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I am involved (usually) in at least one or more volunteer projects. Whether it’s related to something like PodCamp NYC, or kid school activities, I normally donate some time to some cause, as most parents do. Why?

When I started volunteering at the hospital several years ago, i thought it was to teach my children that you needed to do more than just write a check for charities- you needed to put your muscle in it as well, and demonstrate that contributing goes far beyond mere dollars and cents. Here are some guiding principles, meant to illustrate my point:

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Principle One: There are never enough volunteers to go around

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If you are organizing a volunteer group, don’t understaff yourself. Volunteers often end up with conflicts because of family emergencies, a gradual decline in interest, or dimple scheduling conflicts. If you don’t overplan in some ways, you’ll be caught short by the inevitable attrition.

If you are volunteering for something, don’t do it unless you really want to make a serious commitment, and plan to follow through. There is nothing worse than counting on someone and then finding out they really aren’t interested in helping, or simply can’t. And you want people to think you are reliable, not a flake. So take your volunteer commitments seriously.

In the big picture, there are many fewer people who find they have time on their hands that they are willing to give to others. The Stay At Home Moms are hugely busy; many more women are working, and we all don’t have the leisure time we once did. Community groups ranging from political groups to churches to PTA/PTO’s are all largely counting on a shrinking group of people, made up more and more of retirees, who have less and less time to give them.

Just in our own community, there are some jobs that used to be staffed by volunteers that are becoming paid positions, because there simply are not enough volunteers to go around, and the only way to ensure the job is done is to hire someone for it. Sounds great, but think about the expense this now passes on to everyone.

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Principle Two: Volunteers are passionate, but need tasks and deadlines.

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If you are going to organize a group of volunteers, you need to be a good manager. You need to give people jobs, work flows, and deadlines. You need to give them specific tasks and let them do it. Ask for progress reports, brain storm ideas, support them, but also let them take ownership of the task. No one likes to be micromanaged. This is as true for volunteers as for everyone else.

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Principle Three: Give it to a busy person- recognizing and capitalizing on competence

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If you see someone who is really passionate about something you are doing, embrace them, Give them something to do. Help them use their enthusiasm and energy to your group’s benefit. I have seen more enthusiasm and energy squandered in volunteer groups than anywhere else. And if you don’t harness the energy when its there, these people will become rapidly disenchanted with your organization and put their efforts elsewhere.

Sometimes someone seems really busy- but they would love to help you if you just asked. Sometimes a quick email or question, even just one about “I was wondering what you thought about this…..” can reap untold rewards.

And the old saying about “Give it to a busy person, because they’ll get it done” is true- busy people are doers, not usually watchers, and are usually great at multitasking. And if they say, Not Now, accept that, but keep them in mind as someone to ask for your next project.

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Principle Four: Learn to delegate- give up control

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You can’t control everything. You have to be willing to let others make decisions, and even encourage them to take over and do whatever they think is necessary. Encourage communication between people and sub-committees, but also let enthusiastic people run with whatever they want to do and get out of their way as much as possible. Besides, who really wants to spend three hours debating the color of the table cloths? Let the committee decide and support whatever decision they made. It probably really doesn’t matter that much in the end, anyway.

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Principle Five: Sometimes good enough is good enough

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The color of the paper makes little difference in the big picture.

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Part II of this post will appear next week, so keep a look out, and while your at it, consider volunteering your email address to our subscription bank. It’s free, anonymous, and really makes a difference to the folks who bring you GNMParents.

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[tags]volunteer, help, assist, principles[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by sarvodaya.org