Are Maine’s State Agencies Ready for Tomorrow’s Volunteers?

by Noble Smith

From a resounding and growing plea of Maine’s overworked and budget-stressed state agencies, there is an echoing cry that sounds like – help! It was a whisper just a few years ago, but today and forecasting for tomorrow, this echoing sound is reverberating though the halls of many state agency buildings.

From this budgetary point of view, Maine’s state agencies have no choice in order to stretch shrinking public dollars but to increase dramatically their volunteer management skills. They must get themselves ready for the potentially large influx of highly qualified volunteers waiting to be enlisted, assigned, managed and awarded!

From an internal management of volunteers, some of Maine’s state agencies need to “borrow” from the private non-profit sector many of their proven techniques, strategies and attitudes that guarantee a high degree of readiness and success! In essence state agencies that do not directly oversee volunteers must incorporate the established traits of high quality volunteer program operations as an integral part of their contract selection and award process.

Not that the private sector has all the answers or possesses the only techniques that “work” with volunteers, but a working partnership between the public and private sectors can be mutually beneficial and help solve ever-increasing and pressing needs of the public sector.

Given the huge and almost immediate impact of the highly qualified retirees emanating from the “baby-boomer” generation, this nation and, particularly, Maine, stands to strengthen its leadership role in the utilization of volunteers. But that success will not come without changes in attitude, without refinements and adjustments in current operations and without some risk-taking by state employees individually and state agencies as a whole.

However, one of the quintessential principles of strong volunteer training and management is largely missing from most of the state agency strategic plans of action. For example, job descriptions for the multiplicity of volunteer needs have yet to be written, let alone that the required volunteer management skills are still absent in many instances!

For some state agencies, unfortunately, there are mutterings that volunteer involvement is more of a pain than a panacea for success or even survival! Some feel, and in some few cases, perhaps rightfully so, that the increase of volunteers undermines the effectiveness of agencies’ paid employees! In addition, such statements as “we have not got enough time to write job descriptions and manage these individuals” do not represent, in this author’s mind, a realistic and common sense way of entering a future with less budgetary resources to meet minimum priorities and objectives.

The need for clearly articulated responsibilities for volunteer management in the public sector is of paramount importance as is strong leadership, leadership that recognizes that volunteer skills and involvement are not slave labor or other types of low-skilled job assignments. Rather, the lifetime experiences of this new breed of baby boomer volunteer brings added strength and professionalism to the widely diverse needs of many divisions of State government.

The public sector must assume a larger and more active role of volunteer ownership if the ultimate goal is to enhance and strengthen the overall mission of an agency.
As a relatively new Commissioner of the Maine Commission on Community Service (MCCS) but having been involved with placing and working with volunteers in both sectors for nearly half a century, I am very much aware of the enormous challenges that confront both the volunteer and the organization/agency.

MCCS is in the business of servicing all aspects of volunteer involvement. It has been one of Maine’s leading forces in the identification, enlistment, training and management of existing and new volunteers throughout the State since 1994. Again, working in partnerships with a multiplicity of public and private sector entities, MCCS continues its leadership role not only to broaden volunteer involvement, but also to provide an even higher degree of professionalism for both users and givers.

Maine, proportionally to its population, has one of the highest national percentages of individuals retiring to or retiring in the state. In discussion with numerous groups of retirees over the past few years, two responses stand out when asked about their involvement in volunteer endeavors:

• “no one has asked us”;
• “there are many organizations and state agencies who want volunteers, but many of them have no idea of how to effectively use, train and manage us”.

The volunteer challenges ahead are daunting, the budgetary implications enormous, the impact for fulfilling mission and priorities ever present, while the potential people task force is, in essence, readily available IF we manage it effectively and in a business-like manner. Sensitivity to volunteer skills and lifetime experiences coupled with the necessary applied management skills by leadership and employees at all levels are quintessential for success.

Noble Smith is President of Noble Smith Associates, a 28-year old development, fund raising management and marketing company.