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by Margaret E. Puckett

It has been a rough winter. The bad weather and an even worse economy have taken their toll. Everyone seems to be getting just a little bit more testy than usual, and the impact on the volunteer workforce is significant!

Over the last year we have faced many challenges in our volunteer programs. Reduced funding, dwindling numbers of WWII era volunteers and a worsening economy have kept many of our volunteers from being financially able to continue volunteering. It has also kept many potential volunteers from the next generation (Baby Boomers) from being able to retire from their paid positions. Now I think we are starting to see our next big challenge in volunteer management – volunteer burn-out.

Many of us utilize volunteers in customer service roles. I’m seeing the most pronounced impact in volunteers who fill customer service roles in our organization. These individuals – all selected for these positions because of their outgoing natures and their positive and caring attitudes – are not only feeling the pressure themselves, but must deal with an ever increasing number of unhappy and stressed out customers. Because of their natures, they are generally not ones to complain. But they also present us with some of the most potentially devastating consequences if one of these potential powder kegs should happen to explode.

A distraught volunteer called me this week and presented me with a real dilemma. The volunteer is well known throughout the organization for his upbeat attitude and his gracious demeanor with patients. The volunteer had decided he needed to leave volunteering effective immediately because he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his temper under control with some of our patients. He had, in fact, had three minor verbal altercations in the last several weeks. He was devastated about what had occurred and wanted to make sure it did not happen again. I ask myself how could this have happened and why didn’t I see it coming?

We owe it to our wonderful volunteers, our organizations and the customers we support, to be more sensitive to this potential volunteer customer service burn-out issue and try to address it before it becomes an explosive one. What do we need to be looking for?
Some of the danger signals I have observed are: A sense of weariness, a sense of dissatisfaction, uncharacteristically short tempers and increased grumblings about small things.

Everyone is feeling the pressure. I know that I sure don’t have any solutions to this latest challenge, but I also know I must somehow try to find some. The health and well being of my volunteers and organization may just depend on it. Any suggestions?

Margaret E. Puckett is Volunteer Services Coordinator at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor and a featured blogger.

By Robert Moore

With tax time here, I thought a blog on deductions allowed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for volunteers might be timely. The IRS allows several different deductions that volunteers can take advantage of in exchange for their good will.

Use of personal vehicle
Unlike employees, who cannot deduct the cost of commuting as “business expenses”, volunteers can deduct mileage traveled from their home to their volunteer site. Once there, if you use your vehicle on organization-related business (deliveries, running errands, etc.) and you are not reimbursed separately, these expenses are deductible as well. Volunteers can also deduct the full cost of tolls, parking fees, cab fares, bus fares, etc. that were incurred with any charitable service.

Volunteers have two options in determining the amount of deduction for travel-related expenses:

1. Standard mileage rate (14 cents per mile). Most people find this method the simplest way to track expenses. You can create a spreadsheet and track the following information:
• Date
• Purpose
• Odometer Start
• Odometer End
• Total Trip Mileage
• Additional Costs (i.e., parking, tolls)
Keep a copy of the spreadsheet in your car as you accrue mileage. At the end of the year,
add up all of your mileage and multiply by the $0.14 mileage rate.

2. Direct expenses (actual costs of gas and oil). If you use this method, you need to keep some of the same information as above (date, purpose and miles driven), but you must also keep receipts associated with the fuel and oil expenses.

Out-of-pocket expenses
If you pay for some of the organization’s expenses and aren’t reimbursed, these costs can count as charitable deductions as well. This might be buying stamps for a group’s mailings or purchasing office supplies for the organization’s administrative operations. And if your volunteer work requires you to wear a uniform that is not provided by the organization, the cost of the clothing and keeping it clean are deductible. Again, receipts and noting the purpose of the expense is a must.

What volunteers can’t deduct
Under current law, volunteers are prohibited from taking a charitable contribution deduction for the value of the services they provided to charities. That means you can’t take a deduction for the time you spend volunteering. Nor can you deduct any personal expenses (meals, childcare, etc.) that you incur while volunteering.

For more information, review IRS publication 526, Charitable Contributions, or consult with your tax advisor.

Robert Moore is Executive Director of Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed and a featured blogger.

By Penny Kern

Years and years ago at the Volunteer Conference, I participated in a get acquainted game that has stuck with me and I’ve used many, many times.

If you have never attended this conference (held in October), you know that there are hundreds of people there. Doing a get acquainted game seemed impossible since it also had to be flexible enough to accommodate people of all ages and abilities. This one WORKS!!!

When we signed in at the conference, we were given a stack of 3 X 5 papers of various colors and we were told to go talk to people and try to swap colors so we’d end up with one of each color. When I looked at my stack, I had 2 or this color, 3 of another, etc. I needed to “trade” until I had one of each color.

I never looked at the papers, except for the colors, but once I accomplished my task and met some terrific new people, I realized there was a “Quote to Live By” on each one.

I still have the stack of papers and read the quotes once in awhile when I run across them in my desk drawer. Also, over the years since then, I’ve collected a couple more. I will share mine. Can you send me some other ideas and quotes?

Here are mine:
“To know why to do something is wisdom
To know how to do it is skill
To know when to do it is judgement
To strive to do it best is dedication
To do it for the benefit of others is service
To want to help others is compassion
To do this quietly is humility
To get the job done is achievement
To get others to do all these things is
LEADERSHIP.”
Quotation shared by Diane Algra, AmeriCorp Director, Corporation of National Service

“If you meet trouble promptly and without flinching, you reduce the problem in half.”
Winston Churchill

“Everyone can be great because anyone can serve.”
Martin Luther King, Jr

“Time is too slow for those who WAIT,
Too swift for those who FEAR,
Too long for those who GRIEVE,
Too short for those who REJOICE,
But for those who love
Time is not.”
Henry Van Dyke

One must learn by doing the thing; For though you think you know it
You have no certainty, until you try.
Sophocles, c.496-406 B.C.
Greek tragic playwright Trachiniae

“Happiness is a stock that doubles in a year.”
Ira U. Cobleigh

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Looking for more get acquainted ideas and quotes. Please share.

Penny Kern is a retired volunteer manager and a featuerd blogger.

By Danielle Arbour

Volunteering for the Bangor Humane Society is different. Our environment is high risk, fast paced and very emotional. We need individuals experienced in positive animal handling and training that don’t mind getting their hands dirty. We need people who understand that, while we want to save all animals, sometimes it’s just not a possibility. We are not an environment well suited to younger volunteers and sometimes not even older. Our volunteers must by physically capable of lifting, bending and walking, along with a number of other things. Because of the size of our facility, we are also limited in the number of administrative volunteers we have. What is the most graceful and inoffensive way to tell people they are not qualified for a position? At this point, if their schedule does not fit our needs I offer to keep their application on file should something come up in the future, but there are people that I know are not a good match for our organization. I am appreciative of their offer to help, but it’s too risky to put them in a volunteer position –what do I say to them? The last thing I want is to leave a sour taste in someone’s mouth…

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Danielle Arbour is the Volunteer and Events Manager at the Bangor Humane Society and a featured blogger.

By Anne Schink

In the book, Primal Leadership, the authors express the frustration of many professionals involved in training, by exploring how to make training ‘stick’ with an individual so that it actually changes behavior. The key is that training succeeds through motivation, extended practice, and feedback. All the theoretical reading and training in the world will not compensate for a resistance to putting it all into practice. We hope that this blog will be a forum where you can access both information and support to assist you in your own professional growth.

The authors make a wonderful case for self-directed learning as the only method that works for adults. In fact, many of us would argue that this is the only way for learning to achieve its goals for any of us, children included. The learning needs to be relevant to our sense of what is important to us.

An essential element of becoming a ‘resonant leader’ involves the ‘five discoveries’. This is the theory of self-directed learning. People who are successful in making personal changes that are sustainable over time pass through several stages.

My ideal self—who do I want to be?
My real self—who am I? What are my strengths and gaps?
My learning agenda—how can I build on my strengths while reducing my gaps?
Experimenting with and practicing new behaviors, thoughts, and feelings to the point of mastery.
Developing supportive and trusting relationships that make change possible.

For a self-directed learning plan to be successful, the plan should meet by most of these goals:
- Goals should build on one’s strengths, not on one’s weaknesses
- Goals must be a person’s own—not goals that someone else has imposed.
- Plans must be flexible in how they will be achieved.
- Plans must be feasible with manageable steps.
- Plans must reflect the individual person’s learning style.

I don’t know about you, but this appears to me to be a profound statement of what I have often ‘intuited’ to be true. But it often flies in the face of what we actually do. We provide training without any follow up and no coaching by the supervisor or manager who could help to make the learning part of the expectations for work or volunteering.

We would especially like to hear about positive experiences in making learning effective and in having the learning ‘stick’.

“Primal Leadership, Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence.” Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee. Harvard Business School Press. Boston, MA 2002.

Anne Schink is a featured blogger and has been working in the volunteer sector for more than 30 years.

Information Age Volunteerism - Open Sourced! Crowdsourced!
By Ben Rigby, www.techpresident.com

Click here to read a very interesting blog about volunteerism in the age of facebook, flicker and the like.

By Tudy Hamilton

With the start of a new year, and a new administration, there seems to be lots of energy and hope around “change”. Change is happening all around us, and I challenge you to get involved! We can either direct change or be directed by it.

Our very profession is undergoing changes, as we speak. Volunteer Management is starting to be viewed as a career path, rather than an add-on to an already full job description, or an “other duties as assigned”. Get involved in promoting is as a full time job. Make sure your colleagues, you community, and your agency know exactly what Volunteer Management is, and the positive impact it carries.

Most professionals have professional associations. Get involved in one near you. If there isn’t an association in your area, work with those in your area to start one. Don’t wait for one to magically appear. Associations take time and effort to build and maintain, but they are well worth it. Where else can you find a group of people that share both the joys and sorrows of what you do? Take turns hosting meetings and planning trainings.

Advocate for funding! Check out those stimulus packages, and government budgets. Get involved by contacting your elected representatives and advocate for Volunteerism! You may have the very argument or fact that they are lacking to sway them in your favor.

Celebrate your volunteers. Your organization may not have its own formal awards to recognize volunteers, but there are plenty available. Get involved by nominating your volunteers for the Governor’s Service Awards, MetLife, American Red Cross Heroes, 6 Who Care, or your own community awards.

Remember, as you carry out your daily activities, that we are in a position to set the stage for the future of Volunteer Management in our communities. The choice is simple: get involved now because you’ll be affected later.

Tudy Hamilton is the Volunteer Manager at SeniorsPlus and a featured blogger.

By Carla Ganiel

I recently read A Raisin in the Sun, the classic play by Lorraine Hansberry that tells the story of an African-American family struggling to grasp the American dream. I found this exchange between the would-be physician Beneatha and her Nigerian suitor, Asagai, particularly moving:

Beneatha: Don’t you see there isn’t any real progress, Asagai, there is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture in front of us—our own little mirage that we think is the future.

Asagai: That is the mistake.

Beneatha: What?

Asagai: What you just said about the circle. It isn’t a circle—it is simply a long line—as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end—we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd but those who see the changes—who dream, who will not give up—are called idealists…and those who see only the circle, we call them the “realists.”

I don’t know about you, but I got into this business because I’m an idealist, and yet, sometimes it is not so easy to see the changes we are making. This is also the case for our volunteers.

Change is in the air right now. It’s all anyone can talk about. Watching President Obama’s inauguration, I was struck by one bystander’s comment. She told a reporter, “The morning after the election, I woke up my children and told them, ‘While you were sleeping last night, Martin Luther King’s dream came true.’”

That’s one big change, but it did not, in fact, happen overnight.

Every movement has its struggles and setbacks. It’s easy for the people working on the ground to get discouraged. Sometimes it feels like nothing at all is happening to advance the cause. When this happens, it is the leader’s job not only to see the changes but also to help others see them.

Many of us have already felt the impact of economic crisis in all areas of our operations. Pardon my pragmatism, but I believe things will get worse before they get better. In times like these, when need is great and resources are scarce, one’s efforts can start to feel like just a drop in the bucket. We need to help our volunteers see how very much their efforts matter.

What can you do today to help your volunteers see the changes?

Carla Ganiel is a specialist in strategy consulting for nonprofit organizations and a featured blogger.