ABSTRACT
Sport and recreation organizations and events often rely on volunteer labor when providing services to their clients. Approximately 21 percent of all volunteers in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008) and 26 percent of all volunteers in the United Kingdom (Institution for Volunteering Research, 2007) volunteer in sport and recreation areas. The numbers of volunteers in large and well-established sport organizations and events can easily reach hundreds and even thousands. For example, approximately 60,000 volunteers worked at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 (Kennett, 2005) and 1,700,000 people volunteered at the Beijing Olympic Games and hosting communities in 2008 (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, 2008). Volunteer labor has been a critical labor source in youth sport organizations. A Report of the Department of Health and Human Service and Department of Education (2000) indicated that approximately 2.5 million volunteers work annually as coaches of youth sport programs in the US. In the case of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO, 2004), nearly 250,000 individuals participated in volunteer activities to run the youth soccer programs of the organization.
