¶ … Managing Volunteers
Course Reflection: Developing and Managing Volunteers
The United States has a long, proud history of volunteerism, as evidenced in the recent outpouring of support after the disasters of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The benefits of using volunteers to organizations are enormous, given that they bring selfless energy and commitment to the work they are doing, and often have a situation-specific framework of knowledge particular to local disaster areas. However, there are also many challenges to using volunteers, particularly volunteers which are unskilled in rescue efforts, or whose personal commitment arise spontaneously, out of a desire to help in the aftermath of a disaster. There may be a lack of respect for such untrained volunteers from professional volunteers like firemen or paid workers. This can create unhelpful conflict within the recovery operation. Spontaneous volunteers in particular may have difficulty with dealing with the stress of the relief operations, and also may present legal liability issues to the coordinating agency. In dangerous situations or relief efforts demanding specialized knowledge, soliciting trained volunteers from volunteer agencies may be the best option.
Building a volunteer program before such a disaster takes place, so volunteers can be trained under calmer conditions is the ideal situation. It is essential to inform the potential volunteers of the challenging situations they will face, and to provide them with accurate job descriptions of the sorts of duties they must perform. Organizations often must 'advertise' for volunteers similar to the way that employers advertise for paid jobs, and recruiting young, idealistic workers seeking job experience or who desire to put their convictions into actions are ideal candidates, as are retired persons seeking to retain a sense of connection to their communities. Volunteers will be increasingly necessary to relief efforts in the future, in an era of tight government budgets, but training the right people effectively for the work they will perform as well amassing large numbers of volunteers is critical to assembling an effective volunteer force.
Works Cited
Developing and Managing Volunteers." (2006, Feb). FEMA. Retrieved 10 Sept 2007 at http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is244.asp
