Patricia,

        I meant to respond to your question about volunteers several days
ago but since then I've been snowed, iced, and flooded into my house/away
from the office.

        I worked for a small historic house/county historical society
museum where recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers was a big
part of my responsibilites for almost 20 years. In that time we went
through many ups and downs including at least one total change of
volunteers.

        Have you talked with former volunteers to find out why they
quite? Its often because they've become too busy or more involved with
something else in their lives or just because they want to do something
"different". But sometimes its a problem with the institution. You need
to find out. Recruiting new volunteers won't help if you don't "fix" the
things that may have driven voluteers away in the past.

        Some of the things that worked with our volunteers...

         Prepare a discription of a variety of projects that someone could
volunteer to do. Offer as wide a variety of projects as possible --some
for people who like to work with the public, some for people who would
rather be behind the scenes, some for people who want to work Tuesday
from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and some for people who don't want to be so rigid
or committed. Keep the projects short and well defined. You might
consider indicating a couple of projects that are special priorities.
Then let the volunteer chose what they want to do.

        I found that by giving volunteers short term projects with very
definite ends they had a greater sense of accomplishment. This helped to
keep them coming back. It also gave them more opportunity to sample
different types of projects. This kept them from getting bored and
let them try something "different" without having to go somewhere else to
find it.

        I also used the completiton of the short projects as a chance to
show the museums appreciation. Sometimes we would serve staff and
volunteers punch and cookies (and all staff was expected to put in an
appearence) or give the volunteer a single cut flower or a small museum
related gift. It didn't cost much but the rewards were great. These were
also acknowledged in the museum's newsletter and when volunteers worked
on exhibits or special programs they were always mentioned.

        I found, however, that the most important thing was just to be
friendly and to let them know on a regular basis that we were glad they
were there. Little things like greeting them when they came in or
stopping by their work station to say hello, ask how the work was going or
about their family, to be there when they left for the day to say
thank-you. And it was important that all the staff be involved, not just
the volunteer coordinator. We lost several volunteers once when we got a new
director who didn't bother to say hello when he passed someone in the
hallway. On the other hand, we had a janitor who made a big impression on
volunteers because he showed an interest in what they were doing and a
willingness to assist when necessary.

        I hope this helps.


Laura Lynne Scharer
Jefferson County (NY) Hiustorian
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