Recruiting and maintaining volunteers is a ner-ending, highly essential job.
I've been a volunteer, for many different organizations, all my life. the
following are a few thoughts on the matter:

1. Recruiting

The most fruitful approach is to target the people most likely to be interested
- retirees from the industry who'd like to keep involved, pass on their
knowledge, etc.; union members (again, especially retirees); collectors and
others interested in the subject matter, etc. Please remember that the adult
education research shows that most people engage in informal adult learning
projects mainly to get out of the house and socialize with others - and this is
also true of volunteers. Make it attractive, make it sound like interesting
work, with interesting people, and you're off to a good start.

2. Retaining

This is the tougher part. I think you have to accept the different interests
and levels of commitment that people have and show your appreciation for each
bit of help you get. A few (5%?) of the colunteers will A:WAYS be there, and
they'll be there for ever, it seems. Others will come to the Christmas parties
and do very little else.

I think the secret is to try to match the individuals' abilities, interests and
levels of commitment to the individual tasks to be done and employ the
volunteers accordingly. I think you have to recognize the contribution of each
and every volunteer, not only by the odd party or other function, but by a
simple thank you, pat on the back or word of encouragement from time to time. I
think it's the latter that do the most to morivate volunteers. At the same
time, you need to recognize and reward those that do more, to spur on the other
volunteers to greater effort.

Don't forget the younger volunteers; the California Academy of Sciences, for
example, has an excellent program for children, run by teenage volunteers.

It is really critical to have a volunteer coordinator, to keep on top of all
this; it could be one of the volunteers, but it is a BIG job, and it must be
given the access to and support of people and limited resources, to make sure
the volunteers' function is kept viable.

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum