This little question/issue rears its head every now and again, and did yesterday.

How much is too much when speaking about voluntary roles?

Are clubs offering far to many voluntary roles? Should clubs offer key roles as voluntary? How long should you take up a role (1)

As a "foot in the door" before you look to move on? How much work can be expected of you for nothing? Are clubs exploiting people, or are they simply offering a "leg up" in the sphere of football? Is the issue that far too many people are willing to do too much for free (2)

Therefore forcing others into voluntary roles just to secure something, along the old thought of "its easier to find a job whilst in a job"?

My own thoughts meander through both sides of the argument unfortunately. I started off as a volunteer, albeit at a level where (3)

And with a completely lack of experience, that meant it was completely understandable. You don't, unless ridiculously fortunate, walk into a paid role first time out. @RACAFC1970 made sure I got into matches for free which took care of a significant portion of my expenses (4)

From there it has been a mix, but club work revolved around getting expenses paid, and the "work hours" were unpaid. Any ad hoc work I did for other clubs was always paid for however. It took time for me to secure a role where my time and work were paid for regularly. (5)

I dont feel as though I lost out throughout these initial years, as I was new, my reports were rough and I felt that what was being offered matched my level of experience. Maybe I under sold myself, but I never felt exploited, and the journey these roles have given me (6)

Show that it was worth it. But is this part of the issue? Not that I have necessarily been a success, but voluntary roles, lead to expenses roles, lead to paid roles. That should, probably, be "the process" working correctly. The argument come in as (7)

How long should you stay in a role that is offering you "experience" as a payment? And, and I do believe this, are some clubs extracting the urine and gleaning untold value from reports, insights and knowledge from scouts who's worth they deem to be £0?

Yes, clubs do run (8)

The risk of taking on volunteers who cannot meet the expectations of the club in terms of level of report, but then that is up to the club to weed out in the initial application stage.
These issues seem to be growing seasonally as the number of scouts and people looking to (9)

Break into scouting, outstrips the number of roles. Clubs see a way to cut costs and bring in free labour, but maybe lose out on quality of report slightly. Do scouting course providers have a part to play possibly? Offering people training and certificate, then telling (10)

Then their reports are up to "professional standards" without offering a real career path, or advice, for many of their participants, towards their scouting dream.

Am I being overly cynical, critical of clubs and scouts and the rest. I have done alright out of these (11)

Things, yet I cannot shake the feeling we are on the precipice in terms of scouting roles. Are we going to be forced to accept working as undervalued cogs in the significant wheel of recruitment and scouting, or does the football sphere recognise the work me do? (12)

Whatever your dream within football, there is a draw to working for free, what club is going to turn down a free scout right. You want to be involved involved you want to be able to say "I work for (insert club name)" but we have to learn to value ourselves and our work. Thanks

I'm not saying I have genius every Saturday morning, sipping tea in my dressing gown, smoking my pipe and contemplating how to solve world hunger, but I did today.