I'll offer our approach:
We have a lot of interested people wanting to volunteer. Honestly, the challenge we face is trying to keep it fairly accessible without being swamped by people. Also, volunteer attrition.
We have some info on our website at https://bikeedmonton.ca/volunteer-workshops. We get people to come, in person, and fill in an application, then invite them to an orientation/info session that we hold monthly. After that, they are able to sign up for shifts and volunteer. Many people don't last long, partly because they perhaps don't know what they're getting into and partly because we don't do the best job of connecting with/supporting new volunteers. This is a frustration but it's hard to offer as much support to new folks as I'd like with everything else we're doing especially during the busy time of year.
I think being clear on what's expected of volunteers and what they can expect from us as volunteers helps, but for every great, involved, committed volunteer we get there's probably another 4 or 5 who end up disappearing or volunteering very erratically.
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Alex Hindle
Downtown Community Shop Manager
780-433-2453 ext 903
Bike Edmonton Downtown Shop • 10612 105 Ave
