Renewed Passion, Inspired by Volunteers

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I have always like meeting up with my volunteer leaders because there is just something which rubs off of them; their passion serves as a wonderful inspiration to me. It is just amazing to see how despite being such busy people in the corporate world, these people still bother to come on a Saturday morning to devote their time to a charitable cause, week after week for 3 years counting. And when they speak, you can sense their passion and how seriously they take their volunteer assignment. In a way, they do put me to shame because it's just amazing seeing how a group of volunteers can be so much more passionate about what they are doing than me, a staff.

As we sat together today for a meeting, it's plain amazing to see how, as volunteers, they seem to own the vision and mission of our organisation, always thinking how they can help our oorganisation raise more money and always hungry for opportunities to do more. In fact, at one point in time, they even shared pointers with one of my new staff on how to work with student volunteers. I soon realise that that brief 5 minutes talk soon became a lesson in basic volunteer management for my new staff as me and the volunteer leaders shared insights with her:

• Number Matters (How many?) - always work with a manageable number of volunteers lest some become restless when they have nothing to do and start disrupting others
• Explaining the Rationale (Why?) - helping volunteers to understand what the organisation is about and how what they are doing is making a difference and impact for beneficiaries, this especially so for indirect support services where work usually entails tasks done behind-the-scenes to support the organisation rather than directly working with beneficiaries. Once volunteers know why they are helping, it would usually help motivate them to try to do their best
  
• Setting the deliverables (What's to be done?) - Helping the volunteers to have a vision of what is to be achieved and this can sometimes involve challenges along the way to make things interesting. The vision will need to be shared and agreed upon.
  
• Assigning Responsibilities (Who's in charge?) - Assign leaders to help organise the volunteers and ensure that everyone helps to achieve the vision.
• Checking in (How's things going?) - Check in on the volunteers to (i) see how they are coping, (ii) see how's things progressing, (iii) motivate them, (iv) troubleshoot (if necessary) and (v) adjust goal (as necessary).
• Rounding Up (How's the experience? What can be better?) - Have a debrief to address what went well and what can be better

We then later discuss how we can partner with another programme to have the volunteers contributing more in a direct manner, helping the beneficiaries. Thinking about all these just excites me as I start to become aware again how my job is somewhat meaningful, bringing people together in partnerships to serve the needy and underprivileged. There seems to be a renewed sense of passion in my work again. After the meeting, we adjourned back to the volunteers' shed so the volunteers can continue with their assignment. I always also like to hang around them because it warms my heart to see camaraderie at work as a group of people work and have fun together.

Thank you my volunteers, for reminding me why I am here. And though I may not be directly involved in helping the beneficiaries, I am reminded by you all again that I have a purpose to play in the whole equation, serving to bring people together and forging meaningful partnerships in making a difference for everyone-beneficiaries, volunteers and staff.