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Volunteers are the most important part of any group. Without them your group would not function. Remember you, and all your key committee members are volunteers too. Sometimes it's hard to keep that in mind when the pressures of running a group build up. But if your group is to be effective it needs to keep its volunteers. You will need to find them, encourage them, train them, support them and become friends with them. Working with volunteers is a skill like any other to be acquired and developed, and this guide is designed to help with this. Volunteers are, of course, people who have needs as well as skills and energy. A good group co-ordinator or project leader will take the time to work with volunteers to find out what they can bring to a project and what they want to gain from volunteering. It is important to understand and meet their needs. New volunteers often lack confidence. Tottenham Friends of the Earth went through a few months of disorganisation after the departure of a co-ordinator before finding that one member was a highly paid management consultant. She didn't want to run the group but her planning skills helped the new co-ordinator make it work. She had deliberately not talked about her expertise in case "everyone thought I was boring". It is useful to invite all volunteers to fill in a skills sheet when they join the group, as an indication of their current skill levels. A project leader is responsible for what happens on the day. As a result he or she needs to make sure that certain things get done, and this includes the clearing up as much as the more exciting duties. The simple rule is to ask someone to help, as long as you explain what needs to be done and why it is important. If you do find someone who will willingly take on the less exciting duties every week make sure they are happy to do this. They may even like to be invited on to the committee to carry out certain routine duties. However, don't allow someone to be taken for granted in doing the unappealing chores. Spread the jobs around and, if necessary, set up a rota to share out tasks. Above all, avoid the temptation to order people around. This should be obvious but sometimes in the heat of the moment the desire to get a job done can cause people to forget the situation and start issuing orders. In a voluntary group, co-ordinators have power because other people want them to have it, not because they have loud voices. Avoid the temptation to order people around. All content copyright © 1986-2008 BTCV Ltd. Registered charity No. 261009 |
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