Digital Arts Service Corps

This is the space for all contacts, programs and ideas related to Volunteer Management related to the Transmission Project. Currently the Volunteer Management working group is organizing and developing a handbook detailing volunteer management for both tech and non-tech non-profits. The Transmission Wiki will be the space to build this product.

All are encouraged to contribute and send forward information or useful tips to be added to the handbook. The output of this work will be an entire Volunteer Management document that is housed on the Wiki and also available for print and distribution on the Transmission site.

The first meeting of the Volunteer Management working group was held at the June 2007 Pre-Service Orientation. We went through a basic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis using collective experience and imagining would be anticipated during the course of organizing and implementing a Volunteer Program. Here is the SWOT list generated from that meeting:

Strengths:
- Organization
- Leadership
- Understanding People (Emotional Intelligence)
- Solid Communication
- Protocols
- Assessments

Weaknesses:
- too much idealism/unreasonable expectations
- Poor communication
- Unclear Chain of Command
- Lack of volunteer recognition
- Lack of ground rules

Opportunities:
- Previous volunteers/Alumni
- Networking
- College volunteer centers/student service organizations
- Senior organizations
- Community Centers
- Online volunteer sites (craigslist.com, volunteermatch.com, etc.)

Threats:
- Absence of Shared Vision/People not understanding volunteerism
- Size of organizations (both a large and well-known organization where people assume a large contingent of volunteers where they may actually be few or a small organization that is not well-known enough to gain volunteers' interest/trust)
- Recruiting qualified volunteers
- Lack of interest
- Bad timing of recruitment (i.e. volunteer recruitment at college level mid-way through semester)
- Transportation availability/affordability for volunteers to travel to work site
- Excuses, people saying "I already gave too much"
- Public knowledge of how to get involved with volunteerting

The Volunteer Management working group aims to address all these issues and more in its final output. Keep posted for more information and resources as they are added.

A sample Volunteer Management plan/handbook is attached below. It was developed for HOME, Inc. in January 2007.

In addition, take a look at another Volunteer Management handbook, also listed below, created by our own VISTA!