volunteerplaintalk

Volunteer Plain Talk

for today’s leaders of volunteers

  • 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

  • Wading through Quicksand

    quicksandBelinda started volunteering for a large animal shelter five years ago. Early retired from a fast-paced corporate world, she threw herself into her passion: Rescuing the abused and abandoned. An ideal volunteer, she learned the system, absorbing the organization’s mission, needs and goals through her skin and into her mind and heart.

    Then she began. She created a “speaker’s bureau” complete with accompanying rescued pooches. She initiated a “corporate partnership” with local pet businesses. She recruited hard-working volunteers and took over the social media job.

    She was nominated and won a state award. (Which we all know is often the kiss of death for a volunteer)

    So, in the natural order of things, what could come next? When a job opened up, Belinda was hired. Boy, was she happy, because now, she could do more good work, right? And now the shelter had her enthusiasm for 40 or more hours per week. Bliss, pure and simple?

    Maybe in a perfect world. Belinda became the “volunteer coordinator” and she was expected to “perform the math.”  (Organizational Math: if 8 hours per week volunteering=a whole bunch of great things, then 40 hours per week working=OMG, mind-blowing results!)

    Well, the volunteer coordinator role set in. Paperwork, restrictions, and piddly duties like mediation, recognition, retention, arbitration, record keeping, statistics, training, monitoring, education and rehabilitation of volunteers started to chip away at that 40 hours. The math no longer looked that good. (40 hours of volunteer management minus all the “stuff we have to do”=42 minutes of brilliance per week).

    Belinda soon became just another staff member. Staff members are not “loved up” the way volunteer managers love up the volunteers. Staff members are not, in most cases told how “special’ they are, nor welcomed with a huge smile each time they enter the building. Appreciation of Belinda, the staff member was not the warm and fuzzy appreciation of Belinda the exceptional volunteer.

    Belinda started seeing the organization from within. Since, as a volunteer, she was sheltered from the staff’s bickering over funding, she started to see staff members in a different light and realized they were not the angels she had come to love.

    Reality was painful. For a couple of years, she trudged on, spending time off the clock where her heart lie; in free creation mode. She mentored other volunteers well, because she still was one in her heart. Deadlines replaced dreams. Mandates trumped motivations. Stats pushed spontaneity to the side. Belinda told me that she felt as though she were wading through quicksand, whereas when she volunteered, she glided.

    She quit one day, not because of some monumental injustice, but when the weight had crushed her enough. She did not go back to volunteering, but stayed away from the shelter she loved so much as a volunteer.

    I’m not saying that we should never hire volunteers. I’m not even saying that we shouldn’t treat them special and shield them from the minutia. I’m saying that volunteer to employee transitions are tough and eye-opening. Maybe these transitions are the stark examples of how much effort volunteer managers put into managing volunteers. We make them feel appreciated, special, and insulated from the tedium so that they can excel. Too bad most employees can’t feel that way.

    In my fantasy world, organizational management, for just one moment, will look at how volunteer managers nurture the volunteers to get the very best from them. Then organizational management will think about adopting some of our practices in order to nurture and encourage employees.

    And in my fantasy world, they will start with us.

    -Meridian

  • Girls Night Out or a Game of Complaints?

    girls night outAs I sat in a meeting with volunteers Darla and Jo, and the supervisor, Cindy of the department that they volunteer for, I found myself wondering how we got to this point in the first place. We were meeting because the volunteers were unhappy with a certain staff member, Kay, who directed them on a weekly basis. They wanted to air their concerns with Kay’s immediate supervisor, and asked me to sit in as the buffer. I was only too happy to do so; I wanted to protect the volunteers and to also learn why things go so wrong.

    The supervisor, Cindy, was defensive at first and I watched the volunteers’ expressions sink. For a moment they thought their concerns would be dismissed, but they pulled out a scribbled list of examples to show that they were being treated like indentured servants. After two hours, Cindy finally decided that it was a “personality issue” and she would address it with Kay. What I got from Cindy’s comment is that both sides were somewhat at fault. However, Cindy assured us all that she would follow-up. Interestingly, even though seemingly treated very poorly, Darla and Jo did not want to quit; they said they loved the organization and wanted to continue and felt “part of the mission.”

    Perhaps something Darla and Jo said might explain their loyalty. They mentioned that they often went out with other staff members in Kay’s department. Really? And they dropped some hints that the other staff members had run-ins of their own with Kay. Hmmm. So, what that means, is when out socially, away from work, these staff members let loose and talk about the organization and other employees in front of volunteers. These staff members complain and criticize and draw the volunteers into the politics of their department. Nice.

    Now, maybe the volunteers are correct about Kay’s actions. But how much of what they offered is because they are “in” with some staff who happen to not like Kay for whatever reasons? That’s a whole other issue. After the meeting ended, I privately said to Cindy, “In the volunteer realm, it’s a very bad idea to socialize with the volunteers and air grievances. If staff is going to invite the volunteers out to a function, then they’d better invite all of them and they’d better not make the volunteers privy to the inner workings of the department or organization. They are not here to be pawns in some personal battle.”

    So, Cindy, who is the supervisor of all in question, shrugs and says, “they’re on their own time, what can I do?” Really? How would you like it if your supervisor invited a couple of staff members out for drinks and they trashed you?

    Eventually, after much discussion,  I used my old standby CYA line (which I use more and more frequently). “I’m going on record as saying that allowing staff members to fraternize with volunteers on off time and discuss work issues makes for a harmful work environment and should be stopped immediately.” And I will be noting this conversation.

    The supervisor looked at me hard and said, “you’re probably right. I’ll talk to all of them.” Then she sighed a very big, put-out sigh. I knew what was going through her head. She didn’t need another petty annoyance. Well, guess what? Taking care of the volunteers is everyone’s business, not just the volunteer department’s. Grow a spine and tell your employees to treat them with respect and don’t let them play volunteers and suck them into conflicts. They don’t deserve that. And this chess game is what you get. And frankly, you seem to have “bigger” issues in your department.

    I have a volunteer who helps me in my office. From day one, I have said to her that “it’s not that I don’t want you to be privy to things, it’s that I don’t want you to be burdened with things. You’re here to do good work and you deserve to be shielded from the nonsense.”  She’s taken that to heart and now when I have a conversation with someone in front of her and it gets a bit deep, she excuses herself before I have a chance to, and she laughingly says, “I don’t need to be a part of this.” Bravo!

    So, when staff thinks they’re being nice or cute or they just want some pawns in their game of complaints, they need to realize that fraternizing might be great for them, but it’s always a bad idea for the volunteers. Let the volunteers see the greatness of the organization, not the back room where stuff is all chaos and disjointed. And if staff want to grouse about their jobs, then make sure that “girls’ night out” is with staff girls, not volunteers.

    -Meridian

  • Toughest Job Ever? Part Time Volunteer Manager

    Yesterday I went to a nursing home that specializes in memory impaired residents and met with the activities director/part time volunteer manager (PTVM). PTVM’s have the additional burden of the time constraints their other “more important” jobs put upon them. For them, volunteer management becomes secondary, less important and although they realize the gravity of managing volunteers, they do not have the resources or the support to effectively do that part of their job. They are stuck doing the best they can.

    Jolie, the PTVM was a bundle of energy and I kept looking around for a straw to maybe suck out some of that enthusiasm and run home with it. All around were cute games and activities and she breathlessly told me about the “one man band” and the “reading genie” and the “pet pig Porkita” that were scheduled for the week. As I helped her round up and board some of the residents in the facility van, she told me about her vacation last week. “It’s really horrible when I go away, especially for a whole week.” she confided, “the staff just doesn’t bother to follow up with the volunteers, even though I leave them detailed instructions.” Jolie went on, “I had this new volunteer scheduled to come in and start, but no one here was willing to show her what to do, so she left. She’s not returned my calls.”

    As Jolie helped Ms. Eva, a real sweetie with a big smile up into the van, she added, “and my best volunteer, Sonya the songstress, whom everyone loves, showed up and there were only 3 residents brought into the great room.” Jolie sighed, “when I’m not here to head it up, no one bothers. It’s disheartening.”

    I just listened as Ralph with the cowboy hat took my arm and let me help him up. I wanted to say that it would get better, but who would I be kidding? Not Jolie, who has been doing this for years. She knows full well that being a PTVM requires full time attention with minimal time. And she knows that staff will leave everything involving volunteers to her. When Jolie is not there, the volunteers are on their own.

    How many times does senior management wonder why volunteers need management at all? How often do they sigh and wonder what we all do each day? After all, volunteers need no management, they are really like the copier or the laptop, no? Turn them on and they produce, right?

    Folks like Jolie will never be able to have the stable of volunteers they need. Jolie, who is a great volunteer manager will never be able to give her volunteer program the attention she’d love to give because she doesn’t have the time, nor the backing. She will continue to struggle and her residents will be denied all the wonderful programs and ideas she has rattling around in her already stuffed brain.

    What does Jolie really need? First and foremost, she needs leadership that makes volunteer management everyone’s job. (See Susan Ellis’ profoundly right on target book, “From the Top Down” https://www.energizeinc.com/store/1-102-E-3 ) She needs to know that the time she spends with each volunteer is not socializing or shirking her real responsibilities; it is necessary time retaining that volunteer.  She needs to feel supported in her visions. And she needs administrative help. (Don’t we all?)

    As Jolie waved to me from her perch in that huge van, her smile radiated resolve. PTVMs are resourceful, hard working and committed. Until volunteer management is viewed as a complex profession, no one will really know what Jolie goes through to attract and keep her volunteers. No one, but us.

    -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