Recruiting and managing volunteers

Submitted by Evelyn C. McDonald
November 5, 2015 3:00 p.m.

Arts & Culture Nassau is hosting a workshop on recruiting and managing volunteers on Saturday, November 14

It may be safe to say that the most important asset of any arts and culture organization is not fund raising. Yes, that is important but even more critical is having a group of dedicated volunteers. In Fernandina Beach, we have a large number of people with the expertise, time, and desire to volunteer for organizations that interest them. The ability to identify these volunteer prospects and recruit them is invaluable. To be able to train them well, reward them, and retain them is so vital to an organization’s success that you’d think all organizations would excel at it.

Not so. Volunteer recruitment and management is an area that is often overlooked and certainly not emphasized strongly enough. Many of you who are reading this will have been a volunteer in organizations that didn’t seem to know what to do with you. Or organizations who never said thank you. Or volunteer coordinators who changed yearly and never bothered to find out what their predecessor was doing. Or who put your name on a list and never called. I could go on.

To all the organization boards out there, I say taking care of your volunteers is too critical a job to be left to chance. That said; help is on the way. Arts & Culture Nassau is hosting a workshop on recruiting and managing volunteers on Saturday, November 14. The workshop will be held in the community room at the Fernandina Beach library from 10 am until noon.

The workshop leader will be Vickie Whittemore. She is currently serving as board member and volunteer coordinator for the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. She has served as president of the Junior League of Jacksonville and Church Council Director for Memorial United Methodist Church, among other community and professional services over the years. Vickie will provide best practices advice on subjects such as avoiding volunteer burnout, identifying potential volunteers, dealing with interpersonal conflicts, and other subjects crucial to volunteer management.

Arts & Culture Nassau is charged with the promotion and support of arts and culture organizations within Nassau County. One of the ACN’s functions is providing workshops on topics of interest to arts and culture organizations. Previous workshops have addressed topics such as use of social media, grant writing, and marketing. These workshops are generally held in the spring and in the fall.
Admission to the workshop is free but due to space considerations, registration is required. To register please contact Scott Mikelson at 310-3350 or at [email protected].

Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.