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!

Estranged Relationships

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I went to a friend's blog recently and realized that she has a conflict with her sister and decided to start a cold war and even a "no-interaction" policy.

I just felt so strongly (neither positive nor negative) about it (having experienced a soured friendship), I typed the following to her:

Ya, do agree about the part at how fragile relationships can be and the slightest slip-ups can be a big deal.

Have read about this story of 2 good friends who were having so much fun having lunch with one another and laughing and chatting away and when it came the time to settle the bill, Friend A paid first and later her friend B paid her back, to the exact cent. A conflict ensued.

Friend B grew up in a poor family and learnt to appreciate how difficult it was to earn money and thus took a serious view of money. Friend A focused more on friendship and was unhappy that Friend B is so calculative with her as a friend, returning her every single cent...

See how fragile relationships can sometimes be? One moment you can be happy and having fun with one another and the other moment, you have a conflict with one another. It was a great lesson that I had to learn too.

Think we sometimes have to recognize the fact that we are all different people and have different lifestyles, aspirations, perceptions and expectations and being different, we should agree to disagree.

Painful as the conflict mau feel now because it is still so fresh but most time we make a rash decision only to regret it later. Things sometimes seem less intense after sometime, to the extent some may feel it was silly in the first place having the conflict. I feel this way sometimes about some of my conflicts and trust me, the conflict becomes harder to resolve once we wait too long.

Severing ties with someone is a big decision to make and requires careful thought so that we will not regret the decision in future, because that would means lockingthat person out from your life, literally forever.

What will you say when you eventually see him or her again? Do you talk to him or her? Do you give it another chance? Do you remain stubborn and stick to your "no interaction" policy or be super ingenuine and pretend nothing has happened while in your heart you know you were hurt? It is a tough decision to make but whatever it is, a decision has to be made and definitely not arbitrarily.

(Message was slightly edited on 2 Dec)

I guess I have been through a bad conflict and have experienced intense emotions about it and had to make the decision to end a friendship. I just wanted to make sure that people gave careful thought to the decision to severe ties with anyone after a conflict so they will not regret the decision in future. After all, they themselves know best. More thought will have to be given if it affects other parties in the process as well e.g. ending of a marriage with children. It is no longer a selfish decision of 1 or 2 persons but a decision which would ultimately affect more than 1 life.

Walking the Executive Walk / Training Tips

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I have always seen myself to be a heartlander kind of person or rather, I have come to terms and do not foresee myself working in the CBD since I seems to always remain in the social services sector. Being in the social service sector would mean that my offices are usually in the heartland, nearer to the ground and community which we work with.

Symphony of Heels
Therefore, when I made my way to the CBD for course today, felt quite out of place. The experience was a real eye-opener though and was indeed different from what I experience every morning.

Here, you see everyone so prim and proper; in their executive office wear, carrying briefcases and files. Once in a while, you will catch glimpses of people engaged on their phones or scribbling away on their PDAs while walking. The rhythm of the morning goes "click cluck click cluck" with every strike of heels of shoes on the well-polished tiles of the MRT station. It was really a sight to behold. However, when you soon come to the escalator and the crowd slows down, almost with a congestion of people trying to get onto the escalator, you soon find yourself in a mass of people close to each other. You might feel a kind of deadness and coldness as everybody had this aloof, "sianz" or "dont mess with me" kind of look. Think I still prefer working in the heartlands...

Conceptualization Galore
Went to NVPC for training on Volunteer Management and had quite a lot of fun today. Realized that I really like the feeling of being able to conceptualize things. Throughout today, I not only conceptualized how I can work to create change in my organization to build a pro-volunteering culture, I have also tried to conceptualize how I will conduct next week's meeting with my fellow volunteer cordinators in my organization, gaining ideas from the way the training was conducted. Really loved the flow of the workshop:

• Setting the Tone - Workshop began with the right tone, set by the way in which we were all greeted by the trainers (fun & friendly tone) and with games that help participants move around and become familiarize with the environment and other participants (creating a less threatening and more familiar environment).
  In one of the games, they asked the participants to go around and try to arrange themselves according to how long they have been doing volunteer management, lining up from the least experienced to the most experienced and later saying "together among us, we have more than 100 years of experience which can be shared with one another". By laying that down, he was laying the tone that they are not the experts and everyone can be an expert (everyone is an "expert" in their own ways). It helps to communicate (subtlely) that there is the expectation that everyone contrbutes to the session.
  
• Laying Down the Boundaries - Laying down the house rules e.g. attendance, usage of handphones, lunch and break etc helps prevent any "unpleasanties". (From experience: Sometimes, telling the participants that one can just go off to the washroom if necessary (without asking for permission) has the benefit of making the participants feel treated with respect as adults and this also sets the tone. Participants should also be told that it is OK to ask questions and share insights.)
  
• Understanding Your Audience - Games were also used strategically by the trainers to get a quick scan of the profile of the participants e.g. how experienced the group is (using the ranking exercise) and what were the group's general view about volunteer management (by doing a "Agree-Neutral-Disagree" maneuver where those who agree with a statement will stand at one end of the room and those who disagree the other end, the rest in the middle).
• Making the Workshop Interactive - The workshop used a lot of groupwork and asked group to discuss topics and put their discussion points on flipchart sheets. Then recognizing that each may have a different view on the significance/ranking of the points on the sheet, they assign each person 3 coloured dots to vote and finally coming up with the top 3 points being presented as the group's consensus.
  There is later also opportunity for each participant to further rate the points themselves and identify 3 areas for change. Finally, each participant will write a post-dated letter to themselves asking themselves (i) the progress of what they have set forth to achieve, on (ii) how they have been caring for themselves in the midst of the all the work and (iii) reminding themselves to call a fellow classmate to see how they are doing. These letters will be kept and sent back to us 2 months later for us to evaluate ourselves.
• Challenging & Changing Perceptions of Stakeholders (including self)- The workshop also challenged perceptions and tried to make us believe that the work we are doing are valuable. It is only when we believe in the value of our work when we get the motivation to go on. It also helped identify the various stakeholders and help us check our perceptions and expectations of our work vis-a-vis the perceptions and expectations of our work by other stakeholders. By working with perceptions, it is a real effective way of understanding where everyone comes from and forging a "win-win" situation for (almost) everyone. Working with perceptions (rather than behaviours) is very powerful and once we have managed to sell our idea or perception, we have won the battle
• "Working with Cognition-then-Actions" flow - They work with cognition first then actions so that people will believe in what they are doing and see the rationale for doing so.
• Usage of Stories & Visuals to reinforce points - There is plenty of usage of stories and visuals to help reinforce a point made. By using them, it also makes the lesson more interesting. Use humor if possible too.
  
• Usage of Music - Music is also used during exercises to create the ambience for reflection and also make it less boring
  
• Well-Researched Reflective Exercises - There are also well-researched exercises that challenge one to relfect on their current state of work and what could be better.

From my other experience being trained and having trained, here are also somemore tips:

• Opportunities to Jot Down (New) Ideas - This is not from this workshop but rather from another workshop. I find that sometimes new ideas can grow from all the sharing. The classroom is like a nursery for ideas and providing opportunities for people to jot down ideas on their notes (e.g. a "my thoughts" section) or on flipcharts around the room helps encourage this.
• Helping with Info Retention - From experience, sometimes helping participants to understand the flow helps with retention of information as they know what to expect. An helicopter view of the "agenda" is always good so that participants can conceptualize and understand what is taught easily. Sometimes, it is also good to help participants retain info by using acronyms or even using activities (use real life examples) that builds on teachings from previous modules.
  

I think while I gained insights into how I can work to effect change so that my organization can have a pro-volunteer culture, I have learnt even more in terms of conducting training.

Esteem Highs & Lows

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On Tuesday, my esteem went high and low...

Not As Planned
Early in the morning, I was supposed to lead the staff prayer and despite having planned the night before what I wanted to say, how I would be praying and the structure in which I will be conducting the bible verse discussion, things just did not turn out as planned. My prayer was short and soft with frequent pauses in between (very clear that I was lost with regards to what to say) and there were awkward silence during the discussion because I did not know how to facilitate the discussion. But I can see my colleagues trying to help me along the way by keeping the discussion going... felt extremely horrified how I did the staff prayer that day and think I am going to "freak out" the next time I do it again.

I am the Man, the Sound-Man!
The esteem got a real boost when I went to help out at an event in the afternoon. There was supposed to be a senior citizen's christmas luncheon at a hotel with 400 elderly beneficiaries being invited to partake lunch which has been kindly sponsored by a philanthropic family which does this every year (warms my heart to see people being so nice).

I was tasked to handle the sound system and liaise with the performers to ensure the performance items went well. Being new to it and with noone telling me what to do, I consider it a real achievement having came out with a system how I was going to handle to music for the performance items (because each performer gave me a different disc and required me to choose the correct track on the disc, with the correct key, with the correct channel, correct mic volume and music volume). I almost went crazy trying to figure all these out but am glad in the end worked out a system to ensure that I got it right.

At the same time, I was also glad to have been blessed with people who had helped me achieve this. The sound technician was nice enough to also help me along and helped to provide a TV (anticipating that I would need it to verify that I am playing the right song) and helped me remember that the performers might need different kinds of mic (clip-on, wireless and mic on stand).

Puzzling Personality
On Wednesday, I had promised to return back to my old office to meet my director to discuss some matters. When I was back, I was quite surprised that I was still able to provide quite a lot of insights with regards to operations and give recommendations on what would be the most effiicient and effective way of doing things, remembering the possible pitfalls and issues to address. Amazed at my good memory (maybe it is because I had been doing it day in and day out for the past 1 and half years).

Had also done justice to myself because I had rounded-up my work properly, tied up every loose ends, done proper documentation of my work (including drafting out workflows highlighting how I go about doing my work), prepared a handing-taking over sheet which clearly states all my responsibilities and who I have handed them over to. But apparently, the director did not know that I did all these and I was able to "proof my innocence" by producing all these to him.

I was also asked to serve back in the association and maybe take one some tasks on a part-time basis but I declined because I do not want to be in a position where I fail to deliver what I promised because I am not able to balance my work and my obligations to them. It would be unfair to them, unfair to my current organization (since I am not focusing on my job and doing freelance work) and definitely not fair to myself. I did however agree to lend a supportive role and continue to provide insights and "consultancy" as they call it. I think the time has come for me to take care of myself and prevent burnout.

Lastly, I find it puzzling that I put on a different personality when I was in my old office, almost like I was a very confident person, as compared to the personality I put on when in my current office; a quiet, meek and shy person. Can't really explain the difference.

Anyway, on my way home, I tried to hint to the new director what I felt were crucial at this point in time. I was trying to share insights that he has to be sensitive to staff, helping them to feel valued and respected for their experience but ultimately, how he takes it would depends on him. I just feel that the staffing is not stable and am just trying to provide my insights at how I see it.

WWW... Weekend Went Wrong

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Anticipation Builds
I had really looked forward to last weekend because I had really wanted to rest, given all the work that was coming in during the week, was getting a bit tired. There was also another reason why I was looking forward to the weekend: I had planned for a class reunion chalet and was really looking forward to attending it, meeting old friends who I got to know for some 10 years now.

The weekend had however turned out to be a rather unhappy one...

Disappointing Turnout
Well, I did have great expectations that the event will turn out wonderful with old friends sitting around, reminiscing old times, talking and laughing, having much fun. However, the turnout wasn't really good.

Out of a class of 17, we had only about 7 turning up. Although we had quite a good time and did reminisced old times with the photos I brought along, it really turned out disappointing that only so few came despite having engaged everyone in the discussion and having started planning for the chalet some 1 and half months ago. The event wasn't a real "ra-ra" either, just a plain BBQ and chit-chat session (maybe just signs of getting old liaoz, no longer as crazy as "those days" when we were younger). Out of the 7 who came over, only 3, including myself stayed behind... sad indeed...

Guess am quite disappointed that the event didn't turn out as "spectacular" as I had wished. I was however really glad with the opportunity to meet up with my old classmates (despite the bad turnout) and glad with the fact that our class tutor came along and stayed for at least 2 hours.

Walking along the beach @ East Coast Park

"Could have been better" Volunteer Briefing
That Saturday morning, I handled my first volunteer briefing and although I was real happy with the turnout; felt a sense of achievement being able to successfully recruit so many volunteers for my first large-scale project, I was basically "walloping myself up" for not having prepared for the briefing.

Now on hindsight, I should have planned some simple games to break the ice and then proceed to my briefing... but somehow I felt that "I could do it" but somehow, ironically I forgot what I had wanted to say when I was placed in front of 20 pairs of eyes... Reminded me of the time I was entered for a speech competition in secondary school and being complacent, I did not prepare my speech but just remembered the points I was going to make. You guessed it, I forgot what I wanted to say and stood up on the stage, stoning (effect: crickets chirp).

I had stage-fright! I had trained large classes of 40 before and here I was standing in front of my volunteers, lost and not knowing what to say! That's it, I am planning for my next volunteer's orientation and am going to work out a structure for it. At least, I can see it as a good lesson for me to at least prepare for my volunteer briefings in future.

Anyway, I had much fun later joining my volunteers in tidying up the book collection... think a few volunteers also enjoyed themselves.

Disturbing Blog
After the volunteers' briefing, I rushed home to rest a while before rushing off to check into my chalet and get ready for the class reunion. Just before leaving the home, I came across this disturbing blog by a Singaporean which had pictures of her cutting her wrist with blood all over the floor. The last 2 photos showed her handcuffed with stitches (think she was handcuffed to the hospital bed). Just those 5 photos were so powerful and disturbing enough to disturb me for the whole day. It was a real sharp contrast to the morning where I felt much meaning and positiveness being amongst people who cared enough to want to be volunteers and here I felt q lot of negativeness and morbidity. Anyway, apparently it seems that the blogger removed that post today. The images remain stuck in my mind.

"What Do I Say Next?"
I have been struggling with this for some time now but it seemed to have got worst recently (think maybe just getting very irrational). I am always a very shy person (despite many saying I have this cheerful and outgoing disposition) and always have problem warming up to new people and new environments.

It is not surprising to find me always sitting in one small corner of a party, trying to remain inconspicuous. When in a conversation, I always struggle what to say next. Most conversations end up in awkward silence.

Recently, this has worsened to the extent I find that I also had problem sustaining conversations with old friends... I am not sure why things are this way but then somehow I just find sustaining conversations difficult to the extent I am wondering if I have social phobia (may need to read up more about it). Other people seems to strike up a conversation so easily and can sustain an interesting conversation but for me... I feel that I fear being too close too fast and also had all kinds of irrational thoughts going through my mind... "what if he/she doesn't like me?", "What if I say the wrong thing?", "Maybe he/she finds me boring" etc.

Experienced this several times the last week at work and with friends and things just continued to spiral downwards.

Haven't Been in Right State
Haven't really been feeling well these few weeks... within 5 weeks, I had flu one week, food poisoning the next, sprained my ankle 2 weeks later and then also now have sore throat... talking about really not being in the best state.

Coupled with all the negative feelings, which peaked during the last weekend, and not having slept well on Saturday night because of chalet... I just feel so so sick...

Didn't really feel very good either because somehow felt a bit guilty that I chose to skip my cell group and service the whole week. Hahaha, no wonder things are all not going well (joking) :)

Meeting Gone Wrong
Early Monday morning, I have created a crisis and had to rely on so many people to "run to my rescue". There was supposed to be a meeting with a foreign rep who wanted to sponsor an exchange programme for my organization and I had coordinated today's meeting with my 2 directors and a centre head, so it is quite an important meeting. However, AGAIN, I failed to plan early for the meeting. Realized in the morning I had no DVD player to play the corporate video (assumed that there will be one in the room) and had to trouble my colleague to go with me to another department to borrow one.

Then, 30 minutes before the meeting, I realized that the video jack wasn't the right one so I could not connect the DVD player to the projector to the wall jack and needed to climb up to connect the player to the projector which was hanging from the wall. However, the problem is... the wire is not long enough. So my colleague had to call building management to ask for help. Then he suggested no using the projector and borrowing another projector so that we can link up the player to this one rather than the one mounted onto the ceiling (which was too high to connect the player).

He ran to borrow a projector from a neigbouring department but soon realized that the DVD disc could not be read. Then he ran downstairs to grab the VCD version. At this point in time, my boss asked me about the notes for the meeting which I had not make copies for all the 4 participants and had to run to make copies. Was then informed that the rep was at the reception and had to run downstairs to fetch her and saw the building manager pushing a TV set with a DVD player up to the meeting room. In the end, they managed to use the VCD on the player, linked up to the borrowed projector but the video and audio quality wasn't the best because the video skipped at several parts and the audio was muffled (the audio jack was loose).

Overall, the meeting went terribly "screwed-up" all thanks to me for not preparing and testing the equipment a day before. What had began as a simple meeting coordinated by 1 person turned into a chaos involving so many others. Well, overall the meeting went quite OK, minus the "screw-ups".

Although, everything that could go wrong went wrong this morning... I was real glad that my colleagues helped me despite being busy with his work. My boss later came over and despite the "screw-up" she was OK about it and rather than scolding me for it, highlighted how much it can be a important lesson for me (one which I will remember deep) and how amused she was when she come to know how everyone came together to help despite it not being within their area of work. I am really grateful for all these.

Soured Friendship Ended?
Has the chapter with the "beginning to hate me" friend ended? I doubt so... Somehow, had a weird dream that I met him one day to work things out and I was sitting in his car, awkward and silent. That's all I can remember from the dream this morning. Not sure what my brain is trying to tell me.