Funny you should ask; we just devoted the better part of a staff meeting to
this (again).

I instruct my staff, over and over again, that sending out shotgun appeals
for volunteers seldom works.  You use every resource you can think of to
get them in to start with.  Then, when you have developed a large list of
those who have expressed an interest, you call them with specific tasks
that will take specific periods of time to accomplish.  Like:

"Hi, Sarah.  This is Nancy at the museum.  We have just received a major
exhibit and need some help inventorying it before we intall it.  Can you
give us three hours of your time on Friday to get this task accomplished?"

If Sarah ends up helping, you know you have a hot one.  But don't burn her
out.  Go to someone else the next time.  In the meantime, while Sarah is
helping with this specific task, feel her out about giving a set number of
hours a week or month doing a specifically defined job (have
job-descriptions written out for all volunteer tasks).  If she feels good
about being there, she might sign on.

We hold a volunteer appreciation dinner each year.  We serve barbeque and
offer some live music (in Texas you are always safe serving barbeque).  We
do not give special awards.

More later, someone just came into the office.


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

----------
From:   SF Gray[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Friday, August 14, 1998 10:24 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: Volunteer Recruitment

<<File: ATT00002.html>>


Dennis Martin wrote:

> We have been recently been challenged by our Superintendent to expand
> our volunteer pool especially for interpretive volunteers.
>
> I suspect that we are not the only museum complex in this situation. Do
> any of you have any successful strategies that we can try? What are the
> best target groups for recruitment? What approaches have you found best
> to try?
>

We had 12 volunteers three years ago and now have about 60.  Our strategy
has been three-fold.  First, we have depended upon our existing cadre of
volunteers to tell their friends and colleagues about what we are doing
(and this assumes that you are making your institution the kind of place
that your volunteers would want to recommend it to their friends).  A real
advantage of having existing volunteers talk to their compatriots is that
they often socialize with people who have interests similar to their own,
thus their friends may have an interest in your subject matter.  Second, we
have issued press releases with information about specific positions that
we have had open, such as in the research department.  This has resulted in
recruiting people for a number of departments.   Finally, we have held
orientation days for potential volunteers.  We invite them to the museum,
give a short overview presentation then have some of the department heads
speak about volunteer opportunities in their operations.  Although I always
say that if I can get someone to visit our museum we've got them hooked,
the orientation sessions have not worked as well as the other two methods.

Hope this is helpful.

SF Gray
Executive Director
390th Memorial Museum Foundation
http://www.390th.org