Get Involved: Volunteer with KADS
KADS is more than a running club — we’re a community. Everything we do, from club nights, the Goose Fair Gallop and Colliers Wood Canter to relay races and social events happens because members generously give their time, skills and enthusiasm.
Volunteering is one of the best ways to get more out of the club: you meet more people, shape the future of KADS, and help create the welcoming atmosphere we’re proud of. Whether you can spare an hour once a month or want to take on a longer-term role, there’s a place for everyone.
⭐ Why Volunteer?
1. Support the Club You Love - KADS is entirely volunteer-run. Helping out keeps our events safe, enjoyable and sustainable.
2. Meet More People - Volunteering is one of the fastest ways to get to know other members — especially if you’re new.
3. Build Skills & Confidence - Whether it’s event organisation, marshalling, or leadership, volunteering develops real-world skills.
4. To Join Our London Marathon Ballot - each year KADS run an internal ballot for a London Marathon place. We ask for a small amount of volunteering to take part in this ballot.
5. It’s Fun! - Many members say volunteering creates some of their favourite club memories.
⭐ Ways You Can Volunteer
We offer a mixture of ad hoc, occasional, regular, and committee roles. You can do as little or as much you like to match the time and skills you have or want to develop. Experienced volunteers will be more than happy to bring you up to speed on any role you're interested in.
These are the main opportunities we have for club volunteers:
✅ Colliers Wood Canter
Who's Needed: this monthly event has a core of regular contributors who need an ad-hoc team of volunteers to enable it to go ahead. Typically a race director, several marshalls, a time keeper, token hander and name taker.
How to Help: look out for calls for volunteers in the week before each event.
✅ Goose Fair Gallop
Who's Needed: the GFG takes place in October and is the club's main source of income. The race relies heavily on club members giving their time and enthusiasm. The race director is a committee role which comes available each November. The director forms a core team, all of whom are volunteers. Finally the race needs a large number of marshalls on the day.
How to Help: contact the GFG race director if you want to get involved in the organisation of the race. To marshall look out for requests in the months leading up to the race.
✅ Committee Roles
Who's Needed: a wide range of roles are needed to ensure the club fulfils its core purpose (see all the roles and current committee here).
How to Help: committee roles come available each year in November when the whole committee stands down at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). If you're curious about a role, contact the club secretary or the relevant member of the committee for a chat in October.
✅ Social Events
Who's Needed: the club social scene relies on volunteers to organise events. Often these are on an ad-hoc basis, someone offers to arrange a trip and manages that particular event. Members travel as a group for runs abroad, we've had nights at the dog racing, Christmas parties, golf days, pub nights and parkrun meetups.
How to Help: If you've an idea for an event, go for it. If you're unsure, drop a line to the club secretary to share with the committee. Of just ask who's interested on KADS Chit Chat and the club email group [email protected].
✅ Run Leaders and Coaches
Who's Needed: every club night requires an England Athletics-qualified leader to go ahead to meet our insurance obligations.
How to Help: The training for these roles carries a cost, which the club meets but only for a limited number of places. If you're interested in becoming a Run Leader or Coach please have a chat with one of the existing run leaders, or drop a line to the club secretary to check what opportunities are coming up.
✅ Club Races
Who's Needed: the club puts on a number of internal races where we compete (in a friendly way!) against each other. These include a time trial series, a handicap series and one-off pot luck pairs runs.
How to Help: We need someone to organise each series (arranging locations, communicating dates, reminding people, recording results and so on) and on-the-night volunteers to record times, marshall, take photos and so on. If you want to help organise a race series, drop a line to the club secretary. To help on the night look out for calls from the race organiser on Chit Chat and in your email.
✅ Race Reports
Who's Needed: anyone who takes part in an organised event. We publish race reports on our website to help inform and inspire each other, and to keep the website fresh and alive.
How to Help: write a report with your experience from a race. It might be a single paragraph or a few pages long. Completely up to you. Email it (ideally with a few photos to bring it to life) to the club Web Manager.
❤️ Your Club Needs You
Every marshal, every run leader, every committee member and every one-off helper keeps KADS running strong.
If you’ve enjoyed being part of this community, volunteering is the perfect way to give something back — and you’ll get even more enjoyment, community and pride in return.
Thank you to everyone who already volunteers — and to those thinking of getting involved next. We couldn’t do it without you.
Volunteering is one of the best ways to get more out of the club: you meet more people, shape the future of KADS, and help create the welcoming atmosphere we’re proud of. Whether you can spare an hour once a month or want to take on a longer-term role, there’s a place for everyone.
⭐ Why Volunteer?
1. Support the Club You Love - KADS is entirely volunteer-run. Helping out keeps our events safe, enjoyable and sustainable.
2. Meet More People - Volunteering is one of the fastest ways to get to know other members — especially if you’re new.
3. Build Skills & Confidence - Whether it’s event organisation, marshalling, or leadership, volunteering develops real-world skills.
4. To Join Our London Marathon Ballot - each year KADS run an internal ballot for a London Marathon place. We ask for a small amount of volunteering to take part in this ballot.
5. It’s Fun! - Many members say volunteering creates some of their favourite club memories.
⭐ Ways You Can Volunteer
We offer a mixture of ad hoc, occasional, regular, and committee roles. You can do as little or as much you like to match the time and skills you have or want to develop. Experienced volunteers will be more than happy to bring you up to speed on any role you're interested in.
These are the main opportunities we have for club volunteers:
✅ Colliers Wood Canter
Who's Needed: this monthly event has a core of regular contributors who need an ad-hoc team of volunteers to enable it to go ahead. Typically a race director, several marshalls, a time keeper, token hander and name taker.
How to Help: look out for calls for volunteers in the week before each event.
✅ Goose Fair Gallop
Who's Needed: the GFG takes place in October and is the club's main source of income. The race relies heavily on club members giving their time and enthusiasm. The race director is a committee role which comes available each November. The director forms a core team, all of whom are volunteers. Finally the race needs a large number of marshalls on the day.
How to Help: contact the GFG race director if you want to get involved in the organisation of the race. To marshall look out for requests in the months leading up to the race.
✅ Committee Roles
Who's Needed: a wide range of roles are needed to ensure the club fulfils its core purpose (see all the roles and current committee here).
How to Help: committee roles come available each year in November when the whole committee stands down at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). If you're curious about a role, contact the club secretary or the relevant member of the committee for a chat in October.
✅ Social Events
Who's Needed: the club social scene relies on volunteers to organise events. Often these are on an ad-hoc basis, someone offers to arrange a trip and manages that particular event. Members travel as a group for runs abroad, we've had nights at the dog racing, Christmas parties, golf days, pub nights and parkrun meetups.
How to Help: If you've an idea for an event, go for it. If you're unsure, drop a line to the club secretary to share with the committee. Of just ask who's interested on KADS Chit Chat and the club email group [email protected].
✅ Run Leaders and Coaches
Who's Needed: every club night requires an England Athletics-qualified leader to go ahead to meet our insurance obligations.
How to Help: The training for these roles carries a cost, which the club meets but only for a limited number of places. If you're interested in becoming a Run Leader or Coach please have a chat with one of the existing run leaders, or drop a line to the club secretary to check what opportunities are coming up.
✅ Club Races
Who's Needed: the club puts on a number of internal races where we compete (in a friendly way!) against each other. These include a time trial series, a handicap series and one-off pot luck pairs runs.
How to Help: We need someone to organise each series (arranging locations, communicating dates, reminding people, recording results and so on) and on-the-night volunteers to record times, marshall, take photos and so on. If you want to help organise a race series, drop a line to the club secretary. To help on the night look out for calls from the race organiser on Chit Chat and in your email.
✅ Race Reports
Who's Needed: anyone who takes part in an organised event. We publish race reports on our website to help inform and inspire each other, and to keep the website fresh and alive.
How to Help: write a report with your experience from a race. It might be a single paragraph or a few pages long. Completely up to you. Email it (ideally with a few photos to bring it to life) to the club Web Manager.
❤️ Your Club Needs You
Every marshal, every run leader, every committee member and every one-off helper keeps KADS running strong.
If you’ve enjoyed being part of this community, volunteering is the perfect way to give something back — and you’ll get even more enjoyment, community and pride in return.
Thank you to everyone who already volunteers — and to those thinking of getting involved next. We couldn’t do it without you.