Joined in on a great conversation over on Acronym on volunteer management! Nick Senzee got us started with his question Is there a volunteer problem?, then I asked if the Volunteer Program has No Clothes, and Katie Paffhouse asked Can Policies and Volunteer Enthusiasm Get Along?.
Nick noted “many issues we have in small organizations stem from lack of time. Sometimes I wonder if we’re seeing a sea-change among our chapter leaders” and whether we were saddling our volunteers with “with our own sloppy, “just-because” processes or workflow”. Katie turned that into a direct question about whether we should implement a policy-light strategy where “volunteers in their first 1-2 years should have little interaction with the policies and procedures, if possible.”
The conversation, stoked by commentors including Amanda Gates, Cynthia D’Amour, Shar McBee, David Pratt, Jeffrey Cufaude and Bruce Hammond, has covered many points and ideas. Bruce blogged on it too (and you might also want to read his post on eight things to keep in mind about volunteer management.)
What’s your big idea about improving volunteer management?