NPL 473
Managing Volunteers: Case Study
Suppose you have recently been hired by the newly reformed
Blue Earth County Humane Society as the Executive Director (and chief cook and
bottle-washer—this is a one-person shop).
You have a volunteer Board of Directors, a building with a phone (and an
answering machine), and a contract with
1) You
are sitting down at your desk (actually, a kitchen table in the basement,
surrounded by yapping dogs and spitting cats) and begin to pre-plan your
volunteer recruitment campaign.
a. You
sketch out a needs assessment, keeping in mind both the objectives to be
accomplished and the types of volunteer jobs those objectives will require.
b. You
reach for the three-ring binder and review the Policies & Procedures
section. To your dismay, you find that
there is no mention of volunteer workers.
Sketch out which sections will need to be rewritten, and what might be
included (of course, you will take any proposed changes to the Board before you
implement them).
c. Now
you are ready to write the key job descriptions.
Managing
Volunteers Case Study, 2
So, you took your needs assessment, policy manual
revisions, and job descriptions to your Board.
They were enthusiastic and promised to give you complete support. They even formed a task force of the Board to
work with you on the recruitment campaign.
It is now Wednesday at
Managing
Volunteers Case Study, 3
It worked!
By the Heavens, it actually worked!
You got all the volunteers you needed, and it looks like they will be a
good crew.
On the other hand—it worked, and now you’ve got to
do something with all those people!