Keeping volunteers on board
We have been operating as an IPS running a convenience store here in Twyford for more than 3 years now. Although we are periodically able to pay a part-time person to act as a manager (or co-ordinator) we are pretty well exclusively staffed by volunteer effort most of the time. This arrangement has worked for us, although like most relationships there have been good times and rocky ones.
We are close to entering into a long lease on new purpose-built premises, having been evicted from the old site and we are currently operating from Portakabins. While we will grab this new development with both hands, we do have some reservations about how sustainable things will be as we are so dependent on our volunteers.
We would like an opportunity to meet with one or two similar businesses in this area to compare ideas on how to successfully keep the volunteer community engaged, enthusiastic and committed. Hopefully this will give us some confidence that a long term future is achievable.
If you are able to spare some time, we will happily come and see you. We operate at Twyford, near Buckingham, so any stores within say 50 miles would be ideal.
Ken Searle
Twyford Village Stores
Hello Ken,
Plunkett currently faciltiates a mentoring programme which also includes studyvisits - the opportunity to visit and learn from other community shops. This programme could cover the cost of your travel, plus a fee to the host organisation to compensate for their time spent.
This service is part of the Making Local Food Work Programme, so your eligiblity for support would depend on your shop currently selling local food, or wishing to sell more local food as a result of the support provided. There is also a seperate strand of Making Local Food Work which offers several days of an advisers time to help you increase your local food offering and increase your turnover of local food sales.
Further details on mentoring can be found at http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/about/es/Skillshare.cfm
Further details on the local food support can be found at http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/about/cslf/index.cfm
Additionally, contact us on 01993 810730 and we can advise you on some fully volunteer shops locally. You can also find this by clicking on 'shops' at the top of this page where you can search shops based on their features.
Best wishes,
James Alcock - Plunkett Foundation
We have been running a part-time temporary community shop/cafe in the village hall for the past eight and a half years. This has been done by volunteers who not only have to run the shop etc. but after each session it has to be cleared away and re-assembled before the next session. Only in the last couple of years have we been able, through small grants, to employ a part-time manager, but she is still heavily dependant on volunteers.
To keep our volunteers happy and recruit new ones, we hold an annual "thank you" event which is free to all the volunteers but we also invite other members of the public as paying guests. This has resulted in new volunteers joining the team, and has kept the original ones happy. Our last "thank you" event in February of this year, was a Wine Tasting Evening which became very lively towards the end.
http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/people/volunteers/keeping/keeping
This website is really an excellent source of information ... well worth a visit.
From recruiting volunteers to making sure they are supported within your organisation, this website helps you get the most from your unpaid staff.