Systems Approach to the Planning and Development of Effective Volunteer Programs

摘要

With 22 million Americans presently providing volunteer service in some form, the value of their services could reach 30 billion dollars annually. Unfortunately, one of every four programs fails. Such failures may be attributed to the failure of top management to apply standard management principles to the planning, implementing, and operation of volunteer services in order to ensure program efficiency. This pamphlet develops a systems approach to designing and implementing an effective volunteer program. Effective management capability requires an understanding of the concepts of commitment and participatory management. Prior to structuring administrative goals and objectives, decisions regarding the scope and purpose of agency volunteer involvement should be made. The development of an agency rationale, policy, and program structure is a critical part of the planning effort. A volunteer accountability is an important yet often ignored part of the planning process. Accountability elements, crucial to the upkeep of a program, include numerical reporting, program evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the program, program inspection by management to assess compliance with established agency policy, data and information analysis, and an organ for corrective action. Professional staff must be oriented to the concepts of volunteerism. The agency managers should devise means of developing volunteer tasks that meet client needs and effective recruiting, screening, matching, orientation, and training systems. Supervision of volunteers differs little from that of employees, and this must be realized if volunteers are to be used effectively in case management. Since they are an integrated part of the direct service team, ongoing direct service volunteers should work under the supervision of service staff rather than that of a volunteer coordinator. Volunteers who only work occasionally can be handled best by a coordinator through a central volunteer register which indexes all occasional and special service volunteers. Each of the above prescriptions is systematically elaborated in the pamphlet.