volunteerplaintalk

Category: Volunteer

  • Lisa is Livid

    thCAF16JSLLisa, a volunteer manager for a large museum is livid. See, she recruited this really great volunteer, Jarrell, over a year ago. Jarrell happens to be a business owner in the community who heard Lisa speak at a Rotary luncheon. He approached her and offered to create an awareness event to help showcase the museum in the business community. Lisa jumped at the chance and so together, Jarrell and Lisa, along with several of Jarrell’s associates, created a modest sidewalk event showcasing the museum’s exhibits, events and community partnerships. The awareness day was a success; new members joined, the feedback from the community was positive and Jarrell was very pleased. He said he would be glad to make it a yearly event and Lisa could see the growth possibilities. She was excited that she had brought in not only a creative new venue, but also the potential for several new highly connected volunteers.

    As the planning began for this year’s event, Jarrell had some ideas for ways to expand and improve, ideas that ultimately had to be discussed with the marketing manager. The marketing manager, Cheryl is new and was hired after the last awareness event. Lisa contacted Cheryl and asked for a meeting with Jarrell. Cheryl dragged her feet. Lisa stopped in to see Cheryl, explaining that Jarrell was a volunteer willing to put everything together, but that he just needed a go-ahead to proceed. It wouldn’t take but just a few minutes, Lisa reasoned. Cheryl said she would get back to Lisa. Lisa met with Jarrell, explaining that she was waiting on marketing for direction and that the marketing person was new and trying to get up to speed. Lisa tried several times to set up a meeting with Cheryl and Cheryl countered with, “well, maybe we need to push the event back. I’m pretty swamped with other things right now.” In a panic, Lisa enlisted her boss, who went to Cheryl’s boss who promised to speak with Cheryl.

    One morning, Lisa opened her email to find Jarrell’s message. He said that he was extremely busy at work and really couldn’t spend the time needed to make this year’s event work. He penned that too much time had elapsed and that they should have gotten started earlier. Lisa instinctively knew his cryptic statement was an indictment of marketing’s dismissive behavior. Lisa was crushed and angry. But she calmly replied and assured Jarell that she supported his decision. As she tapped the send button, she knew this was the end, the way volunteer managers just know. Jarrell was swallowed up by marketing arrogance.

    Volunteer retention is everyone’s responsibility. Volunteer managers know only too well that, when other staff members take volunteers for granted, dismiss volunteers’ busy and important lives or do not take them seriously, it begets the retention axe. It’s painful to know we can’t control everyone and everything and occasionally, our hard work is negated by other staff who have no interest in cultivating volunteers. (that is, until they need one)

    Lisa feels beaten and her creative enthusiasm has been badly bruised. She is not going to work outside of the box for a while. She would however, like to scream because two days after she emailed Jarrell, she received a voicemail from Cheryl. “I can meet with you and your volunteer next Tuesday about your, what was that little event again, the shareness? Anyway, give me a call.”

    -Meridian

  • Can Justice Truly Prevail?

    scalesLast week I had a phone conversation with the mother of a 16 year old prospective volunteer. It went something like this:

    She: My daughter, Olivia, needs 30 hours by the end of this school year.

    Me: Well, that’s quite a number of hours over the next three weeks. Typically, with student volunteers, we begin with orientation. Our student orientation for this summer is scheduled for the beginning of June. We may have to orient Olivia one on one since she needs hours before orientation starts. Would you be comfortable with that? I may have some time on Friday.

    She: She can’t come in Friday after school, she has cheer-leading. On Wednesdays, she has piano, and she has student government. This weekend we are out-of-town, camping. She can come in Monday at 5pm but I need her to be home by 7.

    Me: Hmmmm, Monday is not good for me, I have an appointment with a group on the other side of town. What does Olivia’s schedule look like for the actual volunteering?

    She: She can work some Saturdays and then I’ll give you a schedule of the few times she can be there after school. She may need to get the volunteering in on Saturdays though, which means 8 or 9 hours there. I’m assuming she can do some homework too.

    Me: We don’t typically have volunteers, especially students, volunteer that many hours at a time. It’s too intense and too much for anyone. (and me too, I thought angrily. I’m not coming in all day Saturday).

    Her: But that is the only way to get her hours in. She can’t come on Sunday and she has activities all week. You need to take her on Saturdays. Or don’t you accommodate volunteers?

    Me: Of course we do, but we also want our volunteers to be placed in situations where they won’t be overwhelmed. We want them to have a meaningful time.

    Her: Sigh. It needs to be on Saturdays.

    Now, if you are yelling at the screen, shouting at me to hang up (which is what I’d be yelling if I were reading this), then let me throw in a tidbit of information. This mother is the wife of a big donor. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Volunteer rules aren’t the same here, are they?

    Somehow, I had to give in and get Olivia her hours.  I know some might say, “heck, sign off on the hours. The kid won’t get anything out of volunteering anyway. Cut your losses!” Nah, can’t do that, somehow that just feels really wrong. And maybe,I reasoned, I could catch up on all the other piles of work on Saturday so I gave in and scheduled her. I got up that morning, a bit irritated, but determined to make the best of it.

    But it did sting that my time and effort and carefully crafted rules regarding volunteering, when weighed against a donation, well, just don’t matter as much.

    Sometimes we are forced to bend our rules because a prospective volunteer is the son of a senior manager, or the wife of a donor, or an attorney or whomever it is the organization does not want to upset. There are volunteers and then there are VOLUNTEERS if you know what I mean. It happens in the workforce too, so I can’t say we’re the only ones in the lopsided scale of the justice basket.

    Didn’t make it feel any better though. But, rules are meant to be broken and so I came into the in-patient unit and mentored Olivia. And guess what? You already know that she was delightful. She apologized for taking up my Saturday. We visited patients and she told me that she wanted to be a pediatrician. At one point, Olivia held a patient’s hand and softly sang in Italian, the patient’s native tongue. The 93 year old former WWII bride from Italy’s face relaxed as the gentle lyrics stroked her soul.

    Well, I could have missed that experience. I went home that afternoon satisfied. We didn’t stay 9 hours, we stayed 5. Olivia made such an impression on the staff that they will mentor her the next two Saturdays so I’m free to go back to my weekdays. Funny, I’m going to miss coming in with her.

    And you know what I learned? The scales of justice balance out because the universe is watching out for us.

    -Meridian

  • Happy Volunteer Appreciation Week! I Appreciate the Little Things

    cheersThis volunteer appreciation week, I thought about the volunteers I personally appreciate and so I want to publicly acknowledge them. (names changed, however).

    Bill: For giving me that coveted family recipe for Yorkshire pudding-yum

    Jewel: For always being the first one to call me when I make a typo on flyers and telling me you’ll be at the meeting at 3am (oh, didn’t I say 3pm?)

    George: For calling me once a month with a joke-always needed

    Aida: For teaching me how to make real tamales at your house-complete with margaritas

    Mel: For your “Bob Dylan” impersonation that makes me snort with laughter

    Sadie: For always being the one volunteer I tell my stresses to, don’t know why I do that to only you, but you always make me feel like it’s going to be ok

    Kim: For always taking my face into your hands and looking into my eyes and telling me that I’m loved

    Bud: For always gruffly saying, “oh here comes the suit” when you see me. You actually make me feel like a manager

    Terri: For always understanding when I have to write down what you need and telling you that I have to call you back and then forgetting to do even that

    Syl: For being new and jumping right in, and then, in all the chaos, announcing that you “love it here”

    Lucy: For being part of that hair brained scheme called “recruit by food” and then doing your Edith Ann impersonation when it failed… miserably

    Josie: For believing me when I involved you in that project and not wavering even once

    Harry: For always kissing my hand (very Louis XIV)  when you see me

    Delores: For laughingly grabbing that paper out of my hands when I sheepishly said I forgot to give it to you and not making me feel like I’ve let you down

    Martin: For bringing me that obscure book on Marcel Proust because you remembered I liked him way back in college

    Walt: For giving me that figurine because your late wife shared my birth day

    Kristen: For laughing at my jokes in front of your savvy student friends so that I didn’t look like an idiot

    Dot: For always making that trip to the mail room before you leave because you know I’m not going to get away

    Kitty: For meeting me, at night, at that patient’s house

    Carla: For taking me under your wing when I got here and showing me how to care

    Phil: For telling me every time you see me how much you enjoyed my class

    Bob: For talking sports with me

    Tobi: For making sense of the spreadsheets

    Tuesday crew: For the “News Flashes”

    In looking back over this list, I realize, I have a very lot to be grateful for. I’m sure I’ve left many of you out, not to mention looking back over the years at all the volunteers I’ve known. Each one of you has made an impression on me and taught me something valuable. You may not know it, but you keep me going. It feels as though you are somehow extensions of me that are doing good in this world. I know that sounds selfish, and I don’t mean it that way, but I feel connected to you and the great things you do come humming back the way blood circulates throughout the body. I am proud of you and humbled by your work ethic. I’m protective of you and yet amazed at your strength. I’m careful to get what you need yet bolstered by your resilience. You, my friends, are the best and just being in your presence is enough to look back one day and say, “I was part of something”.

    Cheers to you all! You have made my life richer, more complex, more interesting and infinitely more worthwhile. You are most appreciated.

    -Meridian

  • Don’t Quit! I Might Have a Relapse!

    relapse pictureI have a long distance friend, Marla who is a volunteer coordinator for a large hospice organization.  She called me a while back and we chatted about one of her fellow volunteer coordinators, Amy. See, Marla fills in for Amy when she is on vacation and vice versa. They each manage about 80 volunteers in their respective areas. We all know that adding another full load, even for a week, is exhausting, but having to fit within another coordinator’s style can sometimes be, well, frustrating.

    Marla and Amy had back to back vacations, Amy first. Here’s what Marla told me happened.

    “I stopped in everyday to check on the volunteers,” Marla said. “And each day was the same story. The volunteers welcomed me, but with phrases like, ‘it’s so good to see Amy get some much-needed rest, she is so stressed out,’ or ‘we are worried about Amy, she’s works so hard and then she has to worry about her ailing mother and her sister doesn’t help out at all.’” Marla barked a laugh. “Ha, Amy doesn’t have a bigger load than anyone here, and sometimes I have a harder time finding volunteers, given my location. It’s frustrating.”

    Marla sighed, and covered the mouthpiece. “oh, and get this! One of the volunteers even said to me, ‘you know, I was going to retire, but I just can’t let Amy down. She has a stress related condition and she’s got so much to worry about with her son struggling financially.’”

    I could hear Marla chewing her pencil. “Amy has mentioned that she has had some medical issues in the past, but jeez, never once did the volunteers ask about me or my volunteers or anything else for that matter. They seemed to be a little, I hate to say it, cult-like.”

    Well. What an interesting management style. Marla continued, “you know, it was on the tip of my tongue to say something like, ‘hey, we’re all busy and Amy is just playing you to make you stay.” Then she chuckled. “Maybe we all should use that on our volunteers. If you quit, you’ll put me in the hospital!”

    Are volunteers more impressionable than paid staff? Maybe. I suppose it depends upon their reasons for volunteering and their personalities. Is it wrong to manipulate them? Of course. Volunteers should not know much about our personal lives, and certainly, not all that is going wrong or perceived to go wrong. As volunteer managers, our boundaries need to be pretty clearly defined.

    “Oh, and get this!” Marla added. “I went on vacation, thank goodness after covering for Amy and she then covered for me. I worked really hard on making sure that all volunteers were in place, all information up to date, so that it wouldn’t be hard for her to manage while I was gone.” Marla paused. “so, I get back on Monday and when I checked in with the very first volunteer, guess what she said?”

    “Welcome back?” I offered.

    “No, she did say they missed me, but she also said that Amy seemed overwhelmed by the additional work and they had to work a little extra to help her.”

    “Then,” Marla dropped the punchline, “MY volunteer asked me, ‘Did you know Amy has a stress related condition’?”

    Hmmmmm. When retention becomes a problem, I may have to try the Amy management style!

    -Meridian

  • …Oh! One More Thing! I Need that Magic!

    memory bearLast week I just happened to be present when a brand new volunteer, Glenna was returning a memory bear she had made. Glenna has been volunteering for about six months now and is doing so because she is unemployed, looking very hard for another job and almost desperately wants to give back. Glenna is quiet, pounded by rejections and extremely talented.

    Memory bears, you probably know, are teddy bears sewn from articles of clothing a bereaved person chooses to represent the loved one who died. Bears are fashioned from bowling shirts, uniforms, blouses, event T-shirts, night-clothes and even baby blankets. They are soulful, oozing personality and cherished by the recipient.

    Glenna dropped off her freshly done bear and as I admired the pocket she had incorporated from the “Gilly’s Tavern” t-shirt on it, we chatted about the bear she had brought in the week before.

    It was a bear from an obviously well-worn  Bait Shop t-shirt. Glenna was telling me how her own father had loved to take her fishing when she was a little girl. He had died when she was only 15 and she wistfully talked about the time she caught a fish and dragged it up onto shore, her father laughing all the while. Glenna wiped a tear, apologizing for “taking up so much time” when the bereavement counselor, Sharon, walked in.

    I introduced Glenna to Sharon and Sharon thanked Glenna for making the memory bears. “Our clients just love them,” Sharon said and Glenna nodded.

    I could tell that Sharon was in a hurry, which was nothing new for a bereavement counselor. But bereavement counselors, I’ve found, have this aura about them that feels so, well…. kind.

    “Sharon,” I said, “before you have to run, Glenna is the volunteer that made the bear you just gave out, the fishing t-shirt bear.”

    “Really?” Sharon’s eyes lighted up. “I gave that bear to his granddaughter and I saw her last night in group and she told us this story. She took her bear home and that night brought it in bed with her. See, her grandfather was the one who raised her after her parents divorced. He loved to go fishing, and although she wasn’t very good or interested in fishing, she would go and watch him and read. Anyway, she had the bear with her and she had a dream. In that dream she and her grandfather were fishing by a big lake and she caught a fish and her grandfather turned to her in the dream and said,’ now see, I knew you could do it’. It was something her grandfather always said to her.”

    I could see Glenna’s eyes go wide and her mouth trembled, “that’s something my father always said to me.” She was crying now. (ok, me too). Sharon beamed.

    We can tell volunteers how meaningful their work is, but when their ears fill with real stories and examples, now that’s beyond volunteer management. It’s the magic of our job, the moment that we know exists, but we, as managers, well, we know to go looking for it and to stand back and let it happen.

    What do our volunteers need? Ahhhhh, many, many things. Sometimes recognition, sometimes socialization, sometimes to be left alone, and sometimes, they need a magic moment. Frankly, we need it too.

    -Meridian

  • Little Shop of Horrors

    little shop of horrorsBette is a volunteer who works in a large resale shop. She came to me the other day asking for my help because she had no one to turn to. It seems the shop manager, a paid employee, has been, in Bette words, “bullying the volunteers.” She said it took a lot for her to seek help but the other volunteers are looking to her to fix the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the resale shop’s parent organization has no volunteer managers, so there is no one to run interference for the volunteers. The shop manager has no experience working with volunteers; she has retail experience working with employees. And therein lies the problem.

    Can “regular” staff work well with volunteers?  Sure, I’ve seen it happen many a time. There are employees who respect their volunteers, praise them, look out for them, and make them feel a valued part of the team. They keep their volunteers coming back and seldom have problems with them. Usually, though, they work with just a few part-time volunteers. Then there’s Bette’s shop manager, Carey, who treats her volunteers like bottom of the rung employees. Behind their backs she calls them “lazy” or “incompetent” while failing to encourage them. They are about to revolt.

    Bette reluctantly handed me a piece of paper. On it she had penned a resale volunteer’s list of rights. It took her hours to compose it. I thought it profound and well done. Here it is:

    As a  volunteer who freely gives of my time and abilities, I should be:

    1. greeted sincerely at the beginning of my shift and at the end and told what a good job I did.

    2. treated with the utmost respect and sincerely thanked for my contributions.

    3. made aware that the organization is proud of the work I do and grateful for my service.

    4. able to freely express my concerns without being made to feel as though I am a nuisance.

    5. considered an integral member of the team and a component of the organization’s overall mission.

    Bette loves her work and her shop. She has bonded with the other volunteers and wants them to succeed as a team. She is willing to stand up to make that happen. And what she really, really wants, is to be managed by someone who understands how to manage volunteers.

    -Meridian

  • A Tale of Two Coordinators

    a tale of two citiesJan and Anna are two volunteer coordinators I know who work for the same organization. They each have one half of all duties and volunteer assignments. Their volunteers are evenly divided and their territory is fairly equal. They both have unique volunteers with unique needs, but in all, they regularly face the same challenges.

    Jan is serious, spiritual, creative and a perfectionist. Anna is funny, sometimes irreverent, personable and spirited. Each one brings a different style to managing volunteers. Jan’s volunteers find deep meaning in their volunteering, while  Anna’s are able to laugh off mistakes. Jan’s volunteers are given clear directions, while Anna’s are given permission to “wing it” whenever they need to.

    On the surface, each style has its own merits and own shortcomings. But let’s look at how each style curves off course.

    Five years later, Jan is incredibly unhappy. She has become rigid and full of resentment. She complains that some of her volunteers don’t get that their attendance is important and that staff members are not appreciative of volunteers. In her words, “rules are not being followed”. Her creativity has shut down and she has immersed herself in scheduling and obsesses over the “correct” way.

    Anna is relatively happy. She has more volunteers who have gotten into trouble, but she makes do. She often has holes in her schedule, and sometimes brings volunteers on board before they are screened or trained. Serious volunteers have been turned off by her flippancy. She has volunteers who have emerged as leaders, but they often don’t give correct directions. She has much more chaos to contend with.

    We each have a management style. Sometimes, when we are unhappy and resentful, we must look at our own style to see if there is something we need to change. If we are not fluid in our styles, we run the risk of becoming rigid or immersed in chaos. Volunteer managers instinctively know that each volunteer requires a different style.

    I once had the following conversation with a really strongly opinionated gentleman:

    He: You manage volunteers, wow, how hard can that be?

    Me: It’s challenging, don’t forget, these volunteers are not paid employees, yet they do some incredible work.

    He: So what, you just tell them what to do.

    Me: Perhaps, but would that work with you?

    He: Sure, why not?”

    Me: Would your wife do what I tell her to do, just by my asking?

    He: Her? No way!

    Me: How would I then convince her to do what I ask?

    He: Ha! That would take some major work!

    Me: Ahhh, therein lies the challenge, would you not agree? Each volunteer requires something different from me.

    Whether lighthearted, serious, creative, leave-alone, encouraging, mentoring, praising, educating, empowering, we take a different tack with each volunteer. We are as mutable as 24K gold. If not, we run the risk of becoming resentful like Jan or mired in chaos like Anna. The sad part of this tale is that Jan is a wonderful, creative manager who allowed her perfectionist side to take over her style. Anna kept her job in perspective, but she is losing some incredibly intuitive volunteers by being too jokey. Anna is in a much better frame of mind, but Jan had some really great programs, at least in the beginning.

    So, how do we survive? We laugh at that which is laughable and get serious about that which is serious. We look over our volunteers and see them each as unique, needing unique direction from us. Jan will quit; you can see it coming. Anna won’t, because, unlike Jan, she personally is not letting things get to her. However, her more serious volunteers have to find their own way.

    Too bad Jan and Anna could not have cloned a part of each other and become two Jannas. What great, enduring volunteer managers they would have made!

    -Meridian

  • Come Here John Deere, I’m Too Busy Hoeing

    john deereSheila is a very enthusiastic volunteer manager I know. She works for a hospice and is always researching new ideas for her volunteers. When she attended a symposium last July, she brought several great ideas back to her organization. One of the ideas involved volunteers phone calling clients. Sheila was thrilled to contribute, to have another wonderful program for her talented volunteers and to help overworked staff. At least that’s what she thought when she offered to start the program.

    Now, six months later, Sheila is struggling. Staff at her organization “forget” to give her the names to call. They make noises about how they are “handling everything”. They brush her off when she asks for lists of clients. She’s tried to tell upper management, but they assure her that everyone is “on board.” Sheila spends a great deal of time chasing staff for the information and then has to send volunteers home early because there isn’t enough for them to do. Sheila is heartsick because she innately knows how much this program can do.

    It’s kinda like a farmer who has acres of fertile soil. One day he wins a John Deere tracker to replace the old back braking hoe he’s been using in the hot sun. The farmer smiles and then goes back to the hoe while the shiny new green tractor sits in the barn. It’s too much trouble to learn how to start it. He’s too busy to figure out how to drive it and besides, he’s used to just hoeing.

    Sheila spends half a day pinpointing the clients that should be called. She searches records, calls staff members and reads through lists. Staff seems perfectly happy turning it all over to her. So, the farmer, when given a tool to improve his life, expects John Deere to show up and run the tractor for him.

    Sometimes staff has no buy in. They can view volunteers as threats, or nuisances, or fluff. They won’t take the time to help a program grow and thrive. What a shame. It is everyone’s job in the organization to integrate volunteers and to enhance the work being done. What galls Sheila is that the phone calling ultimately helps the staff, but they are woefully uninterested. They are stressed and overworked. But what is she?

    She is close to giving up, but the work haunts her. Volunteers tell her how much the clients love the phone calls. Knowing you can do great things and not being able to is soul crushing. But not every organization always sees the benefit of volunteers. Sometimes they give lip service while secretly blocking volunteers’ involvement. How short-sighted they are. In the hands of a capable volunteer manager, volunteers change everything for the better if given the chance. How can we not take this affront personally?

    What does it say about any organization who does not treat volunteers as a valuable resource and lets staff get away with depriving clients of important services? What is the message when they don’t insist on volunteers involvement and just as importantly, what is the message when they don’t include volunteer managers in the planning and execution of services?

    We, volunteer managers are all shiny new John Deere tractors ready to change the face of farm work. How great that farmers can now spend more time on planning and experimentation now that they have a useful tool. But if they let it sit, unused, it will rust away. And they will continue to break their backs hoeing while other farmers reap the rewards.

    Volunteers talk. They talk to their friends and acquaintances. Are they saying, “yes, I signed up to help, but when I got there, no one had anything for me to do. I liked the volunteer coordinator, but she seemed stressed and unable to fix things for me. Such a pity.”

    Eeeck, how tragic. So, as managers of volunteers, we need to find a way to say to our respective organizations, “teach everyone to drive the tractor and let’s get to work providing the very best for those we serve.”

    =Meridian

  • The Virtuoso

    When I was in college, I had a roommate, Marcia, who played the flute in the orchestra. She practiced in our sparse living room while we all studied or made a community meal.

    Marsha loved the arts and would happily discuss Gauguin or my loves, Shakespeare and Wordsworth.  She also delicately sipped snifters of brandy. I pretty much thought Marcia was cultivated and when she set fingers to flute to practice, I let myself be swept up in the gentle notes. After all, I had taken two classes in music appreciation.

    One day, Marcia brought another flutist home. Jen was first chair, we found out later and together they filled the apartment with lilting strains. But when Marcia excused herself to get a drink of water, she left Jen to continue. Jen’s mastery hit me with a lyrical sledgehammer. I was hearing the same notes, but Jen’s were ethereal, haunting, full of the writer’s intent. Wow, I was experiencing pure talent.

    I just finished teaching an orientation class. I’ve done hundreds now and when I first started orienting volunteers, I was convinced that everyone could be taught the finer art of volunteering. With encouragement, I was certain they could all be Mother Teresa.

    I don’t think that anymore, just as I don’t think Marcia, my roommate could ever reach Jen’s level, no matter how much she practiced. As the flute became a magical tool in Jen’s talented hands, so does volunteering become masterful in only the hands of a few. You know them instinctively.

    They have this aura about them, a confident humility about their deep understanding of what needs to be done. Their volunteering fingers run smoothly over each task, producing a fabric of human art. There is a beauty to those moments when volunteer and client connect at a deeper level, and like music, it hangs in the air for a second, while you catch your breath.

    How do they do it? How is it that not everyone can create it and why can’t I find more virtuosos? I suppose it’s the same reason not everyone can be Mozart or Matisse or Pynchon.

    And so, as each class graduates, I am looking at them, wondering who will be the next virtuoso, if there is one in class at all. I’m hoping to come upon a scene in which a new volunteer is weaving a song so beautiful, it takes my breath away.

    I can orient them, lead them, encourage them and support them but I can’t create natural ability. I can only try and find it. And find it I will, because every time I am swept up in that perfect moment, I’m reassured that it is there, and once again I can behold mastery.

    -Meridian

  • Extra Mayo! The Tour Buses are Here!

    crowded restaurantGroups of students, what can I say? I love them!  I love their energy, their brand newness, their looks when they think I’m a bit daft. They’re energizing, but exhausting!

    I have this equivalent mental image of a sandwich cafe just outside of Niagara Falls. The owner has sporadic business and keeps putting up ads and specials to attract more customers. But then, every first Monday of the month, the buses of tourists pull up all at once! The tourists tumble out and their tour directors run into the shop, spitting orders, while looking at their itineraries and talking over one another. The shop owner frantically tries to fill all the orders, no mustard, extra onions, mayo on the side, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up or the buses will go elsewhere!

    The shop owner wants the business, so who is he to complain? But furiously throwing out sandwiches is not like making sure each one is made to order. The buses groan as they pull away, tourists munching while looking forward to their next stop. The cafe owner will never hear their complaints or kudos, he’ll never see those tourists again. But he’s counting on that tour director to bring another busload back, much as the frenzy is crushing when it happens.

    That’s what having groups of students is like. Much like tour buses, they visit, get their sandwich and go. They’re not long term and they travel together. You have to manage them in bulk which is vastly different than one one one.  Fraternities, service clubs, and teams all are great opportunities for us to have a lot of volunteers at one time. But typically the groups want to work together, have very specific schedules and a shortened time they will be with us. All of that’s perfectly fine, and truly, it is fun showing them the world of service.

    But at night, when the lights are out and the equipment is turned off, the cafe owner falls into bed, spent. “yes,” he whispers, “there’s new money in the till, yes,” he mumbles as he pulls off his clothes, “I can keep my cafe open another week and yes,” he sighs as he draws the covers up around him, “I’m so grateful for the tourist buses,” and as the spittle dribbles down over his chin,  he mumbles, “I ache in places I didn’t know…”

    What do you do with your groups? Twenty students want to do a project together, but you have no parking lot to clean, no building that needs freshening up. The groups can only work on a Saturday at 5pm, so do you ask a seasoned volunteer to oversee them and hope for the best, or do you leave your family every time and go in, because, like that cafe owner, some one has to make sure it gets done? Student groups can’t do a lot of orientation so do you give them a quick 15 minutes, knowing that it’s inadequate and knowing that you have to be with them every step of the way, so as to explain the mission to them and keep them from innocently saying or doing something inappropriate? Do you imagine that other staff could view the students as being in the way and you then hover over them so as to protect them? Do you spend endless hours coordinating their schedule with availability of clients, staff and other volunteers?

    For senior management, student groups are viewed as “THE BIG ONE!” What they don’t realize is the logistics of managing “THE BIG ONE”.  Yes, it’s rewarding, yes we love them, yes, it’s great PR. But we volunteer managers are the ones, spittle dripping onto our pillows, crawling into our beds at night. “Did I forget one of the student names?” we murmur, “can I stick 10 students into a clients home if I just have them all be quiet?” Our dreams are dense with “what ifs” and the dreaded, “if they don’t have a good experience, they will go elsewhere next time.” Shudder, we can’t have that now, can we?

    I’m stocking up for the next rush of students during spring break. I’m taking my vitamins, asking all around now for any big special projects that can be done by groups and clearing my calendar for late evenings and weekends. Hopefully, this cafe will be ready for the rush because each tour director (student group leader) has to have a satisfactory experience so that they will be back. And I’m experimenting with new sandwiches all the time; gotta keep the menu fresh and interesting.

    But I’m also investing in a new pillow and maybe a new spa cd. See, I think when the buses leave, I’ll be spending some real time sprawled across the bed, mouth open, with inhuman sounds coming out of me. Maybe as I fall into a crushing sleep, somewhere a student will remark, “that was a really good sandwich!”

    -Meridian