Good morning/evening, Volunteers,
Following is the first in a series of online lessons designed to help any of you who are interested with a variety of topics applicable to the Praise Band.
The purpose of this lesson, titled "Organization of Personnel in a Volunteer Organization," is to explain methods of organizing volunteers in a pre-existing or new group. A few lessons to follow are "How to Effectively Manage a Group of Volunteers" and "Recruiting Volunteers."
In the beginning...
The first step in creating any type of group, organization, business, etc., is the PLANNING stage. As applied in this lesson, planning entails creating a group objective, scheduling a meeting for those already interested, and making a preliminary list of expectations and goals for the group. For example, in the praise brand scenario, this would look something like this:
*Creating a group objective: "The purpose of the Wings Chapel Praise Band is to lead the congregation of Wings Chapel in worship through music in both Sunday morning services and at any chapel-affiliated events."
*Scheduling a meeting: One method of dissemination of an invitation for those interested in joining would be an announcement in the weekly chapel bulletin which says, " Are you interested in leading Wings Chapel in worship each Sunday morning? The band meets to practice in the Wings Chapel on Wednesday nights at 1830. After dinner and a devotional, the band rehearses music for services the following Sunday. If you would like to see who we are and what we do, please join us this Wednesday night!"
*Compose a list of goals and principles: Allow the members who "make" the group to decide the purpose and goals thereof. As suggested by one volunteer leadership development site, use a discussion format rather than teaching. By allowing each volunteer to share his or her insights, challenges, and successes, a spirit of unity is formed. Including an extra element such as accepting prayer requests and praying as a group over these needs will encourage group cohesiveness at an ever higher degree."
Additional Tips for Managing Volunteers
The world needs as many volunteers as possible. After all, we need one another’s helping hand in order to survive. However, volunteering is completely different from managing volunteers.
If you have been tasked to lead a group of volunteers, do you know what to do? Keep in mind that the overall success of your operations relies so much on your hands. To help you out, here are the 10 volunteer management tips:
1. Don’t forget to make some instruction sheets. Delegation is very important when you’re in a volunteer organization. After all, there’s so much that needs to be done. One of the keys to effective volunteer management is the creation of instruction sheets, just in case they completely forget what to do.
2. Constantly update your volunteers. Sometimes certain situations will compel you to change previous instructions. Thus, make sure that you have your bulletin board ready for any new announcement. Always instruct them to monitor the board as often as possible.
3. Make him feel welcome. Teamwork is an essential factor in a volunteer’s organization. That’s why to ensure that he gets to open up himself faster and cooperates effectively, always make him feel welcome. Perhaps you can start with a short introduction to the rest of the group once he arrives.
4. Recognize their hard work. Volunteering can truly be an arduous task. It can drain you physically and emotionally, and your volunteers need all the kind of motivation they can possibly get so they can still function properly. Besides providing them with recreational activities, you can also give them recognition, probably in the forms of certificates, medals, and even plaques.
5. Go for personal request. You can recruit volunteers by the masses, but it will be very difficult for you to assess their commitment to the organization as well as their potential contribution to your goals. Thus, ensure that you can spend time to talk to your future volunteers one by one.
6. Provide a good environment for your volunteers. Keep in mind that the volunteers, like you, are also sacrificing a lot of good things for the sake of other people’s needs. They can’t earn as much as they can, they sometimes have problems with regards to their health and transportation, and usually, they’re far from their families. What you can do to ease these opportunity costs is to give them a pleasing environment. This may include social clubs, a good house they can stay, a day off from their volunteering job, or even promotion, if you think they have been working real hard.
7. Develop their job description. The only time they can feel satisfied of their work is when they know they are accomplishing something. To help them assess how they fare with their jobs or that they have truly performed to the utmost, you can provide them a job description.
8. Match your volunteers to their interests. It’s highly fundamental that you can bring out the potential volunteering characteristics and personality of every individual. One of the best methods to accomplish this is to match their skills to the volunteer organization or department. For example, if you have a business graduate in your list, perhaps you can place him in the logistics department. Moreover, you can put your teacher in the training division.
9. Take advantage of two-month adjustment. According to studies, volunteers need at most 2 months to adjust to the organization. If they feel like they don’t belong or can’t contribute greatly, then they will disappear. You can make use of the period to orient and guide him. Most of all, don’t forget to stress how valuable he is to the organization.
10. Communicate. Volunteers, whether new and old, still need supervision. Thus, ensure that your communication lines are open. If you’re not in the field, make sure you have provided your volunteers with a number they can reach immediately. Guarantee, too, that you can monitor them as often as you can.Now it's your turn!
As the Wings Praise Band has already been established, there is no need to "create" this group again. However, following is a project for you to apply what we have discussed in this lesson. In your own format, create an electronic tracking document for the volunteers who currently serve in the Praise Band. This can be in any interactive format you choose--for example, Google Docs or a password protected Excel document--and use your imagination! We will vote on the tracking documents submitted at the first Wednesday night practice of 2010, January 6; the best document, as chosen by all volunteer members present that night, will be used as our new volunteer roster! Some suggestions for information to be included are (but not limited to) volunteer name, contact information, schedule, preferred position/instrument, etc. I look forward to your submissions!
Works Cited
"10 Volunteer Management Tips." Volunteer Abroad Free. 2008. Broadfree, Web. 5 Nov 2009. <http://volunteerabroadfree.com/10-volunteer-management-tips.html>.
"Volunteer Management 101 Workshop Outline." Volunteer Management 101 Workshop. 2008. National Youth Development Information Center, Web. 13 Nov 2009. <http://www.nydic.org/vi/documents/VolunteerManagement101WorkshopOutline.pdf>.
Higginbotham, James. "Leadership Development in Small Groups." Volunteer Centered. 28 OCT 2007. Volunteer Centered, Web. 3 Dec 2009. <http://www.volunteercentered.com/2007/10/28/leadership-development-in-small-groups/>.
