Every junior Basketball club has them. The parent who coaches one season and disappears the next. The committee member who throws themselves into one project, then seems to vanish for months. The volunteer who says yes to everything... until suddenly they say no to everything.
Too often we interpret these changes as commitment fading. More often, it is simply capacity changing.
A concept known as "Spoon Theory” , first developed by Christine Miserandino to explain life with chronic illness, offers an interesting way of thinking about volunteerism.
The idea is simple. Imagine every person begins the week with a limited number of spoons. Each spoon represents physical, emotional or mental energy. Work takes spoons. Parenting takes spoons. Caring for family members takes spoons. Poor sleep, financial stress, illness and everyday life all use spoons.
Volunteering uses spoons too. The important part is this: not everyone starts with the same number, and nobody has the same number every week. Yet many sporting clubs still operate as though every volunteer has an unlimited supply.
Most committees unknowingly reward consistency over contribution. The person who attends every meeting is seen as more committed than the person who spends six hours redesigning the website from home.
The coach who never misses training is celebrated, while the parent who quietly organised sponsorships for three weekends straight receives little recognition because they weren't always visible. Attendance has become our proxy for commitment.
It is a poor one. Modern volunteering is no longer about asking people to give the same amount forever. It is about creating systems that allow people to give what they genuinely can, when they genuinely can.
Some community organisations have adopted an incredibly simple idea. Instead of asking whether someone is "available" or "unavailable", volunteers indicate their current capacity.
For example:
Green – I have energy. Give me the project. I want to be involved.
Yellow – I can help, but only in small ways.
Red – I have nothing to give right now. Please don't ask.
Blue – I'm not sure. Things are difficult at the moment. Check in with me later.
Notice what is missing. There is no implied guilt. No resignation. No explanation required. Just honesty.
What Would This Look Like in Junior Sport?
Imagine if committee members updated their colour once a month. A parent who has just changed jobs moves from Green to Yellow. A coach whose child is sitting Year 12 exams moves to Red for six weeks. A volunteer recovering from surgery sits on Blue until they know what life looks like.
Nobody questions their commitment. Nobody feels they have let the club down. Instead, the club simply redirects work towards those who currently have the capacity.
Then, when life settles down, many of those volunteers return. Because they were never made to feel like they had left.
Every club says they need more volunteers. Perhaps what many clubs actually need are better systems for the volunteers they already have. People are incredibly willing to help. They simply cannot always help in the same way. Flexible volunteering isn't lowering standards. It is recognising reality.
The parent who can only spend two weekends on registrations might be your best organiser. The grandparent who cannot coach anymore may happily make every team roster. The young coach who disappears for university exams may become your Head Coach in five years.
Capacity changes. Character usually doesn't.
Perhaps commitment should no longer be measured by how often someone says yes. Perhaps it should be measured by whether they feel able to say yes again in the future.
Because sustainable clubs are not built by squeezing every last spoon from their volunteers. They are built by protecting enough spoons that people want to come back.
