Guidelines for The Development of Community Participation in Running Event in The New Normal : A case study of Chombueng Marathon, Ratchaburi Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to study the current condition of community participation, problems, and threats to community participation in Chombueng Marathon; (2) to analyze factors of community participation in Chombueng Marathon as the new normal running activities; and (3) to propose the guidelines for the development of community participation in Chombueng Marathon as the new normal running activities. This research used Mixed Methods between quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The quantitative data were collected from sample groups of people who were living in communities in the research area, consisting of 4 local administrative organizations with 3 Tambons, 14 villages, and 15 schools, and who participated directly in organizing of Chombueng Marathon. The 329 samples were drawn from convenience random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect the data, along with participant observation. The data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The qualitative data were collected from 35 key informants who were drawn from purposive sampling, an in-depth interview, participatory observation, and focus group were used to collect the data, which was analyzed by content analysis. The findings were as follows:

1. 1.The current condition for organizing the Chombueng Marathon is the cooperation of Muban Chombueng Rajabhat (MCRU) and network partners with local communities. The motto of this event was “Local running activity with international standards.” The event was held in the third week of January Annually, the nature of participation is the relationship as co-host, and there were managerial administrations allowing communities to participate in activities at the event with small meetings and large meetings and demonstrations. The problems and threats to community participation in the Chombueng Marathon were found to have the following key points; (1) the lack of a real clear policy of MCRU for running activities and organizing created a delay in operating procedures and coordination with the community; (2) the lacking of supporting resources delayed delivery; and (3) the inconsistent communication and public relations created delayed information.
2. 2.Key factors for community participation in the Chombueng Marathon as new normal running activities in total were of the highest level of importance. When considering in topic scoring from highest to lowest was as follows; (1) the realization of people in the community; (2) the roles of community leaders; (3) the compensations and benefits; (4) the communication and public relations; and (5) the policies of the organization.

            3. The guidelines for the development of community participation in the Chombueng Marathon as a new normal running activity consisted of 5 main guidelines that will be integrated with Chombueng Marathon organizing in order to create sustainability through community participation as follows; (1) building the realization of people in the community (2) fostering the leadership roles of community leaders; (3) sharing of compensation and benefit; (4) the development of communication and public relations; and (5) the policy formulation of the leading organization (MCRU).