Hot
Topic Archive
June
/ July 2009
Don't
forget the People in the Process
By
OzVPM Director Andy
Fryar
Over
the years I have had the opportunity to write and
edit hundreds of hot topics, articles, reports, blogs
and even books on the topic of volunteerism.
So
when Susan Ellis recently approached me to write a
module on the topic of 'Interviewing, Screening and
Placing volunteers' for her excellent online training
program Everyone
Ready , I was keen to get on with the process
of pulling it all together.
There
was however one small but fundamental difference in
the type of writing that was required. Instead of
creating a text which learners would be reading ,
this exercise required me to write a 'script', which
I would later record for students to listen to.
Now
that may not sound like such a diversion from the
norm but believe me, in spite of all the experience
I have had, the exercise required me to have a complete
re-think about what I wrote, how I structured the
text and even the tact I took to describe the various
elements within it.
I
am happy to say the final product is terrific (even
if I do say so myself) and the opportunity to create
a training piece outside the way I'd normally write
something was a terrific learning opportunity.
So
in addition to being a shameless plug for Everyone
Ready, what has this got to do with a hot topic for
this month?
Well
it got me thinking yet again about how we, as Volunteer
Program Managers, need to balance the way we recruit
new volunteers and deal with our teams in an ongoing
way thereafter.
In
2006, we ran the Australasian Retreat for Advanced
Volunteer Management with the theme 'Have we gone
too far'? What we tried to achieve at that event,
was to ask experienced practitioners in the field
of volunteer management if they thought we may have
travelled 'too far' down the road of professionalising
volunteerism - and whether through that, we may have
made some of our programs a little too impersonal
to volunteers (new and existing) in the process.
The
exercise of writing the training module for Susan
reminded me that it is really important that from
time to time we view what we do through the eyes of
a different audience - in this case, potential volunteers
coming to our organisation for the first time - to
assess whether or not the process we are using to
recruit volunteers is a friendly and inviting one
and not one which is clinical and impersonal.
While
we hear a lot about the new breed of confident and
brash volunteers, let us never forget that for many
people approaching our programs for the first time,
the very act of calling our office may be a giant
brave step into unchartered territory.
Consider
the following:
• How
does a potential new team member find out about your
volunteer opportunities? • What messages do they
receive from your website and other promotional materials?
• How easy do you make it for someone to get engaged?
• How quickly do you follow up with inquiries?
• When someone calls or visits your office for
the first time, how might they perceive your operations?
(physical location, reception staff, decor etc)
The above questions
(and more) do not apply just to new volunteers. Consider
the same types of questions of your returning and
regular volunteers. Is there a risk that after a while
you are taking them for granted, assuming that an
annual volunteer week party will cover a multitude
of neglect throughout the course of a year?
The challenge
for our programs is to find that delicate balance
between being supportive of the needs of volunteers
while at the same time being professional in everything
we do, and with limited resources this becomes an
ever increasingly difficult thing to do. By placing
ourselves in the place of volunteers from time to
time, we can begin to ensure that our programs don't
forget the 'volunteer' part of that balancing act
It is worth
remembering that regardless of whether we call our
profession volunteer administration, volunteer program
management, community development or even human resource
or personnel management, we are in the game of engaging
people in meaningful activity, and my message this
month is quite a simple one; Be sure you are not forgetting
people in the name of process or progress
So let's
hear from you:
~ Do
you have difficulty giving your volunteers as much
attention as you'd like as the paperwork piles up
around you?
~ Do
you have tips you can share with others about how
you have overcome these difficulties
~ Have
you created innovative roles that
ensure new and existing volunteers are well supported
in your program?
~ Do
you have any other thoughts about this topic you would
like to share?
It's
not too late to...
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- 2009 OzVPM.
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