1. Welcome to Participant Retention
Amy Thompson

2. Agenda Foundation Opening Activity Why Volunteers Leave
Introductions
Set the Day
Agenda
Opening Activity
Why Volunteers Leave
Management Cycle and Principles
Stages of Group Development

3. Agenda
Leadership Compass
Each One, Teach One
Closing

4. 2 of 3 volunteers stop volunteering because of poor management.
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Volunteers, especially “Baby Boomers”, have high expectations:
Good customer service
Meaningful service activities
Well organized experience

5. Volunteer Management Cycle
PLANNING – obtaining buy-in; designing member positions; creating application forms; developing applicable policies and procedures; and educating others in the organization about involving members
RECRUITMENT – who, why, where, when and how. Who would be the ideal member? Why would they be interested in your member opportunity? Where and when can you reach these people? How can you create a recruitment message that encourages potential members to serve for your organization?
Orientation and Training – to give the general information about your organization and the specific information about the member position, provide year long training around position specific, leadership, and life after AmeriCorps.
Supervision and Evaluation – You need to know that the member is fulfilling their role effectively and the member needs affirmation too - assess how the member placement is going and if changes could be made to improve the member’s satisfaction or performance.
Recognition – happens in an informal way every time a “thank you” is said. Formally, members are thanked through celebrations and recognition events planned in their honor. It is important that the thank you fits the member; you need to know your members so that they can be thanked in a way that leaves them feeling truly recognized.

6. Planning
Conduct a needs assessment that at a min. involves the community;
Get buy-in from all stakeholders in project planning and development;
Project vision, mission and goals that fit with those of the overall organization;
Organization budgets money

7. Planning
Other org. staff see volunteers as assets and understand their roles;
Organization implements strategies to promote positive staff/volunteer relationships;
Top management demonstrates support; and
Regularly assess project strengths and challenges

8. Recruitment and Selection
Written description of the qualities of an ideal candidate based on community needs and program activities;
Written list of benefits volunteers receive as a part of service;
Written position descriptions, developed in conjunction with stakeholders that detail essential and marginal functions, time commitment, workload, supervisor, etc.;
Written, strategic, innovative year-long recruitment and selection plan, developed in conjunction with stakeholders

9. Recruitment and Selection
Recruit and select a diverse pool of volunteers that reflect the communities in which they serve;
Actively recruit individuals with disabilities;
Application elicits enough information to determine whether the prospective volunteer is a potential fit;
Selection process thoroughly assesses volunteer background, skills, accomplishments, motivation, goals, and commitment

10. Recruitment and Selection
Selection process involves a diversity of participants that have a stake in program;
Program matches volunteers to appropriate positions and sites; and
Program gets feedback from partners on effectiveness of recruitment and selection process;

11. Support
Agreement that outlines expectations, agreements, and consequences (signed by volunteer and organization)
Written list of skills and knowledge volunteers need to serve
Assess training needs with volunteers and sites
Orientation is planned and developed with stakeholders and prepares volunteers for beginning of service
Provide volunteers with information on community and agency
Written, year-long training plan, developed in partnership with stakeholders
Regularly assess training effectiveness and make needed modifications

12. Support
Yearly evaluations that provide performance feedback (2 times per year for AmeriCorps State and National)
Yearly opportunities for volunteers to assess program impact and support
Use evaluations to make yearly programmatic and volunteer improvements
Written strategy to retain volunteers
Provide each volunteer with a point of contact that provides support and supervision

13. Recognition
Written plan to internally and externally recognize volunteers for accomplishments and community impact
Implement creative motivational strategies
Allow for reflection opportunities to celebrate and document accomplishments and experiences
Provide documentation to volunteers that demonstrate their impact

14. Stages of Group Development Discussion
How can we present this stage to the larger group?
What is this stage talking about? What is going on at this time?
What are the greatest challenges programs and volunteers face at this stage?
Thinking about the different areas of the management cycle, what strategies can we implement to ensure retention?

15. Stages of Group Development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Feelings of excitement, anticipation, optimism. suspicion, fear, and anxiety
Identification of its reason for existence; self-orientation; exploration and discovery of how to interact with others.
Natural leaders emerge.
Negativity; Dissatisfaction; Crisis mode; Differences and suppressed tension begin to surface.
Members define the energy level they dedicate:
Do I feel passionate about the purpose of this program;
Do I like how they are planning to meet the needs;
What am I going to do or say that will get my opinion heard?
Shared goals; Conflict Resolution; Acceptance of diversity; Show of affection;.
Members have seen the coming together (forming), the semi-separation (storming), and now reconciliation (norming) despite their differences with a new definition of purpose.
Cohesiveness, Teamwork, Leadership, and Performance.
Group is starting to utilize its newly found “norms of trust,” and can begin focusing on the service to be done.
Enough drive, creativity, and cohesiveness to take on most tasks.

16. Leadership Compass East = Purpose, Vision, Big Picture
WHY?
West = Process, Details, Planning
HOW?
North = Products, Results, Goals
WHAT?
South = People, Relationships, Support
WHO?

17. North – At Our Best…. Assertive, active, decisive
Like to be in control of professional relationships and determine course of events
Quick to act, expresses sense of urgency for others to ACT NOW
Enjoys challenges presented by difficult situations and people
Thinks in terms of the bottom line
Like a quick pace and a fast track
Courageous
Perseveres, not stopped by NO, probes and presses to get at hidden resistances
Likes variety, novelty, new projects
Comfortable being in front
“do it now, I’ll do it, what’s the bottom line?”

18. North – Taken to Excess….
Can be bogged down by need to press ahead, decide, seem not to care about process or people
Can defensive quickly, argue, try to out-expert you
Can lose patience, pushes for decisions before it’s time
May get autocratic, want this their way, riding roughshod over people in decision making process
See things in terms of black and white, little tolerance for ambiguity
May go beyond limits, get impulsive and disregard practical issues
Not heedful of others’ feelings, may be perceived as cold
Have trouble relinquishing control – find it hard to delegate “if you want to do something right, do it yourself”

19. South – At Our Best….
Allows others to feel important in determining direction of what’s happening
Value driven regarding aspects of professional life
Uses professional relationships to accomplish tasks, interaction is primary
Supportive, nurturing to colleagues and peers
Willingness to trust others’ statements at face value
Feeling-based, trusts own emotions and intuition, intuition regarded as truth
Team player, receptive to others’ ideas, builds on ideas of others, noncompetitive
Able to focus on the present moment
“right, fair”

20. South – Taken to Excess….
Can be bogged down when believe relationships, needs of people are being compromised
Has trouble saying no to requests
Internalizes difficulty and assumes blame
Takes criticism of task personally
Prone to disappointment when relationship is seen as secondary to task
Difficulty confronting and dealing with anger, may be manipulated by anger
Easily taken advantage of
Immersed in present, loses track of time
Immersed in NOW, may not see long-range view

21. East – At Our Best…. Visionary who sees the big picture
Very idea oriented, focus on future thought
Insight into mission and purpose
Looks for overarching themes, ideas
Likes to experiment, explore
Appreciates generating a lot of information
Inspiring, exciting, motivating
“options, possibilities”

22. East – Taken to Excess….
Can be bogged down by lack of vision or too much emphasis on vision
Can lose focus or become bored with tasks, details
May have poor follow through on projects – drop the ball in someone else’s lap
May become easily over whelmed by too much detail or too many projects on the plate
Not time-bound, may lose track of time
Tends to be highly enthusiastic early on then burn out over the long haul
Can develop a reputation for lack of dependability

23. West – At Our Best….
Seen as practical, dependable, and thorough in task situation
Helpful to others by providing planning and resources
Likes lists, charts, tables, organizing ideas and tasks
Moves carefully and follows procedures and guidelines
Uses data analysis and logic to make decision
Weighs all sides of an issue, balanced
Introspective, analytical
Careful, thoroughly examining needs in a situation
Works well with existing resources – get the most out of it
Skilled at finding fatal flaws in an idea or project
“objective, benchmarks, steadfast”

24. West – Taken to Excess….
Can be bogged down by too much information “analysis paralysis”
Can become stubborn and entrenched in position
Can be indecisive, collect unnecessary data, mired in details
May appear cold, withdrawn with respect to others’ working styles (focused on data, not people)
Tendency towards watchfulness, observation
Can remain withdrawn, distanced
Resists emotional pleas and change

25. Each One, Teach One
What are the key points I pulled from this reading?
How does this relate to retention?
How can I implement this in my program?

26. Amy Thompson CAC Consulting 512.448.0401 CACconsulting@hotmail.com
Thank You and Good Luck!
Amy Thompson
CAC Consulting