Biblical Volunteer Management

Hi ______,

I heard you mentioning your plan to provide some training in managing volunteers and staff.  I have something that may be of help to you, which you are welcome to borrow.

When VOM bumped me from being an Area Representative to being an Area Coordinator (overseeing and training other reps) a few years ago, they provided me with a fantastic training course called “High Impact Volunteer Management”.  Honestly, I’ve not had any other training in this field so I had no idea what to expect or what volunteer management involved, but I was afraid it was going to be a bunch of psychobabble imported from the business world, with a few Bible verses tacked on.  

I was pleasantly surprised to dig in to the training and discover that it seems to be thoroughly founded on Scripture.  It is also some of the most “compacted” training I have EVER received.  By that I mean, the whole thing is compressed into one 45 minute DVD and two audio CDs.  About 3 hours of material altogether.  But I found myself repeatedly having to stop the recordings so that I could catch up in writing down important points that the speaker was making.  Very little fluff in the material.  After watching the first part (the DVD) I understood for the first time why the nursery at my church was always short on volunteers. :)  It gave me a solid track to follow in the volunteer management process.  I can also say now with several years of experience using it that it has worked very well.  That is to say, I feel like it has helped VOM attract, screen, train, and develop excellent reps.  (As far as rep skills are concerned, from my experience, I am towards the bottom of the pile.  VOM has some really neat reps.)  One of the HIVM teachings is that anything you do with staff members you can also do with volunteers, if you manage the process right.  Normally people think that because staff people are paid, they will have a higher commitment level than volunteers, but such doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.  

The only bad thing about the HIVM training is how expensive it is.  If you buy it on their web site, it’s $150.  (https://ananet.com/resources/?active=1)  VOM provided it to me at no charge, for which I’m thankful (although I hope they got a discount!).  You can buy additional workbooks for $15. 

(But I’m not sure if they have revised the material since I went through it in 2006.  The materials I have may be several generations behind by now?)

There is very little of the material available for free online, but here are a few links that are available.  They will give you a small taste of what it’s like:

https://ananet.com/faq/q_and_a.htm

https://ananet.com/lfw/index.htm

In any event, if you would like to borrow the DVD and CDs I have, you are more than welcome to them.

Because of Jesus,

Daniel Bartsch

Area Coordinator (AZ, UT)

Voice Volunteer Network

The Voice of the Martyrs