Lesson on Volunteer Management

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Oooo, my leg so "sour" now... whole day of running about. They are "sour" but happy legs hahaha...

Woke up excited today because today is my first large-scale volunteer project.

I was helping to plan this book fair with my volunteers and today is the 1st day of the book fair. Earlier on, I felt a great sense of achievement having been able to recruit 70 over volunteers over 4 weeks... then also managed to notices about the book fair in Straits Times, on the Channel News Asia website as well as Teletext... hehehe, feel so proud of myself.

Don't Do It Again!
However, learnt one lesson real hard today... was quite sure I got everything all planned out well... on paper... but eventually, things went wrong again and I only had myself to blame again for not having considered things carefully. But anyway these are all learning points aren't there and I m taking it rather positively because I did tell myself that "I forbid myself from making the same error again next time" and can be seen dotting down notes about how things can be done better the next time round.

Morning Race!
Was on my way to the book fair location and suddenly recalled that although I have asked the 1st batch of volunteers to report an hour before the fair to help set up, I forgot to check whether the store is open (duh!). Anyway, managed to get there and saw the 1st batch of volunteers arrive... I raced up the stairs and quickly went to switch on all the lights along the corridor but alas! could not reach the volunteers' room faster than them.

Lessons in Volunteer Management
Lesson number 1: I must always arrive earlier than my volunteers to prepare the environment.

Lesson number 2: Volunteers must always come first. I was so focused on getting the volunteer tags done that I left the volunteers alone in the book section for quite some time until my regular volunteers came to take over and briefed them... phew!

Lesson 3: I must always prepare extra for everything, especially volunteer tags. On my registration list, I had only average 30 volunteers in each shift but I pleasantly shocked (and greatly taken aback) when I saw some 40-50 volunteers in the morning shift (guess some came without registering) and I did not have enough tags.

Lesson 4: Never practice double-standards. I was real happy that I did not make the decision to use the tags because I did not want to practice double standards where some volunteers had tags and some didn't. Later, one of my regular volunteers saved the day and suggested I use stickers so I frantically ran around looking for stickers and wrote the word "volunteer" one-by-one... the whole morning I was literally fire-fighting for this issue and had to run around looking for each volunteer and gave them the sticker.

Lesson 5: Help volunteers feel pride in the work they do. I gave the group leaders "Team Leader" tags to "empower" them. Happy things turn out well in the end.

Lesson 6: Show volunteers you care. Tried to do a bit of damage control and was running around "delivering" water... Had to make sure that the volunteers get enough water and at least I was real happy I did not forget about this... amist all the running around. Managed to build a bit of rapport with my volunteers (although I was still so shy and always do not know how to talk to them). Had one volunteer who somehow disappeared; I was busy talking to one of my volunteers and at the corner of my eye, I saw a volunteer who had arrived but looked lost. No one attended to him and by the time I ran to look for him, he was gone... guess I can't blame myself because this volunteer knows that he can report to me but somehow did not come back to look for me but disappeared. Maybe all I can do the next time is to ensure I have enough seasoned volunteers around to make sure everyone is helped.

More Lessons (updated 5 Dec 2005)
Lesson 7: Always use your handphone number for volunteering publicity because some will just get frustrated calling you in the office and not being able to get you when you are helping out offsite.

Lesson 8: Maintain a contacting listing of all your volunteer leaders for ease of communication.

Lesson 9: Staff and volunteer leaders need to be briefed before the event to let them know their role.

Lesson 10: Limit the number of volunteers to prevent overstaffing the event which wastes limited resources e.g. cost of providing meals exceeds proceeds from event.

Lesson 11: The location for briefing and orientation is important and the session should give an overview of the organization and the centre and should focus on the role the volunteers play in the "bigger scheme of things".

Lesson 12: Send thank you notes (to staff, volunteer leaders and volunteers) with opportunity for volunteers to give feedback and suggestions, update them on upcoming volunteering opportunities and on how meanignful their contributions have been, share photos of event, invite them for upcoming events as well as provide them the opportunity to sign on as regular volunteers.

Lesson 13: Organize debrief after every event and share positive points, comments from volunteers and lessons to be learnt.

Lesson 14: Capitalize on inhouse publicity to raise profile of volunteers e.g. inform in-house editorial team and invite them to cover the event.

Lesson 15: If food is to be provided, ensure food preferences are met e.g. non-spicy, vegetarian, halal etc. Lesson 16: Take lots of photo of volunteers happily at work and group photos.

A Job Well Done!
I think the greatest achievement is the fact that the volunteers all seemed to enjoy themselves and they all "clicked" with one another very quickly and was having so much fun tidying up the different book sections. Can even see some taking ownership of the sections and "rose to the occasion"... some (new volunteers) eventually became so good taking charge of the collection that they looked like "seasoned volunteers" and can be seen briefing other new volunteers on what to do... In the end, the whole book collection on the 2nd floor looked so organized that all the seasoned volunteers agree that it was a job well done by all the volunteers. Some volunteers also stayed on the whole day despite only registering to help for a couple of hours. Lesson 7: never underestimate what volunteers can do, they can be real efficient and creative. Lesson 8: Volunteers regardless of their task should know how they are helping the needy and I have decided that when I return to office next week, I will get my hands on the figures for the amount raised by them over the 2 days and thank them all. That would make volunteering so much more meaningful.

I was also real glad that I had the support of my volunteers and together we made a good team putting the event together... I tend to be good with organization but not as good with building rapport (which I felt they did tremendously well). Kudos to all of them!