Ponderings of a Manager of Volunteers:
How Do You See Yourself?

By Susan Moscareillo CVM
Editor, Managingvolunteers.com

How do you see yourself, the manager of your agency's volunteer staff, as you read this article?

Really. Have you stopped lately, as you run from pillar to post training new staff, attending meetings and doing paperwork, to think about how you perceive yourself and your staff at this point in your career?

Even if things are not perfect for you and your program (they never will be even if you work sixty hours a week), I hope you will recognize the collective successes, strengths and potential you and your staff bring to your agency.

Please, think big! You and your volunteers are the most powerful and energizing force that your agency possesses. Print this sentence out and tape it somewhere where you will see it every day:

The most tangible proof that your agency is not only viable, but fulfilling its mission in your community is the involvement of your volunteers.

You and your program are the agents that mobilize community involvement and bring your agency's mission statement to life. If that doesn't make you excited about getting up and coming to work each morning, I don't know what will.

Simple Abundance author Sarah Ban Breathnach writes in her best-selling book about the importance of giving ourselves credit for our success -- that "the world cannot confer the recognition that will make you feel fulfilled - only you can."

It's okay to enjoy the successes that you and your staff have achieved, and to take credit for them. A successful friend of mine from the corporate world once observed to me, as I quietly shared a recent triumph in our volunteer program, that "modesty will get you nowhere." Or, as Max Bialystock bellowed in "The Producers": "If you've got it, flaunt it baby!"

The fact that we are part of a team, bear responsibility for leading it 24/7, and are building upon the legacy of those who labored before us will keep us from getting a big head. (If not,, the next unexpected problem that crops up will do the job!)

Be your biggest fan. Walk tall, even if you're only 5'4". Hang your diplomas and certificates and all the happy souvenirs of your volunteer management experiences on your office walls.

And if you're not comfortable being your own biggest fan, do be the biggest fan of your volunteers and all they do. Show them how proud you are of what they accomplish every day. Fill your office with their photos. Send news releases (with photos) about them to their community newspapers. Make sure the board of directors gets reports highlighting their accomplishments - and tell your volunteers you have bragged about them.

Create a volunteer "Hall of Fame" with ten (or more) inaugural members and announce that it will be unveiled at your primary volunteer recognition event.

You and your staff are invaluable to your agency's clients. Write those words on your heart for those days when everything seems to be wrong and you (not so quietly) ask yourself why you got out of bed that day.

Better yet, get out of your office and walk around your agency and watch your wonderful volunteers and clients together.

That always makes me feel better.