Partnership Management

• Get directly involved directly with your partner organization. The best way to get a good feel for it is to spend time there. 

• Form strong relationships with your partners.

• Be open to what your partner organization needs. 

• Be consistent with showing up and giving your all to your partners.

• It’s important to stay on top of communication and not rely too heavily on community partners to track attendance or relay information back. Having your own simple system for checking who showed up (even just quick follow-ups) makes a big difference.

Recruitment

• Promote really hard at the beginning of each semester, as student availability is more open. Once people have their schedules sorted, it becomes much harder to find time to volunteer.

• Recruit heavily at the start of the semester! 

• I found that students are really eager to get involved in the community at Bates, but also know that many of your volunteers will end up dropping out. 

• Show up to everything at the beginning of the year. 

• I think tabling outside of Commons was one of the best ways I got volunteers.

• Don’t be hard on yourself when you are trying to get volunteers to sign up.

• Be creative when promoting an opportunity.

• Build relationships with first-years through things like the recruitment fair. They will look up to you specifically! I looked up to the COF I worked with my freshman year so much.

• Be realistic about student availability and plan around it. A lot of people will express interest, but fewer will consistently show up, so it helps to build a smaller core group of reliable volunteers rather than depending on large sign-ups.

Training

• Try to find a day for the training of new student  volunteers that works with as many people as possible (Sunday and Monday afternoon/evenings are often the best).

• Do things in person as much as possible. Zoom is incredibly convenient and can be the right choice, but it’s also slower and much less engaging.

Communication

• Communication is key! The workload for this job is very manageable, but it does involve communicating between many different groups and people. Staying timely and organized is super important.

• Stay on top of your email and utilize Google Calendar at all times. If an email would take less than 2 minutes to respond to, respond right when you get it.

• Clear expectations also matter–students are more likely to follow through if they know exactly what they’re doing, where they’re going, and how long they’ll be there. Consider going with new volunteers to their sites.

• Get your volunteers’ phone numbers, I find they respond better to texts than to emails.

• Do not be lenient with no shows. If they do it once, they’ll do it again. Set firm expectations ASAP. Talk to other COFs and find out what works with them and how they can help your program. Email email email!!

• Consistently reach out to volunteers. Even if they do not reply, this can still create a positive atmosphere where they know you are a resource, and should anything come up you can be in the know faster.

• Conduct a mandatory mid-semester check-in where volunteers take 10 minutes or less to provide some notes about their experiences.

• Send check-in emails. I did this a couple of times, but I wish I had done it more often. Reach out and let people know you’re always around if they have any questions or just want to chat.

• Try to get feedback from volunteers in person. I got the most honest feedback when speaking to volunteers at sites or in brief conversations when passing them in Commons. When they are filling out a google form or a Community Pulse reflection, I’ve found that they try to highlight the good parts of the program, which can be helpful, but doesn’t address any practical issues.

• Mark school dates in your personal calendar so that you make sure to always notify students about days when schools are closed. 

General Strategies for Success

• Do things you feel strongly about. It’s much easier to motivate when you personally feel a connection to the work you’re doing; that being said, looking at work your predecessors have done is also important and inspiring.

• Make sure to keep track of everything.

• Get van certified if you can!

• Listen to and learn from other COFs.

• Don’t be afraid to ask Mo, Ellen, Daphne, or whoever else for help if needed. Community outreach work is not linear and you may encounter challenges, which you definitely don’t need to face alone.

• I would always say that you first need to be patient and take a few deep breaths before approaching an organizational role/activity. It is really fun and rewarding work!