NYRR Refuses to Pay For Medical Workers At Races, Looking for Free "Volunteers" With Medical Licenses for NYC Marathon

Marathons are money grabbing events who want to make as much as possible whilst cutting corners.

This thread could easily be about USATF. Similar business structure with Max Siegel at the top relying on volunteers. The exception is that one organization knows how to put on a marathon and the other does not.

The marathon does already pay EMTs to handle emergencies. This recruiting call is for medical volunteers at places like the fluid stations and in the medical tent. If, yea over year, they continue to struggle to recruit medical volunteers, I bet they pay more EMTs.

While I think reasonable people can disagree on where the line should be drawn, we all agree that some jobs at road races are appropriate to be done by volunteers, right? If not there would be a lot fewer road races—paying all of those extra EMTs (or whatever other roles would switch from volunteer to paid) wouldn’t be cheap.

As a thought experiment: if the New York Citt had to cost more in order to pay ersatz volunteer medical personnel, would you be okay with that and still willing to pay it? And I know some will say that the executives could then be paid less, but they’re living in a fantasy world—maybe yes, at the margin these things are on a string, but to get the best people (and NYRR’s RD is recognized as one of the best on the world—jury is still out on the incoming CEO) you have to pay competitive wages. And if you really don’t believe that medical roles (or other volunteer jobs at road races) should be filled by volunteers, your local road races are going to either get more expensive o o away, too.

Most of the time when people complain about NYRR, when you really drill down the complaint—whatever its nature—is coming from some old runner dude who is angry Road Runners now makes efforts to serve a larger constituency with a different set of needs than just clubs of old runner dudes like them and is lashing out. That’s what this seems like.

Which exactly of the overpaid NYRR execs are you? You sound like a paid shill for the NYRR.

And let me guess, you also tried to get the EMTs to drive the ambulances for free after getting the nurses and doctors to work for free in the medical tents but the union for the EMTs stood up and refused that crap from happening.

My question is: is this just NYRR or are all the majors asking for medical volunteers? Anyone know about Boston or Chicago?

The olympic training centers have a skeleton sports medicine staff. They rely on clinicians who volunteer for two week periods.

https://www.teamusa.org/medicalvolunteer

The staff that travel with world and olympic teams? They aren’t getting much of anything either.

Simple solution if this really upsets you don't run any NYRR events esp the NYC Marathon

"Most of the time when people complain about NYRR, when you really drill down the complaint—whatever its nature—is coming from some old runner dude who is angry Road Runners now makes efforts to serve a larger constituency with a different set of needs than just clubs of old runner dudes like them and is lashing out. That’s what this seems like."---clearly you are an a-hole!

The pay of these NYRR execs is beyond disgusting! Total self-serving opportunists w/ a corporte mentality!

I am certain Fred is rolling over in his grave. NYRR under his leadership was a true service to the sport. These people making all that money take, rather than give. Sorry, I have no kindness to offer them despite having been a part of the organization a long time ago.

They all do, as do all mid-major American marathons.

And in reply to a couple other posts that were addressed to me: I don’t work at Road Runners, but know some people that do and did, including executives, and know how hard they all work (including although not exclusively the execs—and while I believe that the ratio of exec pay to rank-and-file pay at many organizations is out of whack, I don’t think you’ll get the quality of events you get from NYRR by paying the staff less, in gross).

And to whomever called me an a—hole, sorry I struck close to home!

Dude, read what you wrote again:
"Most of the time when people complain about NYRR, when you really drill down the complaint—whatever its nature—is coming from some old runner dude who is angry Road Runners now makes efforts to serve a larger constituency with a different set of needs than just clubs of old runner dudes like them and is lashing out. That’s what this seems like."

This is dismissive of any complaint--valid or not. Only asses think they are above criticisms.

Congrats on one of the dumbest posts I've seen on here in the last 11 years I've browsed the forum.

You’re missing the point. If NYRR was true to its roots about developing a running community, there might be more enthusiasm for medical professionals volunteering. But the organization is more concerned with making money than fostering the sport.

NYRR takes in some major cash, and the vast majority goes to the top dogs (and the people they want to make happy) in salary and other benefits. To make this possible, they keep entry fees high and expect to be fully supported by unpaid staff. There are better running events in NY to volunteer for than the corporate machine that is NYRR.

I am a sports medicine physician who volunteers at a lot of events including races. Yes most of sports medicine is volunteering (some pro team docs actually pay money for the privilege and marketing). For docs it’s how you build a niche practice as you can say “I cover the NYC marathon.” Doesn’t mean that we aren’t exploited anyways. That’s why I stick to non profit events that raise money for a group or charity.

Lot of corporate (and individual) greed involved. It's everywhere. Looking to line their own pockets without telling anybody how much they actually make because then their peers would know they're crooks. Meanwhile the participants are treated like roadkill and disrespected pawns to merely be robbed while receiving an underwhelming experience.

NYRR has multiple different youth training programs (including wheelchair coaching and training), has developed and provides resources for families and schools to get kids moving, is making efforts to assure that it elevates the stories of a diverse array of runners (different abilities, ethnicities and backgrounds, genders, etc), hosts regular free community run/walk meet-ups throughout the city, provides free entries to people who meet section 8 housing requirements at all races, hosts a local clubs circuit, and hosts national championships and some of the world’s best pro fields.

If whether it’s committed to developing the running community is your criteria for whether a race or running organization is deserving of volunteers (which, you can have different criteria, but that’s the one you stated above), I genuinely don’t know of an organization that is more deserving of your volunteerism.

I'm not sure why this is a big deal. Pretty much every big city marathon asks for medical volunteers. Some med schools and nursing schools require volunteer work and not everyone wants to travel overseas or work in a clinic.