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Guest Post by Trudy Hamilton

Spring has finally arrived, all at once, it seems. Often, when professionals think about volunteerism, gardening themes will come to mind…plant the seed, cultivate, and your volunteer program will grow and flourish. Usually, this seems to be associated with an annual garden…plant your seeds, feed and care for them, and you’ll have a vibrant, productive result. Unfortunately, you need to repeat each year to obtain the same result.

What if you are tired of annuals? You’d like something that offers more commitment that will last longer and produce greater returns. You want an orchard! You want volunteers who are committed to your organization, which can produce great results with stability.

How do orchardists maintain vibrant, productive, sustainable crops? Tools and maintenance, fertilization, a long-term commitment of resources. Orchardists trim the deadwood, keep on top of new methods and technology.

The same methods can be applied to a sustainable volunteer program. Yes, you start out the same way as with an annual garden. Plant your seedlings (volunteers), and give them lots of care, and room to grow and flourish. The difference is how they will take off on their own, and require less of the initial work required, over time.

By taking care of their tools, maintaining them, and updating them as necessary, an orchardist does several things - prevents the spread of disease, keeps his operation efficient, stays on top of new technology, and demonstrates the value of the resources committed. By taking care of your tools (professional development, best practices, networking, staff and volunteer training, marketing, recruitment, and retention plans) you’ll develop a program that is attractive to both volunteers and your organization, while demonstrating and articulating its value.

When it comes to fertilizing your program, there are several different aspects to look at. The first one is staff. If your agency is new to Volunteer Management (even though they may have had volunteer participation for years), go slowly. Your colleagues will need the basics of volunteer management, from a professional point of view. How does your volunteer program fit with the mission of your organization? Can you get top management involved in creating a vision statement for your program? Staff may also be resistant to using volunteers in ways that are different from what they’ve done in the past. They may have had poor experiences with volunteers in the past, and think it is easier to do it themselves. That said, is it better for your agency to have a staff member do the work of 10 people, or get the staff member to train 10 volunteers to do the tasks?

The next aspect to look at would be the volunteer. Fertilizing them is more than gifts and recognition. It is proper orientation to your agency, proper training and resources to do the tasks they are volunteering to do. Staff may mention that they don’t know how to train a volunteer. Ask them what kind of training they received when they began their job, and let them know the volunteers need the same training.

As for trimming the deadwood, it allows new growth, stops the tree from expending energy on something that is unproductive, making for a much healthier orchard. The same can apply to your program. How often have you heard comments about a volunteer who wants to be associated with your organization, in a volunteer capacity, but is no longer productive? How much of your resources (energy) goes into keeping this person on board, even though there is no return? Of course, it can seem painful at first, but if clear expectations are brought forward, with evaluation on a regular basis, everyone will soon understand what is expected.

For the commitment of resources, an orchardist is committing a portion of his land. A funny thing about a commitment like that…land is a finite resource. They aren’t making any more of it. For the orchardist, this commitment may very well become a 20 or 30 year commitment, with no return for the first 4 or 5 years. If you are committing your resources to a well-developed Volunteer Management Program, you may not see an immediate return, either. It is a return that occurs over time, but the results of attracting the best volunteers, having best practices and policies in place, will make it easier for you to have the time and resources to continue to expand your program.

These are my thoughts, what are yours? How are you growing your orchard?

Trudy Hamilton is a Volunteer Manager at SeniorsPlus.

by Penny Kern

I subscribe to an e-Newsletter called CharityChannel and one of the articles caught my eye and I saved it - March 28, 2007. When we started this blog, I emailed the author, Scott Martin, and asked permission to use parts of one of his pieces for a topic of discussion and he agreed.

The piece was on THE PARTICIPATIVE REVOLUTION and it was about changes organizations are going to have to make to attract and keep volunteers today.

He quoted Judith E. Glaser’s books “Creating We” and “The DNA of Leadership”, (both books I just have to order - they sound great), on the language most organizations and companies use that is turning off today’s volunteers. I never noticed it before but, now that I’ve read his piece, I see these words everywhere and they DO make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I just thought it was I, but I guess not.

Martin blames “scarcity” for the tight hold most staff people have on the organizations because we all live in a world of needing more - more people, more funding, more security. He said, “Perhaps this is one reason why nonprofits, which you would think would be models of democracy, are so often closed systems, resistant to change and risk averse.” Could be, right?

The paragraph is entitled “Language and Unintended Messages.” This hit home particularly because I, too, worked for the Girl Scouts and have seen this for myself. A CEO of a Girl Scout council took their 4-page recruitment brochure and counted 84 words like “must,” “mandatory,” or “required.” She said that in their zeal to promote the health and safety of girls, they had unknowingly used command-and-control language that implicitly communicated that they did not trust volunteers to make their own decisions in the best interests of the girls. When they further examined their organizational practices and training curricula, they realized they had assumed that the behavior of the volunteers and staff could be controlled through the use of rulemaking, mandatory, training, rigid boundary-setting and organizational authority distributed through a positional hierarchy. Over time, these practices had begun to generate unintended consequences in the organization’s culture.

What kinds of messages, intended and unintended, are you sending out to volunteers? Try a simple experiment. Review your volunteer manual. What words predominate? Are you using a vocabulary of control or one of empowerment?

Words of Control: No, Not, Can’t, Never, Must, Ought, Shouldn’t, Required, Mandatory, Prohibited, Grounds for Dismissal, Chain of Command.

Words of Empowerment: Yes, May, Can, Welcomed, Encouraged, Invited, Empowered, Authorized, Collaboration, We, Us

He continues his discussion with a paragraph or two on trust and distrust. “At the heart of the issue of organizational culture is a question of trust. Can other people be trusted most of the time or can you never be too careful? Are volunteers basically good people who want to contribute to the greater good? Or are they walking time bombs that need to be closely monitored and controlled?

It’s a great article - I’d be happy to share the entire piece with anyone, if you’d like. Scott Martin has managed small nonprofits, a United Way, a national service programs and a state office of volunteerism in his 15-years of professional work. He lives in New Jersey and is currently a consultant providing training and one-on-one assistance to volunteer programs on topics related to engaging Baby Boomers in volunteerism.

Penny Kern is a retired volunteer manager from Aroostook County.

by Chris Wolff

I have been working with AmeriCorps since its inception back in 1994. It has been a rewarding experience, to say the least. I still can’t believe it’s been 14 years. Where does the time go?

As I reflect back on these 14 years, I am in awe of all the people I’ve worked with over the years- so many young, talented, dedicated, enthusiastic, passionate, caring people. Due to the nature of the programming I’ve coordinated or directed, I’ve worked mostly with young adults in their 20’s. Sometimes you hear that this generation doesn’t care, but I can tell you that is definitely not the case. If anything, this generation is equipped with the knowledge, passion, and technology to truly make a positive impact on our lives now and for generations to come.

While I was directing the Student Conservation Association’s New Hampshire Parks AmeriCorps Program, I had the pleasure of helping to form a program from scratch, literally. We recruited 20 AmeriCorps volunteers for a 10-month residential program, with a focus on environmental education and trail maintenance. When I say residential, you may have images of dorm rooms. But, this was definitely not the case. We took over a 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the middle of a 14,000 acre park. The building were not insulated, there wasn’t any kind of central heat or year-round running water. The program started in September, and we had to scramble to insulate, sheetrock, install woodstoves, cut, split and stack 30 cord of wood, and figure out a winter water supply. Everyone had to work together as team to make this work. Everyone was issued a hammer, a staple gun, coveralls for the insulation, tape measures and utility knives (many had never used these tools before). The days were long. But, by the first snowfall, we had a cozy, warm dining hall. By the way, the dining hall also became the “dorm” for all 20 AmeriCorps members, with just tarps separating the “rooms.” Needless to say, it was beyond cozy.

Why do I talk about this experience, you may ask? Well, this past summer, this particular cohort of AmeriCorps volunteers decided to pull together a reunion at Bear Brook State Park- our old home. This group has kept in touch with each other all these years, through marriages and children, and really wanted to see each other again in their old home and share stories. I had not seen these members for over 10 years. I was moved by how their year at Bear Brook had shaped their lives and how the experience “stuck” with them after all these years. They appreciated the experience, which challenged them in ways they had not expected, and left them with a sense of pride and accomplishment. They have amazing careers, working as forest rangers, doctors, marine scientists, psychologists, writers, artists, etc. They commented on how the professional development training they received really helped them. One woman went on to pursue her medical degree as a result of the Wilderness First Responder training she received while a volunteer. Several other volunteers pursued graduate degrees in marine sciences and geology as a result of the environmental education and science training they received as volunteers.

It’s important for managers to provide professional development opportunities for their volunteers, whether it’s directly related to their work or not. I encourage host sites to provide time for members to pursue professional development. Many young people are still deciding what to do with their lives or what they’d like to study in graduate school. By providing diverse training opportunities, we are creating a rich experience for the volunteers, which can contribute to higher retention and a life-long learning ethic.

There are many ways to provide professional development opportunities. Many of the adult education programs provide affordable access to technical skill development. Volunteers have participated in numerous conferences and workshops, and can usually apply for scholarships. Program managers can collaborate with other managers to coordinate specific training opportunities by sharing the costs of presenters.

Investing in professional development and allowing volunteers to enhance their skills will bring great payback. Volunteers will feel valued, they will be able to enhance their resumes, be exposed to a new career or education path, and best serve their communities by learning and imparting their new skills for the sustainability of their projects. You never know how this training will help shape the lives of our volunteers and the impact they will have in their communities for years to come.

Chris Wolff is Community Development Director at the Island Institute.

by Margaret Puckett

I am an optimist. You know, one of those “cup is half-full” type of people. I tend to see every “challenge” that rears its ugly head as just another opportunity to succeed. As volunteer program managers we face lots of challenges every day, including the ones generated by the currently shifting composition of our volunteer workforce. The dwindling number of Depression and World War II era volunteers; the increasing number of students now facing mandatory community service requirements to graduate; and of course the steady increase in the number of retiring “baby boomers”; all with vastly different expectations. We are forward thinking; working feverishly on adjusting our programs and ways of operation, and some of us optimists may be thinking we are holding our own pretty well. Well, all of us — including the die-hard optimists — may just be on the verge of a startling reality check.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my volunteers greeted me rather sheepishly saying “Margaret, I have something to tell you and I’m afraid you’re not going to like it.” Ok… Well that type of lead-in will stop any self-respecting volunteer manager dead in his or her tracks. I tried to lighten up the mood. “Oh, come on”, I joked. “It sounds like you think I’m some kind of ogre.” The volunteer laughed, but I could see that whatever was on this volunteer’s mind was affecting her deeply. She continued “My husband and I have been having an increasingly hard time making ends meet. I love volunteering here, but I don’t have a choice anymore, I have to get a job. I went for an interview this week and I’m not sure how much longer I will be able to continue volunteering.”

All of a sudden it hit me. I had been seeing the signs for quite a while now. Volunteers expressing concern that the increasing cost of gas would force them to reduce or even eliminate their volunteering. And other individuals who had recently left volunteering to rejoin the work force. It is quite likely they too were responding to economic need.

We all know that Maine has an exceptionally high number of non-profit organizations when compared with national statistics and other states. Ask anyone involved with fundraising just how tough it is to compete with so many other agencies for tight monetary resources. As volunteer program managers we are also competing for limited resources – human resources – our volunteers. When money gets tight, we’re used to trying to helping to shore up our organization’s capabilities with increased volunteer involvement. But what happens when a steadily weakening economy begins to eat away at our available volunteer resources? Just how much of an impact are we talking about?

If you take a moment to think about just how diverse the services provided by volunteers in all those non-profit groups are you’ll begin to get the picture. The number of volunteers incurring out of pocket expenses by providing services requiring transportation, coupled with those needing to drive long distances to get to their volunteering sites is staggering. The problem is even more exasperated in rural areas of the state.

All of us have seen how often our volunteers spend their own money to buy supplies or equipment because they know it will enhance the service they provide and they also know the organization cannot afford to supply it. What happens when money gets so tight that a volunteer can no longer afford to reach into his or her own pockets. Look at the impact that will have not only on the services we provide, but on the frustration level of our volunteers who want to help, but can no longer afford to do so.

Even those of us involved in programs that don’t deal as often with these types of challenges, must face the reality that as our volunteers begin to feel increasing financial pressure, they too may no longer have the choice to continue volunteering. Just this one issue alone has a potentially far-reaching impact on us all. One thing for sure is that the weakening economy is one issue that will impact us all – and it’s one that we need to take very seriously.

Heads up guys … This could be our biggest challenge yet!

Margaret Puckett is Volunteer Services Coordinator at Saint Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Maine.