Auckland, New Zealand – September, 5 2025 — In a significant move to enhance volunteer engagement on a national scale, Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) has formed a partnership with the volunteer management specialists at Rosterfy. This collaboration will overhaul recruitment processes across SLSNZ’s network of 74 surf life‑saving clubs as part of their 2025 volunteer recruitment initiative.
Facing the goal of onboarding 1,000 new volunteers for the 2025–2026 season, SLSNZ recognised the inefficiencies of its existing model—where clubs receive intake via email referrals. The system is slow, fragmented, and cannot be scaled effectively.
“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.
A centralised solution
"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."
Streamlining volunteer management: How Rosterfy empowers SLSNZ clubs to protect our beaches
Surf Life Saving New Zealand selected Rosterfy for its ability to simplify the entire volunteer process—from registering interest, through onboarding, to deployment—while maintaining each club’s autonomy.
Beyond saving administrative time, the platform ensures clubs can dedicate more effort to what counts most: protecting communities on our beaches.
By deploying Rosterfy, SLSNZ will gain a unified view of national volunteer activity, while still empowering local clubs to handle recruitment and rostering. Key features include:
- A central volunteer portal accessible via the national SLSNZ website
- Automated onboarding workflows and compliance tracking
- Enhanced analytics and reporting to shape recruitment strategies
“We’re thrilled to support Surf Life Saving New Zealand in this important mission,” said 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 will begin in September, with comprehensive training and onboarding support to ensure a seamless transition for all clubs involved.
About Surf Life Saving New Zealand
Surf Life Saving New Zealand, the nation’s leading aquatic safety organisation, represents 74 clubs and approximately 18,000 members, including over 4,500 volunteer lifeguards. Each summer, these volunteers patrol more than 90 beaches, delivering lifesaving services, education, emergency response, and youth engagement across Aotearoa.
About Rosterfy
Rosterfy exists to connect communities to events and causes they are passionate about through volunteer and paid workforce management technology.
Our proven end to end technology allows charities, events and nonprofit organisations to recruit, register, screen, train, manage and report with ease, replacing manual processes with automations to better engage and retain your volunteers and paid staff.
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