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May 2012
Extending Volunteer Expiration Dates & Essential Guidance from Australia
In This Issue
Featured Books: The Volunteer Shelf Life & Volunteer Program Management: An Essential Guide 3rd Edition
Excerpt: "Managing volunteers is challenging. No, really."
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Next Topic:

Managing Change (and Dealing with Resistance to It!)

July 16-August 18

 

Trainer: Connie Pirtle, Director, Strategic Nonprofit Resources, USA

 

Change can be threatening. Explore how to understand and minimize resistance to change and work with those who resist the most.


Access this training plus other topics and benefits by signing up for our $99 trial run.

Two New Resources

Energize is excited to announce two new resources now available in the online bookstore. See their introductions below and visit the bookstore to learn even more.  

resource2 Featured Books
Extending Volunteer Expiration Dates

The Volunteer Shelf Life: A No Fault Look at Volunteer Retention and the Reasons Volunteers Leave
by Meridian Swift

The Volunteer Shelf LifeWith this e-book, we welcome volunteer management blogger, Meridian Swift to the book publishing scene. A seasoned volunteer manager, Swift has captured a practical and realistic approach to leading volunteers. Through conversational style and real-life stories, she recognizes the temporary nature of volunteering, the many reasons why volunteers might leave, and what steps to take to keep volunteers as long as their shelf life allows.

 

Read an excerpt from this book below.

 

This book is available as an e-book (US$9).

 

Order The Volunteer Shelf Life

Essential Guidance from Australia

Volunteer Program Management: An Essential Guide 3rd Edition
by Joy Noble, Louise Rogers, Andy Fryar

Beyond Police ChecksNoble, Rogers, and Fryar have updated their classic overview of solid information for both starting and strengthening a volunteer program in any setting. Since first published, many volunteer program managers refer to this book as "my bible", not as a one-time read but as a reference companion to be used day by day. Although written for an Australian audience, the concepts, case studies, checklists, and other useful tools are fully applicable anywhere in the world. 

 

This book is available as an e-book (US$29). A significant deal for those looking to avoid shipping charges from Australia.  

 

Order Volunteer Program Management: An Essential Guide 3rd Edition
Resources Book Excerpt

Managing volunteers is challenging. No, really.

Excerpted from chapter 1, "Can We Retain Volunteers Forever?" in The Volunteer Shelf Life  by Meridian Swift, copyright 2011.

 

Are volunteers similar to employees, or are they so dissimilar that we should not even compare the two? How do those of us that work with volunteers recruit, place, and retain them on a daily basis while maintaining a healthy balance between the HR model and the heart of volunteering? This area of human resources is tricky.

 

Results are expected while the well-being of the volunteers-which includes their motivations, expectations, satisfaction, and return quotient-rests on the shoulders of the volunteer manager. One of the primary issues of volunteer management is retention. How do we get our volunteers to stay with us? Once a person inquires about volunteering, it is our duty to attract, train, prepare, and keep that volunteer, or so the perception goes. But volunteers are no different from employees in that they, too, have varied motivations and reasons to work with us. And, taking that one step further, their reasons to leave are even more wide-ranging than the reasons they came to us in the first place. Because volunteers are not bound to us financially, their decision to leave can be made in an instant. Is that our fault, and must we cling to the notion that once we snag a volunteer, it is our obligation to keep him/her indefinitely, no matter the circumstance? In our changing world, volunteers will be more likely to stay with us for short periods of time. It is time to stop blaming ourselves when a volunteer leaves.


Permission is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of the source, as cited here:

 Excerpted from chapter 1, "Can We Retain Volunteers Forever?" in The Volunteer Shelf Life: A No Fault Look at Volunteer Retention and the Reasons Volunteers Leave by Meridian Swift, copyright 2011. Found in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore at  http://www.energizeinc.com/store/5-232-E-1.

Energize, Inc.
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Philadelphia, PA 19144
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www.energizeinc.com

Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it.
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