Surf Life Saving New Zealand Partners With Rosterfy To Streamline Volunteer Recruitment Nationwide

In a major step toward strengthening volunteer engagement across the country, Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) has announced a new partnership with leading volunteer management platform Rosterfy to streamline recruitment and for its 74 surf life saving clubs and their 2025 recruitment campaign.

With a target to recruit 1,000 new volunteers during the 2025-2026 season, SLSNZ is addressing a key challenge: the lack of a centralised and scalable system to manage volunteer interest, onboarding, and coordination. The current recruitment process, which routes email referrals to individual clubs, has proven time-consuming, inconsistent, and difficult to scale.

"We’re aiming to recruit 1,000 new volunteers during the 2025-2026 season, but our current process - relying on email referrals via the website - isn’t scalable or efficient," said Chris Emmett, GM – Club Support and Capability at Surf Life Saving New Zealand.

“With 74 clubs across the country, all with different levels of capacity and resources, we needed a smarter, more centralised approach to manage volunteer recruitment and support. So we chose Rosterfy because it offers exactly that - a centralised solution that allows us to streamline and automate the entire volunteer journey, while still giving our individual clubs the flexibility they need. Most importantly, it reduces the admin burden so our teams can focus on what really matters: keeping communities safe on our beaches."

By implementing Rosterfy’s technology, SLSNZ will gain national oversight of volunteer engagement while still empowering local clubs to manage their own recruitment and rostering processes. This move will enable:

• A centralised volunteer portal integrated with the national SLSNZ website
• Automated onboarding workflows and compliance tracking
• Improved reporting and data visibility to inform recruitment strategy

"We’re thrilled to support Surf Life Saving New Zealand in this important mission," Bennett Merriman, Co Founder & CEO at Rosterfy. "Our platform is built to help organisations like SLSNZ engage more volunteers with less admin, and we look forward to helping them reach their ambitious recruitment targets."

The rollout of Rosterfy across the national network will begin in September with training and onboarding support provided to ensure a smooth transition for clubs.

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