By Danielle Arbour
As knowledge of the Bangor Humane Society spreads throughout our communities and Maine, I find more and more people approaching me with interests in volunteering. It’s great to not have to worry about recruitment because we have enough interest, but I am faced with another challenge that I often struggle with. What do you tell those individuals with great intentions that might not be the right fit for an organization such as ours?
Working with animals and the public is very different from a lot of other types of volunteer work. There is a certain level of physical condition one must be in to ensure safety when lifting bags of pet food and litter, as well as walking dogs whose manners leave something to be desired. When I ask most of my applicants why they are interested in volunteering for the Bangor Humane Society, the most common response is “Because I love animals.” A wonderful reason, but not always enough. There are many heartbreaks that come with involvement in animal welfare – animal abuse and neglect, disease and euthanasia are not easy to deal with. I find even when I explain these things, and sometimes more bluntly than I probably should, most still don’t understand until they’ve been here. This wouldn’t be so much of an issue aside from the fact that while a few will talk with me about it, most just stop volunteering and I never hear from them again. As a volunteer coordinator with many other responsibilities and with open scheduling, I don’t often notice they have not been here for some time. Should I still follow up even if its been a month or more?
I’d love to hear some feedback if others have this same obstacle. There are some people you just know will burn out quickly and may leave with a sour taste in their mouth when finding the reality of what we’re faced with as a shelter is completely overwhelming and not what they expected. Do you evaluate volunteers for compassion fatigue? If so, how do you do it? I try to touch base with my volunteers, but don’t always have the opportunity to connect with them on a weekly basis. Perhaps an email or mailed survey at different points during their volunteer careers?
Danielle Arbour is the Volunteer and Events Coordinator at the Bangor Humane Society and a featured blogger.
Yes, motivations are key. They should influence the position descriptions and the way you advertise your volunteer opportunities.
When I coordinated volunteers for a zoo, most people seemed really surprised to learn that they needed to be able to lift 25 pounds (like bales of hay and bags of feed) and that animal care means mostly cleaning.
In good volunteer program design, I think it’s important to build in a probationary period after which time someone definitely checks in with the new volunteer to see if this is a mutually good match without any hard feelings if it is not (so you can part ways).
For concerns about later compassion fatigue, you could delegate such check-in to the more senior volunteers if they are able.
Another integral part of the design of any ongoing program is building a culture of participation, whether it’s weekly or the second Tuesday of every month, so that people don’t grow used to not scheduling themselves or not responding to scheduling email messages. It could be as simple as training people to sign up by a regular deadline or when they are concluding a shift-signing up for their next shift–versus getting used to not responding to multiple email messages.
I’m unsure what “open scheduling” is, but suspect that it depends on people opting in. If this is the case, then a dynamically updated system will help everyone take responsibility, not just you in your professional capacity, for the animals’ daily care. Shared google documents may be an affordable way if your volunteers have email and your web site can’t support this.
People tend to respond to needs/openings, so for my sheep herding yahoogroup I regularly email this group (and bcc newbies who are not yet regulars) a draft (on Wednesdays), next draft (mid-way if there are substantial changes), and final schedule (on Tuesdays) for the following week (beginning on Saturdays). These messages
contain standard instructions on how to sign up, deadlines, and who to contact about specific things like late scheduling, cancellations, and future schedule requests.
It takes effort to train human beings, perhaps more than it does to train their dogs to herd
so I would emphasize whatever your system is in your volunteer orientation and training, all the time reminding volunteers that together we are responsible for the animals’ daily care. Hopefully by building this sense of community, volunteers will then be able to cover for each other in emergencies, relieving you of the stress, but this is a new topic for another time.