When I was hired for the position of volunteer coordinator for the 2026 World Cup FanFest at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center back in April/May of this year, I had no real team management experience. My background was more technical up to that point. My on the job training occurred during the 17 back to back 12ish hour days at USTA, with a 6 day pause, and another 14 straight day stint at Rockefeller Center from July 6-19. The gig ended yesterday along with the end of the World Cup.
I'd never had a real experience enlisting a group of people to help me solve the problems we all faced — how to position people in a large area, task them with adequate stimulus, breaks, and mission, along with peer guidance and instruction so that the learning that took place — of how to do this gig in a solid fashion — really took place amongst the volunteers. Without too much effort on my part (besides my LOUD morning briefings!), this culture of self help really took hold. Watching volunteers using the chat effectively (broadcasting their positions, needs, observations, etc) gave me goosebumps. Being able to capture THEIR ideas and put them into practice showed them that I was listening and responsive. Especially towards the end of the two runs (34 shifts back to back, a six day break, and then 28 shifts back to back) I was mentally drawn down. Volunteers were literally helping me run the morning check in, filling in for me in more ways than one. I really came to count on you guys.
Over the course of all of this, it started to dawn on me that volunteering has some very transformative qualities. On Saturday, July 18th, I was feeling quite inspired by this experience learning alongside all of you. So I decided to change the main chat group of the USTA Queens volunteers who had opted in to keep in touch after the Queens FanFest was over from "USTA Queens Legacy Group" to "The Big Voluntary Group". Below are the messages I posted very early that morning. I am creating this page because some volunteers missed those messages and have been requesting to see them.
