GET CHAPTERS TALKING AND THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT VOLUNTEERING
Volunteering doesn’t have to be a major time-suck. If chapters embrace microvolunteering, more members will be able and willing to volunteer. Microvolunteering or ad hoc volunteering involves tasks that require only a brief amount of time and no long-term commitment. It’s volunteering for today’s busy lifestyle.
Chapters must stop thinking only about filling committees and start thinking about delegating chapter tasks to a wider pool of members. Stop hoarding opportunities to contribute and start sharing the benefits of volunteering with more members.
The first step is to identify micro jobs—a cross-departmental and cross-committee effort at your association and chapters. Post those opportunities on the chapter and/or association’s website, member portal, or online community.
EQUIP VOLUNTEERS WITH WHAT THEY NEED TO SUCCEED
You can help chapters train volunteers by creating guides and training modules for common chapter volunteer jobs. Give chapters access to your learning management system for volunteer training and document storage. Teach leadership skills to volunteer leaders, for example, running effective meetings and delegation.
At the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP), they host “just-in-time” webinars since chapter leaders tend to do particular tasks at the same time each year. By strategically scheduling webinars on particular topics—like event planning, implementation, and promotion—just before chapters need them, NATP reduced the number of incoming chapter calls and emails. Use a webinar platform that allows Q&A and record sessions for your chapter leader website.
The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) developed toolkits and training videos that help volunteers with marketing and communications, business, legal, and financial issues, event planning, and more.
HOW YOU CAN PERSONALLY HELP CHAPTER LEADERS RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS
Besides showing chapters how to improve their volunteer recruitment and retention efforts, you can personally help chapters too.
- Ask a National board or committee member who’s completing their term to consider serving at the chapter level.
- Keep a list of chapter volunteer opportunities to refer to members.
- Consider adding ‘chapter volunteer service’ to your CE requirements.
- Ask National leaders to recruit co-workers or other colleagues for chapter volunteering or leadership.
- Make a personal introduction of a chapter leader to a potential future leader.
One of the benefits of volunteering is developing leadership skills. In our next post, we’ll show how NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement developed a leadership training pathway for all levels of volunteers.