Still Paving that Second Lane

Remember a few months ago when I wrote about paving the second lane for your volunteers?  If Carin’s method of a Volunteer Roundtable would not work for your organization, maybe you can use Bilqis’ approach.

Bilqis Rock is the Volunteer Maryland Coordinator at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore (HCH).  The mission of HCH is to provide health related services, education, and advocacy to reduce the incidence of homelessness.  You may be wondering how volunteers serve in this kind of organization.  The good thing about having volunteers (if you are not aware already) is that they can benefit a plethora of clients by serving in any field!  Bilqis has a done a fabulous job of recruiting, coordinating, and supervising volunteers at her Service Site.  She has also been instrumental in helping the staff at Health Care for the Homeless adjust to having volunteers take on more responsibilities and show how much they want to help their community as well.

Bilqis’ AmeriCorps year will end in two weeks, but she is still working hard to meet the needs of Health Care for the Homeless, Volunteer Maryland, and her volunteers.  Recently, she sent out a volunteer satisfaction survey to all volunteers and staff members working with volunteers.  Some people cringe at the thought of taking a survey because they picture an extensive and time consuming assignment.  Bilqis was cognizant of people’s time and chose to create a simple survey that opened communication for feedback and possible changes.  The best part of the survey was that it did not take up an entire afternoon to complete.  A few questions are all that are necessary to capture the opinions of those being surveyed.  When given a survey, no one likes to feel as if he/she is being interviewed for an hour special on Dateline.  Bilqis kept her questions short and straight to the point.

Can your organization use this feedback method?  Why, or why not?

Communication has to be constructed, it does not just happen.  If you  have not paved a lane for volunteer communication, then get started today!  It is easy and completely in your control.  Happy constructing and paving!