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Got volunteers?
Getting them is one thing . .
Got volunteers? Getting them is one thing . . . but what's the trick to keeping them? Glad you asked.but what's the trick to keeping them?
• Have your meetings over pizza or ice cream. Meetings are always better over food!
• Have your staff/leadership meetings at the house of one of your student's parents. Ask them to cook dinner for your staff- then halfway through the meeting, have them come in and share a story of encouragement how the volunteer leaders have made a difference in their son/daughter's life. Maybe have the student come in and share what they like about the ministry.
• Highlight a different volunteer each staff/leadership meeting and have every other volunteer share something they like about that highlighted volunteer. If you're at a restaurant, have everyone buy that person's meal that night.
• Do fun "team-building" games where the volunteers have to work together to solve something. For example- have everyone stand in a circle. Now tell everyone to stay where they are, but lean in, reach and grab the hands of two people in the circle other than the people next to them. Now tell them to get untangled and form a perfect circle again- without letting go! (We have a bunch of these on our TEAMBUILDERS page at THE SOURCE website)
Don't settle for the "normal" dull staff meeting. Use it as a time for fun, encouragement and team-building for your ministry team.
4. PERKS
You read it right- perks! That's all the little fringe benefits that we can provide for our volunteers.
I can hear it now. "But our budget is small" or "non-existent!" I'm so tired of hearing that. Let me assure you- it's worth budgeting your events so that your staff can always come for free. Here's an easy example. If you're taking all your students to a place that costs $8 . . . charge $10 or $12 so you can cover your gas costs and pay for all your volunteer leaders’ admission. Most students that can come up with 8 bucks can come up with a few more.
The key is letting your volunteer leaders know how much you appreciate their time and dedication. I've been on countless camps and retreats where I saw staff teams that were required to come up with their own money for events and trips. For many volunteers this was a hardship. For many this was a subconscious message that "they weren't of any value." (Note: Some people may think that this robs the staff of the opportunity to give. Well, let them have to take the initiative on that one. Many of my volunteers also donated to our ministry, more than paying for their way. But that was up to them. I always assured them that their time was more than enough. And it was!)
I not only paid for my volunteers on all our events . . . I also gave them additional perks, usually rewarding them for the stuff I wanted them doing. For example: on my week long trips my primary goal was for my leaders to spend time with students one-on-one. So each morning I gave each leader an envelope with $5 in it. I told them to find a time today to take a student out for a milkshake or french fries and a Coke (a pop for you in Michigan). I had 8 staff on that trip for 6 days. That's 48 envelopes with $5 in it, a total of $240. Sound like a lot? Well that $240 guaranteed that 48 students would get one-on-one attention from an adult for about a half hour. That's more than a lot of them got at home in a week. Best $240 I ever spent. I just put it in the budget.
Other perks might be a pocket full of game tokens when we are at an arcade, tickets to the Indy-racers when at the Mini-golf complex, or Christmas gifts at a volunteer leaders’ Christmas dinner.
Provide perks for your volunteers letting them know that you value them. The Bible says that where your treasure is your heart will be also. Our heart better be in our volunteers . . . because they could be doing something else with their time.
5. LEADERSHIP RETREATS
Leadership retreats really are another perk that I offer, combined with a great excuse to train my volunteer leaders and equip them for our ministry.
Every summer I used to concentrate on recruiting volunteer leaders. And at the end of every summer I had a mandatory leadership retreat for new recruits and existing volunteers. My volunteer staff all knew that one of the expectations of being on my team was attending this fun weekend once a year. The cool thing was that my volunteers loved it, and soon the word got out. I would take them to my cousin's 900 acre ranch to ride horses, ride quad-runners, shoot guns . . . and just have a good ol' time. (In California usually the only time people shoot guns is on the freeway!)
Not only was the weekend free and fun, but I made the weekend attractive to them by encouraging them to bring their spouse or significant other (for those of my young staff who were dating or engaged) along with them. This gave them all a chance to interact and bond with each other.
We spent a lot of time doing team building games or activities, sharing with each other and just hanging out together. Each person took turns sharing their testimony at some time during the weekend, usually followed by tears and lots of hugging. Then I did some basic training in evangelism, discipleship and ministry methods.
Leaders came home from this trip not only trained and equipped, but "a team." Very often I would bring 10 to 15 individuals up to the ranch . . . and one team home.
Our volunteers are one of our most important assets. We need to build in to them so that they can build into students. Use these five methods and hold on to your ministry team.
The perks part really does work. I give my volunteers gift cards for them to go out together every now and then. They really appreciate that. I appreciate the advice on communication, that is one thing I need to work on. Thank You
Brian 1:01:51pm on 1/12/2008
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