Driving with Andy:Session 3

Session 3, "Recruiting & Retaining Great Volunteers" was a panel discussion with Andy and five staff folks from NP Ministries.  Volunteers are imperative to our success in ministry and this outline is a collection of things NP has discovered about their system to create great volunteers…because Systems Create Behavior.  Here is the outline and some notes:

7 Imperatives
1. Connect the Dots: make sure every volunteer knows how they contribute to the whole organization and its success
2. Start and Stop: the very best people are busy people so, a.) from the beginning, tell them when they start and when the stop (Terms of Service), b.) volunteers need a break/time-off (e.g. for the summer, NP does have services/programs for the last Sunday of the year to give their people a break)
3. Eliminate the Competition: does our organization have competing statements for volunteers where dep’ts are competing against one another (e.g. with no adult SS, adults are free to serve on Sundays and help create excellent environments)
4. Bring the Along: intentional apprenticing as a part of training with feedback/evaluations
5. Recognize and Reward: Principle=What is Recognized is Repeated.
6. Make Them Proud: excellent environments will capture the attention of our volunteers, too, and make them proud to be serving in our environments
7. Staff for Stars: staff your church for the type of volunteers you want to have, leaders follow leaders.  Great people don’t want to volunteer in areas that aren’t well organized, well led, & worth giving their time to.

Bonus notes:
>>Our church rises & falls on the quality & # of volunteers.
>>The senior leader needs to embrace and own the responsibility to make sure the whole church is well staffed.
>>We will keep volunteers longer when we give them breaks.
>>Jeff Henderson’s (Buckhead Church Campus Pastor) Gratitude System: every day write 3 thank you notes to volunteers.  Hard to find anything that would be more worthy of our time.
>>When you recognize and reward, you are recognizing and rewarding behavior you want repeated!  Which is investing in the culture you are leading.
>>Jeff Henderson, "Leadership is Turning Intention into Reality and Sustaining It"