In modern times we've learned a lot about how volunteers can work effectively with paid staff in agency volunteer programs. This impressive body of knowledge nevertheless misses 90% of volunteering in which volunteers are essentially on their own: nobody is paid, everyone is part-time, and everyone can leave any time they want. Paid staff presence, if it exists at all, is intermittent and infrequent, as in the occasional visit of a national staff person to a local PTA.

The list is long and may be virtually endless, since practically any program, project or group can be non-staffed in certain circumstances. Thus, the board of a well-funded non-profit may be liberally supplied with staff support and liaison. By contrast, the board of a small, struggling organization tends to function as if it were an all-volunteer group.

Importance of All-Volunteer Groups
Entirely volunteer groups are vital for two major reasons: they are where most people do most of their volunteering, and they are where a great deal of what we call "quality of life" is first imagined, created and maintained...If agency volunteer programs are an island, all-volunteer groups are like the massive underwater mountain underlying and supporting the island.

It is in all-volunteer efforts that risks can be taken on behalf of the quality of life (not that they always are taken). Well in advance of big budgets and bureaucracies, undeterred by cautious boards, here is the cutting edge of compassionate enterprise, where positive change can begin to happen. As Margaret Mead said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

The Need for Specialised Principles    

Are all-volunteer groups pervasive? Yes. Important? Definitely. Literally centuries of experience with them are part of our history. Then why can't we make these groups work better? I appeal to your own experience on this. It does seem to me that non-staffed groups often resemble roller-coasters. They go up with inspiring leaders, dramatic crises or other mobilizing events; they're down or dead most of the rest of the time. There are always happy exceptions, of course, but as a rule, it is amazing how such good individuals can make up awful groups.

All this suggests a need to explore development of a body of knowledge and set of expectations specialized to non-staffed volunteer groups.  The remainder of this book explores seven special emphases which distinguish entirely volunteer groups from staffed volunteer programs in agencies:

• The special need to cultivate a powerful, unifying vision as the "glue" of the group. You must take ample time out from implementation to talk about values, visions, and philosophy. You must raise the "why" questions and understand how what you're doing relates to these questions.

• Wide, direct, and decisive participation of members/volunteers in setting goals to implement the group's vision. Please try to help members understand and absorb that this is not a corporation. No matter how excellent your plans "from the top down," ultimately you will only do what volunteers are willing and able to do. So why not give them a more direct share in setting goals in the first place?

• Effective distribution of work among members/volunteers - especially vital because everybody is part time and everybody is here on a voluntary basis, or reasonably close to it.

• Real as distinct from merely rhetorical inclusion of people. This is more a matter of spirit than method; more the taking of values seriously than technique or tactics. At the same time, some methods resonate well with the inclusive attitude.

• Stability without staff and continuity on a bare bones budget.

• Efficiency, flexibility, and the importance of not pretending you're rich. Just because everybody is part time and voluntary, and just because your group is (probably) poor, doesn't mean you have to be unstable. Resist the temptation to invest time and money you haven't got for sophisticated things you don't need (largely because they weren't designed with you in mind in the first place).

• Drawing resources from within the group: serious networking. Networking is a nice, popular thing for well-staffed organizations. But for all-volunteer groups, it is a necessity. This is because there is little or no money to purchase resources from outside of the group, so these must come from inside.

Excerpted from When Everyone's a Volunteer by Ivan H. Scheier, © 2003, Energize, Inc.

As, according to Statistics NZ, 90% of our 97,000 not-for-profit institutions are All-Volunteer organisations, this book could be a very useful publication for many New Zealand organisations.  This book and others can be purchased from the Energize on-line book shop. The link is http://www.energizeinc.com/store/1-116-E-1