Roeland Battle: how to connect volunteers across borders

Over 750 volunteers give it their all to guarantee an unforgettable language camp experience for your child. But what secret recipe does Roeland apply to ensure a strong community feeling shared by our volunteers? The Roeland Battle is the answer!

“The Roeland Battle encourages all volunteers and participants from each camp to accept several challenges. Completed challenges are being rewarded with a counter-effort from the Roeland co-workers”, says Head of Project Dutch & Didactics Tom Vandevelde. “But the real goal is connecting people.”

Roeland Battle: volunteers vs. Team Roeland

Tom:” One of the most challenging assignments consisted of a Roeland t-shirt exchange. Our volunteers were challenged to bring a tee, uniquely designed for the occasion, to nine different camp locations in three different countries. It requires skilful communication to complete such a task. A perfect way to get to know each other across country borders.” 

“Some of the challenges were a genuine win-win. For instance: last year, we created a Facebook page especially for our volunteers. One of the challenges required having 500 members of that page, by the end of summer. So, invitations between volunteers were sent and received to reach that goal. A huge plus for our communication, but also a fantastic way for the volunteers to exchange photos, messages, and experiences.”

The aspiration: connect and inspire

“Roeland people are cut from the same cloth, always and everywhere. Whether you find them at a camp in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, or England, they share the same profile. At annual gatherings and training days we notice they get along remarkably well, but it is difficult for them to form or tighten a bond when you have them working in various locations or countries. We create these challenges to help them become closer in a pleasant way. By exchanging experiences, our volunteers pick up valuable information they can use for their own camps.”

Different camp, different challenges

“Besides the Roeland Battle, where volunteers competed against our co-workers, we initiated another campaign, where every camp had to complete the same set of challenges. Assignments such as composing a song, making a super original group photo, designing a team mascot… The results of these efforts appeared on the Facebook page. It provided us with insights on how the camps dealt with these challenges, a source of inspiration for the others involved.”

“The participants are also encouraged to join the challenges. For example, we asked them to act out a human football table, to film the result and to post the movie on social media.”

Volunteers’ reactions

“Many teams went full throttle last summer. Some groups produced very cool stuff. On Facebook I read a long thread on how a t-shirt could be transported from France via England to the Netherlands. Another group teamed up with their students to go viral on social media by putting themselves on display during a television program. It did not go as planned but the attempt itself deserved a shout-out, for both volunteers and participants.”

Team consideration and award

“In a joined effort our volunteers succeeded in completing all the Roeland Battle challenges, so as a team we organized a consideration for them at our annual late summer-meeting. It is a meeting in October where all volunteers come together to discuss the past summer, make plans for the next year, and partake in all kinds of workshops. The Roeland core team organized a fair with a variety of booths. Game winners received an award, handmade by the team: a colouring book, cake, soap, mini cocktails, …”

“For some of the challenges a winner from the participating camps were also handed an award, and we published that winner’s name in the Facebook-group.”

Most important lessons

“The wide array of challenges enables our volunteers to get to know each other better, and the assignments themselves are a source of hilarity at camp. We clearly notice an enhanced team spirit: people are quicker to ask advice, or to join a different group at camp. And we applaud this progress loudly.”