All Volunteers are Not Created Equal
Children were running all around, adults were trying to control the chaos, leaders were trying to communicate with the parents, messages were being mixed. This went on in one form or another for about an hour. When it all ended the parents were left with confusion and an understanding that they were going to do this next week and the many weeks to follow.
You might be asking, why would anyone want to subject themselves to this chaos? If you are then you either do not have children, or have been a fortunate benefactor of well run organizations for children. Based on my experience 3 out of 4 children’s clubs and activities could benefit from being run a lot more smoothly.
The problem lies in the structure of these organizations. These activities are usually lead by volunteers. People that are not collecting a paycheck or whose full time responsibility is not in the success of these activities. Most of the time they volunteer because their children are participating and they want to be more involved. Sometimes it is this coupled with the fact that they recognize there is a lot of work to be done to make this activity run well.
It was troubling to me to hear the messages being mixed and the dates being miscommunicated. To see the coordination of activities be compromised by the lack of communication. Also, I recognized the frustration on both the parents faces and the leaders. This highlighted a recipe of disaster for yet another activity that my children are involved with.
So I talked it over with Mary I decided to volunteer my time for our local Cub Scouts pack where I have two children participating. What I recognized early on are areas where I felt, as a fixer of troubled teams, I could make an impact.
By doing this I was able to compare well run activities, clubs, and groups against the not so well run. This comparison produced the following checklist of focus areas to enable an active and successful, all volunteer, childrens group:
- Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. This is the #1 issue that faces all struggling groups and the #1 priority for all well run groups.
- Understand what your mission is and base all your communication and activities on this.
- Start on time, end on time. If you develop a habit of not starting on time people will come late knowing they will not miss anything. If you often do not end on time people with busy schedules might stop attending knowing you are going to go over.
- Show appreciation for the volunteers. When someone volunteers to take responsibility for something, express your appreciation publicly. When they take on a leadership role, let them know how their contributions are helping and find ways to recognize their efforts.
- Be super diligent in sticking to your goals. It is hard to take an agenda seriously or focus much attention on it if it is constantly veering away from the stated goals.
- Provide an opportunity for parents to voice their concerns and communicate among each other. This will bear fruit in so many ways.
- Care. If you do not care then please do not volunteer. It is a disservice to offer your abilities for a group that you do not really care much about. Sometimes people volunteer for the wrong reasons and this actually ends up contributing very negatively.
- Identify succession plans for leaders in the organization and train the next leader while the current leader is in place. This way everyone can benefit from a smooth transition.
Dedication to meeting this objectives will pretty much solidify the groups standing and contribute a fun and productive time for our children. Some of these things I have started focusing on improving on and others I am actively engaging parents and leaders to participate and take responsibility for. There is still work to be done but I find that the efforts have been well received and frustration is diminishing a bit for all. The end goal being, I can step out and this will run just as smoothly without my involvement. There are some great volunteers in this group and we are almost there.
What can you do to assist your children’s activity coordinators?
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