Community Tool Box - Section 3. Providing Support for Staff and VolunteersTable of Contents > Part E. Leadership, Management, and Group Facilitation Chapter 15. Becoming an Effective Manager > Section 3. Providing Support for Staff and Volunteers > Examples - Real world situational examples. >
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| Contributed by Jenette Nagy and Marcelo Vilela Edited by Jerry Schultz, Phil Rabinowitz, and Bill Berkowitz |
Example 1
Example 2
Example 1: Providing Support and Recognition
The Northern Berkshire Coalition has an annual peer recognition award program in which all the members of the coalition nominate peers, mainly line workers, for the award. It's an excellent way to acknowledge, reward and support people, and do it in a way that doesn't just acknowledge the high profile directors.
Barbara Corey in the North Quabbin Community Coalition has a practice that she calls "carding" people. Barbara has a pile of postcards on her desk, and frequently writes long and thankful notes to acknowledge her staff's contributions in various ways. It is quite an amazing experience to be "carded," her staff says. And it's a practice that might be worth to pick up.
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Example 2:
Sue Vineyard is a member of the Board of the Volunteer Leadership Institute. She's been involved with volunteer training for the past 20 years.
Sue believes that a well-run program is one managed by a professional volunteer manager who understands management, marketing, motivation and screening, and really knows the program. The manager must be dedicated to the program, but also to enabling the volunteers to use their energies to best advantage.
When volunteers are new in a group, support must be provided to give the volunteer orientation, Sue said.
"They need it at the very beginning to orient them to the program and to the cause so they can have the tools and the information to do the job appropriately," Sue said.
"So, at the very beginning, I think the director of volunteer services is in the background to help them as they go along," Sue said. "And then at the point where they need to move on or out being able to have an exit interview and learn from them. So the volunteer coordinator can make the program and the jobs even better than they were before."
"I think the biggest support is placing them in a job that fits their skills, motivations and needs, and works around their time commitments," Sue said, referring to the importance of time in people's lives. "Time is the new currency in America. And so people spend it most carefully."
Sue said it was important to be able to place volunteers appropriately in a job that fits them and can satisfy the needs that they have at the same time that the needs of the clients being served are satisfied.
And how does Sue provide support to the volunteers who work with her? Here are Sue's tips:
"Well, you train them, you equip them with the information and any of the tools and support they need to do the job, you involve them in decisions that affect them," Sue advised. "You respect the fact that this volunteer job is only one part of their life and so it has to mesh in with everything else. You make sure that your door is always open to them for legitimate concerns and needs and so forth. "
Support is also recognizing, and Sue is aware of that:
"Make sure that they are recognized, not just at the end of the year with a plaque or a pin or a banquet. But continually, so that they know that what they are doing makes a difference."
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