Christine's experience in the second paragraph is mine as well.
As for the first paragraph, we have not yet tried products or services to coordinate volunteers, but based on who we get in the door and the various places they come from, I've suspected our experience would be similar. When two methods each don't work for everyone but one takes little to no maintenance, that the latter one wins out is just smart design.
Contacting people in person is helpful toward maintaining relationships with busy people, who are often also the most capable. It isn't the most useful on a day-to-day basis, but for drives and special projects, it works very well.
cyclista Nicholas
On 2018-12-31 14:14, Christine Hill wrote:
Not super helpful, but emailing mostly to commiserate: at Old Spokes Home we tried When I Work, a custom Google Form, a white board sign up system... and scrapped it all because we found these organized systems worked only for a fraction of the volunteers, just like the lack of a system seemed to work just for a fraction of the volunteers. But the lack of a system required less management. Both were imperfect systems that resulted in semi-frequent inconveniences. We never cracked the code.
As far as retention goes, I found that maintaining an updated volunteer email list and sending out specific requests (we need x volunteers on y day) were super helpful. Partnering up new volunteers who seem super interested with experienced volunteers always made the newbies feel empowered and important and able to run things a little bit more because they had a good model and relationship. And personal asks are always super effective. If someone good hadn’t shown up lately I’d shoot them an email to say we missed them (without trying to guilt them in any way, life happens).
Hope you’re well!
Christine Hill (339) 223-0722
On Dec 29, 2018, at 2:42 PM, Audrey Wiedemeier audrey@bikelibrary.org wrote:
Greetings, Folks:
Does anyone have advice/suggestions/insight into these or other volunteer scheduling systems? I am testing out: Freehub, Flipcause, When I Work, Volgistics, and Freecyclerys rad spreadsheet.
Right now we have no scheduling system, but rather operate with a "just show up at these times" system. Keyholders let me know when they can't be at their regularly scheduled program and then I cover.
We have about 15 core volunteers (volunteer 4-6 time a month), and 15 active volunteers (they come once or twice a month). The main issue that I hope to resolve is volunteer retention and making all folks feel welcome to be a part of the organization. I realize there are many other benefits to implementing a scheduling system, as well as way to retain volunteers.
Thank you in advance!
Peace & grease,
Audrey Wiedemeier (She/her/hers) Iowa City Bike Library, Director
700 S. Dubuque St, Iowa City Hours: Sat. 10-3, Mon. 5-7, Tues. 6-8, Wed. 6-8, Thurs. 6-8, Fri. 4:30-6:30
BikeLibrary.org C: (515) 450-1651 ____________________________________
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