Until the Family Member Said, “No.”
My organization developed a solid volunteer strategy. One volunteer even referred to it as a rescue team of angels who …
My organization developed a solid volunteer strategy. One volunteer even referred to it as a rescue team of angels who …
I was des-per-ate for any able-bodied human to help me on the box truck I would borrow to pick up donated furniture…
If headlines really told the story.
Collaborative volunteering takes away the sizing up of a potential volunteer to see if they would fit into our little mold.
Because volunteer resilience is key to not only surviving major disruptions, but key to surviving and thriving during more minor disruptions, we are knee-deep in encouraging resilience. Nurturing volunteer resilience is necessary, regardless of a pandemic or a change in policy.
We invest in people. But we don’t often measure our investment’s growth. We’re too overwhelmed with daily work to stop and take stock of our positive influence on volunteers and our missions.
We have to stop the misconception that volunteers are possessions, and until we throw them out, they will keep coming back up to the moment they wear out or die. Instead, let’s speak of volunteers as temporary from the start. They are with us for the time that benefits us and them, not forever or until we dump them. Let’s speak about the privilege to have them for one event, one week, one season or one year. Never forever.
Experiential learning teaches us to apply knowledge from doing. It forces us to experiment until we get things right.
Let those tucked away regrets motivate you to be constructive so they don’t turn into full-on guilt. Regrets can either keep us paralyzed by guilt or they can motivate us to grow by making us constructive.
I’ve had volunteers who stole, volunteers who pushed an agenda, volunteers who wanted to take over and volunteers who were just mean. I’ve also had volunteers who messed up royally because they did something nice, but so misplaced that it caused real harm.