Tuesday #7: Volunteers

I talked to Thad Spring on Wednesday the 26th of February about how to recruit and maintain volunteers.

He said the most important thing to gaining volunteers is telling the story of what what it is they're going to do. That is, not telling them what you need them to do but showing them how they can make a difference. He told me that bordering on manipulation, you have to be able to show them how the world will be different because of what they are doing, for example, telling the story of little Billy who was invested into by a youth sponsor and went from a terrible home life to pursuing a call to ministry, all because someone like that youth sponsor invested in someone else.
In recruiting it is important to know what kind of individual you are looking for. He said one of the greatest ways to do this is to have an "open chair" philosophy. This would say that as a leader or team, you are always evaluating your situation, asking "who needs to be sitting here that is not?" This way you are never begging for anyone, but always working from the framework of someone you would like to work with.

Once you have volunteers, you need to be sure and take care of two things. The first, is that you need to equip them with everything they need to do a good job. Giving training is essential to making sure both they and the ministry they are involved in are benefiting from them being there. In addition, stay in contact and make sure they are happy where they are. If volunteers are not kept up with, it is easy for them to fall between the cracks, and walk away from ministering altogether.

After they've been involved, there are two