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by Michele Ober

A year ago, a volunteer inquiry came across my desk with name, contact information, and interest in three different areas in the organization. I proceeded to contact the volunteer leaders of each area asking that they send welcome emails and invitations to join their committees/projects. Within four months, the volunteer had experiences in each of those three areas and he proceeded to get involved in a couple more as he felt his professional skills and talents could be beneficial. At that four-month mark, a volunteer survey was completed at which time he commented on the lack of knowledge of his capabilities provided to the volunteer leaders, the lack of work in one area, and the overall lack of communication and appreciation. In one area, he stated that he “took the initiative to get things moving.”

After seven months, the volunteer had resigned from the original three areas in which he expressed his initial interests and was becoming active in three other areas. He was able to complete short-term projects in two areas but, in the third area, he felt progress in ongoing projects was not forthcoming. This past week, after little/no communication between the volunteer leaders and the volunteer, an email came to me which stated his grievances and his final goodbye.

After contemplating this volunteer’s experience over this past year, I became so much more aware of the need to truly engage volunteers, not just manage them. I referred to “Boomer Volunteer Engagement: Collaborate Today, Thrive Tomorrow“, by Jill Friedman Fixler and Sandie Eichberg, with Gail Lorenz, CVA. I concentrated on the chapter entitled “Nurturing the Relationship” and especially Friedman Fixler’s tool, the Individual Volunteer Plan (IVP). While she states this tool is not for everyone, I think it would have been appropriate for this volunteer. “For the Boomer who wants meaningful work with definable impact, an IVP can be written to promise increasing impact over the volunteer’s career… an IVP may offer a future of professional development and increased responsibility.” For this volunteer, the most important opportunity that the IVP could create is “new possibilities for those who have a terrific volunteer history but seem to be losing interest, decreasing commitment, or verging on problematic behavior.”

The basic structure of an IVP is that a supervisor or support liaison and the volunteer meet. Together they discuss current competencies (which may include communication, team building, collaboration, and technology), goals and benchmarks to improve skills, competencies, or experiences as well as project planning (which may include vision, resources, training, and additional needs), and updates to review progress and to revise the plan as needed. Lastly, it is advised to keep lines of communication open especially to check in on progress.

As I transition from a volunteer coordinator to a volunteer engagement professional, I will continue to look at strategies to support the volunteer’s “desire for autonomy, authority, impact, and opportunities to be creative and innovative.” Had a proper plan for engagement been in practice, this volunteer certainly could have added value to the organization and could have felt successful and appreciated.

Michele Ober is the Volunteer Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity / 7 Rivers Maine. She is a guest blogger.

by Sarah Ryan, Ph.D.

Summertime represents a shift in gears for most nonprofits. Youth organizations fill more hours each day with programming, legal organizations prepare for fresh sessions of autumnal judicial fact-finding, and a lucky handful of public sector employees take vacations, or at least silence their Blackberries for a few hours each Friday. Throughout the sun-drenched U.S. nonprofit sector, emerging professionals attempt to be helpful while building their resumes. It’s that time of year again – high season for college interns.

In the early 2000s, I struggled to manage gaggles of well-meaning do-gooders commuting from their dorm rooms at Columbia and New York University. Today, as a faculty member, I prepare young people with big hearts and dreams (and a sometimes-Machiavellian obsession with their resumes) for summer internships. Working with soon-to-be college interns, I have learned a great deal about how they approach these opportunities. Although my students bring a wide array of talents to the table, they seem to share at least three assumptions about internships:

Assumption 1: Interns add greatly to organizations without costing anything Recently, one of my students decided to seek an internship in New York City. Another student encouraged her, effusing: “There are lots of internships. Everyone wants interns. We work hard and don’t cost anything!” In that moment, I realized that students have no idea how much work it takes to train or manage them. They see the value that they add – rightfully – without recognizing the overhead they exact. I discovered the same phenomenon when employing graduate research assistants. My RAs had to clock a certain number of hours per week or month regardless of my work flow. During lulls, I arrived at work early to create projects for them to do; during high times I did some of their work for them because I had no extra money to pay for overtime. In the end, I discovered that research assistantships often benefit students more than faculty mentors, just like internships. (And students don’t realize this.)

Assumption 2: “In this economy…” organizations need free labor My students maintain grim estimations of their post-college job opportunities. “In this economy…” they sigh, “There is almost no hope for someone with a Liberal Arts degree, or Business degree, or any other sort of 4-year degree.” “Organizations aren’t hiring,” they opine, “They’re getting the work done for free.” This is especially true in the public sector, they figure. Many of my students see the public sector as a sinking ship that needs bailers. They see themselves as wielding buckets and pitching in to save organizations when they need it most. And with that almost-righteous view of their contribution, they expect organizations to offer high praise, flexible working hours, and interesting work. After all, beggars can’t be choosers, and “in this economy” nonprofits are begging for free labor rather than hiring recent college graduates.

Assumption 3: Organizations are like living textbooks with expert managers/teachers at the helm Although many of my students have work experience, they still view their internship sites as romanticized case studies, ripped from the “best practices” pages of textbooks. In their imaginations, professional managers orchestrate incredibly complex organizations in nuanced and theoretically-driven ways that suggest clear roles and learning outcomes for incoming team members. In short, students approach internships the way they approach classes. They expect an expert to lead them through a series of increasingly complex tasks that will result in both the betterment of the organization and the intern-learner: a textbook win-win situation. Some students are shocked to discover that organizations are chaotic, roles and tasks are in transition, and there is no syllabus-type document outlining the major activities, expectations, or take-aways for their internships.

So, students assume that they are greatly needed, no-cost contributors to the bottom line of a highly-functioning but under-resourced enterprise run by geniuses. Knowing this, mentors/supervisors can better manage their interns by employing three strategies.

Strategy 1: Develop a comprehensive internship orientation program for the organization or a consortium of organizations Rather than having each supervisor conduct individual orientation and training sessions with each intern each summer, develop a broad-based training program for the entire organization, or – better yet – a consortium of organizations. The orientation should cover a range of topics from professional comportment to specific job skills. It should include goal-setting sessions that emphasize the role of interns in managing their own learning processes. The orientation should include team-building activities that encourage interns to form a community among themselves and begin to see each other as sources of information (i.e., as opposed to the mentor as the source of all answers to all questions). Finally, the orientation should serve to transition students from a classroom setting to a team-building setting to a professional setting.

Strategy 2: Create summer-length “filler” projects for interns to complete during their downtime At times, interns will not have enough work to do. Wanting to remain busy and useful at all times, they will typically approach their supervisors for “more work.” These requests often come at inopportune moments, when supervisors are consumed with pressing projects and deliverables and are unable to articulate specific tasks and provide on-the-spot training. The potential for both sides to be frustrated in these moments is quite high. “Filler” projects can provide interns with a sense of continuity and supervisors with a much needed respite from teaching. Research projects can be especially useful “fillers” because they leverage students’ existing skills and provide organizations with useful information. One of my colleagues had her intern research all U.S.-based conventions and conferences related to the organization’s work. The student delivered a year-long calendar of events that is still updated by the staff. Another colleague had interns research all of the competing organizations in his field. His nonprofit uses that document to prepare portions of grant proposals (e.g., that describe the NGO’s niche). Both colleagues encouraged their interns to return to these and other large-scale endeavors whenever they found themselves idle (i.e., rather than asking for “more work”).

Strategy 3: Praise your interns
Despite some misguided assumptions and unreasonable needs, my students are admirably committed to adding value to the world through their contributions to organizations and causes that they care about. In my classroom, they are open, thoughtful, and compassionate. They harbor big dreams about a more just society. They want to belong, they long to matter, and they believe that their internships are their contributions to social justice. In talking with them about their summer plans, I hear again and again that they are going off to do good things. I witness a longing for challenges, successes, and approval from professionals that seem to have it all together. When they read me their cover letters, they stretch out the names of executive directors and program officers and internship supervisors – people they long to emulate. And then they head off to their internships, full of starry-eyed admiration for their mentors, the people changing the world. They believe their mentors need them, they hope they will be appreciated.

And in the end, despite all that they might ask for, my students really want only one thing – praise.

Sarah Ryan, Ph.D., is from the Department of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and is a featured blogger.

by Keri Penick

Have you ever heard of the nationwide program Plant-A-Row (PAR)? Most people are able to exclaim- “Oh, I’ve heard about that!” Commonly, people do understand it is a public service campaign to encourage home gardeners to grow more vegetables and fruits and donate any excess to local food pantries. Most understand it is a great idea, but can be puzzled as to what it really entails.

The beginning of May saw the launch of the 2010 Kennebec Plant-A-Row Challenge, after weeks of planning and building excitement among volunteers, including UMaine Cooperative Extension Staff, Master Gardener Volunteers, and community members who are behind local efforts for this program. This “Challenge” is to provide at least 12,000 pounds of fresh produce to food pantries in the Kennebec County area.

A great incentive for interested volunteers to sign up now is to receive support, connect with the gardening community, and to eliminate pantries from becoming overburdened. But with busy lives, we all understand the regret that can come from hearing about great ideas such as PAR, but becoming unable to join the effort. Of course, the biggest reason that may keep people from volunteering is limited time. The second reason, however, is one that may be overlooked but can easily be addressed to increase participation- fixing the disconnect between volunteers wanting to help and not knowing exactly what they can do!

The Kennebec PAR Planning Committee is addressing this challenge in several ways, including:
• Public Outreach: Distribution of information to nurseries, greenhouses, health food stores, farmers’ markets, and libraries
• Identifying Resources: Using excitement, talent, and connections from volunteers themselves for such distribution and to create hand-drawn logos and tee-shirt designs
• Providing Support: Welcoming participants to the program and giving specific instructions for donating to pantries
• Creating a Coaching Model: Implementing volunteers to serve as local coordinators for PAR participants in their area, increasing connection and underlining the power of relationships
• Offering Opportunities: Inclusive to those without a garden, for example:
 Giving a helping hand to local community gardens already growing for food pantry donation,
 Serving a food pantry or soup kitchen based on their individual needs: contributing time, transportation of food, or even donating containers.

By filling out an enrollment form, a volunteer can be encouraged to find an opportunity that works for them and the community, in whatever capacity they may offer. Enrolling in the PAR program connects the gardener with other volunteers also committed to improving the local food economy, as well as providing an outlet of communication for horticulture advice.

UMaine Cooperative Extension and Master Gardener Volunteers are excited about gardening, and with dedicated food pantry and soup kitchen volunteers—are also passionate about helping the community. The 2010 Kennebec Plant-A-Row Challenge combines such efforts. Join us today—and many thanks to those who already have!

Please visit our website for more information, including an online enrollment form.

Keri Penick is an AmeriCorps*VISTA with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Kennebec County and is a guest blogger.

by Stan Janas

A number of blog posts have addressed the importance of managing the performance of volunteers, coaching them, making sure they have a clear understanding of the tasks required and supervising their work. It makes me wonder why we don’t include volunteers as part of our performance appraisal process.

If you think performance appraisals are about assessing and rating an employee’s work for the purpose of compensation and/or advancement, then it doesn’t make sense on the surface. But effective performance appraisals really do so much more than that.

An effective performance appraisal process is designed to help manage an employee’s success and development year round. It should include:
• identifying the competencies that are key to the organization and the role, then coaching and developing the employee to exhibit them in their work
• the establishment of clear, SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals that are linked to higher level organizational goals. These goals help the employee understand what is expected of them and how their work contributes to the organization’s strategy, mission and vision
• a review development needs to address skills gaps and prepare the employee for career progression
• an ongoing dialogue between the manager and employee about their performance, development and success

As I look at this list, all of these things would be very helpful to a volunteer.

And when I consider that, especially now, many people are using volunteer work to help them gain the knowledge and experience they need to secure paid employment, it makes even more sense.

Essentially, employees and volunteers need the same things from their manager or supervisor to be successful: clear direction, ongoing feedback, and coaching and development. If you look at it in this light, it makes good sense to include your volunteers as part of your performance appraisal process.

Stan Janas is a volunteer, and the Director of Human Resources at Halogen Software, one of the leading providers of talent management solutions. He is a guest blogger.

By Ann Swain

Not all non-profit organizations utilizing volunteers recognize the importance or significance of identifying ‘volunteer leaders’ and often don’t view volunteers as leaders. However, many volunteers have actually come from years of the corporate world and can offer a wealth of information and expertise that we might otherwise not have access to without paying out large sums of money.

Volunteer leaders give credibility to our non-profit programs in a number of ways.
 They are great recruiters
 They are usually very good at fundraising
 They often have terrific ideas about what volunteers want in a program
 They make good liaisons
 They are good community outreach for your non-profit
 They often can alleviate volunteer manager stress

The question is, ‘how do you attract a good volunteer leader and how do you keep them interested?’

I’m not sure you really ‘attract’ a good volunteer leader but you will usually find one within your own program’s pool of volunteers. They are usually the one with good ideas on more than one occasion, they are thoughtful about offering ideas and they seem to be the one person, other than the manager, that other volunteers will go to with questions or concerns.

The next step is to nurture the leadership skills within that volunteer you may have identified as a ‘leader’. Ask them if they are interested in becoming a ‘volunteer leader’. If the answer is yes and your program does not yet have a formal ‘volunteer leader’ program, enlist the skills of the newly identified ‘volunteer leader’ to help establish a ‘volunteer leader program’ within your non-profit. Be sure to formally identify your new ‘volunteer leader’ in their new capacity so that other volunteers have a clear understanding of this volunteer’s position in the organization. Once a set of guidelines has been established for your ‘volunteer leader program’, your organization is well on its way to offering skills to its volunteers that enhance the volunteer experience. And you, as a manager of volunteers, are on your way to enjoying the full potential of your volunteers. It’s a wonderful experience as a manager of volunteers to play a part in opening doors for volunteers to meet their fullest potential as a volunteer.

A word of caution: not every volunteer you identify as a leader has interest in becoming a ‘volunteer leader’. They may choose to volunteer their time and leave it at that. Happy volunteers, happy manager of volunteers.

Ann Swain is the Director of the Senior Companion Program at the University of Maine Cooperative Ext.

By Noble Smith

Having spent nearly fifty years in the business of working with and for volunteers at non-profit organizations does not make me an expert at anything. However, one aspect of serving as a volunteer that I have carried into my professional life has been the trait or characteristic that governs a successful volunteer experience.

I have seen these experiences especially over the last twenty years being a volunteer at a number of organizations and as a member of various commissions, task forces and quasi-governmental agencies - make darn sure that the volunteer has a clear understanding of what is required, that the task is well-structured, well supervised and that it fits into a total integrated framework of the non-profit.

Today’s non-profits now have a plethora of baby boomers who are (or shortly will be) descending by volunteering their professional and personal skills, time and commitment and as the masses increase, non-profits best hone and fine-tune their enlistment, training and management skills. As we are observing, baby boomers are better educated, healthier, have less free time, and high levels of work experience that perhaps the previous generation. Non-profits better be in top-notch shape to handle this growing influx.

Cited below are the most frequently stated observations by both volunteers and those who run the non-profits that I have experienced as a volunteer, a development staffer and as a consultant. (The reader will certainly have many other valued observations and recommendations.)

What are you as a volunteer looking for in volunteer opportunities?

Clear job descriptions of what is expected;
Matching my life experiences with the task assigned;
Responsibility with authority, although all volunteers must recognize that they are working, as in business, for others, others who must possess and execute clearly visible leadership traits;
A genuine pat on the back for a job well done (or a constructive overview where improvement can be made);
Follow-up reports on the effectiveness of the volunteer effort.

What attracts the volunteer in the search for opportunities?

Well-organized volunteer program;
Good volunteer management supervision;
Organizations that dovetail with my personal interest/skills;
Recognition;
Timeliness of task and its functionality;
Impact that volunteers have on reaching the vision, mission and core values of the organization.

What do volunteer managers need to know about working with older volunteers?

Know the volunteer’s life experience and match accordingly;
Know exactly what you want the volunteer to undertake and accomplish;
Provide appropriate and realistic training;
Treat volunteers as though they were your parents;
Listen carefully to the volunteers 4 Cs - comments, concerns, compliants and compliments;
Provide personal follow-up, and visible recognition;
Know how to discharge, relieve a volunteer who is in the wrong place, wrong task and at the wrong time.

We all need to keep firmly in our minds, whether we are the organization or the volunteer, that in equivalent payroll, volunteers are indispensable to our society. They are a commodity that merit’s our highest degree of quality care, a solid business-like approach to their involvement and, most importantly, treat them like your parents - they certainly qualify!

Noble Smith is a former Commissioner, President of Noble Smith Associates (Development and Marketing Consultants) and a featured blogger.

By Penny Kern

I’m still cleaning out drawers. After almost twenty years in the volunteer manager business, I don’t think this chore is going to end any time soon.

Anyway, I found a packet from a workshop I did in 1992. It was on leadership and on the very first page there was a quote from John Foster Dulles, Secty of State under Eisenhower. He said, ” The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.”

That makes me stop and think! Do you continue to have the same problems, complaints or concerns year after year? Maybe it’s time to take a deeper look at yourself and how you do things.

Have any suggestions for how someone can get off this treadmill?

Let us know!

Penny Kern is a retired manager of volunteers and is a featured blogger.

By Anne Schink, CVA

I recently taught a class for managers of volunteers and it was interesting to see who actually showed up for the class. We had an executive director (the only paid staff) of a local land trust, an office manager of a nonprofit that was almost entirely run by an all-volunteer board, a department director of a housing complex, an event planner from a local business development organization, a brand new staff member of an animal rescue organization, and three staff members of a large youth-serving organization. I point this out only as a reminder that who we define as a manager of volunteers varies widely from organization to organization. On the up side is the fact that organizations of all types and sizes recognize the importance of volunteers in achieving the organization’s mission.

Clearly no one job description would cover this disparate group of participants. Yet many of their concerns were the same. While they all expressed the desire to increase the effectiveness of their volunteer programs, their expectations about what these people would do and what kind of people they were trying to attract was all over the map. Most of them had a mental picture in their heads about who was ‘typical’ for their organization. It took some stretching for them to see that they might have to re-think their vision if they were going to attract tomorrow’s volunteers.

In a recent Webinar I attended, the presenter said that tomorrow’s volunteers wanted the four F’s in their volunteer assignments—Flexible, Fast, Friendly, Focused. That goes for Board members, volunteers functioning as external consultants, behind the scenes administrative support, or direct service positions. No one, in any generation, is signing on for life these days. Flexible means that the position is shaped to match the volunteer’s schedule, not the other way around. Fast means a quick response to their initial inquiry and a quick turnaround in placing them. If you don’t catch them the first time they try to reach you, they will go elsewhere. Friendly means that you need to welcome them, make them feel part of your organization, and give them a meaningful role working with others. Focused means deadlines, time limits, and real measurable outcomes.

This may fly in the face of more traditional ways of creating a volunteer program, but it is a reminder that this is an ever-changing landscape. Having clearly defined job descriptions is the foundation of a sound volunteer program, but the experienced, adaptive manager of volunteers will make the changes required to build a creative program that meets a wide variety of interests and personalities.

Anne Schink, CVA is a Consultant in Volunteer Management and a featured blogger.

By Elizabeth Cole

What do you think of when you hear the word coach? While your mind may have wandered to your little league experience in elementary school or your favorite sports team, coaches are not just for athletes! Volunteers are likely to encounter many situations where personal coaching would make a big difference in their performance, whether it’s improving communication, resolving conflict, or making better decisions.
Supervisors who apply a coaching model ask open-ended questions, helping volunteers to discover answers and solutions on their own. In this way, coaching respects individual capabilities and encourages self-development and personal confidence. It leads to greater reflection, awareness, and increased performance.
Though this process takes more time than just telling volunteers what to do, it is an investment that will help you uncover their full potential. Being provided with all the answers does not encourage learning or self-development. Coaching, on the other hand, teaches a process of problem-solving and analytical thinking is useful in all spheres of life.

Good coaching requires practice. When the rest our work and life moves at a blistering speed, coaching forces us to take a step back and slow down. For people used to firing off responses to questions or problems as quickly as possible, walking someone else through a problem-solving process can be hard to get used it. Additionally, it is really difficult to keep from jumping in with all the answers and solutions, especially if you feel like you know better.

As difficult as coaching can be at first, it gets easier. You will be rewarded with more thoughtful responses and a more capable volunteer-force. I will be back next month to introduce a model that will lead you step by step through the coaching process. Until next month, happy New Year and keep up the good work!

Elizabeth Cole is an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Maine Commission for Community Service and a guest blogger.

By Michael A. Aiguier

Recharging our batteries. Rekindling the passion. Getting your groove back. Whatever you call it, finding ways to remind ourselves of why we do what we do is necessary to enable us to do the best job possible.
Volunteering outside of the realm of what we do for work is helpful, because it not only gives us insight into what our volunteers are going through when they come to us, but how other volunteer managers are dealing with their volunteers. I have found many situations where there are things I should be doing differently, either because the people I am volunteering for are doing the same thing I am doing and I don’t like it, or because I am not doing something they are doing that I find makes my volunteer experience more enjoyable.

I also like to write out the affects that the volunteer coordinating I am doing helps the community. Not a formal thing for a report or advertisement, but a semi-fictional story about someone we might have helped through the work we do. Sometimes changing the way we think about the effect we are having can change the way we think about ourselves. A little ego stroking is not a bad thing when it can make us more effective agents of positive social impact.

Watching entertainment that has inspired us in the past to do what we do is always something that helps me. I am an easy mark for films about social injustice being righted and people taking action when others wouldn’t. I don’t know if you saw the film “The Way We Get By” about troop greeters in Bangor, ME, but I empathized completely with a Mr. Knight in the film when he talked about life having meaning only because it made other people’s lives a little better. I know I am not getting it exactly right, but the sentiment is the same.

Preparing to speak to others also helps, because we have to put the best light we can on our work. If we can’t figure out what to tell others about why what we do is important, we should re-evaluate what we are doing. How did we get involved? Someone communicated to us effectively what the issue was and how it might be solved. This is the true way to keep us going, because when we can see enthusiasm for what we do in others, it brings us back to where we were when we first got involved. That makes us want to be that person again. We might not be the best orators, I know I am not, but reaching one to two people about our efforts will create the sustainability that we are all looking for.

So, in conclusion, let me encourage you to find something else to do, work up your resume, kick back on the coach and watch some movies and brag about yourself a lot more. You deserve it.

Michael Aiguier is an AmeriCorps VISTA serving at the United Way of Eastern Maine and a guest blogger.