workday short

They have lives and families, and in my experience people with desk jobs tire out after 3-4 hours of building trail. Productivity goes down and safety becomes a concern. By taking only a weekend morning, they have the afternoon and the rest of the weekend for themselves.

Feed them

We have a great lunch sponsor and we send them home with a full stomach. Gourmet sandwiches, chips and a cookie, plus soft drinks. (Last year we served Mexican food, which was great but all you wanted to do after trail work and enchiladas, rice and beans was go lie on the couch for the rest of the afternoon.)

Reward them

We give out T-shirts that say, "I helped build the Arizona Trail" after they come to three events and every participant gets a water bottle and an 'I helped build the Arizona Trail' bumper sticker. These, of course, have our URL and become marketing/branding tools.

Don't waste their time

We organize to minimize standing-around time. People volunteer because they want to DO something. Making them wait and stand around is disrespectful and discourteous.

Emphasize fun

Yes, we are there to build a trail, but our crew leaders are trained to be sure the volunteers take breaks and enjoy where they are. We work harder at slowing them down than we do asking them to work! My philosophy is if they get a little less done but have fun they will come back, and you'll get more accomplished in the long run. I tell the volunteers that if they haven't enjoyed themselves we have failed.

Thank them

We thank them when they arrive, and our crew leaders are trained to thank them several times during the event. And we thank them when they go home. Sometimes I send thank-you emails to the volunteer list.

Some other things that worked for us:

Have a good hook

The Arizona Trail is a great concept, and it was easy to sell. People are building something that will benefit future generations, something they can take their grandchildren on and say, "I helped make this." Corporations are contributing to the social capital of the community. And trails provide measurable quality of life benefits -- health benefits in particular -- and economic benefits.

Have a sponsorship plan

Have a sponsorship plan, with levels of giving. We have raised around $15,000 to cover T-shirts, lunches and other costs.

Use technology

Our Website, www-aztrail-build.org has been a huge benefit. People can sign up for work events there, see pictures of past events, check FAQs to learn about what to bring and what to expect, and contact us about sponsorship. I keep a distribution list of volunteers and contact them with updates on meeting times and places, call for volunteers if numbers are down. (I'm also going to ask if they'd like to stay in the database after the project is over and work on trail projects for the Forest Service and BLM. If they agree, I'll turn their contact info over to my friends in the agencies.)

Divide leadership responsibilities

Divide leadership responsibilities to avoid burnout. As the process goes along be prepared to change and revise duties to avoid people giving more than they can comfortably handle.


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## soccerdude (Aug 6, 2006)

I understand your frustration OscarW. We have the same problem where I am. In fact BobDole and Bill in Houston and I are in the same organization and have all been to work parties where the same 10 show up every time. 

You must give people incentives to show up. We all work and have chores at home plus we want time to ride. If someone is going to ask me to do extra work then I want something for it. Even though I know that it's work that will allow me to ride our trails. That's the mindset of most every rider out there with the exception of a few. 

Good ideas:
Beer
Food
Swag
T-Shirts


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

soccerdude said:


> I understand your frustration OscarW. We have the same problem where I am. In fact BobDole and Bill in Houston and I are in the same organization and have all been to work parties where the same 10 show up every time.


Full Disclosure: I'm new to this and have never been to a work party. But, I have moved logs and branches that The Log Man lays on the trail at The Anthills.


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## soccerdude (Aug 6, 2006)

I must be thinking of a different Bill. Sorry!


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## Bill in Houston (Nov 26, 2011)

soccerdude said:


> I must be thinking of a different Bill. Sorry!


No problem!


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## stumblemumble (Mar 31, 2006)

Free beer.


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## Fattirewilly (Dec 10, 2001)

ronski said:


> #1 incentive: Beer
> 
> Normal stats would be that 95% of the work is done by 5% of the people. Nothing unusual there. Those 5% get a lot of beer.


I think this supports the 95% theory, our email list hits about 400 people. We have 7% of the people doing about 88% of our trailwork. Also, looks like 2% do about 50% of the work.

Number of people who did trailwork in 2011: 59 - only about half of these did more than one day
Total hours: 507 (this is soft compared to prior years)

Number of people w/ 10+ hours: 11
Total hours by those 11 people: 285 or 56% of the yearly total

Number of people w 20+ hours: 6
Total hours by those 6 people: 213 or 42% of the yearly total

Number of people w/ 30+ hours: 3
Total hours by those 6 people: 137 or 27% of the yearly total


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## Tread Lightly! (Oct 19, 2011)

While it can't be used for beer...

http://forums.mtbr.com/trail-building-advocacy/tread-lightly-stewardship-grants-766433.html

:thumbsup:

Volunteer support is huge. We'd love to fund some MTB grants.


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## Cormac (Aug 6, 2011)

I was gonna say beer, but that's been covered already. Maybe throw some pizza in the mix? I dunno, it would work for me!


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## 475856 (Feb 6, 2010)

There are drinks and food involved on the big repair days, but the club is low on funds at the moment. 
However last Sunday we did work on 4 trails and since our material had become rock hard we needed to chip away at the piles first.
(we use the same stuff the DOT uses as underlayment for highways and this crushed coral- rock/ limestone is the best material for down here as it about turns to concrete)

Well, one of our 'older' riders had a very cool plan.. He pretended to have problems with the pickax and wasn't chipping away much, when this group of very muscular riders stopped by, saw the struggle and about destroyed the pile!!! Fortunately we had enough tools to give to those guys and since none of them wanted to give up first, it was very nice getting the loose fill on the trails...
It took some self-control not to LOL and give the ruse away, but I guess that is what it took to get about 40 peeps to work on the trials...
Moral of the story; get an older rider to con others to help....It worked for us at least once...


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## anthony.delorenzo (Aug 17, 2006)

The point about other user groups is a good one. We have a pretty large trail running community who are really excited about new singletrack. Turns out they are really excited about helping with trails, too.


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