Serving People through Facility Maintenance

by Andrew Pust

We have learned the following things as we have worked with volunteers.

Connect them with your mission. Explain how they are helping to accomplish that mission. Show them the potential spiritual results to their physical labors. After they are gone, keep them updated on decisions and spiritual victories that their work helped to make possible.

Serve them. Sure, they are coming to work on a project, but chances are that the reason they chose to come was because of relationships with you or others in your organization. Exhibit a desire to make the time and money they have sacrificed to be here as profitable and productive as possible. Give them a reachable goal.

Be prepared. Think past the first day or the first week. Plan carefully and schedule material deliveries at least three days in advance. Be respectful of what it has cost them in time and money to come to help you. Plan for additional crew leaders if necessary. Be ready to use every bit of energy that they have brought with them. They want to go home tired.

Start slowly. Be willing to teach not only how but why. The first four hours with any volunteer crew can be the most stressful time of the whole project. Be open and honest and tell everyone that you will have them all busy by lunch and to just relax for a few minutes until you can get them hooked up with their job. A few people sitting around at the beginning while you make sure that everyone knows what to do and how to do it right is okay.

Match skills with tasks. Volunteers will be more productive, and you won’t be required to teach as much. Warning—never assume too much in this area. Ask questions and watch the volunteers long enough to make sure they really do know what they claim to know.

Be willing to use them for important jobs. A great way to make your job as project coordinator easier is to assign one of the crew to supervise particular parts of the project, especially if it is in that person’s area of expertise. Yes, there will be differences in how things are done, and there will be mistakes. But to make a big deal about things not being done like you would do them is to assume that you wouldn’t have made any mistakes.

Quality control is your job. You can’t inspect what you can’t see, so you have to be there. The best way to ensure quality is to give clear expectations and requirements before you start. Don’t be afraid to point out things that need to be fixed or changed. Be willing to admit where you failed to explain things adequately. Quality control becomes nitpicking when you make a big deal about insignificant things and don’t exhibit thankfulness for what has been done right. If it bugs you and you weren’t clear in your initial explanation, fix it after they leave.

Keep the volunteer pool informed. Send an e-mail or call your regular volunteers several times a year with a newsy, this-is-what-is-going-on type of update. When you ask for specific help, they will have already been thinking about it. Don’t lean too hard. Try to get them involved at least once a year, twice if they express further interest, and don’t ask more than three times. Don’t make them feel obligated to come every time you ask.