Your 5K has runners. Who's staffing the water table?

The race page is up. Runners can register. The route is ready to share.

Now someone has to put the tables out, welcome the helpers, refill the water, and stay after the last runner to pack everything away.

If you're coordinating volunteers for a community race, you need to see that work clearly before race morning. A healthy runner count doesn't tell you whether teardown has anyone assigned.

Give helpers their own clear invitation

A runner and a volunteer arrive with different questions. A runner wants the distance, start time, entry details, and where to collect a bib. A volunteer needs the job, commitment, meeting point, and person responsible for them.

The Little River Run 5K is a useful public example. Its November 21, 2026 event page has both runner registration and a separate volunteer page. At the September 12 review, the volunteer page listed setup/registration, parking, and course direction with their own times and requirements.

That's the distinction to make on your own site. Someone choosing “Help at the race” should reach volunteer work they can understand.

RunSignup already provides volunteer tasks, timeslots, reporting, and volunteer check-in. If those tools cover your event well, use them. A separate platform earns its place only if it makes the work easier for your team.

Start with the work that needs coverage

Write down the jobs before asking for a total number of volunteers. “We need twenty helpers” can still leave you with nobody at the place where you most need them.

For each job, establish a start and finish, the number needed, a meeting point, and a lead. Include setup and packing away. If equipment must be handed to the next shift, put time for that handoff in the plan.

Here's a fictional example for an 8 AM community fun run. It illustrates how to describe coverage; it isn't a recommended staffing level for a real race.

• Setup crew, 6:30–7:30: assemble the welcome and water tables; meet the setup lead at the storage area.
• Volunteer welcome, 6:45–8:15: greet helpers, record arrivals, and direct them to their leads.
• Water table, 7:30–9:30: prepare cups, keep the table supplied, and pack the station after the lead releases it.
• Pack-down crew, 9:15–10:15: collect supplies and return borrowed equipment; get the handoff from the event lead.

Your race director should set the real coverage and requirements for the course and site. A signup page doesn't establish training, qualifications, or authorization to perform a particular job.

Make every handoff visible

For each role, finish this sentence: “When this person arrives, they go to ___ and ask for ___.”

Then finish the departure version: “Before this person leaves, they hand ___ to ___.”

These details are easy to skip because the coordinator already knows them. The new volunteer doesn't. A water-table helper who has to leave at 9:30 needs a plan for the supplies and the person taking over.

Use plain directions in the role description. A map pin at the race venue is only the start; the welcome table might be on the other side of a field. Our shift-description template covers the useful details without turning each role into a manual.

Check the empty jobs before asking for more people

Once signups begin, review the roster by role. A full setup crew doesn't cover an empty pack-down shift. Ask for the specific remaining job and time so someone can make a useful choice.

Use the communication channel your group has agreed to. Proximatic offers organizer email with credit limits; it isn't an unlimited messaging service or an automatic SMS reminder system. A staffing plan also needs someone responsible for telling volunteers about changes.

On race morning, record volunteer arrivals against their own assignments. Keep the runner check-in line and volunteer welcome process easy to distinguish, even if the same platform supports both. Use checkout when you need departure times, and review missing records afterward. The attendance guide covers the practical setup, including the entrance connection check.

Where Proximatic can help

Proximatic fits the volunteer side of an in-person event: a shareable signup page, roles and shifts, a confirmed roster, and check-in and checkout records. Core event staffing remains free; AI-assisted rostering includes one AI-organized event free each UTC calendar month, then costs $2 for each of up to eight more. See the pricing details, including Pro at $16/month with 30 AI-organized events and supported event payment templates. Proximatic takes $0 from those payments; Stripe's processing fees still apply.

It doesn't replace race entry, bib management, timing, or results. There is no automatic RunSignup integration to keep two rosters synchronized. If adding Proximatic would create more copying for your crew, that is a reason to keep the workflow together in the tool you already use.

If volunteer coordination currently lives in a general form and a paper roster, walk through the race volunteer signup guide with one event's staffing needs. You can also see the general volunteer signup flow for the full event lifecycle. Keep the runner registration where it works. Make sure the people putting the race on have an equally clear place to start.