Volunteer Coordinators

[tutormentor1 at earthlink.net]

I have experience in working with volunteer coordinators in two different 
programs.

a)  in 1973 I became a volunteer in an after work tutor/mentor program 
that operated from the Montgomery Ward corporate headquarters in Chicago. 
The program drew about 100 volunteers into the program each year and 
matched them in one-on-one matches with 2nd to 6th grade youth who lived 
in the public housing development.  All leaders were volunteers and the 
cash budget for the program when I joined was bout $3,500 per year.  Space 
was donated.

I became the volunteer leader of that program in 1975 and led it as a 
volunteer until 1990.  By that time the program had grown to have about 
325 volunteers and 300 kids.  Its total paid staff was less than 30 hours 
of week of part time college students.  Its strength was the40-60 
volunteers who served in various leadership roles of organizing the 
program and managing the weekly tutor/mentor sessions.   These volunteers 
were organized into a business structure, with some doing 
recruiting/marketing and communications, some doing training, some 
supporting technology, some providing leadership of the weekly meetings of 
volutneers and kids, some organizing field trips and parties, etc.  It 
worked because myself and the core leaders held full time jobs at the 
corporation and at other companies and we were able and willing to carve 
out time to lead the program.

b)  I formed an older student version of this program in the fall of 1992, 
starting with 7 volunteers and 5 kids.  We had no money.  Over the past 10 
year's we've provided one-on-one mentoring for one to 7 consecutive years 
to about 350 teens. More than 400 volunteers have given at least a year of 
service. 20% have given 3 to 10 years. 

We have raised money for a small paid staff to run this program (never 
more than 2 full time people), but have  had difficulty keeping people in 
the leadership job for more than a couple of years.  Recognizing this as a 
weakness in our continuity of service, we're now reaching into our 
experienced volunteer corps to recruit leaders of our program who operate 
in exactly the same way as volunteer leaders did in the earlier model.

The challenge to this is that you have to build some tradition of 
volunteer participation before you can begin to get volunteers to take 
lead roles beyond their weekly one-on-one commitment.  In the first 
program we did not develop an expanded volunteer leadership model until 
1982, almost 17 years after the program was first launched by a  small 
group of volunteers in 1965.  We're into our 10th year of  Cabrini 
Connections and are just beginning to see this volunteer leadership take 
root.

You also have to be willing to share the vision and the ownership of your 
organization with your volunteers and you have to act like an orchestra 
conductor to facilitate the many different personalities and expectations 
that come from a diverse volunteer base.  However, I can tell you from 
experience, it is worth it if you can put the structure in place.

Daniel F. Bassill
President
Cabrini Connections
Tutor/Mentor Connection
800 W. Huron
Chicago, Il.  60622
www.tutormentorconnection.org
www.cabriniconnections.net

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