Well, unfortunately, you can discipline all you want. You can even "fire" this volunteer. But you can't shut him up. The reality is that anyone who knows this guy probably understands his carping. On the other hand, the old saw, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is true. You might want to invite him to express his "concerns" with you (or your Board President, or your Exec. Director.) As a result of this conversation perhaps there is some task or project that this fellow could take on to help "improve" your museum and make him feel more like an "insider." I'm just devious enough to put him on a public relations/marketing committee. If he had to help craft the marketing message he'd probably take some ownership in it and want to see it succeed. Good luck! Becky Fitzgerald -----Original Message----- From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cait Dallas Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 1:51 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Volunteer Woes Our volunteer coordinator has had a recurring problem over the last year with a long-time volunteer who has generating significant turmoil within our volunteer pool. I'm looking for some advice about how to deal with this type of problem and how to avoid this situation in the future. See my specific questions below. The problematic behaviors include: 1 - Creating "us" vs "them" divisions within our large docent pool (150 individuals) and between docents and staff. Much of this is the result of one individual repeatedly discussing his personal discontent with the current docent training program, some of the professional staff, and with the management of the institution in general. This volunteer has found an audience within the docent pool, so the ubiquitous volunteer grapevine gets repeatedly charged with negativity as word spreads via email and chats in the volunteer lounge. Fortunately, serious discontent with our museum seems to have spread only to a relatively small number of volunteers. However, even those volunteers who are pleased with the museum are clearly aggitated and expressing concern about the negativity. 2 - Discussing his grave concerns about the museum openly in local restaurants. This has resulted in local business owners and employees asking the inevitable question "What is going on over there?". 3 - Trying to play the staff off of one another through private conversations. As staff, we've rebuffed his attempts to undermine colleagues by suggesting that he take his complaints to our President. For the most part though we've focused on putting out the small fires that flare up in his wake. This is time-consuming and of course doesn't address the source of the problem. My questions are: - Does having a volunteer policy and handbook really help minimize this type of problem behavior? - Is the institution of a volunteer policy and handbook with outlined expectations about behavior (including grounds for dismissal) likely to cause a major disruption in the volunteer corps? Will they be offended? If so, how can we minimize it? - What specific procedures have you found to be effective in disciplining or dismissing volunteers? Sorry about the long-winded nature of this inquiry, but there seems to be so little that is straightforward in the museum world. Thanks in advance for your help! Cait Dallas Curator of Collections Ten Chimneys Foundation Genesee Depot, Wisconsin [log in to unmask] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).