I ran volunteer orientation for a few years at bike farm in Portland, Oregon. these are my take aways.
Ultimately, I only anticipated 10-20% of volunteers would become regulars within the space and challenged them to prove me wrong. As long as you turn that small subset into regulars, you’ve done your job.
I started every volunteer orientation with introductions and asking them why they wanted to volunteer with bike farm. It’s a fun way to get them talking, understand their motivation, directly address how they are in the right place and explain what differentiates our space by relating to them through my personal experience. If possible, I tried to have another volunteer support me to provide a contrasting/supporting perspective.
After waking them through the organizational structure I introduced them to every volunteer/staff member in the building and toured the space. This is to help them build connections within the organization and feel comfortable navigating the space. Additionally, I can’t be a friend to every new volunteer and I’m definitely not the best fit as a friend for every new volunteer but it’s very likely that if I can get them to connect with another established person in the space that they will feel more comfortable and want to return. The room is typically prepared to receive them and regularly interjects during the orientation to share their perspective and open the door to further communication. I have found that most people just want to volunteer to be part of a community and are drawn together by a mutual sense of purpose and interest in bikes, so my job is mostly just community building. Fostering connections is what makes the space compelling to return to. If all they care about is building technical skill, introduce them to that equivalent person in the org since you know who that is and they don’t.
I also used social media (IG) to highlight the fun we were having on shifts online. This was always referenced as a hook for why people showed up to volunteer orientation, they just thought it looked like a good time and wanted to join in.
Good luck out there!
Alison