How Can I Make This Better?
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by Bessie Wright
My work with volunteers is sporadic. Often I’ll bring a group together for a single day project and won’t see them again for months. This gives me a lot of “down time” between spurts of volunteer activity and I try to use that to my advantage as well as the advantage of the volunteers. I view each lull in a program as an opportunity for re-evaluation.
After every big project I ask myself the following:
- Did everything go as planned?
- If not, what didn’t go as planned and was that a bad thing?
- What, if anything, went poorly and why?
- How do I make this more worthwhile for the volunteer?
- How do I make this easier for the volunteer to effectively complete?
- How do I change this project next time so I get closer to the results I need?
- How can I make this better?
These are questions that every program coordinator (volunteer based or not) should be asking. More importantly, program coordinators need to act on the results of project evaluation. Sometimes taking the time out of a busy schedule to actually change things is the hardest part. I’m lucky that my programs have natural breaks in the schedule. Most coordinators may have to make the time, but program re-evaluation is well worth it.
Bessie Wright is an AmeriCorps member serving with the Maine Conservation Corps.
Programs and projects are always changing. A constantly shifting society, diverse volunteer groups, new technologies and new funding sources force volunteer-based programs to be flexible. By continually re-evaluating programs that inevitable change can be focused, timely and well planned.