Looking for someone who can “contribute to one of the most enjoyable days in Enter” on King's Day. A contribution to “the best village festival” in Zevenhuizen. “Helping hands” wanted in Marken. “Creative talents” in Den Hoorn. Someone in Wijk aan Zee for four hours, “you can respond from the age of 14.” “Urgently” looking for people in Vierlingsbeek: “Many (permanent) volunteers are on holiday because of the May holidays.”
And in Didam, in Gelderland, an “explicit appeal” is made to the residents: “If there are no volunteers who want to support us, it is possible that we will not be able to organize any activities in the center this year (including no street market for children). ).”
With three weeks to go until King's Day, Pieter Jan van den Berg is sitting there with his hands in his hair. There are plenty of ideas for the 27th: a bouncy castle and a rope course in the park. On the street a free market of “a kilometer long”. And music in the evening on the terraces at the intersection of Wilhelminastraat and Oranjestraat. A thousand to fifteen hundred Didam residents usually attend, he says.
The board of the Oranjevereniging, of which Van den Berg is the chairman, consists of three people – once there were seven. “But you also have to have hands. Without traffic controllers, no permit from the municipality. We need first aiders, someone to supervise the bouncy castle, someone to hand out the candy.” He buys one hundred and twenty bags of chips and cartons of juice every year: “They are all gone around twelve o'clock.”
Seven million volunteers
The Netherlands has 7 million volunteers. About 41 percent of the population aged 15 or older indicated that they had volunteered at least once in 2022, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. And yet organizations such as orange associations suffer from a shortage of board members and hands.
Volunteer work has changed, says Lucas Meijs, professor of strategic philanthropy and volunteer work at Erasmus University: “The energy is shooting out of the ground, that's not the reason.” This goes towards organizing activities, but less towards commitment to an organization, he notes. “Compare it with self-employed people who do not want to work permanently for a company. People think: I can do this myself. Do you need an athletics club or do you meet up with a number of people to go running? Someone comes up with the route, someone else makes the sandwiches.”
Professor Meijs also sees this flexibility in terms of time: the number of hours that people spend volunteering has hardly decreased. But those hours are divided among multiple organizations and subjects, and preferably on their own terms.
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Orange associations notice this. In larger municipalities, King's Day is sometimes organized by the municipality itself or by an events agency. Sometimes by a business association or by shopkeepers who turn it into a fair. But in most neighborhoods and villages, King's Day is organized by volunteers who organize the day for their own residents.
About three hundred Orange associations are affiliated with the Royal Association of Orange Associations, which estimates that there are a thousand other types of groups that organize King's Day. “It could also be an app group of neighbors or diligent parents,” says chairman Pieter Verhoeve. He sees that volunteers are being sought throughout the country: “My impression is that people are busy with their own lives.” But he warns: “Before you know it you lose each other. To prevent that, you need public celebrations and rituals. Isn't it very special to stand in line together for a tompouce?” He points out that many people still “walk in the family color” on King's Day, although “the Orange Love will differ from person to person.”
Drone attack
Verhoeve, also mayor of Gouda, is concerned. He notes that people are frightened by the regulatory burden. “They want to organize something nice, but have to worry about insurance for a bouncy castle. Do you need to have just as top-heavy a safety plan in a small village as in Amsterdam?” He heard from a Brabant association that it needed to have a plan in case there was a drone attack.
In response to a petition from the Dutch Volunteer Work Organizations (NOV) research was conducted into this regulatory burden: organizations must comply with approximately 130 national and European rules. In addition, there are local rules, permits and safety plans. Director Joost van Alkemade starts talking about the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act: “All foundations and boards with a bank account must register. Also Orange associations with a limited budget and responsibility. How ridiculously over the top is that?”
In Didam, Pieter Jan van den Berg has been spending “more than a day with all the administration for fourteen years, and I used to be a man in uniform.” He worked for the military police. “The mayor doesn't want any trouble, I understand that. I also understand that the ambulance must be able to find its way. There have of course been a few serious incidents, such as in Apeldoorn [toen op Koninginnedag 2009 Karst T. inreed op het publiek, met acht doden tot gevolg]. It is logical that the national government says it 'looks closely at events'. However, volunteers must complete all forms.” It's a lot of work, he says.
In Den Hoorn (South Holland) Leslie van Leeuwen also notices this. She is organizing King's Day for the first time. She is looking for eight people: four for the flea market in the morning, four for the inflatable cushion, the food truck and the bar in the afternoon. To do this, she must “submit a whole safety plan,” she says. “I thought I only had to apply for something.” If the plan is rejected by the municipality, “it ends for me.”
For example, a safety plan must contain an evacuation scenario and describe what the organization will do in the event of severe weather, fire or a bomb threat. Or if it suddenly becomes very busy.
In Wijk en Aalburg (North Brabant), Miranda de Waal has also doubted whether she will continue organizing. The Orange Association there became defunct nine years ago, they and a number of others felt that the party belonged to the village, and they founded King's Day the Wèks way on. “The spirit came back quickly. That feeling of doing something together. There are also people who say: 'I have nothing to do with the king' and still come for the fun.”
She also says she spends a lot of time on regulations. “Until last year we could benefit from the municipality's liability insurance, but now as a board we have to take out our own insurance.” That costs 550 euros for the day. “If we find sponsors, I would rather have a bouncy castle. Then you spend the money on something tangible.” King's Day starts in Wijk with breakfast in the retirement home for 150 villagers, then an aubade, a 'bombardy parade' with decorated bicycles, a toast with orange bitters and lemonade, and a bicycle and car puzzle tour.
Fire and alcohol
“The government wants healthy, vibrant neighborhoods where people look out for each other. If it becomes more difficult to organize something, you can be sure that only neighborhoods where people know the way to the counter will still do something,” says Mark Molenaar of the NOV.
“You can never cover everything 100 percent. I understand that an activity involving fire and alcohol requires a safety plan. But an organization that holds a parade every year with harmony, always walking 250 meters on the same piece of public road?”
Municipalities should cooperate, says Molenaar. “Don't just make demands, but support the residents. A resident puts his enthusiasm into such a day, he is not a safety expert.”
A desire for regulation is only one of the reasons why volunteers drop out, says David Wijnperle, who trains and advises volunteer organizations with his company Doeldenker. He talks about “circles of involvement”: a core with a lot of time that is administratively active, surrounded by a permanent team that occasionally comes to help, and around it a swarm that “rises around a theme”. If an organization is not running well, the core of well-established board members remains, he says. They may find it difficult to let go: “You are more likely to receive comments such as 'If Jaap does it, it will be messier, let's do it ourselves'.”
Energy is there
The energy is there, Wijnperle notes, and so is the influx of volunteers. “But you have to keep people. If someone from the swarm has had a nice day, he may also want to participate more regularly and ultimately join the board.”
And if no one is found at all? Professor Meijs sometimes sees desperate calls for events. “Either people take action, or they don't. Then you have to wonder what the legitimacy of that event is. Apparently there is no need.”
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The Royal Association of Orange Societies sees that where King's Day is canceled due to a lack of volunteers, a new team of volunteers will take office the following year. Such as in Medemblik (North Holland), where after a year of absence there was a street market again in 2023. Or in Genemuiden (Overijssel), where the celebration of King's Day was in danger of disappearing in 2019. Resident Arno Withaar did not want that to happen: “I had young children and it would be such a shame if there were no parade.” Ten schools in Genemuiden participate in the parade with decorated floats, and a jury chooses the best. There is also an auditorium and games. The evening before King's Day a party in a tent. This year, because of the May holidays, there is also something to do in that tent all week.
In turn, Withaar asked Janneke Kranenburg – their children were in the same class – to help with King's Day and she asked others. “Towards the man. An advertisement in the newspaper does not work, you have to keep it as accessible as possible,” she says. They ask people for “an hour, fifteen minutes”, not immediately for a whole day or on the board. “You shouldn't drop all tasks at once,” says Kranenburg. And social media works: the like-and-win campaign – for an entrance ticket to the party – works wonders in Genemuiden, they say. This is why many young people are already registering this year.
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