Thank you for your interest to volunteer for AYSO Region 56. The information below should answer most questions. After reviewing, if you still have questions, please contact us. Our contact information is on the Board Members tab.

Why Become a Volunteer?
Information on becoming a volunteer and topics on required volunteer training
Information on Volunteer Points
 What are volunteer roles needed that fit the time I can volunteer?

Why Become a Volunteer?

AYSO Region 56 is powered entirely by volunteers. No one you meet is paid. As one of the largest AYSO regions in the area, we can not operate and provide a high quality soccer experience to the kids in our community without your help. Not only does volunteering help your community but it is a great way to spend more time with your child, to learn more about soccer and to have a positive impact on your community. It is the collective volunteerism of our soccer program which creates our awesome culture!

Information on becoming a volunteer and topics on required volunteer training

* Do I need to register as a volunteer? What roles need to register as an interested volunteer? What if I registered last season?
* Why do I need to register as a volunteer?
* How do I register as an interested volunteer?
* Can I share an account with someone else who is a volunteer?
* How do I connect my account and a separate account of a family member, especially for my child who is a Youth Referee?
* What training is required and how long do they take? Why is all the training required?
* Do I still need to do the training if I already did the training for my job or as a volunteer for a different youth organization?
* Do I have to redo the training every year? 
* Where do I find the on-line trainings?
* The role I am interested in requires in-person training too. How do I find in-person training dates and how do I enroll?
* How can I find out what trainings I have completed and what I have left to do?
* I completed a training and it still shows as pending? What should I do? How long does it take to show it is completed?

Do I need to register as a volunteer? What roles need to register as an interested volunteer? What if I registered last season?
Every coach, assistant coach, adult referee, youth referee, team parent and team manager is required to register as a volunteer. Volunteers need to register each season. So even volunteers who registered last season need to register again in the current season.

Why do I need to register as an interested volunteer?

All registered coaches, assistant coaches, adult referees, youth referees, team parents and team managers who also have completed all required training are covered by AYSO insurance. It is also an important part of ensuring all the volunteers who have contact with or who are more visible to our children are screened and properly trained.

How do I register as an interested volunteer?

To register as an interested volunteer, follow the instructions in this video:   CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Can I share an account with someone else who is a volunteer? 

Every volunteer needs a unique email address so that completed volunteer registrations and completed training can be linked back to that unique email address and individual. That means all volunteers in a family need to create accounts with unique email adddresses. This includes youth referees. If you do not do this, records between individuals become messy and you may not receive credit for a training and may be asked to do it again. 

Here is a suggested "hack" for creating youth emails if you have a gmail address. You can add a '.' or a '_' somewhere in your existing email address for your youth. The system will see this as a unique email address and google will still send all communications to your existing email address. For example, if your current email address is [email protected], you coudl make it [email protected] or [email protected]. 

How do I connect my account and a separate account of a family member, especially for my child who is a Youth Referee?

Coming soon...

What training is required and how long do they take? Why is all the training required?
The coach, assistant coach, referee, youth referee, team parent and team manager training is required for various reasons. Many of the requirements assure that the kids we work with are safe. Many of them are state or federally mandated. We feel want to make sure you are prepared for your volunteer role.
The required trainings are listed in the chart below.
You will see the term Risk Status in your Sport Connect account. This is the background check.
Training for the coach license and referee license vary based on the level of certification you desire. More detail for these trainings are outlined elsewhere on this page.

 
Do I still need to do the training if I already did the training for my job or as a volunteer for a different youth organization?

Concussion Awareness, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and SafeSport may be able to transfer over from another organization. Find the certification of completion and upload it in your account. Then email us to let you know that you did this. We will review and let you know if it can be accepted.
The Fingerprinting (aka LiveScan) does not transfer to AYSO even if you did it already in other organizations. 

Do I have to redo the training every year? 
Approximately annually, you will need to consent to a background check and redo SafeSport training. At times, the SafeSport training is an abbreviated refresher course.
Coach and referee training is optional if you want to upgrade your certification.
Concession Awareness, Fingerprinting, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, and AYSOs Safe Haven only need to be done once ever and never require a refresher course. We do recommend that you re-do them occasionally so you recall the information in them.

Where do I find the on-line trainings?
To find the on-line trainings in the SportsConnect system, follow this video: CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

The role I am interested in requires in-person training too. How do I find in-person training dates and how do I enroll?
Most coach and referee training require an in-person training. In-person training is usually offered immediately before the Fall and Spring season. Sometimes the Area offers them, often referred to as the Training Academy, Region 56 may offer them, or other near-by regions offer them. For how to find the dates of in person trainings and for how to enroll in them in the SportsConnect system, follow this video beginning at the 4 minute mark: CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

How can I find out what trainings I have completed and what I have left to do?
To find out what training you have or have not completed, log into your account and select the VOLUNTEER option in the column on the left. This view will show what training is the status "verified" which means it is complete.
The Risk Status should be "green" for adults and "blue" for youth referees.
You can also see the expiration date of your risk status and Safesport (but do not need to do anything if the status showsn "verified").
Last, if you have a coach or referee training completed, it will show the highest certification level you have completed.
 
I completed a training and it still shows as pending? What should I do? How long does it take to show it is completed?
Once you complete Concussion Awareness, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and AYSOs Safe Haven, it will show "verified" almost immediately in your account.
Risk status (aka Background Check) and Fingerprinting (aka LiveScan) may take up to two weeks to clear. If either does not clear in two weeks, please contact us.
When SafeSport does not show "verified" immediately, it is usually not connecting to your email address. Contact us and we can contact SafeSport to resolve this.
In-person coach and referee training need to be entered into the system by your instructor. Depending on when they get to doing this, there will be a lag between when you take a training and when it records in your account.
The last reason a training may show as pending is because you uploaded a certificate of completion from your job or from a different youth organization, looking for credit as already having done it. In this instance, please email us that you uploaded the certificate so we can review and approve it.

Information on Volunteer Points

Why do I need volunteer points and how do they work?
AYSO Region 56 is a entirely volunteer run. With a soccer program of our size, we depends on teams to help the program operate, especially by providing referees for games. In the Fall, there is a regular season and there is the Region's playoffs (there are no playoffs or volunteer points in the Spring season). Each team who wins the Region playoffs advances to the Area playoffs (against winners of other near-by AYSO regions) and that winner advances to Section playoffs. Teams are invited to participate in the Region playoffs. The only thing a team needs to do to be invited into the Region playoffs is to complete their volunteer points. A team's record has no bearing on whether they are invited to the Region playoffs.
Teams earn volunteer points by attending pre-season meetings, volunteering at Soccerfest, volunteering at the snack bar and officiating games. The chart below shows how many points are earned for each event:

What are volunteer roles needed that fit the time I can volunteer ?
AYSO runs on volunteer power. There are 220,000 volunteers around the country making sure everyone plays! AYSO volunteers are mostly parents of current players, but also siblings, grandparents, parents of former players, neighbors and even active players themselves. AYSO volunteers give each child the precious gift of their time. 

1 Hour per Season

• Role: Pick up uniforms, trophies and yearbooks
• Tasks: Help your team parent and pick up the team uniforms before the start of the season. And pick up team trophies and yearbooks at the end of the season.

1-2 Hours per Season

• Role: Team banner (younger age divisions)
• Tasks: Team banners are optional. If your team decides to have one,design the banner, put in the order and pick it up. Collect money to cover the costs from the team. Remember to bring it to each game to set up!

2 Hours per Season

• Role: Sell items at the Snack Bar and/or help set-up and tear-down the Snack Bar (locations Hawes and Peterson)
• Tasks: See a lot of smiling faces as you sell the items or redeem team snack tickets at our snack bar. 

2-4 Hours per Season

• Role: Organize Auction Basket for Soccerfest
• Tasks: Look for a business to donate items to create a gift basket for your team. If unable to find a business, collect money from team and purchase items. Make the auction gift basket look nice and drop off for Soccerfest

3 Hours Per Season

• Role: Sponsor
• Tasks: Obtain a corporate/private sponsor. If no sponsor can be found, the team must sponsor itself. Ensure that the form is filled out completely and correctly and turn in at Soccerfest.

4-6 Hours Per Season

• Role: Team Parent
• Tasks: Assist the coach by making the snack schedule, distributing the uniforms, passing out forms for picture day, helping to communicate schedule changes, rain-outs, etc and organize a season-end party. You can cut down that time commitment by working with another parent. » Learn More

2-15 Hours Per Season

• Role:Line fields at beginning of the season with our Robot
• Tasks: Help prepare the fields for the soccer seasonby using the robot to paint the lines at our different fields. Each field takes 30-45 minutes and we split up all the fields across a few volunteers

15 minutes Per Saturday

• Role: Field Maintenance (Field Stripers)
• Tasks: Line field when your team is scheduled as the home team for the first game of the day.

30 minutes per Saturday

• Role: Place out or put away the Reserved Parking signs
• Tasks: You would head to a field or fields about an hour before games begin and place out reserved parking signs to show our appreciation for our volunteer coaches and referees. During or after the final game each Saturday, you would put away the reserved parking signs. When there are multiple volunteers, this can be a partial season volunteer role

1 Hour Per Saturday

• Role: Referee
• Tasks:Train to become a regional certified Referee; attend mandatory meeting, referee games.

1 Hour Per Week

• Role: Team Photographer
• Tasks: Although all parents take picture we need 1 team photographer to be responsible to take photos and turn them in to team parent on or before due date for your yearbook.

1-3 Hours Per Week

• Role: Coach or Assistant Coach
• Tasks: Plan practices (see ideas on Coach page), plan playing time for games

Team Parent/Manager Fall 2024 Presentation