Westmeath & District Recreation Association

“BEST PRACTICES” WORKSHOP

October 29, 2011

SMART PRACTICES:

Volunteering Leadership The WDRA Board of Management,

Subcommittees and Teams, and Organizational Charts

VOLUNTEERS

Restructuring and Rethinking our approach to volunteers in order to successfully Recruit and Retain volunteers.

“Baby boomers have the potential to become a social resource of unprecedented proportions.”

CONSIDER THE FACTS

 Voluntary organizations are more or less dependent on volunteers to get their work done.

Canadian volunteers contributed over two billion volunteer hours to organizations in 2007 – the equivalent of one million full-time jobs.

Every year, 12.5 million volunteers give their time, energy and skills to make our communities better.

There is a soft decline of 1-2% per year in volunteering in Canada. A small percentage of Canadians are carrying most of the load, and many of them are already in their seventies.

As older volunteers step down and become fewer in number, a whole new generation of volunteers needs to fill their places —in new and varied ways.

In 2008, a baby boomer turned 50 every seven seconds. 3 out of every 10 baby boomers who volunteer do not return for a second

year. 20% of these lost volunteers are never replaced.

WHY DO BABY BOOMERS VOLUNTEER?

 Research indicates four main reasons why baby boomers volunteer.

They want to: 1. Support a cause that they believe in. 2. Make a contribution to society. 3. Share their skills. 4. Do something meaningful with their friends and

colleagues.

Motivations for Baby Boomers

MAJOR CHALLENGES: THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME.

Theirs is known as a sandwich generation – caring for children and aging parents simultaneously leaves less free time.

Many baby boomers work full-time and many work past the traditional retirement age of 65.

They don’t identify with traditional images of volunteers. The clichéd image of a kindly white-haired volunteer clashes with

the way baby boomers see themselves – more youthful and dynamic than their parents.

They don’t want to do routine or menial volunteer tasks. With less free time, many of today’s volunteers expect challenging

and meaningful work that reflects their skills and experience

Our Good Practices: Do our current volunteer positions and volunteer management practices feed into these challenges for baby boomers to volunteer?

“Volunteers should be considered an integral human resource at all levels of the organization, including program design... I don’t think there is an organization in the country that has a recruitment problem. What they have is a job design problem.” - Linda Graff

 

JOB DESIGN IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS  To effectively engage baby boomers as volunteers, we must

think about volunteer roles and responsibilities differently.

When baby boomers volunteer, they want the job to be: mission-linked, productive, satisfying work that allows

them to use their skills and experience. short-term work, flexible schedules at convenient

locations, adapt to meet their needs while meeting the needs of the

WDRA.

“Tell me why you are asking me to do something – what is the purpose and how will it help people....

....follow-up by letting me know what the impact was of the time I contributed.”

“Tell me what you need and when you need it – but not how to do it and what time of day to do it.”

RECRUITMENT

Baby boomers are busy people. There is lots of competition for their attention and their time, so you’ll need strategic, and targeted recruitment efforts.

“The quintessential baby boomer advertisement is the beer commercial: short, snappy, creative, alluring. They have been raised to receive information in bite-sized pieces.”

GENERAL RECRUITMENT MESSAGES

“Close to two-thirds of those who felt a very strong or somewhat strong sense of community belonging reported excellent or very good general health.”

– Statistics Canada, Health Reports, June 2008.

“It’s no coincidence that those who volunteer, who give of themselves and who take an active part in their community end up, on average, healthier and happier.”

– Dr. David Butler-Jones, Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada, 2008.

INVESTING IN LEADERSHIP FOR COMMUNITY BUILDING AND SOCIAL CAPITAL.

Communities get better when their leaders do.

In productive,healthy,resilient andinnovativecommunities

People have a sense of belonging,

are physically and socially engaged,

involved in decision-making, and active as volunteers.

LEADERSHIP Leaders be agents of change. Leaders be committed to continuous improvement and

innovation both for themselves and others. Have a commitment to shared or distributed leadership. A leader is optimistic, proactive, and a big picture thinker. Leaders should be catalysts for encouraging citizen

responsibility and for engaging and cultivating community ownership.

A demand for leaders who will be advocates for quality of life. Leaders must be able to plan effectively; engage others in a

process that will result in visionary yet pragmatic plans that resonate because they are an innovative response to real community needs and priorities.

WDRA BOARD OF MANAGEMENT; SUB-COMMITTEES AND TEAMS

SUCCESS DEPENDS ON: Engagement of more members of the community, Managing change, Succession planning, Recognition of excellence/value of volunteer (www.volunteer.ca)

Praise Affiliation Accomplishments Power & Influence

Sustainability for the future The organizational functionality.

Is the management team best structured to produce quality work? Are people in place to implement future desired and required changes?

WDRA ORGANIZATION CHART

Full Board of Management at 13 positions, up from 10. New Board Positions (4):

-Ice Booking Coordinator -Adult Programming-Children’s Programming-Sports Program Chair (revision of Sports Coordinator)

All financial volunteer work under the TreasurerSpecial Events Chair with a permanent “Standing Committee” so volunteers can

build skills and take ownership of a part of the whole.Adult, Children’s and Sports Programming positions needed to respond to the

new community needs and priorities.