The requirement of Rugby World Cup organisers for volunteers at the event to have their own email address is "ridiculous," a spokesperson for Whangarei's elderly says.
President of Whangarei Age Concern Beryl Wilkinson was responding to the news that Kamo woman Jill Strong, 63, was deemed ineligible to volunteer because sheshared an email address with her husband.
The couple registered their details on the Rugby World Cup website, but Mrs Strong was refused because her email address wasn't unique. She spoke to a volunteer organiser in Wellington who confirmed she would not be able to participate without her own email address.
Ms Wilkinson described the condition as "ridiculous criteria" and questioned why an extra hurdle should be placed in front of people who offered to help out.
She said the community would fall apart without volunteers, and Age Concern's expectations on its own volunteers was "minimal".
"These people are wanting to help the community make the Rugby World Cup a success. We should consider it a privilege to have them and we should not put up any barriers to make it more difficult."
Ms Wilkinson said Mrs Strong would be feeling "totally rejected," after having her offer refused.
Northland Rugby Union office administrator Mari Barkhuizen said she has had at least two phone calls about the same issue in the past week and expected it would become more of a problem as the Rugby World Cup start date approached. She said people felt like they were doing a favour by volunteering but expecting them to set up a new email address on top of taking the time to register was "putting people down".
Executive director of Volunteering New Zealand Tim Burns said it would be a pity if Rugby World Cup organisers missed out on potential volunteers because of their systems and ways needed to be found to make registering as easy as possible. He said while setting up another email address was straightforward for some people, others may find it overwhelming.
Rugby New Zealand 2011 communications manager Mike Jaspers said a unique email address allowed organisers to personalise communications and ensure the right person was getting the right information. He said if two people registered with the same address it could complicate communications as it was likely they would be applying for two different jobs.
