Managing Volunteers and Avoiding Burnout

• Make sure to delegate duties and hold individuals accountable for assignments. The president and top chapter officers cannot do it all! Delegate the smaller tasks. You may want to investigate hiring a chapter administrator who can assume many of the administrative burdens of running a chapter.
• Make sure you have an accurate bio or board profile on each volunteer. Assess an individual's skills and time commitments before asking a volunteer to assume responsibilities. Roles should be consistent with a person's abilities, experience, and willingness to follow through.
• Seek the advice of others. In preparing for a strategic planning meeting, get the opinions of others you trust when deciding who to recruit for volunteer or board positions. They may be able to suggest new people you can approach.
• Size the task for success. Experience is key to successful volunteer service; so don't start your volunteers off with too tough a task. Starter responsibilities may include leading a task force on a single issue, coordinating a single event, or taking a learning position on a committee. Volunteer burnout is often the result of over-sizing a volunteer task.
• Consider building committees to increase your pool of involved persons and to share the workload. Committees are a great way to get more people involved and build a valuable pool of volunteers for future years.
• Accurately describe the duties of the position. Provide written position descriptions if the volunteer position is part of the chapter's organizational structure. This will minimize the chances of misunderstandings and miscues.
• Ask for their involvement privately, but confirm any commitment publicly, if possible, at your board meeting. Tell the volunteer why you think he or she will be successful (e.g., skills, experience, contacts). Don't leave the meeting without obtaining commitments. Summarize responsibilities assumed in the minutes of this particular meeting.
• Provide written follow-up. Minutes of planning or board meetings should be distributed soon after they are held. These are excellent reminders of the responsibilities assigned and assumed.
• Hold individuals accountable, and set targets over time as a means of measuring progress. Here are a few examples: "Date will be set by…," "Room will be reserved by...," "Speaker to be confirmed by…," "Publicity ready for mailing by…." Remind your volunteers they will need to provide a progress report at your next board meeting.
• Check in by phone. Set aside a time each month for quick telephone calls to determine the progress your volunteers have made. People value these check-up calls more if you offer advice or resources to help when progress is going slowly.
• Build up the importance of the assignment. Volunteers need to feel their work is important and valued. Invite the volunteer to attend the next board meeting to report on progress. Make sure the report is on the agenda and that it is, in fact, covered during the meeting. If you need to, make it quick, but do not skip over the report, even if you are running late.
• Respect youth and enthusiasm. Volunteer organizations are a great training ground for the leaders of tomorrow. They provide opportunities for leadership earlier than most commercial organizations. That's why so many enthusiastic and aggressive young people look for the chance to serve. Resist the urge to discourage enthusiasm or new ideas. Your constituencies just might need some new insights and fresh blood.
• Accept the role of trainer/coach. Developing leaders often model themselves after their mentors—so set a good example.
• Recognize, recognize, recognize! Recognize your volunteers every chance you get: on the spot, in meetings, at actual events, in discussions with their boss, in writing, and at years end. People who feel valued are proud and pleased to be involved. They are also much more likely to recommit for future years. For more details see Providing Recognition for Chapter Service.
• Build Strong Committees

For more information and for additional resources, please contact the Regional Manager for your area.