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Finding Success with Volunteers
One reason many groups (including AFA units) can’t find “replacements” for their leaders is that they
want to find a willing body, give them the job title and the files and then step back or disappear.
If you have enough good volunteers working together in your chapter, congratulations! If not, you might
want to consider approaching potential volunteers with more limited but very well-defined, specific tasks
as a way to build some depth and continuity into your leadership group.
AFA draws volunteer leaders from all age groups, but units are increasingly depending on Baby Boomers
(born 1946-64). The executive director of a national volunteer organization who draws most of her
volunteers from this age group has noted she finds that these folks prefer to work on tasks that have
specific job descriptions. Even though many of them come with a variety of skills drawn from a lifetime
of work, they tell her they feel their time and efforts are most fully used in a structured environment.
Many of our AFA chapters already use a version of this approach – and not just for Boomers. Last month’s
Newsline featured expanded job descriptions used by the Lance Sijan Chapter of Colorado Springs, CO.
You may also remember the 2007 Convention Briefing from Unit of the Year (Gerrity Chapter of Oklahoma
City) President, Jim Diehl that stressed his success in recruiting volunteers by keeping a single promise:
“Do one thing really well and that’s all you’ll be asked to do”.
http://www.afa.org/members/DiehlGerrity.pdf
If you have an approach that works particularly well for you, send a brief description to
jsimpson@afa.org
and we will feature that in a future section.
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