Volunteering Study: Emerging ideas

Segment 2

A-     Identifying areas where long & short term volunteers are needed

a.       Each ministry has a set of ministries under its care. Can council help the chair of the ministry to determine which ministries need long term volunteers, and which can be broken up to use short term volunteers?

b.      Are there areas beyond the ministries which can be developed to offer opportunities for short term volunteers?

                                                               i.      Example: VolunTourism, Cross-National Volunteerism - Mission Trips.

                                                             ii.      New possibilities “Virtual Volunteerism” [i]. ESL, Tutoring etc

c.       5 Suggestions[ii]

                                                               i.      Segment volunteer roles so there are more, but less time-consuming, roles to fill

                                                             ii.      Connect the volunteer role with another valued activity

                                                            iii.      Suggest that the potential volunteer sign up for a one-shot project rather than an ongoing role

                                                           iv.      Create flexible volunteer positions that are less time sensitive

                                                             v.      Create volunteer positions that don’t require travel

B-      Can we design volunteer opportunities that

a.       Develop skills

b.      Document skill development

                                                               i.       

                                                             ii.      With new people will come new visions. Can we anticipate accommodating other dreams from those who add their strength to ours?

C-      Examples of jobs

a.       Change road sign each week

b.      Keep Community Link information updated annually.

c.       Update church website calendar every two weeks.

D-     A volunteer coordinator becomes an asset. This person will be the contact person for that specific ministry the volunteer works under. This person will help the volunteer with issues that arise, aid the person with training and resources etc.

E-      A volunteer recruiter is a different asset, and will require job descriptions. This person will interview candidates, prior to a position, and after a short term position.

a.       Can we look through the list of our people to identify persons who would respond to a short term opportunity?

b.      How ready are we to recruit beyond the congregation? Particularly when trying to project a high visibility of the congregation to the community?

c.       Homework needs to be done on the volunteer – background, interview, gifts & skills inventory, references, “what-ifs” in terms of a position under consideration.

d.      Be selective in choosing a volunteer, perhaps even leaving the task undone if the right volunteer is not available.

e.      Readiness checklist[iii]

                                                               i.      Are the church leaders ready to share responsibility and power?

                                                             ii.      Are job descriptions in hand?

                                                            iii.      Do we have a team of volunteer interviewers?

                                                           iv.      Have we decided whom to interview?

                                                             v.      Are we ready to collect and safeguard information?

                                                           vi.      Are we ready to respond when unexpected information is revealed?

                                                          vii.      Are we ready to provide background screenings for volunteers?

                                                        viii.      Are we ready to make a handoff to the appropriate volunteer leader?

F-      Job descriptions are a MUST and must be broken into reasonable segments

a.       To take advantage of new volunteers we need new job descriptions. We  may be able to, for instance, break up the M&O into a coordinator overseeing a series of volunteers working on specific projects, for short terms. In every job description we need a statement of faith as a foundation.

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Possible Outcomes

1.       A change in structure should be studied with the “Evaluation Process For A Proposal”

2.       2010 Nominations Needs / Report to be studied in the fall to determine:

a.       Which personal needs are long term but can become short term in some way?

b.      Which personal needs that will remain as they are have a job description? Can we ensure that a supervisory job is not expected to have “hands on” ministry?

c.       Personal needs that are changed need job descriptions written

3.       Will we appoint a volunteer coordinators, and at which places?

4.       Will we appoint a volunteer recruiter, train and supply such a person with job descriptions?

5.       Where will we create volunteer opportunities that do not exist, to supply ministry opportunities to persons outside our needs?