There has been an issue with volunteer numbers for years, this year was particularly bad. People who volunteer don't do it for the money.
Not sure what the solution is here but I will say this much. There really isn't anything more that the club could offer volunteers as what's given already is very substantial.
Even if we didn't get the vouchers I'd still have come out. The experience itself is the draw. The more you get away from advertising it to that effect, the more you will start to see less enthusiastic people volunteering....especially if they are only there because they are paid to be there. And you will never be able to pay people enough to have a reliable team.
The way it works best is when you get the SAME team showing up reliably because that way you minimize delays because everyone has learned to work together very well and things just roll along smoothly with everyone doing everything properly.
Now, the thing about the track vouchers is that it is pretty likely that the people who actually use most of them will eventually get into racing and start paying the club back in the form of racing fees. So it's actually almost as much of a self-investment as it is an incentive. And that is also another angle to consider. Drawing in volunteers is the first step sometimes in drawing in new racers. So maybe another angle to pitch it as is as the first step to racing. Maybe rather than make it a requirement of novice to intermediate upgrades make it something that gives you (if you show up to 80% of the rounds) a free race school and the EMRA executives will sit around with you (and ALL the volunteers that showed up to 80% of the rounds) at a table for like a couple hours at the end of one full year of volunteering and give some kind of special seminar on everything in the world to do with racing in a sort of informal session. So advertize that as a sort of "Road to Racing" angle.
^this would bring in the volunteers from the riders that REALLY want to race but are hesitant for whatever reason. There's your core volunteer team right there. I know that's where I was at the start of this year. I was worried about crashing, being slow, being "that asshole" on the track haha, etc etc. so I felt I wasn't ready to race yet. Then after really seeing all the ins and outs over a year of volunteering I saw just what I had to do to make myself ready.
Also, as I mentioned before, the experience of volunteering is the biggest draw. Anyone that has done it knows this. If you enjoy motorsports or sportbikes, the energy and atmosphere is amazing. Watching it from the stands is just not the same. To really enjoy it, you have to be in the mix and involved. If racing is an art-form, then helping to facilitate its enactment is something also quite special. The more you can get that message across, the more people will be drawn to volunteer. The fun, the vouchers, the slabs of ham, and more ham, and more ham (can we have less ham next year please haha) are just gravy.....mmmmm....gravy.....aarrghgrhghghh.....
Anyway, I dunno where I'm going with this. Just saying that what got me to volunteer was the word of mouth about how awesome it was. I only found out about the vouchers later. Vouchers, money, etc etc won't draw in people and if it does it won't draw in the right people.
You want to build a team of volunteers.....you don't want to pick up stragglers to fill in slots now and again. That's going to turn into an unpredictable headache.
Anyway, assuming I pass and get my license I'll be in novice next year. Except for the time actually spent on the track I'll be there to do what I can.
Over the winter I'll be trying to find some people to help and that's the only way it will really be cheap and easy to find people.....EVERYONE has to start spamming their friends and family explaining all the reasons it is so great. Posters and E-newsletters help too as long as they reinforce that message of the experience being the biggest draw. Hit the same people from multiple angles and get in their heads about it.
/ramble
