The Green Team can be the most important item in the Clean Regattas toolbox. Putting together a reliable Green Team will benefit all aspects of your event. Typical Green Team Responsibilities include:

 

 Youth Green Team at Pleon Yacht Club

 

There are several ways to organize and recruit a Green Team based on your event's size, location and existing pool of volunteers:

 

Scituate Harbor Yacht Club pioneered this style when they enlisted students from their junior sailing program who were not racing in the event to make up the Green Team at a major junior championship at their club. The team was responsible for setting up and maintaining trash and recycling stations around the grounds, and running beach cleanups during and after the event. The Green Team also makes a presentation to all visiting racers at the skippers meeting to communicate their goals during the event and enlist everyone's participation in making it a Clean Regatta. Students may be offered school or community service credit for participating on the Green Team.

 

Yacht Clubs have a built-in volunteer pool in their members. Just as with a youth regatta, yacht clubs can draw on their members who may not be sailing in a local regatta to organize and run their own Green Team. The benefit here is having individuals who have an investment in the local water and grounds responsible for their upkeep. In addition, they often know many of the racers and will have an easy time communicating their work to others.

 

At major annual or one-time events, there is often so much going on that it seems no one can be spared to devote their energy to a Green Team. In these cases, it is a good idea to go outside the sailing community to enlist volunteers through local volunteer organizations, youth programs, and websites like idealist.org or craigslist. Sailors for the Sea can provide support in these efforts. Regattas can also appoint one person as Green Team Coordinator to make arrangements, post the volunteer description and organize shifts of volunteers throughout the event. Below is a sample Green Team Volunteer Description used at the 2011 Charleston Race Week. Feel free to modify this to suit your own event!