TrainingandSupportFebArchive

Despite the growing tools offered online to communicate with volunteers and to foster exchange among voluntee

rs, don't forget the basics. This is a tip praising the old-fashioned, but still-powerful, bulletin board. Since bulletin boards are relatively inexpensive, add several to your supply budget. Here are a few places to mount them:

By your desk, where it can be seen while someone sits and talks with you.
Wherever volunteers, staff, and visitors might gather or wait in another part of your office.
Outside the door of your office.
In a staff lounge.
In the public lobby, waiting room, or entrance hall of your agency's building.

If a bulletin board is colourful, neat, and looks cared for (i.e., outdated things removed, remaining items straightened, and new things posted often), people DO stop and read them. Help quick browsers by using large-letter headlines for sections of the board under which you’ll be posting monthly/weekly/daily items and tagging special and new things with coloured paper bursts (New! Read this! Surprise! You're invited!).

For the bulletin board directly at your desk and near office visitors, select an ever-changing array of things that you are proud of and consider it subliminal advertising! Even if only a few items catch someone’s eye, you can set the tone and raise expectations about volunteers by such things as:

Photographs of volunteers doing something, especially something unexpected. Pick a shot that reflects the diversity of the volunteer corps, too. This not only informs everyone of what is going on, but is also great informal recognition for those involved.
Pithy items extracted (and enlarged for easy reading at a distance) from your monthly report, such as a new service created, a rise in retention rates, or the completion of a goal.
Letters of appreciation from clients, staff, and volunteers themselves.
Advance notice of in-service training events, with the topic and speaker, not just the date.

All of these ideas work equally well in the other bulletin board locations, but emphasize things that matter the most to the people most likely to pass by each spot. For example, in the staff lounge, make sure the photos show both volunteers and staff. Nothing elicits more comment than frequently changing (and often funny) photographs. In the reception area, the bulletin board can include a holder for take-away literature about current volunteer opportunities - not just a standard, generic brochure, but something with a current date at the top and a list of openings today or a wish list of special talents you could put to use.

Susan J. Ellis is President of Energize, Inc., a training, consulting, and publishing firm that specializes in volunteerism. She founded the Philadelphia-based company in 1977 and since that time has assisted clients throughout North America (48 states and 6 provinces), Europe (9 countries), Asia (3 countries), Latin America (2 countries), Australasia (2 countries) to create or strengthen their volunteer corps.