Like-minded volunteers Teams prospering together Bringing together and empowering volunteers in the post-pandemic period
The iSports Taiwan- iSports Ambassadors program implemented by the Sports Administration with cities and counties 2017-2021 planted numerous iSports seeds in each city and county, with over 100,000 participating in service and each city/county beginning to develop its own distinctive volunteer teams. To give volunteers an opportunity to enhance their competences, August 18-19, 2022, the Social Sports Volunteer Training Camp was held in Miaoli County. The aim was to bring the volunteer teams closer together through this activity and allow volunteers to maintain their enthusiasm for service despite the interference of the pandemic; and also, by learning about the execution experiences of different units, enhance the efficiency of operations in the future service process.
The Sports Administration said this activity arranged for each city and county to share their thoughts on carrying out sports event services. In terms of sharing by city and county teams, the Chiayi County team shared the close division of labor between the Department of Education and local sports groups; Taoyuan City team shared the formation of a multi-national volunteer team due to the gradual increase in the new immigrant population; the Taichung City team shared their assistance with venue control and guidance at the 2022 National Disabled Games in Taichung. All these teams provided their support and professional assistance in events, as well as turning the volunteer teams into quite a large scale group. It is expected that more cities and counties will develop their own distinctive volunteer characteristics in future.
This year, the Sports Administration invited Zou Xiang-nian, senior lecturer, Chinese Recreation Guidance Association, to share how to improve team communication and team cooperation efficiency; Chen Ting-yu, manager in the Social Media Management Department of Running Biji, shared her personal experience of volunteering at various large-scale sports events; Prof. Lu Rui-shan, president of the Chinese Taipei Marathon Association, shared his experience as an international sports volunteer. The aim was, through the experience of different volunteers, to allow the volunteers to continue to try different services in future, such as large scale marathons and international sports events, helping make their lives richer and more splendid.
Also, to allow event participants to learn about new sports while talking epidemic prevention into consideration, this year camp’s sports observation arranged ball sports for individuals and team sports as the experience sports. This kind of teaching was intended to introduce people to different leisure sports and provide different sports choices at a time when many people are still reluctant to do sports outside due to the epidemic.
The Sports Administration said that theme of this event was “like-minded volunteers, teams prospering together,” hoping that the volunteer teams of each city and county can continue their service enthusiasm and vitality in the post-pandemic era, gel the service spirit of volunteer teams and assist each city and county promote various sports events to bring people out of their homes to do sports, so that people maintain the habit of regular exercise and letting us all stay healthy by doing sports.
