Q. Do I have to volunteer in order for my child to play in this association? 

A. Why yes you do! The VMSA is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that relies on our parents to manage and run our association. It takes a lot of volunteers to run our spring season.  All families are expected to volunteer for a minimum of 4 hours throughout the season.  For U11 to U19 families,  these volunteer hours are in addition to scorekeeping and field prep/clean-up after games.  Many softball and baseball associations in the lower mainland require a financial deposit and track your hours.   VMSA doesn't do that, we ask that you become part of our softball family and help out.  Simply put, without your help your kids wouldn't be able to play softball!

Pre-season (January to March) is a busy time as the executive, leads, and age group coordinators have meetings to plan out the upcoming season.  If there is something you would like to see next year, please volunteer! If you would like to voice your concern, please volunteer!   In particular, we are looking for house parents to join our executive so they can have a say in how things are run.  

For our upcoming 2024 season, we are in need of volunteers to fill critical roles.  The following is a list of volunteer positions that we need to fill for January 2024.  Please contact President@vmsa.ca if you can help with any of these roles or for more information.  We are flexible in the time and energy you can give, volunteer roles can be shared amongst two friends. As well, we can subdivide the duties to make things more manageable.  The more hands make light work!
 

	Volunteer Position	Description	Time Period
1	Fields Coordinator	Equipment boxes & lime supply	Mar-Jul
2	Equipment Coordinator	Assemble, hand out & collect back equipment bags	Jan-Jun
3	Permitting	Get field permits	Jan-Feb
4	Registrar	Spring registrations using TeamSnap	Jan-Jun
5	Scheduler - Shadow	Schedule games & practice	Mar-Apr
6	Umpire Coordinator - Shadow	Schedule umpires for games	Mar-Jun
7	House Uniforms	Assemble, hand out & collect house t-shirts & jerseys	Mar & June
8	U13B Coordinator	Correspondence with U13B families	Mar-Jun
9	U15B Coordinator	Correspondence with U15B families	Mar-Jun
10	U17B Coordinator	Correspondence with U17B families	Mar-Jun

 
*** Volunteer Coaching Assistance - If you are an ex-Wildcat or played college/university level softball and would like to help coach, please reach out to President@vmsa.ca or info@vmsa.ca.  Depending on how much time you have to give, we would be happy to consider you assisting in-season with one of our house teams, rep teams, and/or skills clinics.  

Bookkeeper/Administrative Support Staff Needed (PAID position) - We are looking for a person help to manage our finances using Quickbooks and to assist with the administrative aspects of several executive role. This is part-time work during the softball season (March to June) with a few hours off-season (July to February).  If you have experience and are interested - please contact treasurer@vmsa.ca.
 

---

Volunteer Roles - Short Descriptions:

Fields Coordinator - The main duties are: i) organize clean-up days for VMSA's five main diamonds; ii) get lime when needed; iii) identify field equipment repairs; iv) ensure coaches know how to use VMSA's two tractors & golf carts.  Most of this work is completed between mid-March and end of April.

Equipment Coordinator - The primary role is to distribute & collect house team equipment bags at the start and end of the season. The majority of the work is completed pre-season (Jan to Mar). Other tasks include the purchase of new equipment pre-season and ensuring the equipment room at our Trafalgar clubhouse is kept tidy.

Permitting & Parks Board Liasion -  The main of the permitting coordinator is to get VMSA field permits using Vancouver Parks Board online booking system in January and February.  Throughout the year will need to correspond with Parks Boards as needed.

Registrar - The primary role is to manage Spring registrations using TeamSnap. The majority of the work is pre-season (Feb to Mar). 

Scheduler - The main duty of this volunteer is to schedule all rep and house games and practices on the VMSA diamonds based on our field permits. Scheduling is typically completed in a shared spreadsheet (i.e. Google Docs, Excel). The majority of the work is done mid-Mar to the end of April.   For 2023 - We are looking for someone to shadow our current scheduler.

Umpire Coordinator - The primary role is to manage and schedule our umpires for all rep and house games from April to the end of June.  As the majority of our umpires are teenagers, communication and coordination of umpire training, equipment, and payment is also required.   The coordinator's work is completed mostly in-season from mid-March to the end of July.  Some tasks are required pre-season (i.e. recruitment of umpires and training).  For 2023 - We are looking for someone to shadow our current scheduler.