volunteerplaintalk

Category: organizations

A Professional Rejection is Still a Rejection

Jeremy has been managing volunteers for several years at an organization that helps disabled veterans. A social worker, Jeremy spends about 10 hours a week working with volunteers who help veterans find housing and medical care. They also do fundraising activities and office work. “I laughingly call the volunteer management aspect of my work, my part-time job. I can’t give the volunteers as much time as I’d like, but for the most part, they are fortunately pretty self-starting and able to monitor themselves.”
Jeremy continued, “We were in the process of ramping up our volunteer program to take on some new initiatives and I was asked to try to find someone to help recruit more volunteers. Luckily, one of our volunteers, June had a friend, Trisha, who, before retiring was a marketing rep at a large textile firm. June said that her friend might be interested in helping us, so I called Trisha and she agreed to come in and talk.
Trisha came in and met with me and my supervisor, Eileen. Eileen is the one who originally requested more volunteers for our new initiative. Both Eileen and I were incredibly impressed with Trisha’s qualifications. She had gone through extensive marketing seminars at her textile firm and she was extremely knowledgeable on targeted recruitment. She said that she believed in our mission, and that she would be happy to spearhead a campaign to recruit more volunteers. My supervisor, Eileen was thrilled and excitedly gave Trisha pretty much the go ahead to use her vast knowledge and experience. Eileen gave her a “carte blanche” mandate to get this done so we went over Trisha’s plans and agreed to meet in two weeks.”
Jeremy then said, “a week later, Trisha sent me an email saying that she thought long and hard about the opportunity and decided to decline helping us with recruitment. I was shocked, just shocked, given the positive meeting we had the week before. I couldn’t imagine why she had changed her mind, I mean I didn’t even speak to her but I know that she had emailed Eileen several times. I saw that Eileen was also notified and I tried to reach her, but the entire management team was at a retreat so I couldn’t find out what might have happened.”
Jeremy continued, “I was just so thrown by this change of heart and so the next day when I saw June, I asked her if Trisha had spoken to June and sure enough she had spoken with her friend several times. I asked June to tell me the reason Trisha decided to quit after our first very positive meeting. I said, ‘June, we really hit it off and if I did something or wasn’t clear, I need to know that so I can explain or apologize if I need to.’
At first June was hesitant to say anything and then finally, she opened up.”
Jeremy took a breath, “June told me that Trisha was at first very excited about connecting with our organization and was making some real plans. But then, as she emailed Eileen for some specifics like demographics, targeted populations etc, the tone of Eileen’s emails changed. Eileen told Trisha that all her recruitment plans needed to go through a committee for approval. She also wanted Trisha to meet with the marketing department so that they could tell her which clubs and organizations to steer clear of because marketing wanted to target them first. Evidently the marketing department wanted to provide her with all the proper wording for her recruitment and they wanted final approval on her messaging. Marketing also said that they were very busy and could fit Trisha in for a short meeting in a couple of weeks.”
Jeremy sighed. “June said that Trisha, while at first excited about the assignment, soon became leery of all the layers of bureaucracy being heaped on her. She told June that it felt like being back at work, and just having retired, she did not wish to return to a job, especially one that didn’t pay. Now, I honestly don’t know whether to approach her on a softer project or to just let her go.”

Asking volunteers who are professionals to head up or direct projects can be a real elevation of volunteers within our organizations. But if our organizations wish to utilize a volunteer’s professional skills, then that volunteer will have expectations that their professional skills be respected.
Eileen’s colossal mistake was giving the signal for Trisha to “head up” a project and then killing the momentum by subjecting Trisha’s plans to layers of rules and regulations. It is the old bait and switch. Come to our organization and utilize your talents and skills but now that you’re here, we want you in this box.

Had Eileen asked for Trisha to become a “volunteer consultant” on a recruitment plan, the whole interaction may have gone better. Not only did they lose a valuable resource in Trisha, they created a negative advertiser as well, and Trisha, being a professional probably has a circle of professional friends who will hear from her that volunteering for Jeremy’s organization is well, disappointing.

We, volunteer managers are always looking to elevate our volunteers. Every day we encounter amazing individuals who can better our organizations with their skills, wisdom and experience. We have to keep advocating for volunteers like Trisha to be treated with clear messaging and courtesy.

If our organizations really want professional volunteers, then we’d better elevate the role of the volunteer manager, who has the skills to recruit and retain those very desirable folks.
-Meridian

November 19, 2014
Soulplasty

I didn’t make an appointment to repair my soul, because I really never stop to think that I need it. Every morning, I can see in the mirror how a face lift would go a long way to erase crinkling lines, but my soul, well it’s hard to see, at least in the daytime.
So, when, Hannah, a volunteer who roams the floor of a hospice care center came and got me, I wasn’t thinking about going under life’s knife, but then you have to know Hannah.
So quiet, she sometimes melts into the carpet, Hannah, at just over 5 feet tall, is like a submarine in shallow water. Her radar is spot on and in between her torpedo jokes, she gets to the heart of a patient and family. When Hannah summons you to “see this” you’d better believe it’s beyond cute or nice or lovely. It’s soulplasty. She summoned me on Monday to hear about a terminally ill man in one of the rooms. “I’ve been invited to be in on the ceremony,” she said as if I knew what the heck she was talking about.
“What ceremony?” I asked.
“The wedding.”
“Wedding? Who’s getting married?”
“He is, the patient, George.”
“Oh, wow, who is he marrying?”
“His live in girlfriend. I’m waiting for the chaplain.”
It didn’t surprise me that Hannah would be included in something so personal, so intimate, so life altering. She has this way of entering a room. She arrives, testing the emotional temperature with her eyes and ears, and becomes a part of the scene. She doesn’t throw out pleasantries, she’s all business and that business is the family in front of her. Her demeanor says, “I’m here and I’m all in no matter what’s going on.”
Our chaplain arrived. I really wanted to ask to join the group, but of course that would be about me and not about the patient so I picked at a piece of peeling wallpaper down the hall waiting to hear.
Hannah came out a short time later and nodded to me. It was done. I got some coffee and waited for Hannah to join me at a table in the lounge. She sat down and unwrapped her very long very chic scarf as if removing a part of a uniform.
“How did it go?” I asked.
She sat for a moment, processing and then spoke. “It was really good, he’s barely able to speak now, but he got the words out. He told her what he needed to say.” She choked up a bit and stopped. I could only just sit there and try to grab the emotions filling the room.
“What about his wife?”
Hannah smiled. “She positively glowed.” She twirled her scarf in her hand. “This was the one thing he insisted on, the one thing he had to do before he died.”
“Was it for a religious reason?” I gently asked.
“No.” She paused and sipped her coffee thoughtfully. “He didn’t do it out of guilt, or responsibility, or some social expectation, he did it because for him, it was his own personal responsibility laid bare. It was out of pure love.”
We both grew quiet. Then Hannah said, “Do you ever get a moment when everything seems to make sense?”

Yes, I actually do.
Yesterday I spent the day helping honor veterans for veterans day. As I stood in the cold room of a Navy Pilot, he softly said, “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.” Tears filled his eyes, and he shakily reached for my hand. I got close and felt his weakening life through his grip. He looked up at me and for a moment everything melted away, the room, the facility, the world. I could feel the battles, now distant, the coming home, the hard work, the family and friends, the joys and the heartaches. His voice, just a whisper now held the power of eternity.

It is this reparation of soul, whether we feel it firsthand or through the stories of our volunteers that give us sustenance. It is the interconnectedness of human to human to human and on that makes us do what we do.
I’m taking my newly repaired soul back to work and know that it will get battered with stress and challenges. But, at least I also know that another moment of soulplasty will come my way just when I don’t know I need it.
-Meridian

November 12, 2014
Happy International Volunteer Manager (Leader) Day!

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm

While doing some research, I came across this comparison between a manager and a leader and that got me thinking about our jobs. Are we managers or leaders or both? I’ve included the main points of the article below, but you can read it in its entirety if you follow the link above at changingminds.org.

What is the difference between management and leadership? The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.

Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.

By definition, managers have subordinates – unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority.

Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.

Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.

An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a ‘happy ship’.

Leaders do not have subordinates – at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.

Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts’ desire.

Leaders with a stronger charisma find it easier to attract people to their cause. As a part of their persuasion they typically promise transformational benefits, such that their followers will not just receive extrinsic rewards but will somehow become better people.

Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.

Although leaders are good with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In order to keep the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and aloofness.

This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks – in fact they are often very achievement-focused. What they do realize, however, is the importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision.

Perhaps we should call ourselves volunteer leaders who manage projects, for truly that is what we do. We lead people, but manage tasks or projects. It is always the people portion of our jobs that reveals our true impact on our programs, although this may not be measurable in traditional ways. How do you measure a volunteer who, because his volunteer leader believes in him, becomes a great volunteer? What stat is served when a volunteer manager spends extra time finding the right volunteer for a sensitive assignment? How can figures show the satisfaction volunteers derive from being shown how much they are helping clients?

On this day, I hope everyone can take just a moment to reflect on the impact volunteer leaders have on not only the people we serve, but the volunteers we engage to serve. This balancing act of leading while managing takes diplomacy, skill, patience, diligence, fortitude, courage and stamina. As one volunteer said to her volunteer leader, “I can see how difficult your job is, what with all the different personality types you deal with, not to mention all the other people, like other staff and families you work with too. But I do know that if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t still be volunteering. You saw something in me that I didn’t know I had, the ability to relate to people on a deeper level. I will always be thankful for you in my life and I’ll wager there are so many others who feel the same way.”

So, for a moment, forget the tasks, forget the stats, forget the pile of unfinished business and think about all the people who have been touched by your vision. Know, in a quiet soul filling way, that the late nights, the exhausting planning of parties, the hours of hearing stories, the endless follow ups, the measured convincing, the tireless advocating, the off hour hospital visits, the struggles to remember birthdays, the constant plans for innovation, the never being away even on trips, and the continuing search for dynamic in services all reflect on the sphere of influence you have created in the world. Know that you make a difference, and although it may not be clear at every moment and to every administrator, it is clear in the universe. Stay the course, continue to lead, for the world needs you.
Cheers to you all, leaders of volunteers!
-Meridian

November 5, 2014
Where the Heck is My Paper Shredding Volunteer?

Arrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh.

So, we all know there is a paradigm shift happening in volunteer management. As the WWII generation sadly leaves us, we are looking to the baby boomer generation and on to fill their prodigious shoes. When I first started working with volunteers, the greatest generation was busily humming along, doing every and anything necessary to fill needs. Nothing was beneath them and honestly, I didn’t manage any of them, I basically stood back in awe and occasionally ran for some refreshments. They taught me humility for it was in their essence to be humble, hardworking, non-complaining, authority respecting and generous.

As I watch their faces grow more lined, their limbs more trembling, their gait unsteady, I can only stand by helplessly, offering a hand to their elbow as they decline. Their eyes, though, clear as an autumn sky, still hold the hardships they endured as they endure one more.
As these volunteers age and retire, we, volunteer managers know that the next generation of volunteers will be different, will be their own people with a new skill set needed to recruit, engage and cultivate them. So, as I read the research and advice on how to find and keep great baby boomer volunteers, I make note of not only the advice that’s out there, but the experiences I’m having as well. I’m seeing that boomers are different; they are not as inclined to want repetitious jobs or confining schedules. They want more perceived meaning in their lives and they balk at boring assignments and rigid requirements. A lot of them look at volunteering through a spiritual or universal prism and speak freely about their journey to find meaning. There are those who were very active in the 60’s revolutions and after working corporate jobs for years, want to return to their activism roots.
But back to the WWII generation. I remember Dora, a volunteer who came in to shred papers. Her husband was a big band trumpet player and she accompanied him on USO tours during the war. She would sit for hours in front of the shredder, pulling staples and paper clips, shredding no more than three pages at a time. Dora was possessive of the shredder and when another greatest generation gentleman, Bob came to shred papers, she sniped about how he didn’t do it right. Bob, a man who was orphaned during the Great Depression, was a bombardier who flew missions over Germany. Those two volunteers knew that we needed the sensitive material shredded and they dutifully spent their time helping us see that job done right. For them, there was no answering of phones, no fund-raising, no strategic planning, nothing except paper shredding with no complaints.
Both Dora and Bob died some time ago. I tried to replace them and could do it piecemeal for a while by asking office volunteers if they would “just do it for an hour” while they were at work. An easy job became harder and harder to fill as Bob’s and Dora’s generation started to slip away.
As we grew used to the dwindling of the generation that included widows who never worked and needed more training and help with office duties and war heroes who never spoke about their experiences, we embraced the boomers who work hard, have boundless skills and opinions and challenge us to dig deep for a more involved volunteerism.

So, what’s the challenge? It lies in being able to integrate the paradigm shift into the fabric of our organizations. Newer organizations or those run by young people already have a deep understanding of millennial and generation X and boomers. It’s the organizations that are older, run by long-term administration who looks at volunteer services as “it’s always been thus.” Convincing them that no one wants to shred paper anymore after it’s been shredded for years by willing volunteers is tricky.
I loaned a volunteer out to another department who needed one time help putting together last-minute binders for a presentation. Jill, a fabulous boomer who normally works on statistics and research agreed to lend a hand for a day. She came back and pleaded, “don’t ever ask me to do that again because I will quit first. They had me copy a 100 page binder thirty times. Do you know how many people came up to me and complained that they couldn’t get copies made while I was there? And the machine ran out of toner, then it jammed, I think it probably overheated too. I had to just stand there and watch as the copier ran. It was excruciating!”
Thankfully, Jill happily returned to her more meaningful tasks and we laugh about her foray into “copier purgatory.”

As we have adjusted our thinking regarding volunteers and their changing involvement, our organizations need to rethink their view of volunteers as well.
Old thinking: Volunteers will do any job regardless of how tedious.
New thinking: Volunteers need meaningful experiences.
Old thinking: Jobs that have always been done by volunteers will happily continue to be done by volunteers.
New thinking: Maybe we should invest in a paper shredding service and use volunteers for more important jobs.
Old thinking: Volunteers are all the same, they come to be helpful, we tell them how to be helpful, they do the job and go home happy.
New thinking: Volunteers have so much wisdom, experience and passion to offer, let’s find ways to tap into that.

Bringing research and evidence that volunteering is changing and that we must adapt is no small mission. Telling management that old thinking is well, old thinking and that it is nearly impossible to find volunteers to do menial tasks without sounding negative takes finesse. Being proactive and showing what the new volunteer paradigm can do goes a long way to ease the pain of losing shredding volunteers.
Let’s see, volunteers who shred papers vs. volunteers who design websites or consult or have management experience? Hopefully, organizations choose a new wave of professional skill sets over mundane tasks.

Old thinking: All a volunteer coordinator has to do is ask and a volunteer will magically appear to shred.
New thinking: It takes multiple complex skills on the part of our volunteer coordinator to engage the new volunteer. Let’s listen to him or her about volunteerism and accept that he or she has done the research and has knowledge on the subject.
Added bonus or really new thinking: Let’s give him/her some much-needed recognition next Wednesday during International Volunteer Managers Day.
-Meridian

October 29, 2014
The Shiny New Coin

The shiny new coin, there is nothing like it. It actually has a scientific reason for its radiance. During the coin striking process, the mint luster is born. The coin isn’t shiny because the mint polishes it, it is shiny because the metal changes on a molecular level.
David is a retired physicist. When he arrived at new volunteer orientation, I honestly did not know what to make of him at first. A giant bear of a man, his full white beard and shaggy head of hair made him look like a cross between Santa Claus and a guy who just stumbled out of the wilderness. His soft shoes and wrinkled khakis matched his sleepy voice. “I hope I’m not late” he said quietly as he joined the others. The other volunteers, who had already arrived looked up at him and then at me as if to say, “Who on earth is this guy? And what will we do with him?”
Our class was fantastic as most volunteer orientation classes are. I love to watch the group dance around each other at first, then slowly as they learn their group rhythm, they take partners and switch as they emotionally swirl around the room, getting to know each other. As their comfort level increases, they relax and share opinions, histories, fears and hopes. It’s invigorating, educating and fulfilling all at the same time.
I thought David might be the wallflower, awkward and shy, unable to garner a dance with anyone, but I was wrong. In his calm voice he engaged everyone brilliantly, doing an emotional tango with each member of the class. Before long, we had lively debate and discussion, tempered with genuine care for one another. We met four times and I know I came away feeling refreshed. I hoped the class members did as well.
David called me several times before he was placed with a volunteer mentor and I got to know more about this shiny new coin. He had some experiences helping friends and relatives, but this was his first formal volunteering venture. We talked about questions he had regarding working with dying patients, and we talked about personal motivations. He was hesitant and hopeful and promised to call me after his first real experience.
David called me this past Monday morning. It was about 9am and as with every Monday, the week seemed daunting so when he called I sat myself down and tried to focus. “Hi David,” I said, “what’s going on?”
David asked me if I had time to listen and I of course said yes. With volunteers, any time is the right time. If we put them off, we’ll never carve out the precious time to hear what they have to say. As I settled in, David said that he mentored with a seasoned volunteer, Hal in a hospice house. He told me that Hal showed him around, teaching him all the little things that needed to be done. Then Hal brought David into a room with a patient, Mary. Mary, an 87 year old former cook from Ireland was lying peacefully, eyes closed in her bed, and Hal whispered a hello that hung in the air. He quietly told David that Mary did not respond to his voice but that he would often just sit with Mary so that she wasn’t alone.
“Would you like to sit with her while I check on other patients,” Hal asked David and he agreed, but was somewhat nervous at his first real experience.
David’s voice grew quiet, a breath in the line. “I don’t know what possessed me, but I sat close to Mary and looked at her face. Something took hold and I started singing softly. I sang “Danny Boy” to her and I don’t really ever sing, not much. I would imagine that she couldn’t hear me, but she opened her eyes and looked at me. And then she smiled, the most beautiful peaceful smile I’ve ever seen. When I was done, she closed her eyes again. So I sang another song and she opened her eyes again and watched me sing. Every time I would stop she would close her eyes, and when I would sing again, ever so softly, she opened her eyes. I can’t quite put into words, but I felt like we connected on a level so deep that time and place meant nothing.”
“Wow,” was really all I could whisper, caught in the still moment.
“Is it always like this?” David asked and I could picture him on the other end of the phone, his molecular volunteer structure lined up so perfectly.
What could I say? “The possibilities are yours to find,” I told him. (Just like we found you, a shiny new coin.)

My Monday melted away and I felt my molecules returning to their own luster. If I helped even just a wee bit in aligning David’s molecular volunteer structure, I feel honored and humbled and so fulfilled.
As we mentor the volunteers in our care, think of their volunteering as a newly minted coin, forged by inspiration.
The shiny new coin. There’s nothing like it.
-Meridian

October 22, 2014
Nepotism Volunteer Style

From the “Common Sense Observation Dictionary”: Nepotism=Hiring really obnoxious, unqualified people who are related to someone in power and cannot be fired so get used to it.
Is nepotism really that bad and does it exist in the volunteer world?

Well, you might have noticed that when the economy slows and there are very few jobs out there, it becomes all about who you know or who your Mom works for. Organizations are really not immune from nepotism. A job in finance opens up and before you can recommend a really awesome volunteer who ran a CPA firm for years, boom, a senior manager’s son who just graduated with a degree in ancient religions is sitting at the new desk. Now the finance department has to teach him everything from the ground up, while he continues to spend his lengthy lunch hour looking for a position in a museum.
There’s the out of work husband, the newly graduated son, the recently laid off daughter. Family ties are never so strong as when the relative of a favored senior manager needs a job. At times you watch, feeling the helplessness, as the supervisor of this new employee has a hard time reprimanding him because he doesn’t follow rules or he just doesn’t do the work. And you muse, “what have we become? I thought we were an organization based on ideals.”

Nepotism extends to volunteering as well, so henceforth, I will refer to them as “nepoteers.” Cindy, a volunteer coordinator said, “One of my senior managers has a daughter who needs hours for scholarships. Now, I am happy to take this student, but the senior manager waited so long that her daughter can’t come to orientation and can’t really follow the path I have set out for students. Now, I have to fast track the daughter to help out the senior manager. It’s really not that big of a deal, but it’s irksome that because it’s a senior manager, I have to bend the rules.”

Does a nepoteer need court ordered community service hours and it’s against your policy to accept them, but you come to find out that a manager really needs a favor from you and so you accept their relative? Do you have strict rules regarding volunteer training or age limits and you end up bending rules to help out a favored employee? Do staff members say, “But, even though she’s 12, she’s incredibly smart and mature, and oh, by the way, she needs to be here all day, every day during summer and really needs to be busy.”
I am recalling the time a friend of mine, Megan, who was a volunteer coordinator for a very short time, accepted a nepoteer who was 15 and the daughter of her organization”s CEO. Megan remembered, “Evie, the 15-year-old, would show up for her shift and then sneak out the back door and meet her boyfriend. I chased after her twice and then got up the nerve to report her to her mother. Do you know what her mother’s response was? She said, ‘yes, I knew she would try to sneak out, that’s why I brought her here. I can’t leave her alone. So, whatever you do with her, don’t let her sneak away.’”

Just as staff sometimes has to adapt to a nepotism employee, we sometimes have to adapt to a nepotism volunteer. The challenge for us is twofold. We dream at night that the nepoteer rats on us and tells the high-ranking manager that we are incompetent. On the other hand, we realize that if this nepoteer is ambivalent about having to volunteer, but for some reason has to, then what can we get from them to help our clients?

I remember reading a blog a few years back in which a young man talked about having to do community service. He spoke of his experience at a volunteer site and at first made fun of the volunteer coordinator and her “niceness.” Oh did that make me mad, but as he wrote further, he came to begrudgingly appreciate the mission of the organization. Wow, I thought, kudos to that volunteer coordinator.
That day, I realized that I was being horribly judgmental when faced with nepoteers. I was dismissing them because I thought the reason they came was not a good enough one. I was building a barrier because I figured they couldn’t possibly do good work as their motivation was not pure. But heck, I realized that all the other volunteers come with so many different motivations and I didn’t prejudge them, so prejudging the nepoteer was hypocritical and unfair.
So the next time I was handed a nepoteer, a 14 year old male who needed to complete service hours, I made myself welcome him. Daniel shook my hand, scanned everything on my desk, from the disarray of papers to the pink glass elephants and worry doll (given to me by volunteers traveling to exotic lands-please take me next time) and said, “my Mom told me you were a busy lady.” I smiled. He turned out to be one of the most engaging young students I have ever met. He was able to chat with anyone, regardless of age, culture and prejudices. He would bounce in and tell me physics jokes and we had a good friendly sports rivalry. He gave me numerous computer tips, and baked cookies in his young Renaissance man style.
Was Daniel a coincidence or was Daniel dropped in my lap for a universal lesson? Had I treated him with disdain, would he have been a different nepoteer?
What I learned was that volunteer motivation applies to nepoteers as well. Their motivation may be to complete an assignment, check off hours or fill time. We see these reasons to volunteer all the time in other volunteers.

And maybe not all nepoteers will be a Daniel. Maybe not all nepoteers will suddenly become so engaged that they win a volunteer award.

But maybe, if our treatment of nepoteers is no different than our treatment of volunteers, they may do some good work and leave a friend to the mission.
-Meridian

October 15, 2014
Flirting With Disaster

Christian was hired as the volunteer manager for a small hospital. After spending ten years as a human resources generalist, he wanted to utilize his skills while working with folks who wanted to give back.

“I replaced the former volunteer coordinator, Janice, who was moving out of the area. She had been in charge of the volunteers for five years and we spent about two weeks together before she left. The volunteers on the whole were very sorry that she was leaving. They were really attached to her.”

Every volunteer manager has their own unique style of managing volunteers. Some are gentle and kind and encourage volunteers with praise and genuine caring. Some are a combination of inspiration and a perceived expectation of excellence. Some are masterful negotiators and visionaries. Some are light-hearted and fun, others are serious and meaningful. Most are combinations of all of the above. Few of us can be authoritarians or dictators, at least not for long.

“What I discovered a few weeks after Janice left was just how much the volunteers were attached to her. I can’t tell you how many times I heard a volunteer say, ‘Janice didn’t do it that way’ or ‘Janice would never have asked that.’ At first I kind of expected it, but as the weeks wore on, it became more of an us against him situation.”

What Christian was experiencing is the unraveling of the management style instituted by his predecessor. He stepped into a role that was not his style and so the volunteers, used to Janice’s management, were chafing at her absence. It wasn’t so much a rebuff of the new leadership as it was missing the old leadership.

“The more I spent time with the volunteers, the more I realized how intertwined they were with Janice. She knew so much about each one. She socialized with many of them, went to their family functions, had lunch with them, and stayed with them in the hospital. They had her personal cell number. One lady, Bea told me that Janice helped her buy a car. Another volunteer, Simone said that Janice found bargains for her online. It was all so overwhelming, I mean, I was hired to do a job, but I never expected that my job was a 24/7 immersion into the volunteers’ personal affairs. When I was in human resources, I never walked the dog for an employee or planned a birthday party for a grandchild. I simply did my job.”

Christian’s experience went beyond taking over a job from a popular coordinator. He was unknowingly walking into more than a job, he was walking into a cult of personality.

“I started asking the other staff about Janice and the volunteers. I learned that Janice was extremely social and gregarious and that she had a positive attitude and sense of humor. I already knew that from spending time with her before she left. But what I heard from many of the staff is that Janice often seemed frazzled and complained about stress. I also heard that she was somewhat flirtatious, which, on the surface doesn’t seem too harmful, but I now feel a real sense of indifference from the men who volunteer. It’s as if I’m personally responsible for Janice’s leaving.”

Managing volunteers is challenging enough without having to replace someone who has created a cult of personality and Christian, no matter what he did to win the volunteers over, was just not Janice.

“The volunteers would do anything for Janice, and she was very successful in filling all the jobs. But I got to tell you, the first few days, I just thought that the volunteers were really wonderful people who truly wanted to help others. Now I’m finding that yes, the volunteers are wonderful people, but I’m not so sure if they want to help others or if they just wanted to please Janice. I ask them in the nicest way to take on a an assignment and I try to ask them questions about their families, but they are somewhat cold towards me. I haven’t lost any of them yet, but I expect that to occur any day, because although they have direction from me, they seem lost without her.”

Stepping into anyone’s role is hard but stepping into a status quo that you cannot duplicate is incredibly challenging. As volunteer managers, we walk a fine line between being professional and being involved. We sometimes utilize whatever skill works to fill volunteer requests. We often become very comfortable with our volunteers and develop strong relationships with them.
But, every now and then, we have to do a mental check on our own style of volunteer management to ensure that we have created a professional atmosphere and that our volunteers are loyal to the clients we serve and not us. The mental check goes something like this:
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement find all the systems in place they need to succeed?
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement be able to continue the calendar that I have set up for volunteer meetings, events, training’s, educational in services etc?
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement find the volunteers welcoming or will he find hostility because the volunteers are loyal to me instead of the mission?
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement find that boundaries have been consistently crossed with volunteers, hence making her work life impossible?
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement have a list of currently active, currently inactive and also former volunteers?
If I leave tomorrow, will my replacement walk into utter chaos or find a smoothly run department?

Ahhhh, if we can occasionally look critically at our work with the eye of our potential replacement, we might just discover some things that need our attention. We might just see the forest instead of those pesky daily, demanding trees that get in the way.
And if a professionally run environment is better for our potential replacement in case we happen to leave, then isn’t a professionally run environment better for our own health and well-being?
-Meridian

October 8, 2014
Confessions and Connections

Sometimes our view of the volunteer world can be shaken. We read that a volunteer harmed a vulnerable person. We find that a volunteer was hiding a checkered past or we observe a volunteer behaving in an unseemly manner.
We send a volunteer out to do a good job and when we hear nothing to the contrary, we assume that everything is rolling along smoothly, because everyone realizes the worth of a volunteer and will welcome that volunteer, right? At least we hope it happens that way until we hear a confession sometime later…
Kaya, a hospice volunteer coordinator was speaking to a former volunteer, Jayne. Jayne has been battling a chronic illness that prevents her from volunteering but, when healthy, was one of the most called upon and successful patient volunteers.
In between all the catching up, Kaya and Jayne chatted about a few of Jayne’s favorite assignments and most interesting patients and families. She provided respite care to families in homes and brought companionship to nursing home residents.
Kaya said, “Jayne played by the rules, turned in paperwork on time and always was cognizant of her representation of the mission. But at one point Jayne asked me if I remembered assigning her to see patients in the Golden Oaks nursing home.”
Kaya hesitated. “Yes, I said, I remember that, but I also remember that you couldn’t go back because of the cleaning fluid they used. It gave you respiratory problems. But then Jayne told me that wasn’t true at all, that she lied to me and asked me if I wanted to hear the real story. I, of course said yes and she told me this story.”
Kaya shook her head, but she continued, “Jayne said that she went to visit a patient at Golden Oaks, a 90 some year old lady who had end stage Parkinson’s disease. She said she was in the room with the patient when a staff member came in with a lunch tray and told Jayne to feed the patient. Jayne said she told the staff member that she was not allowed to feed patients and the staff member got mad and demanded to know why she was there in the first place if she couldn’t really be any help. Jayne said she kept her cool but another staff member, who appeared to be a supervisor came into the room and basically said the same thing.” Kaya stopped for a second. “I can’t tell you how shocked I was to hear that. First of all, how dare someone treat a volunteer that way and second of all, I thought of all the good these volunteers do for patients and how Jayne could have just as easily up and quit after that. I wanted to ask why Jayne didn’t tell me when it happened, but I reconsidered. I didn’t want to make her feel like she had let us down, not after all the good work she has done. But it makes me wonder what other situations occur that volunteers are unwilling to tell me.”

Volunteer managers construct intricate helping structures. While we may be the hub or first connector for our volunteer helping structure, we must rely on other connectors (other people) to extend out further. The further you build out, the more fragile the structure becomes. Any volunteer that reports directly to the volunteer coordinator is being engaged by someone who knows how to cultivate volunteers. The further out on the structure the volunteer goes, the more the volunteer manager must rely on the soundness of new connectors (other people) interacting with the volunteer. Do these new connectors understand the volunteer’s role? Does a new connector know how to engage a volunteer? Is the new connector aggravated at having to monitor a volunteer on top of other duties or perceive a volunteer as a nuisance?
While we understand that we cannot control every situation and every person a volunteer interacts with, we understandably can worry about our volunteers when they are being engaged by other people unknown to us. And, after spending a great deal of up front time mentoring a volunteer, it is disheartening to think that a callous comment or flippant attitude can quickly ruin that.
When I started accompanying volunteers on their first assignment and introduced them to the key stakeholders, I found that some of these problems were minimized. One of our roles as volunteer managers is to educate other people on how to work with volunteers. The skills needed to retain volunteers are second nature to us, but aren’t all that obvious to everyone else who may have stressful jobs and responsibilities that prevent them from seeing the volunteer picture.
This approach takes more work on our parts, but it’s necessary, both for the mission and for the volunteer. As we extend our helping structure out, we need to personally check on the connectors being used, to ensure soundness and strength.
After all, the delicate structure we create is a thing of beauty and support for our clients. We don’t want it to fall.
-Meridian

October 1, 2014
I’m Going to Be Locked in a Room With a Naked Man?

Oh, those odd requests. You know, the ones that can either make you cry or seek therapy. We get them all the time and our volunteers can sometimes just walk into them. The other day, I was talking with one of our retired volunteers, Greta, who, for 12 years provided respite in the homes of terminally ill patients. Completely nonplussed, Greta would take the assignments that no one else would or could. She particularly loved working with men whose care giving wives needed time to shop or visit relatives or even take a nap in the next room. Some of the male patients cared for by Greta had dementia or Alzheimer’s, which made for a challenging time.
She recalled the day we sent her to a patient’s home and she met with the man’s wife who calmly instructed her to lock herself in the bedroom with her husband. “He tends to wander,” she said. “And oh, he usually walks around naked.”
Luckily, Greta, a retired psyche nurse and case manager, had already been to odd request-ville and survived. Completely unfazed, she would coax the patient to dress himself.
She talked about another patient she dubbed “Bad Brad.” Bad Brad would flush anything and everything down the toilet if he got near the bathroom. Greta put a stop sign on the bathroom door. “I just looked at everything as doable,” she said. “And if I couldn’t, well, you heard about it!”
We all get the out of the ordinary requests.
There are the unusual requests for volunteers who can sing in Olde English, or volunteers that have no sense of smell.
While odd requests may seem like a hardship, they are actually a chance to step back and think outside the box, even if you cannot fill the request exactly as it was put forth. That’s when bargaining can be used, because we ultimately want to help our clients. “Maybe I don’t have a volunteer who plays “Bringin in the Georgia Mail” on the fiddle, but I do have a volunteer who has a fine collection of bluegrass cds.”

Mindy is a volunteer coordinator who has always tried very hard to fulfill every volunteer request. She has meticulously paid attention to exact needs and worked hard to find the perfect volunteer fit. “But lately,” she says, “I’ve found myself wanting to be involved in the requests before I begin to fill them. I’m finding that the more I speak directly to the clients, the more I can get a sense of the type of volunteer they need. And I can offer the type of volunteer I think would work for them and the volunteer who is actually available. It’s made my job so much better and given me a proactive way of filling needs. I’m just sorry I didn’t think of it sooner.”

Being proactive is an excellent tool for not only managing the amazing volunteers we have, but for showcasing the skills and possibilities of the volunteers who may not have a current assignment. We don’t have to wait for invitations to planning meetings. We can ask to be included. We can come with a menu of volunteer services and offer to plug volunteers into the spots that we know we can fill even when there is no request. Think of it as akin to being a personal shopper. Personal shoppers get to know their clientele and because they also know all the designer clothing lines, they can offer the outfits that flatter their clients’ body types.

Mindy continued. “I know who my volunteers are and what they are capable of. The rest of the staff in my organization can’t possibly know all I know about them. So, I figure, I can offer the volunteer service I know will work, versus constantly rejecting the requests that I can’t fill. The more I am proactive, the more respect our volunteers receive, and the more I can place volunteers who have a skill or passion in situations that are enjoyable for them. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Mindy reinvented the way volunteer involvement is utilized in her organization. She stills receives traditional requests for volunteers, but now, she has taken on an activist role in promoting and controlling the ways her volunteers are assigned. “I’m trying to play to the strengths of my volunteers. They come with varied skill sets and I want to see those skills used.”

Volunteer management can be a passive position (receive requests, then fill them) or it can be an active position (seek ways to use the volunteers available based on their interests). On the surface this may seem like a no-brainer, but when Mindy stepped back and took a look at the way things were done in her organization, she really had an epiphany. “I had requests that were difficult to fill and I had volunteers who were not being utilized in the most advantageous way. It became clear that I needed to step my role up and become a part of the request process. I’m using the volunteers more efficiently now and I feel so much better about my work.”

Our roles can and need to expand. For instance:
Staff: Do you have a volunteer to stuff goodie bags?
OR:
Volunteer Coordinator: I see you’re putting together a brochure for services, I happen to have a volunteer who is a graphic designer. I think he could be persuaded to help you with that.

Because we’re somewhat like that personal shopper, we know our inventory of volunteers and how each one can enrich the ways our organizations serve our communities which will eventually lead to volunteer managers sitting at organizational planning tables.

Me? If I could afford a personal shopper, I would. They’re really good at their jobs and frankly, I’m not so great at picking out flattering outfits. Maybe staff members who put in requests would appreciate a knowledgeable personal shopper for volunteers too.
-Meridian

September 24, 2014
Just a Ripple I’m Seeing

One day a few weeks ago, I was on my cell phone walking down the hallway when I noticed a woman speaking to the front desk volunteer, Molly. While listening to the person on the other end of the phone, I watched the woman engage Molly in conversation. As I talked, my attention kept darting back to the woman at the front desk. There was something about her.. something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. She looked familiar, and I wondered where I had seen her before. I thought that she might have been a former caregiver who we had helped. I see caregivers all the time when they come back and thankfully want to give back. I studied her face. Her eyes, they just had this crinkly way of smiling as she spoke. And her chin, it was just so familiar, but really her mannerisms spoke to me. It was like losing your memory and seeing a good friend again for the first time.
Curious, I came closer and heard her ask Molly about volunteering. Molly was handing the woman a packet of volunteer information, but as I approached,
Molly saw me and said, “oh here, here’s Meridian, she can tell you more about volunteering.”
I caught the woman’s eye and as she looked at me, I felt deja vu. “I’m Bree,” she said, holding out her hand and we shook. Her hand felt like favorite family. We walked back to my office and she sat down, her eyes taking in everything as though she had seen it before, in another life. Then she smiled a knowing smile. “My name is Bree Phillips and I’d love to volunteer here.” Hmm, I thought, the name rang no bell, and I wondered if maybe she had changed her name. Bree continued. “I just moved here to be near my mother after having been through a long divorce. Because Mom is getting older, I need to take care of her. But I have some free time to give, and really, I’m here because of my father. He volunteered here many years ago.”
“No kidding,” I said, not recognizing the name Phillips, “who is your father?”
“George Keenon,” she said.
My mouth dropped open. “Your dad is George Keenon?”
“Yes,” she answered, “did you know him?”

Oh my gosh, it suddenly dawned on me, those eyes, her chin, the mannerisms, I was looking at a female version of George, a volunteer who was one of my all time favorite volunteers. In that instant, I felt like I was sitting with him again, enjoying his stories of growing up on a farm, his love for family and helping others. George volunteered during a time when sadly, male volunteers were scarce and he stepped forward to fill requests for a male volunteer to help male patients. He roamed the halls of the hospice care center, complementing the nurses and stopping to acknowledge a broken heart. I remember one day, when a patient was asking to see Frank Sinatra, George entered the room and she looked at him with a smirk and said, “whoa, you really let yourself go!”
Bree listened to my stories of her father and told me that before he died, he recommended that she try volunteering at a hospice. “He was always talking about his experiences here,” she said. ” I swear, he had this long, great career in business, but he spoke more often and more fondly about his connections to the patients.” Bree’s eyes brimmed with so much emotion. “I want to honor my father by following in his footsteps. I’ve got the time and I want to do something that lights me up the way it lit up my dad.”

Then last week, I had a new class of volunteers. In the class was a middle-aged woman named Holly Starfire. What an awesome name I thought as the volunteers introduced themselves. Holly was quiet, shy almost when it came time for her to comment on the icebreaker. “Why am I here?” she mused aloud. I think it’s because of my father who volunteered here a long time ago.”
“Who’s your father if I might ask,” I inquired.
“Hardy Pike.”
“What? Your dad is Hardy Pike?”
“Was,” she corrected. My dad died last year in Florida where he retired.”
Hardy Pike was a volunteer who, as a young man, had changed his name from David Toth to Hardy Pike because he liked the sound of it. It figured that he would name his daughter Holly Starfire. A big brute of a man, Hardy had blue-collar hands and a bohemian heart. He had built his own house from scratch and fixed heating and cooling units for a living. He loved fishing and poetry and could listen to anyone from little prim ladies to salty language gents. Hardy was an enigma. Everything about him pointed anywhere but volunteering, and yet, he faithfully committed to providing a pat on the back for the terminally ill.
“I grew up with a sense that the world is full of possibilities,” Holly told me, “and that giving back was more a possibility than a mandate. Dad spoke often about how good he felt when volunteering. He inspired me to find that too.”

Most of the time, we’ll never know the lasting impact volunteering has on our volunteers. There’s not a statistic for “volunteers who, in whatever area they live, go and volunteer because they’ve been inspired by someone we worked with”. We don’t hear the stories they tell their children. We can’t see their friends and relatives, who are inspired to go out and volunteer themselves. We’re not a droplet of water on the ripple, along for the ride. But if we’re lucky, we will get to meet a son or daughter or friend who comes because they want that meaningful experience they’ve heard so much about.
And, I figure, if I last long enough, I’m going to meet the next generation too.
-Meridan

September 17, 2014