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Recruiting Leaders
AFA Field Leaders aren’t unique when it comes to the task of finding and developing leaders for AFA
field units. Leaders of volunteer organizations all over the country share the challenge.
Many organizations, including AFA units, rely on mass recruiting. They send out an appeal in a newsletter
or e-mail and hope for the best. But experience shows these only work a very small percentage of the
time.
What does work and what virtually all of those that are the most successful agree to is that the best
way to recruit people into a leadership role is personal contact. Describe your vision of the
organization and its mission. Personalize it. Localize it as much as you can. Show them how their
time and talents could contribute to the organization’s projects or how they might help create and lead
a new project. Be prepared to discuss details, specifically, what you would like them to do, how much
time it would take, what resources they have to rely on and so on. Most importantly start the process
early enough so that you or someone else on the leadership team can mentor them.
Last month we talked about how approaching potential volunteers with specific tasks has worked well for
many organizations. Developing those specifics and using personal contact to interest people in helping
you with those projects go hand in hand.
If you have had a success with this approach you would like to share with others, send it to Jim Simpson,
jsimpson@afa.org .
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